The Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai declared on Sunday that he “blesses any agreement that leads to the election of a president, away from the slogan of winner and defeated.”
In his Sunday sermon, he invited Lebanese politicians to “piety,” to “invoke God,” and to “practice politics as an art to serve the public interest.” Rai said that invoking God helps politicians to “rise above their ego and personal interests, to overcome their differences and to be ethical.”
“Invoking God makes them aware of their responsibilities in the face of the disintegration of the state, the paralysis of constitutional institutions and public administrations, and the impoverishment and humiliation of the people, driving them to despair and emigration,” Rai added.
“If they had invoked God, they would have elected a president during the last two months of former President Michel Aoun’s six-year term, in accordance with Article 73 of the Constitution,” Al-Rai elaborated. “If they were invoking God, after eight months of presidential vacancy, and faced with the total collapse of the country politically, economically, financially and socially, they would have hastened to agree on the election of a president that Lebanon needs in these circumstances.”
Al-Rai concluded his sermon by stating “we welcome any initiative taken in this direction, far from the slogan of winner and defeated, since this leads to the breakup of the nation, whereas today, what is required is the unity of Lebanon and its people.”
