The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut, Archbishop Elias Audi. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — On the 20th anniversary of Gebran Tueni’s assassination, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut, Archbishop Elias Audi, paid tribute to him during his Sunday sermon at Saint George Cathedral.
"They assassinated him thinking they had gotten rid of him, but the profound changes Lebanon and the region are undergoing prove that truth, even if concealed, always comes to light and that justice, however delayed, will come," the religious leader declared.
Focusing his sermon on "the meaning of God’s call to man," Archbishop Audi emphasized that Gebran Tueni "answered the call of his homeland and did not hesitate to defend it, even to the point of sacrificing his life."
The politician, editor-in-chief, and publisher of an-Nahar newspaper, "defended Lebanon with words, thought, ink, and pen and carried Lebanon’s cause without taking up arms or harboring hatred, but with the courage to speak the truth in the face of injustice, oppression, treachery, incitement, murder, terrorism, and violations of freedoms," he said.
Tueni was a fierce critic of Syrian tutelage over Lebanon. He was assassinated in a car bombing in 2005, in Mkalles, east of Beirut, during a series of attacks blamed on the former Assad regime in Lebanon.
The commemoration of his death takes on a new meaning following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024.
Damascus is singled out for his assassination and for attacks in the country between 2005 and 2013, despite the withdrawal of Syrian troops after decades of occupation on April 26, 2005.
