نشر هذا المقال في مجلة المسيرة في 25 آذار 2011 بمناسبة تنصيب البطريرك الراعي
سجعان القزي
نائب رئيس حزب الكتائب اللبنانية
في الخامس والعشرين من آذار 2011 بدأ عهد البطريرك مار بشارة بطرس الراعي، لا عهد البطريركية المارونية الموجودة منذ نحو 1325 سنة. إنه أولُ بطريرك على كنيسة لبنان وإنطاكية وسائر المشرق في القرن الواحد والعشرين (الشعبُ الجالسُ في ظلمة أبصر نوراً عظيماً).
التحدي عظيمٌ والمسؤولية أعظم. ما هَمّ: إنْ كان البطريرك الراعي يتمتّع بصفاتٍ ذاتية مـيّـزته لبلوغ سُـدَّة البطريركية، فما أن يستويَ بطريركٌ على عرش "مجد لبنان أُعطي له"، حتى تهبطَ عليه أيضاً نِعمُ الوقارِ والمهابة، الرصانةِ والثبات، التقوى والعفة، الشموخِ والعزة، الكِـبَرِ والتواضع، والحنانِ والرأفة. تـنـدُر كلماتُـه وتكـثُر أفعالُه. يَـثـقُب بنظراته، فلا يبخُل بابتساماته ولا يبذَخ بضِحكاته. برَكةُ يده لا تُـغني عن تحذير إصبعه، فعصاه متعددةُ الاستعمال. في شخصيته يَسكن أملُ الميلاد وألـمُ الجلجلة وعذابُ الصليب ورجاءُ القيامة. على جَبهته يَرتسمُ وادي العاصي وجبلُ لبنان ولبنانُ وإنطاكية وسائرُ المشرق. وعلى محـيّـاه يَلوح طيفُ مار مارون والقديسِين شربل ورفقا والحرديني والطوباويَين نعمه والكبوشي (فكونوا أنتم كاملين كما أن أباكم الذي في السموات هو كامل).
لست واعظاً لأرشُدَ البطريرك الجديد إلى ما عليه أن يفعل، فله عينان تَريان. لكني ابنُ الكنيسة وواجبي أن أنقلَ إليه تمنياتي، وللبطريرك أذنان تُصغيان. أنا من يحتاج إلى توجيهِه ونُصحِه وصلاته وبركته.
غِبطة البطريرك مار بشارة بطرس الراعي أمضى ربعَ قرنٍ أُسقفاً يشارك البطريركَ صفير في إدارةِ شؤون الكنيسة المارونية ورسمِ سياستِها وتحضيرِ قراراتِها وإعلان مواقِفها. ويعرِف نقاطَ قوّةِ الكنيسة المارونية وضعفِها، ويستطيع تحديدَ الأولويات ووضعَ خريطةِ طريق نحو التاريخ المستقبلي.
من هذه الفرضية أرى البطريركَ الراعي يَطرد اللصوص والباعةَ من الهيكل، ويَنهي المرائين و"الكتبةَ" عن تَسلّقِ درَج بكركي (بيتي بيت الصلاة يُدعى). أراه يحرِّم على مُـدَّعِـيِ الأدوار ومختلِقي المهمّـات ومُنتَحِلي الصفات التحدّثَ باسم البطريركية، ويَفصُل بين أمنِ بكركي والتنصّتِ عليها (اذهبوا عني يا فاعلي الإثم). أراه يُشذِّب أغصانَ بكركي من الأحمالِ الثقيلة فـتُورِف، ومن النوافلِ فـتُـثمر (كل غرسٍ لم يزرعْه أبي السموي يُقلع). أرى البطريركَ الراعي يبحث عن النعاجِ الضائعةِ ليعيدَها إلى خطِّ بكركي المستقيم (إذا وجدَها يضعَها على مِنكَـبَـيْـه فرِحاً).
