At the invitation of Marwan Sehnaoui, President of the Lebanese Association of the Sovereign Order of Malta, the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was in Lebanon on a five-day visit (23-27 June) to see the Order’s humanitarian activities, as well as meet with the country’s authorities, the local Church, and representatives of Islamic religious authorities.
Card. Parolin celebrated Mass on the Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist, Patron Saint of the Order of Malta, in the Church of St Joseph of the Jesuit Fathers, in the presence of the Commander-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Armed Forces, General Joseph Aoun. This provided him with an opportunity to relay the Holy See’s concerns about the detrimental delay in electing a president.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since November 2022, due to a power game by the Shia community, led by Hezbollah, which is seeking to impose its candidate, and the lack of consensus within the Maronite community, from whose ranks the president must be picked in accordance with the constitution.
In his homily on Saint John the Baptist’s Day, the Holy See’s secretary of state echoed the Vatican’s concerns in the matter. “The Church in Lebanon must also bear witness, according to her high mission to keep alive and effective the message of ‘living together’,” he said. “In this regard, allow me to stress that we have felt a great void for months. A Christian voice is missing, one that would undoubtedly make the difference; the voice of the President of Lebanon is missing. This absence weighs heavily at this very serious time for the Middle East.”