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Rai Refuses Involving ‘Our People’ in South Lebanon in War

Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Rai Refuses Involving ‘Our People’ in South Lebanon in War

Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Political divisions in Lebanon over the five-month escalating war in the South of the country between Hezbollah and Israel intensified lately.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai refused on Sunday to involve the people of south Lebanon in a war they have nothing to do with.
“The Lebanese and our people in south Lebanon have nothing to do with it,” said Rai in his Sunday sermon.
Replying to Rai’s remarks, Jaafarite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said: “Lebanon’s sovereignty, yesterday and today, is up to what the people of the south decide”.
The recent positions come amid a planned visit by US envoy Amos Hochstein to Beirut on Monday.
The US envoy is expected to meet with Lebanese officials as part of efforts to appease the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Lebanese sources familiar with European positions towards Lebanon said that diplomatic western efforts are pushing in the same direction to prevent the situation from escalating into a war in Lebanon.
“In Lebanon, no one should drive our country into war, destruction, killing and displacement. It is useless to involve the Lebanese in general, and our people in the south in particular, in matters of no concern to them”, said Rai in his sermon.
For his part, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Beirut Elias Aude cautioned against the expansion of the Israeli war into Lebanon.
“We all know that our enemy is criminal and vicious, no humanity or conscience can stop it”, said Aude, adding that Lebanon can not bear the brutality of Israel’s crimes.
MP Ali Fayyad of Hezbollah Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc said on Sunday: “Our right for resistance remains unquestionable as long as our presence is targeted (by Israel) and our land remains occupied...our duty is to respond to deter the enemy and restore security to our villages”.
Qabalan for his part said: “What the Resistance is doing on the southern Lebanese front is a sovereign necessity..maintaining silence through it is a crime”.

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Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
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Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Tuesday hailed Pope Francis's support for Gazans and engagement with the small Catholic community in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The Catholic church's highest authority in the region, who is considered a potential successor to the late pontiff, Pizzaballa told journalists in Jerusalem that "Gaza represents, a little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate".

Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, advocated peace and "closeness to the poor... and to the neglected one", said the patriarch.

These positions became particularly evident in Francis's response to the Israel-Hamas war which broke out in October 2023, Pizzaballa said.

"He was very close to the community of Gaza, the parish of Gaza, he kept calling them many times -- for a certain period, also every day, every evening at 7 pm," said the patriarch.

He added that by doing so, the pope "became for the community something stable, and also comforting for them, and he knew this".

Out of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Since the early days of the war, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge there.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. The day before his death, in a final Easter message delivered on Sunday, he condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation" in the besieged territory.

"Work for justice... but without becoming part of the conflict," said Pizzaballa of the late pontiff's actions.

"For us, for the Church, it leaves an important legacy."

The patriarch thanked the numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who have offered their condolences, preferring not to comment on the lack of any official message from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even as "the local authorities... were not always happy" with the pope's positions or statements, they were "always very respectful", he said.

Pizzaballa said he will travel to Rome on Wednesday, after leading a requiem mass for the pope at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the morning.

As one of the 135 cardinal electors, the Latin patriarch will participate in the conclave to elect a new pope.

Pizzaballa, a 60-year-old Italian Franciscan who also speaks English and Hebrew, arrived in Jerusalem in 1990 and was made a cardinal in September 2023, just before the Gaza war began.

His visits to Gaza and appeals for peace since then have attracted international attention.