Patriarch urges Lebanese Christians to remain united amid crisis

Published: 2006-11-29

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- The head of Lebanon's Maronite Catholic Church has urged Christians to remain united in the face of the country's mounting political crisis. "We are going through miserable days, but we hope they will be followed by happy days in which the Lebanese will reunite," said Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, Maronite patriarch, Nov. 26. "We mean by that the Christians who are divided." Cardinal Sfeir spoke days after presiding over the funeral of murdered Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel. The scion of Lebanon's most prominent Maronite family was the sixth anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated in the past two years. Cardinal Sfeir said Lebanon's Christians should unite since Lebanon's "leaders are being killed one after the other." He acknowledged that might be difficult amid the current tensions over street protests and strikes led by the militant Islamic group Hezbollah.

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