Syriac patriarchs visit Lebanese ambassador to Vatican
ROME — Syriac Catholic Patriarch Mor Ignatius Yawsef III Younan visited the Ambassador of Lebanon to the Vatican, Farid Elias el-Khazen, at the ambassador’s home in Rome.
The visit was attended by Syriac Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rai, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East for the Maronites, Catholicos Patriarch of Cilicia of Armenian Catholics Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian, and a number of bishops and priests.
Ambassador el-Khazen’s invitation to the patriarchs came on the sidelines of their participation in the Consistory meeting of the Congregation of Cardinals being presided over by Pope Francis in the Vatican.
During the meeting, the patriarchs discussed with Ambassador el-Khazen the general situation in Lebanon, which suffers from political, social, economical, and security crises at all levels.
They stressed the need to form a government as soon as possible and the necessity of holding presidential elections within the constitutional deadlines. The country needs a president who is able to create the appropriate conditions to extricate Lebanon from the crises in which it is floundering, they stated.