Beirut (AsiaNews) –Maronite Patriarch Card. Nassrallah Sfeir is at the Vatican today, where, according to reports in Lebanon, he will meet with Benedict XVI and Holy See officials.   

According to information from authorized sources within the Bkerke patriarchate, during the “sudden” visit “patriarch Sfeir will bring with him a dossier rich with information on the life of the local Church and how it is suffering from the division of its faithful, and on the worrying political developments in the Land of the Cedars”.  Patriarch Sfeir, who has headed the Maronite Church, the most important in the Middle East, for over 21 years, will bring with him the worries of the Lebanese, who consider his to be the only truly impartial voice.  

The same Lebanese sources attribute particular importance to the Patriarch’s presence in Rome, because of its timing - on the eve of important deadlines in the country - also from an ecclesial point of view; it will be card. Sfeir’s first trip outside Lebanon since the July war and takes place during preparations for the synod of Maronite bishops, due to take place the first week in June.

This visit of Card. Sfeir, who is also President of the Assembly of Catholic patriarchs and bishops in Lebanon, marks his first since the appointment of cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as secretary of state and the new secretary for the relations with states msgr Domique Mamberti, who has a profound knowledge of the Lebanese situation, having been advisor to the Apostolic Nunciature in Beirut in 1996.