Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rahi presided over the Sunday Mass service in Bkirki this morning.

In his sermon, Rahi refused to tamper with the central bank’s reserves, saying: “We do not accept any damage to the central bank’s reserves so that the depositors’ money is not affected.”

Rahi also commented in his sermon on cutting off electricity to the Lebanese, saying that “corruption in energy and electricity cannot continue, and therefore Lebanon enters the age of darkness.”

Commenting on the government formation process, the Patriarch called on Lebanese officials to reactivate negotiations to form the government, stressing that the prevailing stalemate is unacceptable and has become a crime against the nation and the people.

Turning to the current events in occupied Palestine, he called on Israel to seriously and explicitly recognize the existence of the rights of the Palestinian people, and the impossibility of living in peace without recognizing a viable Palestinian state.