Bishop threatens expulsions

A MARONITE Catholic bishop has said that those who slander the Maronite patriarch will face excommunication.
“Church law says that whoever insults the patriarch gets punished by excommunication, and those who raise discord against the patriarch and the bishops would get the appropriate punishment, including excommunication,” said Maronite Bishop Bechara Rai of Jbeil.
Bishop Rai cited Canons 1445, 1447 and 1448 in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The announcement came amid an ongoing flurry of political comments in Lebanese media as Lebanon’s June 7 parliamentary elections approach. Politicians and journalists have made derogatory remarks about the patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, and unfounded rumours regarding the patriarch have been attributed falsely to the Vatican. Some critics claim an interview the patriarch gave a political magazine in February was too political and aligned him with a coalition of anti-Syrian political parties called the March 14 Alliance.