Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, has welcomed the election of a new Lebanese president, which ended a two-and-a-half-year power vacuum that had crippled the country’s institutions of government.
Cardinal Rai also expressed his hope for the acceleration of a unified government and “direct action to save Lebanon from the political, economic and social suffering.”
The cardinal urged newly elected President Michel Aoun and other politicians to heed the words of the apostle Paul, to forget what lies behind and to forge ahead to the future.
Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the presidential post is reserved for a Maronite Catholic. Aoun, 81, elected on October 31, is the only Christian head of state in the Arab world.
Aoun’s election follows 45 successive failed attempts by the legislators to elect a president since the mandate of former President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014, a reflection of the sectarian power struggle that defines Lebanon’s politics. Aoun is the 13th president since Lebanon gained independence from France in 1943.
The presidential stalemate was broken ahead of the October 31 voting when Sunni Muslim leader Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabia’s closest ally in Lebanon, reversed his objections to Aoun’s nomination and gave him his support.
Maronite Fr Fadi Daou, chairman of Adyan, a foundation for interfaith studies based in Lebanon, had told Catholic News Service it was vital to resolve the situation.
Given Lebanon’s importance within the Middle East, the democratic vacuum “represented a real danger not only for the country itself, but also for the region,” Fr Daou said.
Pope: Church never likely to ordain women as priests
The Church’s insistence that it cannot ordain women to the priesthood and episcopacy is a teaching likely to last forever, Pope Francis has said.
After being hosted by the Lutheran Church of Sweden, led by Archbishop Antje Jackelén of Uppsala, the nation’s first woman primate, Pope Francis was asked on the papal plane home if the Catholic Church might one day have women priests and bishops.
As he has done in the past, the Pope responded that the question was settled in 1994 by St John Paul II, who taught that because Jesus chose only men as his apostles, the ordination of women in the Church was not possible. He was asked, “Really? Never?” And he replied: “If one carefully reads the declaration of St John Paul, it goes in that direction, yes.”
During the press conference Pope Francis was also asked about his meeting with Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. He said he met him at the president’s request. “I listened to him for half an hour. I asked a few questions. I heard his opinions. It’s always good to listen to both sides.” As in any conflict, he said, “either you dialogue or you scream.”
Communist victims are beatified
Thousands of faithful gathered at a cathedral in Shkodër, Albania, on Saturday to celebrate the beatification of 38 martyrs tortured to death or executed under the country’s former communist regime.
Cardinal-designate Ernest Troshani Simoni, 88, who survived nearly 30 years in labour camps, said the beatification was a “reward from God to all those living in this world and assisting the poor”.
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