الراعي: الأسد بدأ بالإصلاحات منذ آذار ولإغلاق كل الأبواب أمام مخططات الخارج للشرق

wrong!! we are not all on the same ship. and why do you insist on this? and why do you put lebanon's fate conditional on assad's victory? "we are with you and with all christians and all muslims" ??? nice words but..what does this mean? we are with the whole world ... so what.... AT least stand with Jesus Christ and His Kingdom...and then with the justice of the oppressed people ... stop being a diplomat and politician.

When you support the reforms that Assad is implementing, then you are also supporting the violence he's implementing on the Syrian people. you're either with Assad or against him! I am certain that most Maronite don't share your view.

With all due respect…I am very disappointed in the current patriarch.

You have to stop contradicting yourself. Everytime you speak you sound more and more confused. Spare the Maronites more confusion. And honeslty, sometimes, I wonder if you are aware of what's going on.!!

heureux les pauvres d'esprit

!! Come back Patriarch Sfeir,They are becoming crazy

"We're One People in 2 Nations" - Hafez Assad
Too much wine around the holidays your eminence?
I wonder what the Syrian ambassador told him minutes before he said this and I'm looking forward to him trying to explain this one away.

This is so embarrassing. The Patriarch makes himself part of the Assad propaganda machine. Christians in Lebanon and Syria definitely deserve a better representation.

he can't go against Pope Benedict wishes!!!!!!!

one people in 2 nations???? wtf????

this guy is changing rethoric as he sees fit, only that no one understand him

we're all human beings too, living in hundreds of nations.
Doesn't change the fact that some nations are led by assassins, and that such tyrants must be denounced and not praised.
Anyway, leb. christians will only have themselves to blame for what might come next.

Stick with the cross and church, leave the politics to others and be quiet by referring any political agenda to its owners. You do not represent the Maronites when it comes to politics because we share different views and you just created a division in the church itself instead of unifying the ranks.
Therefore with all due respect we wish you did not speak politics and remain quiet.

I sure hope the next thing coming out of Bkerkeh is I plea insanity your honor.

what reforms is he talking about, this new Aoun like creature, shelling and massacring his own people....where were the Syrian politicians when the Lebanese were bleeding during civil war...

WTF is wrong with this retard?!?!

Did this guy ever read the New Testament?

Allah ysa3idna fik ya batrakna and it is an insult to all Lebanese to call the Syrian regime "People". They are animals.

just envisioning what might be making him say that, also start making me speak like him, just because we live in the middle east, where bad better than worst.

I told you so ! The Lebanese are a fake people we are in fact Syrians separated by the colonial West , now after over sixty years of struggles for unity the Patriarch of all the Maronites has admitted it , the fake border should come down !

John of Koura time to open that Champagne you've been saving . God bless our Patriarch And bless Syria.

I have to admit, so far this guy is a disaster.

So according to Rahi, Assad thought during 11 years that all was fine and dandy in Syria and every Syrian was happy! Then suddenly, in March , people started to protest. Assad thought then to himself that it was time to start to refrom his regime! The poor slob has been trying since March but the external plotters and the internal terrorists including babies and women, old and young, have been preventing him!
How can a man who is supposed to represent the teachings of the greatest compassionate Lord be so stone hearted????

This is why men of religion should not give political advice and vice versa. Al Rahi is out of his depth here...he has no clue what he's talking about. Doesn't he realize that his comments are giving cover to the gangster regime in Syria?

You know, Cardinal Sfeir was not the best but at least he didn't bend with the wind. You may not always agree with him but at least you knew where he stood. Al Rahi is not providing the strong leadership his position requires. He needs to be clear in his approach and his positions and has been very uncertain in his actions so far.

hey naharnet why the hell do you have a comments section if the comments left show up twenty four hour after they're been posted!

I have had many Maronite priests in our family going back 200 years or more, and this is the first time in my life, I have criticized any of the Patriarch. Where did he come from and how can we have him replaced? I cannot believe his BIG, STUPID, MOUTH. Are you kidding me???? Ya Rab!!! We Maronites are in big trouble with him as Patriarch.....BIG TROUBLE.

He is inflicting the greatest harm to Christianity with such a position...he has no consideration for humanity and is being short sighted...shame on him

.......... sigh

we are NOT one people..............

WE ARE NOT ONE PEOPLE AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!
We are two different people in two VERY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Your excellency, I beg you to retrun to the policies and beliefs of the Maronite Church. They have proven to be right.

Very disappointing indeed. This kind of talk comes from politicians, not from a Patriarch.

Dear all,

i totally disagree with Patriarch Al-Rahi's opinion but that doesn't give the right to any of u to insult the head of our chruch the way ur doin.
mark? watch ur tongue my friend! 3yab!
would like to know how many christians would die if we insulted Nasrallah!

The Jews (including the USA and western powers) don't want Christians in Lebanon. The Muslims don't want Christians in Lebanon . It is high time that the Christians of Lebanon unite and stand independent of all foreign powers and nations.

Isn't HE an unaffordable luxury?!
Let's beg and beseech Batrak Sfeir to come back for a replacement that, I pray, will not take long.

Shu we are one people????? I totally agree that religious people and authorities of all religions should stay away from politics. Look at the vatican. They typically address people's suffering and humanity and hardly touch on politics!

We are 2 people in 2 nations.

Reform started in March????From where you get your information ya abona?
The slaughter of innocent people started in march is the correct statement.
I miss Cardinal Sfeir.

