Vatican Officials Warn Presidential Vacuum Would Harm Christians
Vatican officials have expressed fears that a possible vacuum in the presidency would harm the role of Christians in state institutions, al-Joumhouria daily reported Friday.
The newspaper quoted the officials as saying that the election of a new president was urgent amid the turmoil in Lebanon and the region.
They said any vacuum would affect power-sharing between Muslims and Christians and would harm the role of Christians in state institutions, mainly the presidency that is reserved for Maronites under the National Pact of 1943.
Under the agreement along confessional lines the prime minister should be a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.
The danger of a presidential vacuum also lies on creating a precedence on the absence of a head of state, which would be explained as a diminishing role for Christians in the state, the officials said.
Such a scenario contradicts with the National Pact and the Constitution, they told al-Joumhouria.
The daily said last week that a delegation from the Vatican has been holding talks with Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Maronite political leaders in an attempt to bring to the helm of Baabda Palace the strongest and most popular Christian politician.
The delegation, which has been sent to Lebanon by Pope Francis, is moving back and forth between the papal embassy in Harissa, the seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki and the residences of the Maronite political leaders, it said.
The Vatican officials are also expected to hold meetings with the rest of the parliamentary blocs, al-Joumhouria quoted a Vatican source as saying.
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