Aoun at Huwayek’s Beatification: “I Am for All Lebanese”... Renewing the Covenant with Lebanon, the Message and Coexistence

President General Joseph Aoun stressed, during the ceremony marking the declaration of the beatification of Patriarch Elias Huwayek, the national and spiritual dimensions of the occasion, affirming that the late patriarch’s journey embodied a model of the meeting of faith and patriotism, and that his legacy remains present in Lebanon’s path and its challenges.

President Aoun said that “the declaration of his beatification confirms that holiness and patriotism can come together in the life of one person,” noting that Patriarch Huwayek “saw in serving God a service to humanity, and in serving the Church a mission to the nation.”

He added that “Patriarch Huwayek’s struggle was not the struggle of a sect defending itself, but the struggle of a homeland broad enough for all, and he is the one who said: ‘I am for all Lebanese,’” pointing out that Huwayek’s thought transcended sectarian boundaries to embody the project of an inclusive nation.

The President explained that “the declaration of Huwayek’s beatification, coinciding with the centenary of the proclamation of the Lebanese Constitution, is not merely a passing coincidence, but one of the signs of divine providence that accompanied Lebanon in the moments of its founding, and still accompanies it today in its ordeals and challenges.”

He stressed that “the message of this homeland is greater than its crises, and its founding idea deserves to be preserved and defended,” calling for drawing inspiration from the values of Patriarch Huwayek in confronting difficulties.

He concluded by saying: “Let us draw from the life of Patriarch Huwayek the meaning of steadfastness in times of upheaval, and the meaning of faith in Lebanon,” adding: “Let us make this day an occasion on which we renew the covenant with the idea whose banner he carried: Lebanon as a land of coexistence, and a civilizational message between East and West.”