NEWS ADVANCE: Pope’s Scheduled Spiritual Journey to Egypt Prompts Mixed Notices

c. 2000 Religion News Service CAIRO _ The bells of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church peal out oddly into a city night more accustomed to the clatter of horns and the wail of the muezzin’s call to prayer. On a recent evening, only about a dozen people are gathered inside the cavernous pink-and-white church in […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

CAIRO _ The bells of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church peal out oddly into a city night more accustomed to the clatter of horns and the wail of the muezzin’s call to prayer.

On a recent evening, only about a dozen people are gathered inside the cavernous pink-and-white church in Cairo’s business district awaiting Mass. More than anything else, this smattering of expatriates and Egyptians offers human testimony that Catholics are a minority within a minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country.


The three-day Feb. 24-26 visit of Pope John Paul II to Cairo and Mount Sinai shines a rare spotlight on some 150,000 Catholics and roughly 6 million Arab Christians who account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s population. And it marks the first leg of an emotional millennium journey to the Middle East by the 79-year-old pontiff.

But John Paul’s Holy Land pilgrimage, which also includes a March visit to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, comes during troubled times in the Middle East. Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militiamen are again trading gunfire, and Middle East peace negotiations are at a standstill.

Earlier this week, Israel sharply criticized an agreement between the Vatican and the Palestine Liberation Organization suggesting Israel’s claim of unilateral control over Jerusalem is”morally and legally unacceptable.” The environment is tense in Egypt as well.

A January spat between a Coptic Christian shopkeeper and a Muslim housewife spilled into a bloody fray killing more than 20 people in the southern town of Al Kosheh. Whether the Kosheh violence simply reflects a rural Egyptian culture of clannishness and blood feuds, or whether it is an extreme expression of more petty discrimination practiced against the country’s Christians, is a matter of dispute.

But it has marred Egypt’s carefully cultivated millennium image _ one it has invested heavily into promoting to a skeptical international community _ as a land of refuge and tolerance since the Holy Family fled here after Jesus’ birth 2000 years ago.

In recent interviews, Egyptians voiced many, and often conflicting, expectations of the upcoming papal visit. Some greeted news of his trip with complete indifference. Others expected him to issue a strong call for peace in the Middle East. Still others hoped John Paul will leave Egypt’s religious tensions alone.

“We want the pope to pray for the goodwill and unity for our church and for our country,” said Afafa Louis Tawfik, a 60-year-old Catholic housewife, as she left Mass at St. Joseph’s. “But we can handle our problems ourselves.”


The political baggage tied to the pope’s spiritual journey has not been lost on the Vatican. Besides conducting several Masses, the pontiff is scheduled to meet with Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox community, and Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the imam of Al Azhar, which is considered the seat of Sunni Muslim learning in the Middle East.

“The pope is first a religious man,” said Diaa Rachwan, a religious analyst at Cairo’s Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “But when he visits the Middle East, he’s not visiting Catholic societies, and he knows this very well. So this isn’t just a religious visit, it’s a political one.

“And I think that for Egyptians, the visit will be an occasion to confirm to the outside world that Egypt is open to other religions,” Rachwan added. “Despite what happened in Al Kosheh.”

Tensions in Egypt surface not only between Christians and Muslims, but also between Christian sects.

Copts make up almost 90 percent of Egypt’s Christian community, easily dwarfing the tiny Greek Orthodox, evangelical Protestant and Catholic groups. Each church periodically accuses the other of trying to steal worshippers.

Even the size of these communities is in dispute. Catholics, for example, say they number about 300,000. Protestants place their figure at about 750,000. Scholars say the actual figures are about half those estimates. And while the Egyptian government says Coptic Christians account for less than 10 percent of Egypt’s 62 million people, the Coptic community argues they number at least 10 million.


The differences are more than a question of mathematics. The number of Egyptian Christians helps bolster the community’s argument of under-representation in key government and university posts. Christians also point to other areas of official discrimination, including years-long waits for government permission to repair and build churches.

Christians and Muslims alike trace their religious roots to the first century, when St. Mark the Evangelist founded the See of Alexandria. By the fourth century, Coptic Christianity was firmly entrenched, losing its grip only 300 years later when Islam swept into the country. So numerous were its believers that the word Copt stems from the Arabic word for Egyptian.

In the 17th century, European missionaries arrived intent on unifying the Roman and Orthodox churches after a 1,300-year split. They failed, but left behind a fledgling Catholic community whose traditions are carried on by Egyptians like Bishop Yohanna Golta.

Already, the elderly bishop said, his parishioners at the Coptic Catholic Church of Cairo are calling up with questions about John Paul’s visit to Egypt. One woman would like the pontiff to baptize her son. A man wants to receive communion from him.

For his part, Golta said he would like the pope to issue a strong message for peace in the Middle East. Both Egypt’s Coptic and Catholic churches have forbidden their parishioners from traveling to Jerusalem, even during the millennium year.

“As an Egyptian, I can’t visit Israel,” Golta said. “It’s not because I refuse peace with Israel. We made peace with them more than 20 years ago. That’s a fact. It’s simply to tell them, `Find a solution with the Palestinians.”’


As for his Muslim neighbors, the bishop said, the pope’s visit has sparked a rare interest in his church. “People are happy,” Golta said. “They ask me,`Is he your pope?’ And I say yes.”

But on the streets, many Muslims said they were unaware of the pope’s upcoming visit. “I don’t know who he is,” confessed 60-year-old housewife Bakra Abdel Rahim.

“I think he is coming here because of the talk about the problems between the Muslims and Christians,” said Dr. Ahmed Abdel Galil, a doctor for EgyptAir. “But this is not true. I think he will be telling everybody there is no persecution here.”

John Paul’s visit has also received a lukewarm reaction from some Coptic Christians. “I think many Copts will probably be indifferent to the pope’s visit,” said Milad Hanna, a prominent Coptic scholar who has authored a number of books on Muslim-Christian relations. “Many Coptic Orthodox will not go say hello to a pope coming from Rome.”

But Cairo University student Rana Raouf disagreed. “We are Coptic Orthodox, but it’s very good to be all together,” Raouf said. “We are all Christians. There is no difference between us.”

DEA END BRYANT

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