Card. Sfeir: USA "morally obliged" to encourage Mid-East peace
During a visit to the United States, the patriarch said resolving the Palestinian problem was crucial to calming the region's conflicts. In Lebanon, Hezbollah must be disarmed, but "this is not easy", given the ties of the Party of God with Syria and Iran.
Beirut (AsiaNews) The United States should commit itself with some urgency to encouraging the peace process in the Middle East, which would lead to resolution of the Palestinian problem, a key issue for peace in the region. And it is necessary for Lebanon to regain full sovereignty, so that only the army will bear arms. The first meeting with journalists of the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, during his visit to the US, focused on these issues. His visit may include a meeting with the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
The highlight of the early days of the patriarch's third pastoral visit to Maronites in the United States which kicked off on 29 June in Saint Louis was a ceremony at the prestigious university of the Jesuits, during which the university rector, Fr Lorenzio Biondi, conferred a "Honoris Causa" degree upon the patriarch. The ceremony was attended by the highest civil and academic authorities. On this occasion, Cardinal Sfeir reiterated "the perennial position of the Maronite Church and its fidelity to principles already lived and preached by its predecessors". He insisted on the fundamental role played by the Maronites in the renewal of Lebanon, "a message for the East and for the West".
Patriarch Sfeir addressed a press conference in Saint Louis before leaving for Chicago, the second leg of his pastoral visit. He talked about the "urgency and moral obligation" prompting American leaders to "facilitate the path of the Middle East peace process, because the Palestinian cause is the sword constantly piercing the heart of the region, and once a solution to the Palestinian problem is found, many problems and conflicts in the region will be resolved".
Patriarch Sfeir then reiterated his full backing for the re-establishment of a sovereign Lebanon, free of all armed presence that was not governmental. This would entail the disarmament of the Party of God, but "disarming members of Hezbollah is not easy by any means because they are protected by Syria and Iran". The patriarch expressed his gratitude to the international community, for protecting the rights of the Lebanese people downtrodden by the country's enemies through UN resolutions.
Reaching Chicago yesterday, Cardinal Sfeir presided over the annual meeting of Maronites of the United States (NAN), which this year coincides with the 40th anniversary of the erection of the first Maronite diocese in the United States and with the appointment of the first archbishop, Mgr Francis El Zayek. The patriarch told participants that his visit to the United States was "an immediate application of decisions taken during the latest Maronite Synod on the necessity of fortifying ties between Maronites in Lebanon and the diaspora", with a "strong invitation" to contribute to the rebirth of Lebanon, the shared homeland of Christians and Muslims.
Sources close to Patriarch Sfeir told AsiaNews about the desire and commitment of Maronite representatives to arrange for a political meeting between Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir and the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, especially since the assignment of the Lebanese dossier to a new ambassador, Robert Danin, who replaced Elizabeth Debel.
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