Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai believed that “failing to elect the president and closing the Presidential Palace is a crime that entails the demolition of constitutional institutions and public administrations, the spread of chaos and corruption, and the distortion of Lebanon’s civilized face.”
He stressed in his sermon during the Divine Mass in Bkerke, “No one in Lebanon wants the war to extend to the south, and our Lebanese people are safe there, and if it extends to the south, God forbid, no one knows where it will stop and what victims and destruction it will leave behind.”
He considered that “the Lebanese people cannot be forced to bear the burdens of a war in which they have nothing.”
He continued, “We pray that officials in Lebanon realize that they are obligated to the trilogy of listening, contemplation, and speaking, to break out of the cocoon of their interests and come together to investigate the causes of stumbling and mutual mistrust.”
He also regretted “the end of the truce in Gaza and the blame on the innocent people for the consequences of the devastating war,” wondering, “What is the meaning of a humanitarian truce if it is a prelude to a fierce war after a break?”
