Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir is running his last battle defending his “chair”, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.
The
daily quoted a church source in Beirut and the Vatican, residing tens
of meters only from the home of Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in Bkirki,
that a meeting was held on Wednesday afternoon 20 October, on the
sidelines of the Synod of Bishops of the East in the Patriarch Sfeir
residence in Rome (specifically in the Maronite school) which was the
most important thing that happened on the sidelines of the Synod.
According
to the source, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and
Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches Cardinal Sandri
visited Patriarch Sfeir.
At the meeting, which lasted for more than an
hour, the two cardinals requested from the Patriarch “in a crystal clear
smooh way” to resign.
“They believe that the ‘big step’ is
necessary in order to ensure the continuity of the Maronite
Patriarchate,” the source said.
According to the information, the
cardinals tried to use their diplomacy in the mission the Pope asked
them to accomplish, which is to persuade the Patriarch that the interest
of the Maronite Church requires his resignation and election of new
Patriarch who would fit the plan, which the Vatican intends to implement
in order to fix the Eastern Christians in their land and improve the
administration of the Maronite Church affairs.
The two cardinals,
according to the informed source, spoke a long time about the
deterioration in management of the Patriarchate and the inability of the
Patriarch to provide any initiative to reduce Christians immigration
inaddition to the Maronite Patriarchate isolation in Lebanon, at a time
when the situation of Christians in the East is deteriorating and
requires a greater role from the patriarchate of the East.
On the
other hand, continues the source, the reaction of Sfeir was very sharp
both in the rejection of the basic proposal and his refusal to doubt his
ability to take the appropriate decision in the right place.
However,
Al-Akhbar daily said, he made steps that was considered “provocative”.
SIC: ABNA/INT'L