Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Beirut (Agenzia Fides) - With lawmakers failing to elect a president 24 times over the past year, Parliament chose another way on Tuesday, June 16 to help ease the deadlock: prayers. The prayers were held on the occasion of the arrival of Our Lady of Fatima statue in Parliament, which arrived in Lebanon from the Portuguese Shrine. With bells ringing and hymns echoing in the background, prayers were held to ask for the intercession of the Virgin Mary to keep evil people and devils away from Parliament.
The statue of the Virgin, which arrived in Lebanon from Portugal last week was transferred to Saint George Cathedral for the Maronites, in the center of Beirut, where a Mass was presided by Maronite Bishop Boulos Youssif Matar. After the Eucharistic liturgy, the statue was carried by believers and hundreds of them walked to Parliament building, flooding Nejmeh Square. The event was attended by Christian politicians from different blocks that for more than a year have failed to reach an agreement to elect a new Head of State (a position that the whole Lebanese political system reserves to a Maronite Christian).
"The political impasse - reports to Agenzia Fides Father Rouhael Zgheib, National Director of the Pontifical Missionary Societies of Lebanon - weighs severely on the concrete condition of the people, and threatens the stability of the nation, in a time when the whole region is devastated by conflicts. The faithful in prayer often ask very concrete things, like the gift of peace and healing from illnesses. And the paralysis of our political system could really become a dangerous disease for the life of all". (GV) (Agenzia Fides 17/06/2015)
