In France, Al-Rahi Voices Concern over Mideast Turmoil

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi noted Sunday that his visit to France, where he arrived Saturday, will allow him to “meet with the top officials of the French administration, in order to analyze together Lebanon’s problems and the changes currently affecting the geopolitical structures of some Middle Eastern nations.”

“These changes are still confusing and preoccupying us, especially that the outcome is still unknown,” al-Rahi said in a sermon at the Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Paris.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy “sought to carry on an old tradition, by inviting the newly-elected Maronite patriarch to make an official visit to France, with the aim of reviving the French-Maronite and French-Lebanese bonds of friendship, solidarity and cooperation,” the patriarch added.

At a lunch banquet thrown in his honor after the mass, al-Rahi also stressed “the need to seek and strive for eliminating all the reasons still preventing Lebanese expats (all around the world) from registering their children at Lebanese embassies.”