MARONITE BISHOP'S COMMUNIQUE

On Wednesday , November 3 , 1999 , Their Excellencies the Maronite bishops held , at Bkerkeh  their monthly meeting , presided over by His Beatitude Patriarch Nasrallah-Butros Cardinal Sfeir . They discussed church matters , dwelled on the prevailing situation and , at the end of the meeting , issued the following communiqué :

1 – The questions the Government has been , or is being caring for , even though important , are not , at this time , the most important , were they: telephone tapping , without equally treating the citizens , in contradiction with the Constitution ; the decentralization of the administration , aiming at having the citizens assume their responsibilities in organizing the affairs of their region , while the project of the law is restricting their freedom to do so ; purging the administration , without showing a satisfying result : some of those involved have been put in jail and have not been judged yet , some others are enjoying an immunity which prevents Justice from reaching them ; the unlawful enrichment law which is being dealt with for half a century , and was never implemented in order to restrain those who ought to be restrained in that respect .Moreover , there is the repetition of bombs being put before some churches , in addition to the economic crisis leading a number of the youth to migrate . All of that does not put minds at ease but calls for a global and radical treatment

2 – The accelerated events in the Middle East put the future of Lebanon at stake , and that is the most important issue which should not be dealt with but by those who are directly concerned with it , that is the Lebanese , as the saying goes : “the absentees are always wrong” . May those in authority give this crucial issue , the possible maximal care and concern, recalling the saying : Nothing can rub your skin but your nail” !

3 – What took place , in the few past days , in some of the Palestinian camps , accompanied by news conveying piling up of arms and organizing military training sessions , as well as the verdicts the State has faced it with and which attained a Palestinian official , all of that creates a hateful climate the Lebanese hardly believed they had come out of it and which caused for them , since a quarter of a century , tragedies and calamities they cannot forget , asking God not to send them similar ones .

4 - The project of the electoral law , which still is continually protracted , whereas the Lebanese were promised , a year now, will be issued as soon as possible , has shown the limited freedom left for them in organizing their affairs , even the internal ones . Yet , it is known that there should be no sharing in sovereignty , independence and taking free decision but for those who are to take it within the same and one country .

5 – The oncoming time to begin the celebration of the Grand Jubilee , the Jubilee of the year 2000 , is a propitious occasion to return to God , to oneself and to one another by strengthening the ties of companionship , love and looking like citizens of the same and one homeland who are resolved to save it from what is being woven against it , in darkness , and to confirm that it was , and will remain unified , determined to assume its own responsibilities and play its role in the region and within the international society .
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