Cardinal Rai shouldn’t have provoked them. If anything happens to him, it will be all his fault. That’s what most Catholic prelates would say to this, no? At least based on their reaction to similar threats in the past.
“Maronite patriarch threatened by Hezbollah supporters after calling for Lebanese neutrality in region,” by Courtney Mares, CNA, August 13, 2021 (thanks to Tom):
The leader of the Maronite Catholic Church received threats from Hezbollah supporters this week after calling for an end to missile launches from Lebanese territory.
Bechara Boutros Cardinal Rai had called for peace, saying that Lebanon should remain neutral in regional conflicts in his Aug. 8 homily, two days after Hezbollah fired 19 rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon.
Without mentioning Hezbollah by name, the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch said that it was unacceptable for “a party to make decisions on war” without the quorum of two thirds required by the country’s constitution.
“We call upon the Lebanese army … to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” Cardinal Rai said.
Supporters of Hezbollah responded by threatening the cardinal’s life with social media posts that pictured Cardinal Rai with a noose around his neck.
In a Facebook post, a person from Beirut’s south suburbs wrote in Arabic: “You don’t think we know how to hang?” and “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth…Initiator [Patriarch] shall bear the brunt of blame.”
In Defence of Christians, a human rights organization that has sources on in Lebanon, told CNA that there have been people in the streets in predominantly Shiite areas calling Rai a traitor and Zionist collaborator.
Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political and militant group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The group has strong alliances with Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and with Iran in its conflicts with Sunni-majority Gulf states….
Check Burry says
Their answer to just about everything, kill.
gravenimage says
Grimly true.
Johnny B says
It’s a public secret that the Muslim Brotherhood hope they can do the same to Europe as they did to Lebanon. They know they don’t even have to be the majority to rule and have things gong their way with the left as and even parts of Government, so called Intelligence Service and so on acting as useful idiots making sure nobody protest until it’s too late. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if they succeed..
Infidel says
Can this guy replace Pope Francis at the Vatican, if this is a Catholic church, even if not ‘Roman’?
JamesC. says
If elected Pope, he could, Whether that is at all likely, is another matter.
GreekEmpress says
Yes. Maronites are Eastern Rite Catholics in full communion with Rome, but maintain self-governance. We have our own church hierarchy, and actually are closer to Orthodox in our liturgy.
We are also, in my experience, a lot more conservative in General than Roman Catholics.
abad says
Do Moslems ever think about anything besides killing people?
Islam is such a violent religion.
Tony Naim says
The birth of The Maronite Church in 685 AD came as a direct result of Arab-Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire , when Christians where prevented from filling the seat of their Bishop in the town of Antioch, shortly after it was taken over by the SAVAGE invaders.
3 elements helped Christians in Lebanon persevere in the harshest of all environments:
Deep canyons in Mount Lebanon, the abundance of water and above all, their strong faith in Christ.
All the radical Islamist organizations ( PLO- Assad’s army and Hizballa) that have ruled over Lebanon in the past half century could not have succeeded had the Maronites received a token of military support from the West.
Despite it all, the Maronites and their Patriarch remain the first line of defense against savagery
gravenimage says
Tony, Lebanon never should have invited in “Palestinians” in the late 1960s and early ’70s. This led directly to the Jihad terror attack against them a few years later (often mistakenly characterized as a “civil war”).
gravenimage says
Lebanon: Muslims threaten to murder Maronite Patriarch after he calls for Lebanese neutrality
…………….
If only these nice Muslim meditated there would be no problem:
“Center for Advanced Military Science chief, former US Army War College associate: with meditation, we can end jihad”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/08/center-for-advanced-military-science-chief-former-us-army-war-college-associate-with-meditation-we-can-end-jihad
Sadly, this is not a joke.
I hope Cardinal Rai is able to stay safe.