لا يحبُّ البطريرك الراعي بَخّورَ المدّاحين ولا ثرثرة المتزلّفين. لا يتحـمّـل حاشيةً تستظل جُـبَّـته وتستغلُّ موقعه (يُكـرَّمني هذا الشعبُ، وقلـبُـه مني بعيد). لا يحبّ البطريرك الراعي المؤسساتِ التي أُنشئت لتكونَ امتداداً عَلمانياً لبكركي ودرعَها في المجتمع المدني، فتختفي وتربُط ألسنتها حين تتعرّض بكركي لهجومٍ ظالم وتطاول معيب، فـيَـهُبّ هو، وكان بعدُ أسقفاً، يردّ التحدي. أما، وقد أصبح بطريركاً، فيفضّل، على كل هؤلاء، فريقَ عملٍ ديني ـ عَلماني، من الرجال والنساء، يساعده على إكمال مسيرة ِنقلِ البطريركية إلى القرن الواحد والعشرين من دون أن تَتخلّى عن ثوابتِ القرن الرابع. فريق العمل الذي يَرغب به البطريرك الراعي شأنه أن يضم نخبةً زاهدةً، متجرِّدةً، نزيهةً، كفؤةً، مخلِصةً، نقـيَّـةً، شجاعةً، عميقةَ التفكير، عمليةَ الأداء، تقف إلى جانبِ غِبطته وتعمَل تحت إشرافه من أجلِ خيرِ الكنيسةِ والمؤمنين والإنسان (من أراد السيرَ ورائي فليَرغَب عن ذاته ويحمِل صليبَه ويَتبعْني).
وفي الأساس توجد في مكاتبِ بكركي وغرفِها تُخمة دراساتٍ ومشاريعَ راكدةٍ، منذ عقود، على رجاء القيامة. وما أن يَقيمها البطريرك الراعي، حتى تُقرع أجراسُ نجاحه بعد أجراسِ انتخابه.
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb) By Emma Gatten
BEIRUT: In most countries, people who do Mireille Raad’s job have no trouble working from home. As a freelance software developer, the technology exists for her to send clients her work via email, or access their computers remotely in order to resolve any issues.
In Lebanon, Raad spends two hours most days traveling to clients from her home in Batroun. The problem is that while Raad has access to the latest technology, Lebanon’s Internet connections are stuck in the early ‘90s. Earlier this month, the country’s Internet speeds were declared the slowest in the world by the website speedtest.net.
“Are you going to send [big files] by Liban Post?” Raad asks. “And wait until the next day for the client to get it and then call him to tell him how to use it?”
Raad estimates that her productivity is cut by at least 30 percent a month, factoring in poor speeds and extra travel. She also faces high prices, paying $70 a month for her connection.
In a 2008 survey by the Telecoms Regulatory Authority (TRA), the independent body funded by the state to regulate the industry, Lebanon came out with the most expensive Internet in the region for 1mbps of ADSL, while 46 percent of people surveyed said they thought their monthly rate was too high.
There are manifold reasons for the high prices and slow speeds. The country has, as Mahmoud Haidar, an adviser to caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas puts it, “much more than we need” in terms of bandwidth coming in to the country, thanks to cables from Cyprus, and another from India to Europe, across the Middle East (IMEWE).
And in a news conference in September last year, Nahhas said new projects to be implemented that year would increase capacity by 168 times. Yet nothing has changed for users.
The uprisings sweeping the Middle East have started to blow down some very dark doors – the doors that lead to the dungeons and prisons where Arab security services do their work.
In Alexandria and Cairo, Egyptian protesters broke into the offices of state security, where they discovered some of the tools and torture devices used to make prisoners more pliant. Perhaps more important, they unearthed files detailing the nature of the work, and on whose behalf it was done. When the dust has settled, Washington may find its Arab allies much less willing to chase down and detain terrorist suspects, lest they be accused of collaborating with the Americans.
But what about the dark work Arab regimes do with the aid of other Arab states? Libyan rebels last week reportedly brought down two Syrian fighter pilots flying on behalf of Qaddafi’s besieged regime. Arab sources have told me there may be more than two dozen Syrian pilots flying planes in Libya — Qaddafi pays well and Damascus can use the money. Besides, the Syrian-Libyan relationship goes back several decades and the ties between their intelligence services are strong.
Those same sources explain that a delegation from Syrian intelligence services was recently dispatched to Tripoli to scrub the Libyan intelligence archives clean of all the records detailing past projects that the two countries had collaborated on, including terrorism. One Arabic-language website claimed that former Syrian vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam was involved in these joint operations, including the “disappearance” of Moussa al-Sadr, the Iranian-born Lebanese cleric who went missing in Libya in 1978 and is presumed to be dead. A discovery that Syria really was complicit in Sadr’s death could cause Bashar al-Assad’s regime some trouble with Lebanon’s Shia community, which revered the cleric. With Syrian officials likely on the verge of being indicted in the assassination of a major Lebanese Sunni figure, the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, Syria can hardly afford to alienate the Shia, the one Lebanese sect still unequivocally supportive of Damascus.
khazen.org, "Our joy has no limit!." Glory to our New Patriarch!!! The Glory of Lebanon is given to you – All of the khazen will serve as your servants Patriarch Mar Bechara Al Raai. The khazen family pray for the new Patriarch to continue, in strengthening and lead he Maronite Catholic Nation all around the World. It is a day of extreme hope, unity and happiness for Khazen.org! Rai, 71, who was the Archbishop of Jbeil, is the 77th patriarch of the Maronite Church, a position. Rai was elected after almost a week of deliberations by 38 bishops at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki. His election was celebrated by a televised mass while Maronite churches across the country rang bells at midday in celebration. “The elections took place with love and peace,” Rai said in a televised speech.
