Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai Friday met with Pope Francis at the Vatican as part of his visit to attend the first Plenary Assembly of the Secretariat for Communication at the Holy See.

Rai had urged politicians to avoid political vacuum in Parliament before he departed Beirut on Tuesday.

“I always said that I supported a new electoral law,” he said while meeting with Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport Tuesday. “[But] I said that instead of a term extension or a [political] vacuum, they could use the existing law.”

In March, President Michel Aoun visited the Vatican and met with Pope Francis.

"The Pope has always supported Lebanon, and Lebanon looks up to the Holy See with utmost appreciation and gratitude,” Aoun said during those talks.