Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Raï stated regarding the gathering that took place yesterday in Bkerke that Lebanon's neutrality will enable it to avoid regional and international alliances, conflicts, and wars, and will allow it to fortify its internal and external sovereignty with its own military forces.
During his Sunday sermon, Patriarch Raï mentioned, "Yesterday, fifteen thousand people gathered at the patriarchal seat to support the patriarchate's call for the international community to declare Lebanon's active positive neutrality, in order to cleanse its identity from the distortions it has suffered, to restore its glory, and to enable it to fulfill its mission as a homeland for dialogue among cultures and religions, a land for meeting and living together in equality, integration, and mutual respect between Christians and Muslims, and a state of friendship and peace open to the East and West, and a state of public freedoms and true democracy." He noted that "this neutrality enables Lebanon to avoid alliances, conflicts, and wars regionally and internationally, and empowers it to fortify its internal and external sovereignty with its own military forces."
He added, "They also gathered to support the demand for a special international conference for Lebanon under the auspices of the United Nations, due to the political community's failure to meet, understand, dialogue, and diagnose the illness that has paralyzed the state with its constitutional institutions, treasury, economy, and finance, leading to its disintegration, while the people have become victims of hunger, poverty, unemployment, oppression, and deprivation. Therefore, it was necessary for the enlightened and advanced Lebanese society to diagnose the causes of this collapse and the ways to address it, based on three: the National Accord Document, the Constitution, and the Charter of Living Together, in preparation for this conference."
