Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rai continues to push for filling the presidential vacancy in Lebanon, and to stop violating the constitution in this area. Al-Rai rejects some officials’ use of the Gaza war as an excuse and linking the election of a new president to it and its repercussions in the region and the world.
While presiding over the Mass of Pentecost in Bkerke, Lebanon today, Al-Rahi stressed in his sermon that “it is necessary to have a president of the republic who alone can sit at the negotiating table.” He added: “For us, there is no justification for not electing the President of the Republic so that the constitutional institutions are organized, the Constitution is preserved, and violations of it are stopped on a daily basis.”