Editorial

There were lots of reasons why Sunday's beatification of Father Yaaqoub Haddad in Downtown Beirut was meaningful for so many Lebanese, and it was a nun who pointed out the most important ones. It took the memory of a saint to get so many politicians and clergymen of different orientations in the same place, but it was Sister Mary Makhlouf who captured the relevance of the moment for today's Lebanon - and therefore for tomorrow's. What she told those gathered to celebrate Father Yaaqoub's like of service and sacrifice was what that far from being a weakness, the diversity of Lebanese society should be its most important strength.

The past few years have had a highly corrosive effect on several parts of the Lebanese body politic. The country's system of confessional power-sharing lends itself to such divisiveness, but the real problem has been an abdication of responsibility by too many of those who wield spiritual and/or temporal influence. Far from leading the general population toward reconciliation and mutual respect, these have exacerbated tensions both between and within individual sects. Instead of condemning, disavowing and ridiculing the accusations of apostasy and treachery that have been slung from one end of the political arena to the other, those who should know better have fanned the flames of discord in a cynical attempt to shore up their own "credentials."

There have been exceptions, of course, but the fiery rhetoric has driven many of them to silence, making uninhabitable the middle ground to which most Lebanese would naturally gravitate. Instead, those who paint their political rivals as threats to the very survival of the country have come to dominate the public stage. Sister Mary's message was plain: The man whose memory was celebrated on Sunday would have been appalled at such small-minded demagoguery, and those who claim to honor his contributions can only smear them if they fail to adopt his own philosophy of cherishing diversity as the mark of a blessed people.

Perhaps the most famous of Father Yaaqoub's endeavors was his prolific establishment of schools in Lebanon, a legacy that survives to this day and has educated countless Lebanese of many backgrounds. In fact, there are hundreds of millions of people - of all faiths - around the world whose earliest memories include having been chastised by nuns when they misbehaved in class. Many of them also recall that some of their most valuable lessons were learned in the same environment. If Sister Mary's public interpretation of Father Yaaqoub's philosophy can shame Lebanon's political and religious leader into behaving themselves, he should be credited with another posthumous miracle.