NNA – Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, delivered this morning from the ldquo;Church of Our Ladyrdquo; in Bkirki, the message of Christmas entitled, expressing his well-wishes to the Lebanese people in general, and Christians in particular, residing in the homeland and the countries of the Diaspora.
In his homily, the Patriarch said: quot;We condemn the brutal genocidal war on Gaza and call on the United Nations and the Security Council to stop this war out of mercy for innocent civilians.quot;
The Patriarch blamed the officials for committing a crime against the Presidency of the Republic, the constitutional institutions, and the people as they continued to depend on the election of a head of state to a person, project, or hidden goal, saying: ldquo;The victim is the state with its entity and the people with their rights.rdquo;
He asked: ldquo;Why do you want to destroy the state by not electing a president when you know very well that there is no state without a president?rdquo;
Commenting on the House of Representativesrsquo; approval of the legal amendment to regulate the budget of private schools, Al-Rahi considered that this law ldquo;raised strong objection from Catholic schools to some of its provisions that unjustly harm the schools and the studentsrsquo; families, which led to the declaration of an open strike that we do not need, and we call on concerned parties to a dialogue session.rdquo;