Patriarch Rai calls on Christians to stay in Lebanon

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Patriarch Rai outraged 2Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros al-Rai reiterated during the Sunday mass at Bkirki his calls for Christians to stay in Lebanon and urged Christian leaders not to lose their “biblical values.”

“Lebanon is passing through a very critical phase threatening its foundations,” Rai said, stressing that the absence of a president and the “ongoing violation of the constitution, the national pact, the customs and traditions” were worsening the situation.

“I tell the Christians in Lebanon that their role today, more than any past day, is to commit to preserving Lebanon, its essence, people and institutions, as well as its culture and symbolism inside the Arab and Islamic world,” the patriarch said.

He addressed Christian political leaders in Lebanon and reminded them of the need to apply “biblical values” and the recommendations of late Pope Jean Paul II in their political behavior.

“They should remember that Lebanon owes its uniqueness and its particularity, which distinguish it from other Arab countries, to the Christians in particular,” Rai said.

The Lebanese parliament failed on Dec 10 and and for the 16th time in a row to elect a president to replace Michel Suleiman whose term ended on May 25.

As in the past sessions the parliament was unable to reach a quorum because the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group and MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc MPs boycotted the sessions.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed toto Jan. 7 , 2015 Lebanon’s presidential election

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46 responses to “Patriarch Rai calls on Christians to stay in Lebanon”

  1. Think #IamLebanese1st, and Lebanon will persevere.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar

    SO, You want a REASON to stay??? THEY would like one too. Something about ‘values’ here.

    Six CHRISTIAN Women and a 5+-yr-old orphan boy … blown/burned out of 2 homes in Tripoli.
    ONE had hers stolen by a Syrian before that.
    FOUR YEARS of constant struggle and heartbreak. AND FEAR !!
    No shoes. Few clothes. NO food. NO relief. NO charity. NO help.
    JUST FEAR.
    NO JOBS – 2 lost to (I’ll be charitable) ‘OTHERS’.
    One lost due to sickness and no money for medical help.
    FOUR WISHING TO FIND A JOB !!!!!!! TRYING AND TRYING.
    Even 2 jobs could help the whole.
    (even lost a 15/hr/a/day dishwashing job to a Syrian – which was the second job lost.)

    Couldn’t leave earlier … Two Older mothers to care for. One with brain now scrambled by THE FEAR.
    ONE 6-month Dead mother who succumbed to the horrors after the last burned-out-of-home event.
    Would LIKE to be buried with full Christian Rites beside husband.
    NO AID for that …. (taking up one small room in crammed apartment that the building owner doesn’t fix plumbing in — but at least the rotting smell is finished with).

    AND WHEN THEY GO TO CHURCH TO PRAY, someone pushes a plate at them for $ – then they get dirty looks for having none. Priest says: ’No Money For Help’.
    THE ‘ALL CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE’, RAI.
    AND YOU WANT THEM TO STAY ???
    GET SERIOUS !!

    (I’d relate the life of the one I know in Beirut who also – even with 2 degrees and speaking 3 languages – COULD NEVER GET A JOB because she’s in a wheelchair. But thats a story of 30 YEARS. She may not last much longer anyway.)

    SOMETIMES, RAI, YOU NEED TO MEET THE PEOPLE.
    MIGHT FIND OUT WHY THEY WANT TO CLEAR OUT.

    (Everybody dreams. Nothing is real.)
    Merry F’kin Christmas.

    1. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
      Maborlz Ez-Hari

      Someone’s got a chip on the shoulder the size of my asteroid.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar

        Yah, Maborlz. … and I hate the feeling … but it’s reality.

        1. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
          Maborlz Ez-Hari

          Nah man, you take a stand against the church in everything you say when ever you get a chance. Light up that Christmas cheer and stop being a grouch.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Well Maborlz … Age brings grouchiness. Especially when the years show that people are just as selfish as ever they were. When they live in war all the time – as they do – it only becomes worse.
            For me, Christmas ‘was’. There are a few fondly remembered. AND I’ll stand here yacking against the Mosque too if you like. It doesn’t foster that ‘inclusivity’ very well. It’s no different really … and we all know about those SIN-A-Gogs. ;-)))

          2. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            5th My friend, Just like you go to the doctors when you are physically ill, someone likes you needs a spiritual cure. The medicine might not go down well but in the end it does the job. No one is asking you to yak about the mosque or the synagogues but closer to home if age isn’t on your side God is.

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar

            (a good fellow) May you keep those thoughts all your life.

          4. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            There is little to cheer Maborlz when you hear and read of what’s going on on the ground.
            I know I sometime exaggerate and in the spirit of Christmas I will be nicer towards the shithole that this country turned to. It’s much more a jungle than a jingle 😉 [Christmas]
            5th is not old, the “church’s” empty speech is old.

          5. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            The church’s speeches are only empty if you have no ears. Try to listen when you hear the next speech.

          6. Hind Abyad Avatar

            ..but there’s little to cheer.. to paraphrases Meke.

          7. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            Are you having a go at maborlz?

          8. Hind Abyad Avatar

            Don’t start you bad boy..
            PS.. depends, Rai gives good speeches he’s a good man I’m sure he suffers from not being more “outspoken”

          9. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            I’m very sensitive about descriptive words such as ‘little’ when they are used in the same sentence as you know.

          10. Hind Abyad Avatar

            All men are.. they are …

          11. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            Mazbout.

          12. 5thDrawer Avatar

            (until a Lady prompts ‘change’. 😉 )

          13. Hind Abyad Avatar

            That’s true…isn’t it..

