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Christian efforts at unity in Lebanon fall apart after premier’s exit

A new stage begins in Lebanese crisis with uncertain outcome

La Croix International

Church leaders’ efforts to bring stability to Lebanon seemed shattered after the country plunged into deeper political chaos with the exit of Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri.

"The Lebanese people, hungry and bent by the crisis, appear similar to a flock without a shepherd and in the state of prostration in which they find themselves, also due to the inadequacy of their political leaders,"  Lebanese Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, the Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, said during Sunday Mass July 18 in Diman.

Hariri abandoned efforts to form a government July 15, weeks after the Vatican hosted the country’s Christian leaders for a day of prayer and reconciliation July 1.

With the departure of Hariri "a new stage of the Lebanese crisis opens. The outcome appears uncertain,” said Father Rouphael Zgheib, a Maronite priest and national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Lebanon.

Pope Francis has repeatedly appealed for peace and aid for Lebanon which the World Bank said was facing one of the worst economic crises in 150 years. 

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim politician backed by Sunni Arab-led states, stepped down over disagreement with President Michel Aoun, the Maronite Christian head of state who is backed by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia Muslim group Hezbollah. 

“New ways out may be opened, or the country will sink even further into the problems that overwhelm it," Father Zgheib said, according to FIDES.

France, Lebanon’s former colonial ruler, has announced an international meeting Aug 4, the first anniversary of the Beirut port blast, which killed 200 people.

Since October last year, Hariri is tasked with cobbling together a government following the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet in the aftermath of the port explosion.

Hariri and Aoun have blamed each other for the current crisis. Hariri accused Aoun of seeking a major share in the cabinet for his supporters, a charge the president has denied.

In the “land of milk and honey” of 6.83 million people, regional and international alliances involving the United States, France, Iran and Saudi Arabia are operational.

Protect the "neutrality" of Lebanon

Cardinal Raï has repeatedly underlined the need to protect the "neutrality" of Lebanon in the Shia-Sunni power struggle in the Middle East. About 35 percent of Lebanon’s population is Christian.

He praised the "bond of friendship" between Saudi Arabia and the Maronite Church, during the July 8 book launch on relations between the Maronite Church and the Saudi Kingdom, written by Abbot Antoine Daou.

"Riyadh has never violated Lebanese sovereignty,” FIDES quoted the 81-year-old cardinal as saying.

The only country in the Middle East with a considerable Christian population, Lebanon follows a complex system of power sharing among the principal faiths since its formation 100 years ago.

Under the country’s constitution, the president is Christian, the prime minister a Sunni, and the parliamentary speaker a Shia.

The prime focus of the July 1 daylong ecumenical meeting in Rome, convened by the pope, was the role of Christians in reviving the Middle Eastern country.

Pope Francis and the Lebanese Church hierarchs spent "a day of reflection on the worrying situation in (Lebanon) and to pray together for the gift of peace and stability.”

The pope and nine Catholic and Orthodox Church leaders said after three closed-door working meetings that Lebanaon "cannot be left prey” to “unscrupulous interests.”

Lebanon is "a universal message of peace and fraternity," said Pope Francis, who earlier shared his desire to visit the country. 

After the country’s currency pound lost more than 90 percent of its value in two years, Lebanon is facing deep economic depression, the World Bank said in a report released June 1.

Poverty has skyrocketed with the country facing a severe shortage of fuel, electricity and medicines.

Protesters took to the street soon after the resignation of Hariri July 15. They blocked roads at predominantly Sunni areas of the national capital Beirut. 

The army fired in the air to quell the protesters who pelted soldiers with stones.  

Western powers, led by former colonial authority France, have tied the financial aid and support to the condition of forming a new government.

At his meeting with Hariri April 22 ar at the Vatican, Pope Francis has also set the condition of a stable government to visit crisis-hit Lebanon.

France has organized a conference for August 4 with the backing of the United Nations to find a solution to the Lebanese crisis which is “deteriorating every day," the French foreign ministry said in a statement July 16.

With no candidate in the fray to replace Hariri, former Prime Minister Hassan Diab remains the caretaker premier.

Political analysts say it will be difficult to form a new government before parliamentary elections slated for next year.