The leader of Catholic Copts has called on
the world to pray for peace in Egypt amid growing tensions as millions throng
the streets in rival protests.
Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Sidrak of
Alexandria highlighted the growing crisis and unrest across the country in the
build-up to a weekend of demonstrations marking one year since Mohammed Morsi
became the country’s first Islamist president.
With protests already attracting nearly
three million people and signs the numbers will dwarf those who prompted the
February 2011 downfall of President Mubarak, Patriarch Sidrak said, “I call on
people around the world: please pray, please pray that there is no more
bloodshed.”
The patriarch’s call for prayer was made
during a meeting Friday, June 28th June, with international Catholic
charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Both Patriarch Sidrak and Pope Tawadros II,
the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, have told their faithful to
“follow their conscience,” saying they are free to protest if they wish.
Patriarch Sidrak went on to tell ACN,
“Christians here do not use violence. Young people are more assertive now and
will protect themselves.”
“As Christians, we are always together with
moderate Muslims against what will harm Egypt.”
Patriarch Sidrak said that since the fall
of Mubarak at least 200,000 Christians have left the country “party for
economic reasons and partly through fear.”
He said, “Some people feel that Christians
are second class citizens and are made to feel that they are not real
Egyptians.”
Reiterating the appeal for prayer, Father
Rafic Greiche, press officer for the Catholic Church in Egypt, told ACN,
“Christians in Egypt are trapped in this situation between normal Muslims and
the fundamentalist ones that suddenly emerged after the revolution leading to
the fall of Mubarak.”
His statement comes amid reports that a
petition opposing Mr. Morsi and calling for early presidential elections has
attracted up to 20 million signatures, outnumbering votes cast for the Muslim
Brotherhood candidate in last year’s presidential elections.
Commenting on the petition’s popularity,
Fr. Greiche told ACN, “The Christians are not sheep. The Copts are free to
participate in protests.”
“All of us should pray for change, for
social justice, for the poor, for religious freedom and for freedom of
conscience.”
He said that sectarian attacks were now
taking place almost daily whereas in the whole of Mubarak’s 30-year presidency,
there had been 1,600.
With reports stating that up to three
million people were out protesting across Egypt the evening of Thursday, June 27th,
one Muslim cleric warned ACN that there
is danger of a civil war.
One a young Coptic Christian man, Ramy,
aged 27, also told ACN, “We must take courage. We Christians must be brave and
be salt and light to the world.”
With
picture of protestor with Egyptian flag (© ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the
Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports
the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.
ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul
II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work
in over 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including
providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church
buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since
the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed
worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org or call
718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street,
PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384. www.churchinneed.org
