‘Fiducia’ proven a hindrance to interreligious ties in Egypt

[Michie]

(OSV News) — Catholic clergy from Egypt have warned that ties with Orthodox and Islamic leaders are being derailed by a Vatican decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples, after the country’s influential Coptic Orthodox Church suspended dialogue over the issue.

“The pope and Vatican misjudged the timing of their declaration last December — it was widely seen as unprepared and awkwardly managed, just to satisfy churches in the West,” said Father Rafic Greiche, editor of Egypt’s Catholic Hamil al-Risalah weekly and former spokesman of the Catholic Coptic Church.

“While there was no consideration of the Islamic world, the document was a propaganda gift to Orthodox churches, whose bishops and priests are now insisting only Orthodox traditions are truly righteous,” he said.


The Cairo-based priest was reacting to a March 7 decision by the governing Holy Synod of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, the Middle East’s largest Christian denomination, to halt theological dialogue with Catholics over the Vatican’s Dec. 18 declaration, Fiducia Supplicans.

In an OSV News interview, he said the synod’s move to suspend rather than break off dialogue offered hope ties could eventually be resumed.

However, he added that his own Catholic Church also had notified Pope Francis of its refusal to accept same-sex blessings, and said other historic churches in the Middle East and Africa had also rejected the declaration in the first such act of open defiance.

‘Hard time’ for interfaith relations​

Continued below.

'Fiducia' proven a hindrance to interreligious ties in Egypt

Catholic clergy from Egypt have warned that ties with Orthodox and Islamic leaders are being derailed by a Vatican decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples, after the country's influential Coptic Orthodox Church suspended dialogue over the issue.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

 

[chevyontheriver]

(OSV News) — Catholic clergy from Egypt have warned that ties with Orthodox and Islamic leaders are being derailed by a Vatican decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples, after the country’s influential Coptic Orthodox Church suspended dialogue over the issue.

“The pope and Vatican misjudged the timing of their declaration last December — it was widely seen as unprepared and awkwardly managed, just to satisfy churches in the West,” said Father Rafic Greiche, editor of Egypt’s Catholic Hamil al-Risalah weekly and former spokesman of the Catholic Coptic Church.

“While there was no consideration of the Islamic world, the document was a propaganda gift to Orthodox churches, whose bishops and priests are now insisting only Orthodox traditions are truly righteous,” he said.


The Cairo-based priest was reacting to a March 7 decision by the governing Holy Synod of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, the Middle East’s largest Christian denomination, to halt theological dialogue with Catholics over the Vatican’s Dec. 18 declaration, Fiducia Supplicans.

In an OSV News interview, he said the synod’s move to suspend rather than break off dialogue offered hope ties could eventually be resumed.

However, he added that his own Catholic Church also had notified Pope Francis of its refusal to accept same-sex blessings, and said other historic churches in the Middle East and Africa had also rejected the declaration in the first such act of open defiance.

‘Hard time’ for interfaith relations​

Continued below.

'Fiducia' proven a hindrance to interreligious ties in Egypt

Catholic clergy from Egypt have warned that ties with Orthodox and Islamic leaders are being derailed by a Vatican decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples, after the country's influential Coptic Orthodox Church suspended dialogue over the issue.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

What took decades to build takes but a moment to destroy. Relations with the Oriental Orthodox, never easy, are now shaken, stirred, suspended. Maybe some big shot in the Vatican should have asked what the ecumenical implications of such a stupid move might have been BEFORE deciding to bless the unblessable. Don't think the rest of the Orthodox will be any different. Cardinal Fernandez has destroyed such ecumenism, and with the pope's blessing. It may take a generation or more to restore what was lost.

He has also made it far more difficult for conservative Protestants, who used to look up to the solidity of Catholic moral teaching, to swim the Tiber. Why do that if the same woke immorality is blessed in the Catholic Church as it is in so much of mainline (oldline) Protestantism?

We've been shot in the foot. Deliberately shot in the foot by somebody aiming right at the foot and pulling the trigger. We will limp from now on if we don't first bleed out from the wound. And what did we get? Can anyone tell me what good thing has come out of Fiducia supplicans? Even one good thing?