          14. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            “They should remember that Lebanon owes its uniqueness and its particularity, which distinguish it from other Arab countries, to the Christians in particular”
            Racist!

          15. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            We are not racist Christians just lucky to be so.

          16. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            To be what exactly?
            A bunch of sectarian fascists who kept snobing and spitting on the Arabs and Muslims around them, thinking they are much better than everyone. And the guy in the robe above is still convinced that a racist sermon like this one would convince anyone. (Why don’t you stay in your land btw?)
            Rai, and by extension the Christians of Lebanon better understand that they are allowed to stay on their lands as long as they pose for the picture with their sunni/shia leaders, to show… the diversity of the Muslim world
            Rai should be honest and call the Christian areas what they are: an attraction park for Muslims to come and take pictures.

          17. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
            Maborlz Ez-Hari

            And what’s wrong worth being attractive?

          18. 5thDrawer Avatar

            After reading all that was said about Clooneys, one can see ‘attractiveness’ is only in the eye of a beholder. :-))))))

          19. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Don’t confuse racism with religiosity or sectarianism. Please.

          20. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            That’s plain racism, as if the Christian lebanese are the Prometheans who spread wisdom and knowledge among the Arab sub-race

    2. Hind Abyad Avatar

      But Drawer he’s the Christians Pastor, he has no power over war and politics, he must know why he tells Christians to stay in Lebanon, he must know more than us, more than a million left.. or were massacred, Jihadi did the Christians.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar

        Then he doesn’t need to pussyfoot around the problems … he can open his mouth like all the other supposedly ‘Religious’ nut-bars there, and tell it like it is. The others don’t seem to have any problem being heard, whatever crazy ‘sect’ they are.
        BUT we know NONE of them EXPERIENCE the day-to-day struggle to survive anyway … they are too busy having ‘dialogues’ and chatting up politicians – or flinging crap at each other’s little ‘mysteries’ of ancient thoughts. From the distance. Just like politicians.
        And if his church has run out of ‘Aid Money’ for the verifiably Christian Poor, I’m sure he knows who to call on. The Muslim Poor seem to get their ‘aid’ lined up in the Great Jihadi Traditions they love to spout about … Rai can do more to promote the “biblical values” I am sure.
        The ‘Pages’ follow in the ‘Master’s’ footprints, after all, but they must travel forth together.
        Sing about it.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar

          If he’s outspoken takes big-cat steps, you will say he’s supposed to be a man of God.. 🙂

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Hind …. I would simply like to see some Godly Attempt to save some souls WHILE they are still IN A BODY here on Earth. I’m sure the really good ones, who I know, are not the only ones which need it … but they are the ones I know of.
            I am also sure there may be worse stories played out in refugee camps.
            But these are CITIZENS OF LEBANON. A Wonderful experience ….

    3. Igor Chingoski Avatar
      Igor Chingoski

      As always a stupid bastard like You with stories invented after a night of homosexuality and drugs, You are a stupid jew trying to convince that being a Christian has no merit? think again ebn charmouta! son of vipers all poison comes from the synagoges and mosques against Christians and that is why We are relentless since before, now and forever. I don’t even know how they allow You to post here in Yalibnan, is obvious that You are Deranged.

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar

        Please Igor it’s Christmas:))

      2. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
        Maborlz Ez-Hari

        Igor the defender of the faith, bit harsh he’s an old man isn’t he.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          Yah. And Igor is probably the slum landlord.

  3. 5thDrawer Avatar

    The foundations went away after ASSad (and then Iran) took over the place. This is a ‘denoument’.

  4. U Nderwater Glockenspiel Avatar
    U Nderwater Glockenspiel

    Dirty antisemite fake xians go to hell

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Ahhhh …. ‘Mr. Sous Marin’ get ‘clocked’ at some point in time? Tsk. Too bad.

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar

        Monsieur lost underwear underwater..

  5. 5thDrawer Avatar

    The reasons ….
    “But how did these Palestinian gunmen know the names of the houses’ owners?” the filmmaker asks.
    “They weren’t Palestinian,” he shrugs. “They were Lebanese.”
    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Arts-and-Ent/Culture/2014/Dec-22/281833-the-faces-of-lebanese-displacement.ashx

  6. Let Lebanon lead the way in the Middle East by committing their loyal to their country first, their family and then their religion. Keep religion out of politics and the Middle East will be transformed.

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar

      Tell that to Middle East Big Bosses:)

  7. Mr Rai, if you wish to preserve the christian existence , they should be armed against any internal or external insurgencies.

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar

      Israeli agent, don’t tel Rai what to do.. heaven forbids.
      An it’s not ‘Mister Rai’..

      1. HInd , back in the 70’s the christian miscalculated the civil war in Lebanon. With the atrocities we are seeing on the media with ISIS, Christian as any other non muslim religion needs to protect themselves. It is an ipso facto if we are in danger, If we need to arms ourselves. NO one and I say again and re-iterate is going to tell me to convert to a islam. Not iran or Saudi or ISIS. I am born as a christian and will die as a christian in my land.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar

          What Land, Phoenicia orabs? There were no Christians, only pagans so stop Israeli instructions.
          That’s how much they love Christians “on their land”.

          http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israeli-forces-violently-disperse-peaceful-christmas-march-bethlehem

  8. As long as the lebanese constitution sectarian people will be as well End sectarianism start with seculer

  9. Hind Abyad Avatar

    Israel Christmas present to a 5years old, which other country in the world do this… except ISIS?

    http://www.imemc.org/article/70107?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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