Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai presiding over the Mass of the Feast of Our Lady of Lebanon at the Basilica in Harissa on May 3, 2026. (Credit: NNA)
Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai condemned, without referring to it directly, the social media smear campaign targeting him which sparked widespread condemnation on Saturday from political and religious figures, denouncing a "violation of people's dignities."
During a mass on Sunday in Harissa, Rai said that the "war of words taking place on social media is not freedom of expression," but an expression of the violation of people's dignities."
In his homily, the patriarch evoked "a worrying decline in the standards of language and values, and a violation of dignities that no one has the right to infringe upon, regardless of their source or identity."
"We face today a reality oscillating between an imposed and rejected war, destruction, displacement, and killing. Our people wait amid daily anxiety, holding on to what remains of hope. And in this waiting, we live something even more difficult: divisions among us, tensions, heightened sensitivities — as if we have lost the ability to tolerate one another.
In a moment, disputes erupt, and with a single word, what remains of trust is shattered," the patriarch said.
"Lebanon is greater than fleeting quarrels and more noble than to be reduced to the noise of voices that harm themselves before harming others. What is built on love is not destroyed by storms of insult," he added.
Over the weekend, images circulated in which Rai’s head was replaced by a shoe, similar to boots often seen in pro-Hezbollah posts online, a pig, or a bird’s head from the popular "Angry Birds" mobile game. Another montage showed Rai smiling alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a statement on Saturday, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said the campaign against Rai began after what he described as an initial provocation by the LBCI channel, through videos that were “insulting” and “went beyond the bounds of political disagreement.”
LBCI had aired a video depicting Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem and its fighters as "Angry Birds"-style caricatures, mocking the military imbalance with Israeli forces. The channel later deleted the video based on the directive of the new Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Ahmad al-Hajj and following its appearance before the Central Criminal Investigations Division.
