khazen.org stands by the our Maronite Patriarch 

by nna-leb.gov.lb – National News Agency — Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros Rahi, indicated in his homily during Sunday mass in Dimane that “today, while we are in the ordeal of faith, we demand a divine grace that strengthens our faith and the faith of our people, so that we persevere in hope and God’s love.” When the politicians linked the worship of God to the place, and abandoned worship with the spirit and the truth, and when they were linked to the letter and stifled the spirit, the separation between religion and the state was disrupted for us, the covenant of living together and sharing in governance and administration was distorted, and we reached a state of misery, collapse, division, distrust, hatred and enmity, and seeking to exclude others from participating in the table serving the common good and the country, Lebanon deviated from its essential self against its will,” Rahi said. The Patriarch noted that the bitter reality did not touch the hearts of officials, because the political class did not change anything in its behavior, not after the Paris Conference, nor after 4 August and also after heating the south front to turn attention on the mass service in memory of Beirut port martyrs.

Rahi affirmed that he stands by the people of the south to denounce the tense security situation. “We condemn the periodic Israeli violations against southern Lebanon, and the violation of Security Council Resolution No. 1701, as well as the high temperature in the border areas of residential villages and their surroundings. Nor can we accept, by virtue of equality before the law, that a party decide peace and war outside the decision of legality and the national decision entrusted to two-thirds of the members of the government according to Article 65, No. 5 of the Constitution,” Rahi added. “It is true that Lebanon has not signed peace with Israel, but it is also true that Lebanon has not decided war with it, and is officially committed to the 1949 truce,” he went on. “We do not want to involve Lebanon in military operations that provoke devastating Israeli reactions,” the prelate stressed. “We call upon the Lebanese army, which is responsible with the international forces for the security of the south, to take control of the entire lands of the south, to strictly implement Resolution 1701, and to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” he underscored. “We want to end the military logic and war and adopt the logic of peace and the interest of Lebanon and all the Lebanese,” he concluded