Lebanon: Valentine’s Day a sad anniversary amid hopes for solution to political crisis

(Vatican Radio) Lebanon is marking Valentine’s Day with a sad anniversary this February 14th. Nine years ago today, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a huge bombing in downtown Beirut. Several suspects have been indicted by the Special Tribunal in the Hague investigating the case but they remain at large.

Meanwhile, on the political front, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam is expected to announce a national unity Cabinet Friday after weeks of inter-party wrangling. Msgr. Simon Faddoul, the outgoing President of Caritas Lebanon says not much has changed in his country since Harriri’s assassination in 2005. If anything, the new Apostolic Exarch for Maronite in Western and Central Africa says, matters are worse.


Listen to Tracey McClure’s extended interview with Msgr. Faddoul:

Since the outbreak of war in neighboring Syria, Lebanon has been rocked by increasing sectarian violence between Sunni supporters of the Syrian opposition and Shia supporters of the regime. The Shia militant group Hezbollah, a member of Lebanon’s political establishment, has sent fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s forces.

The Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai and his bishops last week called for greater efforts to build peace in Syria and issued a road map for Lebanon’s political future after months of deadlock.

Msgr. Faddoul says “it was a kind of reminder of the constancy of our Lebanese identity – not only as a Church but as Lebanese… the sovereignty of Lebanon and the independence of Lebanon and the positive neutrality of Lebanon within the region. Because we cannot continue to pay the price for others and we cannot continue to be the playground for regional and international powers. The Lebanese have had enough, and enough is enough. For the past forty years, we haven’t taken a break; since (the civil war that broke out in) 1975, it’s been going on and on unceasingly.”