Lebanese Patriarch Urges National Reconciliation

DEIR AL-QAMAR, Lebanon, Aug 6, 01 (CWNews.com) - Lebanese Catholic Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Sunday called for national reconciliation and for Lebanon to leave behind the old grievances that divided the country during its 15-year civil war.

"Any kingdom, city, or nation divided against itself will be ruined," the Maronite patriarch said during a Liturgy in the town of Deir al-Qamar, southeast of Beirut, the site of some of the worst sectarian fighting. "Let our coexistence here be an example to the whole of the country as it attempts to live in peace and prosperity."

The visit, the first by any patriarch to the area-- where Christian-Druze conflict led to massacres of Christians in the 1800s, and a siege of the Christian population during the 1975-90 civil war-- in nearly two centuries, is widely seen as a step toward resettling some of the hundreds of thousands of Christians driven from the Chouf mountains by Druze fighters loyal to Syria in the civil war. It also marks a growing political alliance against Syria's political dominance in Lebanon between Lebanese Christians and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Jumblatt, a one-time Syria ally and now critic, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, who is still a supporter of Syria's influence, both attended the Liturgy.

Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
6. august 2001