Al-Rahi: We Won't Allow Lebanon's Downfall

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against “tampering with Lebanon’s fate,” as he stressed that the church “will not allow its downfall.”

“It is a must to remind that the free financial and economic system – of which the banking sector is a key part and in which the Lebanese stash their lifelong savings – is a pillar of the pillars of the Lebanese entity which was established by the venerable patriarch Elias Hoayek 100 years ago,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

“Beware of harming it and beware of jeopardizing the future of the Lebanese through attacking it, because the reason (behind the financial crisis) is found in another place,” the patriarch warned.

He said the government’s duty is to “address the reasons immediately and punish those manipulating the national currency.”

“We remind that free economy is at the heart of the constitution, but the church wants it to have a social dimension that guarantees justice, solidarity and the human’s dignity and rights,” al-Rahi added.