Vatican financial reform going in the right direction, Pell says
- Jan 15, 2021
As Lebanon’s top political leaders struggle to form a government coalition, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Beshara Raï continues to call on President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to hold a “personal reconciliation meeting.”
Amid suffering and despair, further darkened by the coronavirus pandemic, Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East urged their faithful at Christmastime to hold on to hope.
Marking the anniversary of Lebanon’s massive popular uprising against the corrupt political class, Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai encouraged the country’s young people to continue their protest movement.
Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai warned that the Christian presence in the Middle East is shrinking and church leaders “are called to face the winds that blow in our homelands.”
Just weeks before Pope Francis is set to sign a new encyclical on human fraternity, the head of the Maronite Church is pointing to his own country of Lebanon as an example of how Christians and Muslims can peacefully live together.
On Aug. 10, Lebanon’s Cabinet resigned over the Aug. 4 blasts at the Beirut port, the health minister said, a decision that was made under pressure as several ministers quit or expressed their intention to step down.