Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, received Friday a series of congratulatory phone calls on the occasion of the glorious holiday season, most notably from Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

The Patriarch also continued to receive well-wishers throughout the day, whereby he met respectively with Minister of Youth and Sports, Brigadier George Kallas, Judge Sakr Sakr, a delegation from the Maronite General Council and another from the General Secretariat of Catholic Schools.

He also received MP Ali Osseiran, and later Minister of Industry George Pouchkian, who said on emerging: “My visit to His Beatitude Patriarch al-Rahi is to express my warmest well-wishes on the glorious Christmas celebration. Bkirki is a historical national and religious pilgrimage destination, and His Beatitude is entrusted with Lebanon the message as described by Pope Saint John Paul II.”

Pouchkian went on to assure that “His Beatitude is keen on Lebanon as a country of coexistence among all its sects, one which does not exist without all its children,” adding that “the uniting role of Bkirki brings the Lebanese together around common denominators.”

He concluded by saying: “The birth of Christ is a feast of peace, hope, devotion and love, to thank God for all His blessings, and we are all full of confidence and belief that this stage will not be long…We will witness salvation and a promising future for our beloved country.”