The Maronite Patriarchate’s summer residence in Lebanon’s northern town of Diman on Sunday witnessed crowds gathering in support of the Maronite Patriarch, Beshara Al-Rahi, who had stepped up his rejection of the arrest of a senior Lebanese Maronite religious leader.
Bishop Mousa Al-Hajj, archbishop of the Maronite archdiocese of Haifa and the patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories and the territories of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was arrested at the Naqoura crossing between Lebanon and Israel after a visit to his parish in the holy territories.
Al-Hajj faced a long interrogation by the general security service pursuant to a judicial decision.
He was also subject to a travel ban and was referred to the military court.
“Go look for agents elsewhere,” Al-Rahi said in a sermon he delivered to the crowds gathered at the church’s courtyard at the patriarch’s residence in Diman.
“It’s about time we change the reality filled with hatred and hostility.”
Al-Rahi said that Lebanon “cannot be built, progress and unify through this approach that does not reflect the values of its people and history.”
“Those who implement these policies and make up these files should learn from their predecessors and the experiences that prove that bad people cannot be part of Lebanon’s honorable history.”
Al-Rahi affirmed that “what bishop Moussa Al-Hajj faced violated the dignity of the church.”
Al-Rahi said that it was not permitted to prosecute a bishop without referring to his authority, which is the Patriarchate.
“We reject these actions with political implications and we demand that the bishop’s seized belongings, including his passport, mobile phone, the aid, money and medicines, be returned to him, as Lebanese in the holy occupied lands entrusted him to deliver this aid to their families in Lebanon from all sects,” he said.
“That is what the Maronite bishops used to do for years in the past and what he should continue doing in the future.”
Addressing those “harming Lebanon,” Al-Rahi also said: “Stop saying that the aid was coming from agents and look for these agents elsewhere. You know where they are and who they are.”
Al-Rahi said that Al-Hajj “maintains the Christian, Palestinian and Arab presence inside Israel and deserves to be praised and supported instead of attacking his dignity and honorable message.”
