Vatican Asks Patriarch Sfeir to Resign: Al-Akhbar

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