SW News: In an effort to overcome the deadlock over electing a new president, the Maronite Patriarch has invited all Christian members of parliament to a "spiritual retreat" during Holy Week.

Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi prayed for today's close presidential election in his homily at the Mass celebrated on the solemnity of St. Joseph where he also called for "honest and impartial dialogue," mutual listening, and careful deliberation of the decision to be made without imposing a politically biased view and without obscured calculations or double motives.

In accordance with the schedule for Holy Week, he stated that the retreat would occur on April 5 at the pilgrims' hostel in Bethania (Harissa), which is home to one of the most famous Marian sanctuaries in the country.

The real religious intentions of the conference are questionable, but the meeting's underlying goals to ease the presidential election are certain. The head of the Maronite Church has established an ethical need for everyone to embrace his concept, even if just to avoid rejection in the aftermath of Lebanese Forces' opposition to the start of an intra-Maronite dialogue in Bkerké.

The strategy seems to have paid off, as Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, who had previously refused to meet with Free Patriotic Movement President Gebran Bassil on the grounds that he had violated the party's trust, has now announced that his delegation will be attending the Harissa meeting with Bassil.

Regional pressures are also shifting in this direction after the 12-day Iran-Saudi Arabia agreement and such a development might facilitate a political consensus about the nation's future leader, according to some experts.

In the meanwhile, a Maronite bishop voiced "concern" over the challenges of organizing the April 5 summit, stating that if it fails and Orthodox legislators depart, it will reflect adversely on "the moral authority of the patriarch."

Even so, AsiaNews said that owing to underlying conflicts between two main political groups, expectations for this gathering need to be restrained, and a diplomatic source close to the Pope indicated that an issue as fundamental as Lebanon's cannot be resolved by a spiritual assembly.