Al-Rahi Returns from U.S.: Lebanese Alone Can't Solve Hizbullah Arms Issue
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday noted that “solving the issue of Hizbullah’s arms is not in the hands of the Lebanese alone,” emphasizing the international community’s role in that regard.
Upon his return to Beirut from a pastoral visit to the United States and a brief trip to the Vatican, al-Rahi said: “I have said that it will be a major feast in Lebanon when the Resistance hands over its weapons, but what’s more important is that I have said the international community must play a role to solve this Lebanese-international issue.”
Asked about the latest meeting held by the Lady of the Mountain Gathering, the patriarch said: “I know nothing about this meeting, I heard there had been a meeting that got canceled and that another meeting was held, but my time did not allow me at all to inform myself about the issue.”
“I did not read anything about it or about what it did, I stated in the United States that we as a church support all the Lebanese -- which means that the church, the patriarchate, the bishops and I support all the Lebanese and all the parties and movements,” al-Rahi added.
Asked about a possible visit to Syria, al-Rahi said “it is the patriarch’s duty to visit all the parishes once every five years, and this is what we’re doing now. I have to visit our parishes in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Egypt and the Holy Land, and I will go later to Canada and Australia because it’s the patriarch’s duty to visit the parishes.”
Al-Rahi is scheduled to travel to Iraq on Monday for talks with spiritual and political figures there.
The patriarch returned Sunday to Beirut from Italy where he attended a council with world religious leaders in Assisi. They joined Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday in denouncing violence perpetrated in the name of their faiths.
Al-Rahi will celebrate mass in Baghdad on the first anniversary of the attacks that targeted the Our Lady of Salvation Church in 2010.
Militants had stormed the church in central Baghdad, killing 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security force personnel in an attack claimed by al-Qaida's local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.
Al-Rahi said earlier this week that he will discuss with Iraqi officials the fate of Christians there.
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