Bechara Boutros al-Rahi

At 71, he was elected patriarch of the Maronites on 15 March 2011,[5] after getting more than two-thirds of the votes of the 39 bishops and replacing Nasrallah Sfeir.[6] The new patriarch formally requested and received ecclesiastical communion from Pope Benedict XVI on 24 March 2011 pursuant to Canon 76 § 2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.[7][8] The Mass for the inauguration of his Patriarchate took place on 25 March 2011, in Bkerké, the see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate. As is customary for all Maronite Patriarchs, Patriarch Al-Ra'i took the additional name Boutros, that of Saint Peter, who briefly held the See of Antioch before moving to Rome to become Bishop there. On 7 March 2012, Patriarch Al-Ra'i was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.[9]

Al-Ra'i was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in a consistory on 24 November 2012.[10] Al-Ra'i was the fourth Maronite Patriarch created cardinal, the first three being his three immediate predecessors Paul Peter Meouchi, Anthony Peter Khoraish, and Nasrallah Sfeir.

On 31 January 2013, Al-Ra'i was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.[11]

In February 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Al-Ra'i participated as a cardinal elector in the conclave that elected Pope Francis.[12] Cardinal Al-Ra'i was one of four cardinal-electors from outside the Latin Church who wore distinct vestments proper to their respective churches. The other three cardinal-electors from outside the Latin Church were Coptic Catholic Patriarch-Emeritus Antonios Naguib, Syro Malabar Major Archbishop George Alencherry, and Syro-Malankara Major Archbishop Baselios Cleemis. Cardinal Al-Ra'i's attire during the opening day was distinct from most of the other electors in that he wore all-red vestments with distinct headgear proper to the Maronite Church.[lower-alpha 1][13] Cardinal Al-Ra'i is also the first Maronite Cardinal Patriarch ever to participate in a papal conclave.[14][lower-alpha 2]

He was named a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education by Pope Francis on 30 November 2013.[15]

On 18 March 2015, Al-Ra'i became the sole cardinal-elector from the order of cardinal-bishops when Cardinal Naguib turned 80. He remained the sole cardinal-bishop elector until 28 June 2018 when four Latin church cardinals of voting age from the priestly and diaconal orders were elevated by Pope Francis to cardinal-bishop by having their titular churches co-opted to suburbicarian rank[16][17] and Louis Raphaël I Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church was created a cardinal-patriarch.[18] Cardinal Al-Ra'i ceased to be a cardinal-elector on his 80th birthday in 2020.

In September 2011, some of the Christian supporters of the March 14 alliance were upset over his controversial comments in Paris, France where he supported Hezbollah's right to hold arms in defense against Israel, and stated that the 2011 Syrian protests could awaken the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood if President Bashar al-Assad was removed from office. 14 March supporters stressed how his predecessor had very different views and was almost fanatically supportive of the Lebanese Forces. Christian supporters of the March 8 alliance welcomed his comments. Prime Minister Najib Mikati also supported his stance saying "The Maronite patriarch spoke about a part [of the problem]. No one is against the resistance’s arms as long as Israeli occupation continues. There is Lebanese unanimity on the resistance’s arms in the face of Israeli occupation."[21] Mikati said after his meeting with Al-Ra'i that he was "very relieved and reassured by the Patriarch’s wisdom."[22] President Michel Suleiman said that "the Patriarch is not in need of anyone to defend him and his positions emanate from his central role as a person in charge of Lebanon's and the Middle East's Christians and that of Lebanon's independence and sovereignty;"[23] and that "the patriarch does not need to be defended, and his stances represent his way of taking responsibility for Lebanon's Christians."[24]

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri said that Al-Ra'i's "comments in Paris protect Lebanon from danger and I agree with what he stated and affirm his vision that is rooted in both a religious and national background" and that "If the situation further deteriorated in Syria and we reached a more radical rule than the current rule, like the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, Christians there would pay the price, either in the form of killings or displacement. Here is the picture of Iraq in front of us."[25]

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun expressed support for Al-Ra'i: "Rai’s statements express the concerns of the minorities because he is entrusted with the Synod for the Middle East. Gradual changes doesn’t harm stability and wouldn’t get Syria into the [same] troubles as Palestine, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. [As some of the Syrian demonstrators are armed and are destroying the country] the Syrian government cannot but bring order to the country."[26] Former 14 March Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt criticised Al-Ra'i's assessment on the grounds that "Lebanon cannot remain hostage to regional conflicts", and denied that regime change in Syria was posing a threat to Christians in the country.[27]

