NNA – Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rahi, called on Lebanese officials to keep the judicial body away from the vicious circle of polarizations and political polemic. “We insist on restoring rights, especially bank deposits. But what happened recently was contrary to judicial principles and legal rules, as it affected the prestige and respect of the judicial authority, which is the only one that guarantees the rights and freedoms of citizens in their disputes among themselves and in their differences with the authority and the state. We wonder with great concern about the event and its circumstances,” the Patriarch said in his sermon, commenting on the recent events that took place in the judiciary. “If our officials heard the voice of God in their conscience, and His voice through the suffering of the Lebanese citizens, 50% of whom became below the poverty level, while the middle class was above 80% of the people and constituted the pillar of its stability, and His voice through the collapse of the state with its institutions, economy, finances, and the livelihood of its people, they would have been formed the government, and began quickly with reforms and restoration of the port and reconstruction of Beirut, and stopped waste, and closed open and hidden smuggling crossings, and controlled the revenues of ports and the airport, and carried out basic and urgent reforms,” Rahi went on.

The Patriarch also stressed the need to issue the ration card to needy families as a compensation for reconsidering the subsidy policy.