Maronite bishops gathered in Bkirki, June 15, 2024. (Credit: National News Agency)
The Maronite church's synod of Bishops called on Saturday to "keep Lebanon out of regional conflicts," according to a statement issued at the end of meetings held from June 5 to 15 at the patriarchal headquarters in Bkirki, as the war in south Lebanon has caused a "tragedy" on multiple levels.
"The war in southern Lebanon has plunged the inhabitants of the south, as well as the Lebanese as a whole, into an economic, commercial, agricultural, financial and educational tragedy," the clerics said, calling on "brotherly and friendly countries to keep Lebanon out of regional conflicts."
Since Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have exchanged daily strikes on both sides of the Blue Line, resulting in over 400 deaths, including a majority of fighters from the party and other factions involved in the fighting, as well as 71 civilians, 21 rescue workers and three journalists.
The material damage caused by the fighting in southern Lebanon was estimated on May 8 by the president of the Southern Council at "around 500 million dollars," since the pro-Iranian formation opened a front in southern Lebanon in "support of the Palestinian resistance" in Gaza, the day after the incursion of Hamas into Israeli territory.
Turning to the question of Syrian refugees, the bishops said that "Lebanon is suffering, in addition to the economic, financial and social crisis, from the presence of displaced Syrians," and denounced "the desire of certain international leaders to keep them in Lebanon."
The Lebanese government estimates that over 1.5 million Syrian migrants and refugees live in Lebanon, of whom some 815,000 are registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), making it the highest per capita refugee population in the world. Officials regularly blame Syrian presence for the country's many crises.
On May 2, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a €1 billion donation to Lebanon, which was seen by some as a bargaining chip to keep Syrian migrants in the country. The UNHCR is also often accused of working to this end.
'Constitutional duty'
With regard to the leadership vacuum that has persisted since Michel Aoun's term of office ended in October 2022, the bishops called on members of parliament "to immediately fulfill their constitutional and national duty by electing a president," as the Maronite Patriarch regularly demands.
The bishops also reviewed "the economic and social situation and the weakness of purchasing power in the face of rising food and medicine prices," and discussed the crises in the education and hospital sectors, particularly with regard to the schools and health establishments run by the church.
The synod called for "the preservation of the educational level in Lebanon and its freedom from political interference, particularly with regard to school curricula and official examinations." The question of these exams has been the subject of controversy ever since the outgoing Minister of Education announced the cancellation, for this year, of the secondary school official exams and "lighter" syllabi for the baccalaureate.
Earlier on Saturday, in his greetings for the Muslim holiday of Adha, Minister Abbas Halabi reiterated that the official exams would be held "on the scheduled dates," June 29, July 1, 2, 4 and 5, 2024, "taking into account the current conditions, especially in the border regions," while the fate of students in south Lebanon, the vast majority of whom have been displaced by the crossfire, has yet to be determined.
The bishops' statement also announced that a ceremony would be held in Bkirki on Aug. 2 to celebrate the beatification of Estephan Doueihy, a 17th-century Maronite patriarch from Ehden in northern Lebanon. Coinciding with this announcement, the municipality of Ehden-Zgharta issued a statement on Facebook announcing that Bkirki had also agreed to open a file for the beatification of Youssef Bey Karam, a 19th-century Maronite politician and resistance fighter, much to the delight of local residents.
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour.