Departure of Patriarch of Lebanese Politics

Magdy Mostafa

His political role has been overshadowed by his religious duties. Politics has become a religion and a political policy. At a time when the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, who died on Sunday in a hospital in Beirut,

In a country with a mosaic of religions, sects, sects and currents, the old-time Switzerland and the store of new tensions and crises, Sfir has cast a major player in his never-ending political battles.

The late Patriarch, who is a researcher in his biography and polemic in his pages of his age of nearly 100 years, finds him unique in his biography of those who preceded him in his religious position, which he occupied for a quarter of a century.

Exemption from tasks
At the age of 91, he registered a precedent in the history of the Maronite Patriarchate in his resignation from his religious post in early 2011, when he asked for "exemption from patriarchal duties and to meditate, pray and worship," justifying his desire to grow old.

He submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI, who officially accepted it on February 27, 2011, and succeeded him at the head of the Maronite Church Patriarch Bishara El Ra'i.

Sfeir was an exceptional religious leader at an exceptional stage in an exceptional Arab country and was a major player in the battles of those political positions.

Taif Agreement
The predestination was to find that religious leader himself, demanding that he fill the political vacuum at the level of Christian political leadership where traditional leaders were between prison and exile.

At the height of the civil war, he was chosen as Patriarch of the Maronites on May 19, 1986. Three years later, Sfeir provided the cover to secure Christian approval for the 1989 Taif Accord that ended the civil war, the Taif Accord of 1989.

He made the move despite the opposition of Maronite General Michel Aoun, then head of a military government in the predominantly Christian east of Beirut, and against him the government of President Salim Hoss in West Beirut.

Dispersion of Christians
The Patriarchate served as the political patron after the fall of General Aoun's government, followed by the dispersal of Christian leaders in the period that some call the "period of Syrian tutelage."

Sfeir quickly concluded that the agreement's stipulation of supporting Syria in ending the war would turn into a long-term military presence and political influence that would control most of the country.

In 2000, Sfeir saw that with the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the last pretext for the Syrian presence had disappeared. The Council of Maronite Bishops, which he headed in September of the same year, came out with the so-called "appeal" calling for the withdrawal of the Syrian forces.

Syrian presence
Sfeir called for the end of the Syrian presence in Lebanon, and commissioned a bishop to preside over a gathering of some Christian figures who are guided by the church's statements known as "Qurnat Shahwan."

The announcement was a surprise at a time when Syrian influence was at its peak, and any criticism of it was matched by repression, arrest and even assassination.

But the announcement turned into a force for all the forces opposed to what it considered an occupation, and sparked a confrontation against Syrian influence until March 14, 2005 when the massive popular exodus forced the international pressure and the Syrian army to leave.

His opponents blamed his political bias on the March 14 Forces sometimes openly, and on intensifying his work in politics, which may reflect on the religious status of the Church. In 2010, Sfeir resigned from his post and turned away from the spotlight.

Between 14 and 8 March
After the Syrian withdrawal and the return of the Christian leaders, which were divided according to the division of the other Lebanese between the forces of March 8 and the March 14 Forces, it appeared from the Patriarch's statements that he wanted to leave a single distance between him and the rival Christian factions. But one of the leaders of March 8 Christians, Suleiman Franjieh, Sfeir was accused of being "closer to the other team".

It is clear from Sfeir's sermons and sermons that he did not support the survival of the resistance weapon in the hands of Hezbollah, and considered that finding a solution to this weapon is one of the conditions for the establishment of the Lebanese state, which is contrary to the alliance concluded by the March 8 Christians (such as Franjieh and Aoun).

In view of the sectarian nature of Lebanon, the Maronite Patriarch can practice politics even on the path of sermons and appeals, especially since the Church considers itself the first sponsor of the existence of Lebanon since Patriarch Elias Hoyek in 1919 "delegated by the Lebanese" to the Peace Conference in Versailles, Syria, where accession was one of the options available.

Visit Israel
Antoine Saad, the patriarch's biographer, said that the latter did not accept Pope John Paul II on his trip to the Holy Land because of "an internal situation that is religiously tolerant. We have bishops who move between Lebanon and Palestine, but given the internal situation, we preferred not to do so."

"There is no antagonism in the ideological sense, but Sfeir was always against Israeli policy. If the Palestinian issue or its practices in Lebanon were concerned, the position of the Maronite Patriarchate was always clear to Israel, and that this entity played roles that caused many disasters."

As a result of the civil war, Sfeir raised many questions about the relationship between some Lebanese forces and Israel, which led to differences and tension in the relationship between him and these forces, especially the Lebanese Forces.

But it seems that the priorities of the late Patriarch differ from his successor, who visited Jerusalem with Pope Benedict in the summer of 2014.