Egypt’s churches differentiate between national, political roles, says Coptic pope

Egyptian Coptic Pope Tawadros II (L), Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Marc Episcopate and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo, Egypt on 6 January 2018 [Egyptian Presidency/Anadolu Agency]

Egypt’s churches distinguish between their national and political roles, the country’s Coptic pope, Tawadros II, said yesterday.”Politicians have their own speciality, which I didn’t study,” Tawadros told ME Sat.

“All Copts are Egyptians, including myself. Our [Christian] role is to participate in our homeland’s prosperity, practice our rights as Egyptians,” the pope pointed out, adding that politics were being participated through “legal political parties.”

“Egypt’s church is not a political party,” he stressed.

On Friday, Tawadros II arrived in Germany’s city of Bitburg as part of a three-day pastoral trip to Europe. Prior to Germany, the pope visited Switzerland’s Zurich city, where he inaugurated a church. Tawadross was also reported to have inaugurated the Saint Athanasius the Apostle Church in Bitburg.

Read: 9 officers accused of killing family among those pardoned by Egypt’s Sisi

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.