If anybody need a blessing from the Batrak all you have to do is kill 5000 people.
No wonder why I hated him when I was a student in ND Louaize.
Where are Mon Cardinal?

Gabby, what do you mean by "so far this guy has been a disaster?" Disaster to whom? But your Dr. Muderyanchimenchi confidently (as usual as this man so sure of himself is) said after Al Rahi was appointed Patriarch that we (I am not sure who he meant by WE) will "natara7am" on the days of Sfeir! Considering that you and Dr. Muderyanchimenchi are world-renowned voyeurs and visionaries, when do you both think that this "so far" will come to a nice closing? Any news re. the fall of the "ASSad" regime? Your
"three months maximum and he will fall" is two months overdue THANKS TO THE GRACE PERIODS that you and Dr. Muderyanchimenchi keep extending. Should you put an end to this charade or there is still time? Your intelligent response shall be very much appreciated, buddy. Keep up the good work. Bests.

Fuck Syria, fuck the crap reforms, and this batrack, is Another servant of Assad. Please lord fire him

Cedar, the Jew don't want Christian in Lebanon? on the contrary.
Lebanon was the Switzerland of the Mediterranean when Christian were in power.
Hand it over to the Muslims and they will establish a new Iranian branch in the East Med.
We are just concerned what will happen to the Christian in Lebanon if you will become a minority.
We follow the Christians' faith in Egypt or even in the West Bank in Bethlehem and Bet Jalla, also the few hundred Christians in Gaza.
I don't wish this kind of life even to my enemies, we all know the Muslim live and let live method.
Run away before it will be too late.

I am a Christian Lebanese, and this person DOES NOT represent me! Bring Patriarch Sfeir Back!!

Next he'll tell us that the road to Jerusalem passes through Jounieh.

On Christmas day he had a decent speach about weapons...then he got the visit of the Syrian ambassador and came up with this stupid declaration. Seems the most rational explanation is the one that Antoine Basbous gave in his book.
And Dear Salh el din, the vatican was very pissed off abt his declarations and have asked him to change tone in regard to Syria (stop supporting Assad), but seems he fear the Syrian regime more than the vatican)

I think Al Rahi has lost his mind and is far from reality, let alone being logical at all. harch as though this may be, Al Rahi should not have been appointed as a Patrach and those who voted for him were certainly brain washed or lacked the sense of logic. Al Rahi has shown on many occasions that he's serving his own fresh and not the ideals that Christianity resembles. he's out of focus and could not be trusted with leading his own sect, let alone all the Christians of lebanon.

Assad could have easily initiated reforms from day one because as a president he should have the best of his people at heart. However, he chose to kill his people instead. By doing so, he seized to be a president and should have stepped down for the majority to govern.

Assad had done nothing in March as Rahi purported. He simply released a hot balloon that vanished without a trace.

what a disgrace. all hope that the patriarch would back up the opressed is now gone.

A disaster. It would have been better for Rahi to have said nothing that to try and say the right things. One people in two countries is the Assad line, which follows the Hitler line as he tried to bring Germans in neighb oring countries under German rule.

And Reforms launched in March 2011? I wish the Patriarch would tell us what got launched that was a reform.

And then he says that violence should end from both sides, which equates the Regime thugs with the protesters and there is no parity there. The Regime thugs have the power of the regime behind them, and the opposition have only side arms at best. To equate the two is simply wrong.

Better to have said nothing than to say this. But this Patriarch seems involuntarily compelled to speak, if only there were not just wisdom but correctness to what he has to say.

rahi is a great gift to muslims, farsis or wahabies...it seems that christians fell in numbers from 55 pct to 35 pct the last 20 years or so.. and now to 25 or 20????????..if rahi keep pushing like this perhaps muslims can hope for 12 pct like the christians in bilad el sham..
it is a great loss for humanity to lose bilad el arz to wahabies or farsis...sad indeed.

as a Maronite, I regret that this Patriarch is taking those stances and I voice my dis contempt with his positions. Patriarch Sfeir was much better than you will ever be.

God bless Patriach sfeir and Patriach Rahi you forget what the Syrian's regime did to us.
Julie

for once I agree with Jaba the mammal. The patriach is another Jumblatt

Reforms since March??? Really? In whose dream?
It is very disappointing that a church leader keeps giving verbal support to a dictator.
Ya Rahi, if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything. PLEASE!

Loool at Danny B. How disgusting are you? The christians who migrated from alestine did so because of YOU GUYS. Dont even try to lie. Have some self respect. Palestinian christians are not even allowed to have christmas tres in northern nazareth because the jewish colonializers and your mayor has banned it. So go eat dirt you liar and stop spitting at them in jerusalem. The priests and nuns are complaining of jews spitting on them. And now i havent even mentioned the murdering, theft, expulsions nor house demolitions nor the churches you guys destroyed and turned some in to bars.

The batrak should stand with the opressed, not with the opressor and the fact that he is shady saying one thing and other next only makes it worse.

Christians in the Middle east should get ready to leave. The whole plot is to rid of them . Kessinger had it all planned years ago. This patriach knows it well but affraid to say it. you cant cure the problems with band aids. Its only a matter of time . Life is too short to stay in Lebanon and keep dreaming of a free lebanon. The cancer has gone too far and unoperable.The christians among themselves are divided. How do you expect them to have a country? every year christians are leaving until comes a day all of them are out. i was still wayting to go back to lebanon but it is all a dream after 35 years i gave up. I burned my lebanese passport .for the other dreamers on here like me. Dont waste your time .

I'm also disappointend