The Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi presided over Sunday Mass in which he pointed out during his sermon, “refusal to subject the election of the president to a specific person, group, party, or project.”

He said: “ We refuse to remain without a president while the state disintegrates, constitutional and public institutions collapse, the people lack, and our living forces migrate to other lands, and the constitution is violated.”

In addition, Al-Rahi condemned the brutal genocide in Gaza, which has surpassed eleven thousand victims, with nearly half of them being children.

He also denounced the programmed destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, churches, and mosques, intending to expel Palestinians from their land and eliminate their cause after seventy-five years.

He saw this inhumane and savage genocide, along with the blockade preventing water, food, and medicine from reaching a million and a half displaced people without shelter, as a shameful stain on the face of this generation and the leaders of this war.

He stated, “We declare once again our solidarity with the Palestinians and insist that the only solution, in the near and distant future, is the establishment of two states.”

The Patriarch called on the international community to immediately and permanently impose a ceasefire and initiate negotiations for a political solution.

He concluded, saying, “We endorse the content of the statement of the Riyadh Summit held yesterday, hoping that the Arab and Islamic countries will work to implement its provisions, with their leaders being peacemakers with courage, committed to the decision of the Arab Peace Initiative declared in the Beirut Summit in 2002, which adopted the two-state solution as a gateway to peace and stability in the Middle East.”