In an interview with Reuters on 4 March 2012, Al-Ra'i said: "All regimes in the Arab world have Islam as a state religion, except for Syria. It stands out for not saying it is an Islamic state...The closest thing to democracy [in the Arab world] is Syria."[28]

In the fall of 2014, Al-Ra'i declared the security necessity of having Hezbollah: “If not for Hezbollah, ISIS would have marched all the way to the (coastal and Christian) town of Jounieh.”[29]

According to Alexander D. M. Henley from Oxford University's Faculty of Theology and Religion, Al-Ra'i caused stirs in May 2016 by moving closer to the Resistance and “staging dialogues with Hezbollah, alienating in the process many of his predecessor’s staunchest supporters and allies.”[30]

On January 2, 2023, Al-Ra'i met with a delegation from Hezbollah in Bkerke. Despite the sometimes fraught relationship and arguments over Lebanon’s neutrality, Ibrahim Amin Al-Sayyed, the chairman of the Political Council of Hezbollah, stated in an apparent warming of relations that Hezbollah “is always open with him.”[31] After this meeting it was declared by Al-Sayyed that Hezbollah had ended the impasse with Al-Ra'i.[32] Al-Ra'i in April 2023 was also visited by Hezbollah’s candidate for Lebanon’s presidency, Suleiman Franjieh, who hailed the talks. The visit occurred after Hezbollah pledged to back his candidacy.[33]

On 26 May 2014, the patriarch decided to join Pope Francis on parts of the pontifical three-day Holy Land pilgrimage. The Maronite patriarch arrived late Sunday in Jerusalem after accompanying Francis in the West Bank, but he departed from the parts of the Catholic leader's itinerary that involved meetings with Israeli officials. After visiting a monastery outside the city on his way to Jaffa, Al-Ra'i joined the Pope again in the afternoon for Mass at Jerusalem's Cenacle. The patriarch then returned to the West Bank for a visit to Beit Sahour, toured the north, the Galilee region, Nazareth, Acre and Haifa, where many of the country's Arab Christian minority live.

The visit was criticized at home. The patriarch maintained that he was misunderstood and that his journey was celebrating the roots of Christianity in the region.[34]

In November 2017, the patriarch visited Saudi Arabia to meet King Salman, to become the first Maronite Patriarch to visit the kingdom.[35]

On 27 February 2021, Al-Ra'i addressed in a rally the political and economic crisis in Lebanon, in which he said:[36]

Also do not remain silent about the failure of the political class, nor about the chaos of the investigation into the port crime, nor about the politicization of the judiciary, nor about illegal and non-Lebanese weapons, nor about the coup against the state and the regime.

He also called for an international conference to solve Lebanese issues:[36]

We want the international conference to renew support for the democratic system that expresses the Lebanese's adherence to freedom, justice and equality, and we want it to declare "Lebanon's neutrality" so that it will no longer be a victim of conflicts and wars and a land of divisions.

He repeated this call in 2022, during a conversation with Thomas Heine-Geldern, head of Aid to the Church in Need. "We are calling for a special international conference for Lebanon under the purview of the UN. We must also settle the issue of Palestinian and Syrian refugees. Finally, we must declare the positive neutrality of Lebanon. Without this, there is no solution. These are the conditions for the ‘message country’, as it was called by Pope John Paul II, to continue to bear its witness."[37]

Given the sectarian nature of Lebanese politics, the head of the Maronite Church is generally cautious about making statements of a political nature, but has been known to criticise the domestic political scene, as he did in this interview with Aid to the Church in Need. "The Lebanese population is not what it once was. The Lebanese used to live with dignity, they were not dependent on anybody. The fact is that our politicians made the population poor, beggars. We are haemorrhaging people. Every day we lose thousands of our best engineers, our best doctors, our best teachers, because the loss of value of the Lebanese pound to the dollar destroyed the value of salaries."[38]

The Patriarch has commended the generosity of the Lebanese for welcoming refugees since as far back as 1948, but warned that this cannot continue without help. "Our population never closed its borders. In 1948 we welcomed the Palestinian refugees. At the time our patriarch sent a letter to all the convents, schools and universities that belonged to the Maronite Church, to open their doors to them, because they were our brothers in need. They are still around half a million. We have a further 1.5 million Syrian refugees, as well, so we are looking after two million refugees. The International Community congratulates us, and tells us we are hospitable. But we don’t need to be told that we are hospitable. We can’t manage anymore.”