SEOUL, South Korea – Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, visiting the
South Korean capital of Seoul, said that terrorist organizations
“working for the destruction of the Middle East do not represent Islam
or Muslims.” Such groups, he said in an address during the Forum for Peace on the
Korean Peninsula that met Aug. 18-21, work to destroy “a moderate and
open Islam, resulting from coexistence with Christians.”
Rai also urged the international community to end the wars raging in the Middle East “fueled by foreign countries.” Rai addressed the forum under an invitation of Seoul Cardinal Andrew
Yeom Soo-jung, imploring the international community “to speed up the
solutions and impose a halt to the wars, fueled by foreign countries,
raging in the Middle East.”
Stressing the need for a “series of reforms” in the Arab states, Rai
called for the separation of state and religion, the development of
democracy and “respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
He also called on the international community to “help the
rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia” which he said would reduce
sectarian tension in the region.
Lebanon, the patriarch lamented, is “paying the price of all these
political-religious conflicts to the point that it is without a
president for more than two years.” According to the Lebanese system,
the presidential office is reserved for a Maronite Catholic.
Yet, Rai stressed, “the Lebanese formula still remains unique, and
our constitution is a model to be imitated by other states on the basis
of civic equality and cultural community” within the same country.
The cardinal also called for world leaders to work toward the
establishment of a Palestinian state, which would facilitate the return
of all Palestinians expelled from their land, and for the enforcement of
all resolutions of the Security Council.
In addition to some 2 million Syrian refugees that have swelled
Lebanon’s existing population of about 4 million, Lebanon also is home
to more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees.
Rai celebrated Mass Aug. 22 at the Korean Martyrs’ Shrine in Seoul.
In his homily, he prayed that “peace would reign in countries that are
torn by wars, including Korea and the Middle East.”
