Cardinal urges Lebanese to pray rosary amid political controversy

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Amid escalating political controversy, Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir
urged Catholics to pray the rosary and "take refuge" in the Blessed Mother during October, the month
of the rosary. Cardinal Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, called the rosary "an anchor of
hope in the middle of an agitated ocean." Cardinal Sfeir's remarks were made in October amid political
tensions spurred by the Syrian-backed extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term. The term
was extended in defiance of a Sept. 2. U.N. Security Council resolution calling for elections for a new
Lebanese president and for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. The extension was maneuvered
through a constitutional amendment that Lebanon's Maronite bishops repeatedly have said was
"inconsistently imposed from beyond the borders. ... Ministers and deputies were forced to adopt
positions they did not want." Syria's presence in Lebanon dates back to 1976. When the Taif Accord
was signed in 1989, ending Lebanon's civil war, it stipulated that Syrian troops leave within two years.