Metropolitan Elias Audi emphasized the need for reforms “that start at the top of the state,” thus highlighting the importance of electing a president “whose sole concern is to save Lebanon” and who, “in collaboration with his government, will have to ensure the application of laws, hold accountable those who must answer for their actions, and materialize the concept of a strong and just state.”
In his Sunday homily on the occasion of Pentecost, Metropolitan Audi specified that the Lebanese “aspire to a profound change” and criticized “politicians and parliamentarians who neglect the population and ignore their electorate by refraining from electing a President of the Republic.” He accused them of “all contributing to the destruction of the state, which cannot function without a leader and without a governing team whose primary mission must be to clean up the administration of all its faults and to develop a rescue plan based on a clear vision for building a modern, democratic, and just state in which no one will hold a monopoly, and the law will come first.”
Bishop Audi then underlined that the presidential vacancy, which has lasted since October 31, 2022, has “contributed to the disintegration of the state,” before pleading for a “rehabilitation of the Constitution, a revitalization of democratic practice, and the development of reforms, particularly at the level of mentalities that have presided over the destinies of this country for years and of the vision that has led Lebanon to this deterioration.”
He declared that the expectations are for a leadership that can “restore integrity and justice, thereby breaking the power of the corrupt who have weakened the country.” “Strong leadership, guided by unshakeable principles, is essential to leading the country towards a renaissance,” he insisted.
For Bishop Audi, it is time to act with determination to restore Lebanon’s greatness by eliminating any tolerance for those who have betrayed the trust of the people.
