Suchergebnisse

The Catholic Church believes that God has created every single person in His own image. God has implemented His own and personal image in the heart of our humanity. The political community, as seen by the Catholic Church, is meant to be the guardian and the witness of this indelible dignity offered and willed by God. The human person created in the image of God means that the purpose and objective of any political community is to defend and promote the "inalienable human rights". The incarnation of Christ replaces the humanity in the heart of the project of God. By his incarnation, Christ elevates humanity to the dignity of being sons of God. For the Catholic Church, the political community is where one realizes the common good and so it facilitates living together. And by showing his compassion to every single creature, by recognizing the humanity of every single person, Christ leads the way to a civilization of love that can be achieved through the support of the political community.

The post-war period in Lebanon brought to the open all sensitive subjects that have marked the history of Lebanon: how to avoid falling into such a crisis? How not repeating such war? How can the Lebanese society eradicate the reasons that may lead to any other war? The Lebanese crisis had challenged the Church inviting her to move from being a passive witness to an active participant in the peaceful struggle for the liberation of the Lebanese society and help the country to complete its incorrect reading of history. Can the Maronite Patriarchate have a positive role in this regard? Can the Maronite Patriarchate bring about the purifi cation of the memory in a multiconfessional country? In this paper, and after defi ning the meaning of the purifi cation of memory in the Lebanese context, we will consider the important challenges that must precede any serious and defi nitive solution to the crisis in Lebanon and how can the Lebanese Church contribute in the development of a national identity and in the building of a new state free from any kind of domination. The purpose of this paper is not to justify what has happened in the past 34 years, i.e. since the beginning of the Lebanese war, but to contribute in searching for a sustainable peace.