The young Simon, still seminarist, had signed, moreover, a first on the level of the spiritual accompaniment: he was, indeed, the spiritual counselor of the first youth team of Notre Dame (ENDJ) founded in Lebanon by Kamal Chemali, Karine Nohra and Rania Boustani, the team he will accompany from 1986 to 1989, in particular during the International Gathering of the ENDJS in Fatima (Portugal), in July 1989. During this gathering, he made some friends among the Italian members of the ENDJS.

Providence had it, some weeks after this gathering and five days after his sacerdotal ordination, that his superiors sent him to improve his theological academic formation in Rome. Hardly installed in the Italian capital, he asked and got to assume the spiritual accompaniment of the Roman team ENDJ known as " Rome II ", responsibility that he will fulfill until the summer of 1992.

In the Eternal City, Father Simon lived in the College " Russicum ", in the direct surrounding of the Sainte – Marie Majeure Basilica. At first he attended courses at the Gregorian Papal university, held by the Jesuit Fathers, where he crowned his studies by a canonical license in dogmatic theology in February 1992 on a theme that will always remain dear to his heart: the couple and the family. The title of his " tesina ", or memory, was: " Mystery, Mystical and Mission of the Christian Marriage in the writings of abbot Henri Caffarel ", founder of the well known " Notre Dame teams ". In a letter addressed to Father Simon on January 6, 1992, abbot Caffarel, who received a copy of the " tesina" by the author's cares, described it as "one of the best studies that he has ever read ", adding to the address of Father Simon that " in spite of the urgent works, I could not stop going all over your memory with greed and admiration for your perspicacious and conscientious work".

During his very rich academic experience in the "Gregoriana ", Father Simon was particularly impregnated by the rigor and the spirituality of his thesis director, Father Pierre Adnès, sj, for whom he will keep a deep gratitude.

After obtaining his canonical degree, Father Simon immediately tackled the preparation of a doctorate in ecclesiology at the Oriental Papal Institute in Rome on the theme of " The Maronite Ecclesiology in the texts of the service for the celebration of the Dedication ", under the direction of Father Pierre Youssef, patriarchal priest of the Chaldeans in Paris and professor of Syriac patrology in the institute. Father Simon worked there until June 1994, when his bishop called him to assume his parochial functions in Haret Sakher (Jounieh). Suspending then his academic research, Father Simon went back to Lebanon on September 28, 1994 and began a third course in his life, the one of the parish engagement.