Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of St. Mark See, has been recently receiving increasing criticism and attacks from several people including his spiritual sons. Two weeks ago, a group of attendees of his weekly sermon started talking loudly at the beginning of the sermon. Arguments quickly broke out among attendees before the Pope cancelled the sermon. The protest has been based around restrictive personal status laws.
On the next week, the pope surprised everybody by his decision to cancel the meeting for three years. Wednesday's weekly meeting at the cathedral was the last until 2018, Pope said. Of course, this was linked to the criticism he had received by some people of his congregation. This raised many questions as well as the anger of many Copts. They demanded the Pope to cancel this decision and deliver his weekly sermons as usual.
The patriarch had announced earlier that the great cathedral’s renovations will take place in preparation for celebrating 50 years since being built in 2018. This was another reason to cancel the weekly sermon of the Pope until the renovations are finished.
However, sources in the Church said that Pope had to take such decision in order to preserve the lives of many Coptic Christians after security reports warned against potential terrorist attacks. Furthermore, reports added that the Pope himself will be targeted by the same terrorist groups. Thus, this decision comes to protect the Copts, their Pope and church as well.
I wonder: will this protect the Copts against new terrorist attacks targeting their churches? Will security be restored by 2018 or will we need to postpone the celebration of the 50 anniversary of building the great Cathedral years later? I hope that those three years will be enough to restore security in Egypt.
It’s worth mentioning that the Coptic Orthodox Church dates back to around AD 50, when the apostle Mark visited Egypt preaching Christianity and found the very first Christian church on its land. Therefore, St. Mark is regarded as the first Pope of Alexandria. The word "Coptic" means "Egyptian". This makes the Coptic Church one of the earliest Christian groups outside the Holy Land. The Pope of the Coptic Church is the spiritual leader of the Egyptian Orthodox Christian community.
