These days, the Lebanese are living the memory of the passing of the second patriarch of independence, Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, who left us next to his Lord in 2019 and is on the verge of the centenary. If Sfeir was the former Maronite patriarch, he is – at the same time – the permanent patriarch of Lebanon.
Sfeir assumed the spiritual leadership of his community in 1986 in a very sensitive circumstance, as the Lebanese civil war entered its last pages, and the Maronites needed a personality that paralleled the critical historical moment to restore the state and cross to peace, and Sfeir was worthy of this responsibility.
Sfeir entered the annals of history with great and glorious battles, foremost of which was the battle of the Taif Accord, as he secured – in partnership with the “Lebanese Forces” party led by Dr. Samir Geagea – The Christian cover for the agreement, and without the patriarch’s blessing, the war in Lebanon would not have turned.
Sfeir also clashed with the head of the government, which lacked legitimacy and the pact – at the time – General Michel Aoun, a battle that continued until he left the patriarchal seat in 2011. Sfeir’s grievances against the military government were many and great. The most important of which is the attack on freedoms, giving priority to personal ambitions over the public interest, and dragging the Lebanese in general and the Maronites in particular into the abyss of destruction. Because of the patriarch’s toughness, the general incited his followers to attack him verbally and physically, in a shameful precedent throughout Lebanese history.
After the Taef Agreement entered into force, the patriarch fought his fiercest battles against the Syrian tutelage, and assumed the political leadership of the Christians after Aoun and President Amin Gemayel were exiled and Geagea was arrested. Sfeir confronted Hafez al-Assad in Syria, then his son Bashar, and confronted the Baath thugs in Lebanon, such as Emile Lahoud and Jamil al-Sayyid. With King Hussein and President Hosni Mubarak, as well as his permanent visits to Washington and Paris.
In the year 2000, despite the nose of the Syrian regime and its followers in Lebanon, Sfeir, in the call of the bishops, launched his call for the exit of the Syrian forces from Lebanon, and announced with the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt the reconciliation of the mountain between the Christians and the Druze, so that this reconciliation turned the page of the civil war completely, and constituted a focal point A rolling gathering of the Lebanese against Syrian tutelage and Iranian weapons.
With the martyrdom of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, Bashar al-Assad left Lebanon and Sfeir did not rest, as he fought a harsh battle against the Iranian weapon represented by the “Hezbollah” militia and its ally, Michel Aoun. Sfeir rejected the logic of killing, terrorism, and disrupting the state and gnawing at it, and he did not give “Hezbollah” a mere smile, and if he spoke about it, he would say: “The so-called Hezbollah.” He continued his desperate defense of the constitution, as he said: “Violation of the constitution kills the nation.”
In 2009, Lebanon entered a critical turning point in the parliamentary elections, and at the last moment Sfeir made a historic statement that decided the electoral process nationally and Christianly: “Today we are facing a threat to the Lebanese entity and our Arab identity, and this is a danger that must be alerted to, and therefore, the duty requires us to be aware of what is being plotted.” We have machinations, and we thwart the vigorous efforts that, if successful, will change the face of our country.” He called on everyone to “be aware of these dangers and take bold stances that prove the Lebanese identity, so that Lebanon remains the homeland of freedom, moral values, complete sovereignty, and complete independence, and no right is lost behind which demands are made.”
This statement against “Hezbollah” and Iran had a positive impact on resolving the positions of hesitant voters, so the sovereign and independent forces triumphed in the 2009 elections, and in the broader regional scene, the Arabs and their allies won and Iran and its followers lost.
In this statement, we can understand Sfeir’s political mind, which stems from the following headings: 1- Lebanon’s independence and its Arab identity. 2- The sovereignty of the state, the constitution and the law. 3- Moderation and coexistence. 4- Freedom, freedom, then freedom. These are the values upon which the Lebanese must meet again these days.
Reflecting on Sfeir’s honorable and radiant march, we note that the settlements he adopted did not violate the ceiling of his national constants, as his belief in the Taif Accord did not deter him from demanding the independence of Lebanon as the Syrians wanted, and his negative stance towards the Assad family did not turn into a general stance against Arabism, and his belief in coexistence did not cause condonation. On the Iranian militia and its terrorism, and his firm stance against terrorism never jumped to the site of enmity with Islam.
Sfeir was courageous in every sense of the word, and his statements were witness and his stances firm. At the height of the Arabs’ delusion of “Hezbollah,” Sfeir said: “The party that has weapons is gaining strength over others, and we reject the presence of two armies in Lebanon.” When he was asked if he would visit the Palace of the Emigrants (the headquarters of the Syrian presidency), he replied: “Where is the Palace of the Emigrants located?!”. Sfeir never visited al-Assad’s Syria despite all the pressures, as the al-Assad family wanted this visit to be a symbol of the surrender of the Lebanese and Christians, so the Patriarch’s response was: “I will not visit Syria unless our sect is with us, and this matter is difficult in light of the Christians’ apprehension about the Syrian view of Lebanon.” . In January 2009, he said that the Sykes-Picot Agreement had granted Lebanon its independence, and that Israel would exit the Shebaa Farms in peace.
Great personalities made great mistakes, the most important of which was the refusal to topple President Emile Lahoud in the street after the Syrian army left Lebanon, and then the refusal to elect a president with a quorum of half plus one after the end of President Lahoud’s extended term.
With the departure of Patriarch Sfeir, Lebanon lost a solid support, and the moderate Arab countries lost a loyal ally, and I think that if Sfeir was at the head of the patriarchal edifice (Bkerke) he would continue to shout every day in the face of the brutality of Iranian weapons, the hijacking of the state and the position of the first presidency, and the marginalization and smashing of the constitution, “Everyone is talking Turki and Bkerki are telling the truth.
Quoted from the site “grand”
2023-05-12 18:18:00
#memory #patriarch
