The central role of the Maronite Church, before and after Lebanon achieved statehood, and its political leadership of a distinctly Christian political establishment, cannot be ignored. The rise of the power of the Maronite Church must be seen in its historical perspective. This church started as independent and outside the mainstream before reaching full affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic Church had little or no presence in the Middle East until the Crusades. The first crusade commenced in 1096 on the calling of Pope Urban II in the Council of Clemont which he had convened on November 25, 1095. It took two centuries for the various crusades to be finally defeated. Within that period, the Roman Catholic Church established increasingly strong links with various independent Middle Eastern churches, including the Maronite Church, leading, by the 18th century, to the full incorporation of the Maronite Church as an autonomous unit of the Roman Catholic Church and, by the 20th century, to the patriarch of the Maronite Church becoming a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
http://newageislam.com/an-islamic-rule-of-law-for-lebanon?/islam-and-politics/d/885
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5:44 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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