Lebanese politicians must do everything possible to strengthen Lebanon’s national cohesion and keep the country safe from the new winds of war that are stirring the entire region. The Bishops of the Maronite Church, who met on Wednesday 8 January in the patriarchal see of Bkerkè, under the presidency of Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, for their traditional monthly meeting.
In the message issued at the end of the meeting, among other things, the Maronite Bishops expressed concern about the new escalation of violence in the Middle East after the attack with which the US apparatuses killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. In the text, reported by Fides News Agency, members of the Maronite episcopate have called on the international community and the governments of nations to do everything possible to prevent further turmoil, in an area of the world which is unstable and tormented by conflicts in recent decades.
The Bishops also recalled the words with which Pope Francis, in his Christmas message “Urbi et Orbi”, urged the Lebanese people to rediscover “their vocation to be a message of freedom and harmonious coexistence for all”. “Freedom,” added the Bishops, “has always been, over the centuries, in the heart of the existence of this small country, in a Levant that always moves away from it, making deleterious choices for everyone”.
