Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai on Saturday accused Lebanese politicians of “killing” the country’s people, and urged them to step down.
“The political authority has killed its people economically, financially and in terms of living and development, and has thrown them into a state of loss and anger, despair and revolution, emigration and survival,” Rai said in a sermon at the conclusion of the Holy Synod of the Bishops of the Maronite Church in Bkirki.
Politicians must acknowledge their failure to represent the citizens and gain their trust, and they should “step down for the sake of Lebanon, even if only temporarily,” Rai said.
The patriarch called for the swift formation of a government based on the constitution, stressing that “any other cabinet is a waste of time.”
In their closing statement, the Bishops urged both Premier-designate Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun to speed up the formation of a government that would salvage the country and fight rampant corruption.
They said the cabinet should launch economic development, work on the judiciary’s independence and restructure the state in a clear “constitutional, democratic and peaceful path.”
The bishops hoped for impartial figures who enjoy integrity and serve the public interest.
They reiterated that Lebanon’s neutrality is the only guarantee for its unity.
Such neutrality would guarantee its role in the region’s stability, and prove Lebanon’s leading political and cultural role in the East and West, they said.
They added that neutrality would give priority to a true Lebanese partnership.
