Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops: Abuses against the Patriarch reflect the psychological illnesses of their perpetrators

The legal advisor to the Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops, lawyer Fadi Ibrahim, condemned "the targeting of Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi."

Ibrahim said in a statement: "We condemn in the strongest terms and with the harshest degrees of rejection and condemnation the blatant abuse directed at His Beatitude our father Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, which constitutes a brazen and despicable assault on a spiritual and national stature that should be protected, not attacked. These actions, whether through caricatures, statements, or posts on media outlets and social media platforms, are considered depraved abuses that reflect the psychological illnesses of their perpetrators and their moral degeneracy, and cannot be considered opinion or expression; rather, they are deliberate and rejected contempt that warrants accountability under the provisions of the Lebanese Penal Code, and may also fall, where applicable, under crimes against civil peace and inciting sectarian strife."

He stressed that "harm to spiritual authorities and national symbols is absolutely unacceptable, and the law alone is capable of deterring every transgression and prosecuting everyone involved in this assault."