Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, welcomed the election of a new Lebanese president, ending a two-and-a-half-year power vacuum that had crippled the country’s government institutions. The cardinal also expressed his hope for the acceleration of a unified government and “direct action to save Lebanon from political, economic and social suffering.” He 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 Oct. 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 term of former President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014, a reflection of the sectarian power struggle that defines the country’s political arena.
Finally a President Is Elected in Lebanon
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Observers around the world have grown weary of the images of starving children and desperate people gunned down while trying to collect bags of flour or boxes of food.
After four decades in education, both secular and Catholic, I have witnessed teaching models come and go. The moment before us, however, is not a passing phase; it is a threshold.
The relics of Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, who are set to be canonized later this year, will be displayed in Rome for the Jubilee of Youth.
The Irish government “has done nothing to reduce the numbers of abortions…and seems not to care why women choose abortion, or what happens to them afterwards,” Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin and Achonry said.