The Ecumenical Patriarchate issued a statement regarding the Egyptian court ruling on the ownership status of the Monastery of Sinai.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate expressed deep sorrow and surprise upon learning that the competent Egyptian court called into question the longstanding ownership status of the historic Holy Monastery of Sinai. The court recognized the local monastic brotherhood only as having the right to use the monastery’s property.
The First-Throned Church of Orthodoxy is disappointed and saddened by this ruling. The Church has always embraced the venerable foundation established by Emperor Justinian, admiring and grateful for its contributions to faith, nation, and culture over the centuries.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate appeals to the Egyptian government to preserve the monastery’s ownership status — an arrangement that Islam itself has respected and safeguarded for centuries — and to implement the recent agreement reached with the monastery. Respecting longstanding traditions and honoring agreements will enable the Monastery of Saint Catherine to continue its religious and cultural mission from the Sinai Peninsula, where God once spoke to humankind.
The centuries have respected the Monastery of Sinai; let Egypt respect it today as well as a civilized, law-abiding nation that upholds religious freedom and human rights.
The monastery is a precious spiritual and cultural treasure for Egypt, bringing honor to the country and symbolically and substantially connecting the two great religions of Christianity and Islam on its soil.
