“Lebanon is more than a country. It is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for East and West,” said Saint Pope John Paul II during his 1997 pastoral visit to Lebanon.
The Polish saint’s admiration for Lebanon in the past has become the Maronite Patriarch’s admonition for Lebanon in the present. At the In Defense of Christians 2020 Digital Summit, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rai declared that Lebanon must adopt the policy of “Active Neutrality” to remedy its longstanding political crisis. As the last remaining country in the Middle East with an empowered Christian population, Lebanon, the Patriarch asserted, cannot afford to favor either the east or the west in its political orientation.
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