Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai called on “building internal unity to preserve Lebanon’s front and its message in the midst of diversity and pluralism.” He added, “Lebanon cannot be the land of diversity, dialogue and openness to all nations without being neutral.”
Rai started his patriarchal day to the Chouf on Friday with a morning meeting with Druze Sheikh Akl Sami Abi el-Mouna in his residence in Chanay (Aley) and in the presence of official religious, political and social figures. The visit “builds on the reconciliation carried out by Patriarch Sfeir (former patriarch of Lebanon’s Maronite Christian church, Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir) and Jumblatt,” (Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt) as stated by the Patriarch.
The Patriarch also said that “Lebanon must be a land of dialogue and convergence, and it must not lose its message. The country is sick today, and we must try to find a diagnosis to the problem.”
Abi el-Mouna stated that Rai’s presence is “a message of love, fraternity, a consolidation of reconciliation, and a message of coexistence, which reflects the reality of a united Mountain.”
On this occasion, Sheikh Abi el-Mouna presented Patriarch Rai with the key to the village of Chanay.
Also present in Chanay were MPs Ragy Saad, Nazih Matta, Akram Chehayeb, Hadi Abou Hosn, Fayçal Sayegh, as well as the caretaker Minister of Education, Abbas Halabi.
