Lebanese Patriarch: ‘Everyone is a loser’ in Middle East war

By Joseph Tulloch

“In war, everyone is a loser, defeated and broken."

Those were the words of Patriarch Bechara Boutrous Ra’i, the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic Church, at Mass on Sunday, 3rd November.

War “without mercy or compassion"

Patriarch Ra’i's sermon for the Mass took its inspiration from Jesus’ words to Peter in the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, in particular his promise that “to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven”.

These words of Jesus', the Patriarch said, indicate that authority in the Church is not human in origin, but divine. 

In nation states, however, he continued, authority is human, as it is the will of the people which is the source of a country’s legitimacy.

With this principle in mind, the Patriarch turned to consider the current crisis in Lebanon and across the Middle East.

The will of the people, he said, is certainly against the current war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We are facing a war of extermination,” the Patriarch said, “in which the most modern weapons and missiles are used, without mercy or compassion.”

“The people are against this war,” he continued, “because it has destroyed homes, institutions and places of worship, and has displaced more than a million and a half people.”

Patriarch Ra'i arrives at Mass (file photo)

Displacement and co-existence

Lebanon is the country in the Middle East where the highest percentage of the population is Christian, and is often held up as a beacon of peaceful coexistence.

The current mass displacement, however, the Patriarch warned, threatens the country’s social cohesion - it risks becoming "a cause of social and economic problems among Lebanon’s citizens.”

Patriarch Rai brought his sermon to a close with a word of thanks to foreign countries and organisations that have provided aid to Lebanon in this time of crisis, and added an appeal to international actors to work toward a ceasefire.

“We have no ceasefire,” the Patriarch said, “but rather more victims, destruction, and displacement. For how much longer?”