Bechara El Rahi

Bechara El Rahi is the new Lebanese Maronite Patriarch.

Bishop Bechara El Rahi, also written Beshara al-Rai or Bishara al-Rai was elected as the new Patriarch for Antioch on Tuesday March 15, 2011.

Bechara El Rahi was born on 25 February 1940 in Hamlaya, Lebanon.

Rahi is now heading Lebanon's largest Christian body, the Maronite Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See.

To note that the election of Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rahi came after the forced resignation of his predecessor Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir accepted on February 26, 2011. (The christian community was split because of his political positions)

Beshara al-Rai is the 77th Patriarch of the Maronite Church with the official title of "His Beatitude and Eminence the seventy-seventh Patriarch of Antioch and the Whole Levant".

Controversy:

When Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rahi was still an Archbishop (on 16-11-2010), he stated in a televised interview: “Homosexuality is a disease and is abnormal.” Given that the Maronite Church is affiliated to the Catholic Church, Patriarch Rahi’s position on homosexuality contradicts the official teachings of the Vatican that accepts homosexuals (but not the sin) and invites them into chastity.

As soon as Bechara Rahi became a Patriarch, he started interfering in politics just like his predecessor. He insisted on granting Ziad Baroud a position in the next government headed by MP Najib Mikati.

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