Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi condemned Lebanon's deepening crisis amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, highlighting the severe toll that the war has taken on the country and its people.

In his Sunday sermon, Al-Rahi painted a grim picture of Lebanon's situation, criticizing the country's lack of leadership and institutional dysfunction.

"We are looking at our painful reality: a war with deadly weapons, victims, and destruction whose value cannot be measured, one and a half million displaced people without shelter," the Patriarch said. "And on top of that, a country that has been left without a president for two full years, deliberately and intentionally."

Al-Rahi also lamented the paralysis of Lebanon's other key institutions, notably the Parliament and the government.

"The Parliament has been deprived of its legislative function, having become an electoral body that has not elected a president for two years, and the caretaker cabinet has become with no powers and divided within itself," he said.

In his sermon, Al-Rahi questioned the impact of Lebanon's political paralysis on the country's ability to respond to pressing regional challenges.

"Who is negotiating for a ceasefire? On whose behalf and for whose benefit?" he asked. "This is one of the primary duties of the president, who is absent by design."

The Patriarch stressed that the election of a new president is crucial to the functioning of Lebanon's institutions.

"Unless the Parliament elects a president, both the legislature and the government will not enjoy their full powers, and all their actions will remain incomplete and unconstitutional," he warned.