Sfeir for Pope!

The Beirut Spring thinks that the best person to be the next pope is Cardinal Mar Nassrallah Butrous Sfeir, the Patriarch of Antioch and the entire east.



With the Pope’s health deteriorating and Catholics all over the world wearing their hearts on their sleeves, it seems very inappropriate for someone, especially a Moslem, to be suggesting a successor.

Still, the Lebanese-based Patriarch seems to be the right person at the right time, to fill the vacuum that will be left by the Pontiff who was known for his zeal for reconciliation.

To be honest, I don’t have a clue about how someone becomes pope. All I know is from what I read from the book Angel and Demons by Dan Brown (a great book by the way), but still, Cardinal Sfeir seems to be the man for the Job.

He has the skills, experience, wisdom, and exposure to be pope. But most importantly, he has a vast knowledge of the Moslem world, where he managed to maintain a faithful and productive Christian contingency in an increasingly hostile region. The Lebanese Christians not only are an essential fabric of the society, they are also a bridge between the Arab world and the “west” that is in deer need today.

In the age of “Clash of Civilizations”, I can’t think of anyone who can occupy the Vatican better than an Arabic-speaking Pope.