Al-Rahi Prays for Release of Syria Clergymen, Urges Suleiman and Salam to Practice their Authorities

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has congratulated the families of the nine pilgrims who were released on Saturday following a 17-month kidnapping ordeal in Syria but called for setting free two bishops and three priests abducted there.

During a mass on a pastoral visit to the Metn district, al-Rahi said: “We congratulate their relatives on their safe return but we pray specially for the release of Bishops Boulos Yazigi and Youhanna Ibrahim and the three priests who were kidnapped months ago.”

Ibrahim, head of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Aleppo and Yazigi, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Aleppo, were on a humanitarian mission when they were kidnapped at the end of April in a village in northern Syria's Aleppo province.

“We pray that this humanitarian tragedy ends,” al-Rahi told worshipers in his sermon. He described the ongoing abductions as an “assault on human dignity.”

Nine Lebanese pilgrims held hostage in Syria since May 2012 arrived in Beirut late Saturday after being freed in exchange for the release of two Turkish Airlines pilots seized near Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport in August.

Al-Rahi reiterated that Lebanese officials should assume their responsibilities to end corruption and guarantee a prosperous future for the youth.

He said the people reject the sectarian infighting, which is paralyzing the formation of the new government.

The patriarch criticized the politicians for linking the fate of the cabinet to the result of the war in Syria and regional and international alliances.

“We reject along with the people to become the captives of the two rival political parties,” he said, hoping that President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Tammam Salam would also not become the hostages of their differences.

He said both of them “should practice their constitutional authorities out of respect for the people who are the source of their authority.”