Church in Lebanon stands with
the people demanding justice and transparency
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| Lebanese protesters in Beirut (AFP) |
Violent unrest has flared In Lebanon with dozens of people
injured or detained in running battles between security forces and
anti-government protesters. The demonstrations began 2 months ago amid public
fury at the economic crisis engulfing the nation. The Maronite Catholic Church
in the country has taken a strong stand demanding political transparency,
mediating between the parties and supporting those most in need.
By Linda Bordoni
The leader of the Catholic Maronite Church in Lebanon,
Cardinal Bechara Boutros-Rai, is urging the country’s political leaders to take
responsibility for widespread corruption and the failure of governance, and to
name a technical administration to tackle the crisis gripping the country.
Archbishop Paul Sayah, deputy for external relations
of the Patriarchate of Antiochia, noted that one remarkable thing about the
ongoing protests is that they have united people who would normally be divided
along religious and sectarian lines.
But first, he explained what has led to the current crisis.
Corruption, Archbishop Sayah explained, has been rampant for
a long time. Coupled with that, he said, is the fact that the government has
not been listening to the people, to the Patriarch or to anyone who has been
trying to tell political leaders about the situation and warn them “that
overlooking the will of the people and the misery that the people are
experiencing” in the long run, is a disastrous choice.
He noted that poverty in Lebanon affects a large part of the
population and, together with the impact of the enormous number of refugees in
the nation, is an explosive issue.
“Two million refugees in a country of four million people!
What an economic weight on the situation,” the Archbishop said, added to an
unemployment rate of above 30% and all the poverty. So when the government
tried to impose more taxes, while the people were asking for transparency: “it
really what broke the camel’s back,” spurring this popular movement which began
about 60 days ago.
He explained the protesters are asking for the fall of the
government and said that although the government did submit its resignation
about 45 days ago, no new government has been formed and the situation is
getting worse by the day.
The involvement of the Church
“The Church got involved immediately after the uprising
started,” Sayah said, revealing that the Patriarch called for a meeting of all
the Christian denominations in Lebanon: “Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant…
everybody was called and we had a long meeting.” A communiqué was then
issued, he said, in which the Churches expressed support for those leading the
uprising “because what they were doing was right”, but requesting them to make
violence did not develop within the movement.
Since then, he continued, every time the Patriarch preaches
during the 10 O’clock Mass at the Patriarchate, a part of the sermon is
dedicated to the political situation.
“The Patriarch has been calling on government [members] to
listen to their consciences, to listen to the people who have been on the
streets for 60 days, to look at the social situation, examine closely the
difficulties the people are experiencing and to make sure the uprising does
receive sufficient attention because on the whole, what the uprising is calling
for, is justified,” he said.
Protests uniting the people
Archbishop Sayah agreed that the protests have united people
who would normally have been divided and said that this is what makes the
movement so important: “for the first time in a long time, a popular movement
has gone beyond sectarian limits; it has bypassed political affiliations, and
people are on the streets requesting justice and transparency for the way the
economy of the country is run.”
“They are asking the government to make sure they don’t use
their political positions for their own gain,” he said.
The Church is mediating
Sayah said the Church, and the Maronite Patriarch in
particular, are in constant contact both with the people leading the uprising
and with the politicians.
He noted that the protesters are not willing to talk to
government representatives but they trust the Church.
“I am personally am involved with a group that gathers
various political parties and factions in the uprising,” he said, and we are
“working on various socio-political levels.”
At the moment there is a lot of effort going on to promote
reconciliation among factions, talking to those leading the uprising, “trying
to make them reflect on the situation, and listening to the solutions they have
to offer.”
Government of specialists
Archbishop Sayah said that there is a wide base of
protesters asking for the formation of a government “that is not formed in the
traditional way: that is not made up of the same political parties that have
brought the country to where it is now.”
He explained that the uprising is demanding that the
government be a government of ‘specialists’ who are not politicians by
profession, men and women who had nothing to do with the deterioration of the
situation in the country.
“The protesters feel – and I think rightly so – that you
can’t have people who destroyed the whole thing, and ask them to rebuild,
because they would not have destroyed it in the first place had they the will,
or the spirit or the know-how to build a sane economy,” he said.
Concern for the poor
The Archbishop highlighted the fact that the Church is
deeply involved in trying to assist those most in need: “we are trying to make
a special effort on the social level. We have formed committees and groups to
try and make sure the people have enough to eat because we expect the situation
to worsen due to the unemployment and to the fact that the banks have put
limitations on the amount of money they give the people.”
He reiterated that the social situation is taken very
seriously by the Patriarchate and said it hosted a meeting last week for some
30 or 40 institutions to try to coordinate social work.
The parishes, he said, who have the pulse of what is going
on at a grass-roots level are tasked with reaching out to those most in need.
“This is an issue that we are taking very seriously,”
Archbishop Sayah concluded.
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