Monsignor Youssef Tawk, head of the Council of Maronite bishops, announced the news from the church’s headquarters in Bkerke, northeast of Beirut, after days of meetings behind closed doors during which the Bishops voted on who would succeed the long-serving Sfeir.
Well-wishers, including politicians and clergymen, immediately began to pour in to Bkerke upon hearing the news, some shedding tears of joy.
Cardinal Patriarch Boutros Nasrallah is very happy of the election of the Patriarch and has said of Raii "He is one of the pillars of the church (in Lebanon) and is open to all the communities, he added. "He is a very qualified person from a spiritual standpoint, he listens to everyone and greets everyone the same, whatever their background."
Worshippers attend a ceremony for the newly elected Christian Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai at the the patriarchate church in Bkerki, north of Beirut, March 25, 2011. Lebanon’s Maronite Church Christian community held an official ceremony to assume the new Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai in his new post on Friday held at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerki . REUTERS/ Dalati Nohra/Handout
Lebanon’s Christian Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir (L) blesses the newly elected Christian Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai during a ceremony at the patriarchate church in Bkerki, north of Beirut, March 25, 2011. Lebanon’s Maronite Church Christian community held an official ceremony to assume the new Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai in his new post on Friday. REUTERS/ Dalati Nohra/Handout
"The El Khazen family represented by two members (Ghosta Branch and Ajaltoun Branch) will have the honor to guard Bkerke during the next election of the Maronite Patriarch. This is a special power and preeminence that Bkerke has over the El Khazen family, as a consequence of its sovereignty and safety of election. The main duty is to ensure that there will be no interference or influence from any outsiders. Cheikh Farid Haikal El Khazen will represent the Ghosta branch and Cheikh Amine Keserouan El Khazen will represent the Ajaltoun Branch.
His beatitude Patriach Sfeir has accomplished tremendously for Lebanese, ensured freedom, Maronite safety and growth throughout the last three decades. The El khazen as a whole are very thankful about the great and unique accomplishments of His Beatitude Patriarch Sfeir and they will remain always servants of the Patrarch at his service."
Daily Star:
BEIRUT: Newly elected Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai was born in the Metn town of Hemlaya on Feb. 25, 1940. Before his election Tuesday, Rai was head of the Maronite Diocese of the coastal town of Jbeil, northern Beirut, from 1990. Rai received his intermediate and high school education at the College Notre-Dame de Jamhour. In 1962, he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology and in 1975 he received a PhD in canon and civil law. Rai also studied three years of law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
In 1995, Rai was appointed by Pope John Paul II as a member in the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants and he has served on the council since then.
In 2005, he was appointed by the Council of the Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient as a coordinator for the Episcopal Commission for the Family in the Middle East in 2005.
More recently in 2010, Rai was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
The new patriarch has also worked in academia. He has been a lecturer in pontifical theology and the sacrament of matrimony at Universite Saint-Esprit De Kaslik since 2001. He has also been a lecturer in legal rights at Sagesse University in Beirut since 2001.
In 1994, Rai received the Order of Merit, Commander Rank, by the Italian president of the Italian Republic and in 2007 he received the National Order of the Cedar. – The Daily Star
The first electoral rounds will begin Friday morning or afternoon after a secretary general – to preside over electoral rounds – and a committee to sort out votes is elected Thursday by the Synod of Bishops following hours of prayers. Former Kesrouan MP Farid Haykal El Khazen and former ambassador Amin El Khazen locked the patriarchate’s doors to visitors. By tradition, members of the Khazen family stand guard in Bkirki until a patriarch is elected. The tradition began in 1703 when a member of the Khazen family used to guard the monastery, which was then under construction, before it became the seat of the patriarchate in 1823. Thirty-seven Maronite bishops, among them several presiding over dioceses across the world, arrived in Bkirki by Wednesday afternoon after flying to Lebanon.
khazen.org The El Khazen family also would like to send its eloge, gratitude to His Excellency Mgr. Roland ABOU JAOUDE General Patriarchal Vicar Auxiliary Maronite Patriarcal Protosyncelle. Who has played a unifying role for all of the Maronites Nation, in bringing all leaders together and has offered tremendeously to the Maronite Church and to the Lebanese overall. It is through his leadership, unique actions and faith that we are stronger today.
