Daily Star. BKIRKI: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said on Monday that he hoped the 15-month-old deadlock in Lebanon would be resolved, "and the general mood of pessimism will soon evaporate." "We urge all local, regional and international groups to adopt a wise and calm attitude when dealing with Lebanese affairs," he told a delegation from the French Embassy headed by charge d’affaires Andre Parant. Parant, meanwhile, said France was determined to help Lebanon overcome the continuing standoff. "France will always stand by Lebanon," he said.
Sfeir said Sunday the persisting and widening divide had stripped Easter of its festive atmosphere. Sfeir made the remarks during his Easter sermon in Bkirki, the seat of the Maronite church north of Beirut. The patriarch also offered prayers for peace in Lebanon and the Middle East. Sfeir asked that "God remove this black cloud that lingers over us … and bring home the people who migrated to distant lands."
Speaking to a delegation from Caritas headed by Father Louis Samaha on Saturday, Sfeir said he hoped that Lebanon would return "to days of good, affluence and happiness." He added that he hoped the Lebanese diaspora would return to their homeland as one family of different religious affiliations living "in a nation of faith, love and peace." Sfeir said nearly one million Lebanese have left Lebanon since 1970, and Lebanon was left with only four million of its children, a number equivalent to a small street in Cairo or New York. "Yet people continue to migrate," he added, "and migration is not categorically negative, especially if the migration is to Arab countries in order to support one’s parents, but migration to Australia or Canada or the United States has slight hope of return to Lebanon." Meanwhile, the vice president of the Higher Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan on Sunday spoke with Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani about the need for Lebanon to be represented at the forthcoming Arab summit in Damascus.
Daily star. BKIRKI: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir expressed pessimism over growing divisions among the Lebanese on Friday, a day after he compared Lebanon to the Palestinian territoriees. In a speech on Good Friday, Sfeir urged the Lebanese to "overcome disagreements and return to their conscience." "Rifts and divisions that have hit Lebanon do not lead to optimism," he said, adding that "persistent efforts [by some parties] to overtake the country’s main arteries are not comforting."