The Council of Maronite Bishops warned against a deliberate vacuum in the country’s top Maronite positions, reaffirming the concerns expressed by Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai during his Mass sermon on Sunday.

They also criticized caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, for calling the Cabinet to convene, stressing that a resigned premier has no right to hold a government session without the prior approval of the ministers.

“The deliberate persistence in the presidential vacuum creates a constitutional crisis at the level of the resigned government,” the bishops said in a statement issued at the end of their regular meeting on Wednesday.

The bishops denounced the “obstruction of the investigation into the Beirut Port explosion,” and condemned what they described as “the malicious arrests to which the families of the victims are subjected.”

They called on the country’s politicians, especially with the arrival of the European judicial delegation, to abstain from interfering in judicial affairs, to allow the judiciary to continue its work and uncover the circumstances of the crime, prosecute the guilty, and acquit the innocents, as determined by the laws in force.”

Touching on the presidential elections, the bishops expressed their concern over the constant postponement of the election of a new president, stressing that the delay would only bring more suffering to the Lebanese people.

They also warned against “schemes to create a vacuum in the Maronite seats in particular and the Christian positions in general,” describing it as “a hidden intention aimed at changing Lebanon’s identity.”