Catholic news agency: "Pope Benedict XVI has formally accepted the resignation of Maronite Catholic Patriarch Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, who is retiring at the age of 91.Cardinal Sfeir has led the Maronite Church since 1986. A new Patriarch of Antioch will be elected at a meeting of the Maronite Synod of Bishops, expected to be held at Bkirke, the headquarters of the patriarchate, in March.
At his request, Patriarch Rai will officially be installed on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25. Catholic patriarchs do not have their elections confirmed by the pope, but the new patriarch will request and receive spiritual communion from Pope Benedict XVI.
The 77th patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church said "Communion and Charity" would be his motto.
The Maronite Church exerts enormous public influence in Lebanon, where it is by far the largest Christian body. In his letter accepting the Patriarch’s resignation, Pope Benedict alluded to Cardinal Sfeir’s leadership during years of turmoil in Lebanon:
You began your noble ministry of patriarch of the Maronites amidst the torment of the war which bloodied the face of Lebanon for so many years. With the ardent desire for peace in your country, you led the Church and travelled the world to console those obliged to emigrate. Finally, peace returned, ever fragile but still extant.
The outgoing Patriarch will convene the Maronite Synod to elect his successor—according to reports in Lebanon, in the middle of March. He denied that he had his own favored candidates, stressing that the younger Maronite bishops would make the decision.
Lebanon’s President Suleiman chats with Lebanon’s outgoing Christian Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir and newly elected
Reuters via Yahoo! News – Mar
Lebanon’s newly elected Christian Maronite Patriarch Rai greets his audience at the patriarchate in Bkerki
Patriarch Election History
by Richard Van Leewen – Notables and Clergy in Mount Lebanon "The political prestige of the El Khazen Sheiks, and even their position as Consuls of France, was partly founded on the endorsement of the Maronite prelates and the European missionaries. In the course of the 17th century, when the Khazens asserted their control over Kiserwan, the symbiosis between secular and clerical authority took the form of an all-embracing secular patronage over the church and the dominance of lay interests. It should be noted that this lay interference was not inconsistent with tradition, as no clear definition of the role of laymen in the church existed. The privileges acquired by the Khazens were not seen as an infringement of traditional practice or of clerical independence as it was justified by their secular authority and, moreover, provided the clergy with obvious advantages.
The influence of the El Khazen Sheiks in clerical matters concentrated on two aspects, which were, as far as the clergy were concerned, closely interrelated: the nomination of prelates and the founding and administration of clerical and monastic possessions. Traditionally, the main Maronite notables were consulted on the occasion of the election of the patriarch. In practice, from the 17th century onwards, this custom implied that the Khazen Sheiks had to approve the chosen candidate, before he could receive the pallium from Rome. It has been recorded, for instance, that the delegates who had travelled to Rome in 1633 to obtain the confirmation of the election of Jirjis IJmayra had to return to Mount Lebanon empty-handed, as they were unable to produce the endorsement letters from the Khazens which were required by the Vatican. In 1670 discord broke out between the Khazen Sheiks and the elected patriarchal candidate al-Duwayhi, since, according to some sources, Sheik Abu Nawfal had not previously been consulted. In 1710, finally, the Khazen Sheiks used their influence to have the mutrans depose Patriarch Ya^ub Awwad and appoint a Khazen protege, Yusuf Mubarak. These examples, which supposedly were recorded because they represented irregularities in the prevailing pattern, show that in the course of the 17th century the patriarchate came under the control of the Khazen Sheiks to a large extent.13
The authority of the Khazen Sheiks over the patriarchate was enhanced by their interference in the ordination of the mutrans, who were officially responsible for the election of the patriarch and provided the candidates. Moreover, the mutrans were, again officially, directly responsible for the administration of the dioceses covering the Khazen domains and for the collection of the "ushur. Mutrans who were ordained as a result of the intercession of the Khazen Sheiks in the 17th century were, as far as we know, Ishaq al-Shadraw! (Tripoli; 1629), Sarkis al-Jamri (Damascus; 1658) Yusuf Mubarak (Baalbek; 1683) and Butrus Makhliif (Cyprus; 1674). Eventually, the three main branches of the Khazin family acquired the privilege of selecting the mutrans of the dioceses of Aleppo (awldd Abi Nasif), Baalbek (awldd Abi Qansawh) and Damascus (awldd AbT Nawfal). This privilege was acknowledged by Patriarch Ya’qub ‘Awwad. It is, therefore, evident that the Khazen Sheiks also interfered in dioceses which officially had no connection with their administrative territory, an indication that they saw their role in church matters as an extension of their political power within the community as a whole.14
khazen.org
.jpg)
