Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rai asserted on Thursday that “Lebanon needs to elect a president because he is the only guarantor of unity in diversity.”
In this context, al-Rai cited Article 49 of the Constitution during the Mass of the Feast of Annunciation of Virgin Mary in Diman, which stipulates that the president of the Republic is “the sole head of state and the symbol of national unity.”
Al-Rai also focused on the aspects that unite Christianity and Islam, stressing the need to “return to them and invest them in our national life, which is the basis for the system of cultural and religious pluralism in Lebanon.”
“A Lebanon of one opinion imposed by one person or group is not Lebanon; a Lebanon of one religion is not Lebanon,” he hammered home.
Al-Rai concluded that “by pluralism, we mean diversity,” affirming that “this is a fundamental feature of Lebanon’s political system.”
The patriarch also pointed out that “Mary is honored in both the Christian and Muslim religions,” recalling that the feast of the Annunciation (March 25) is a national holiday in Lebanon.
