HH Pope Tawadros will no longer be on Social Media of Any Kind after Murder of Bishop Epiphanius

[Gxg (G²)]

Shocking to have seen this recently. And in going into Liturgy recently after having met him first hand, it's still a bit surreal. But I understand after what happened with the death leading up to it. Memory Eternal +

For the monks who were accused of murdering Bishop Epiphanius - monks Wael al-Saad and Remon Resmi who apparently agreed kill the senior cleric over unspecified “differences” - may God help to find true peace in this life and healing. This is not something I would have ever expected to happen in my lifetime and it does make you remember why we need prayer. For it's a a reminder that the battle happens everywhere - no one expected it'd be a battle that would happen on the way to leading Morning Prayer

• Egypt: Defrocked monk charged with killing Coptic bishop - BBC News
  

The late Bishop Epiphanius (left), abbot of Saint Macarius Monastery, with Pope Tawadros II. (Screengrab)

MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET

Coptic pope orders monks and himself off social media after bishop's murder
A murder in a northern monastery has prompted an official investigation and online speculation - with the Church clamping down as a result

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[archer75]

...what? This is awful! Murdered by his colleagues??

 

[dzheremi]

It is still in some sense open to questioning (e.g., finding motive and the potential role of the monk who attempted to commit suicide), though it is being reported in various places that the defrocked monk has confessed. We still don't know the full story, and it is possible we might never know. It is clear that there is some kind of major problem in this monastic community.

It is best to just pray, as these are very dark times.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Lord have mercy ...

 

[rakovsky]

Alot of forums like to have people participate to keep it active, so I am posting on some threads from the last year.

It is still in some sense open to questioning (e.g., finding motive and the potential role of the monk who attempted to commit suicide), though it is being reported in various places that the defrocked monk has confessed. We still don't know the full story.

I agree. PressReader.com says:

Isaiah-whose given name is Wael Al Saad - had faced disciplinary proceedings before and was quickly defrocked after Epiphanius' body was found.

Tablet reports:

On Saturday, Aug. 10, ex-monk Isaiah al-Maqary confessed that he killed Bishop Epiphanius, abbot of St. Macarius Monastery, in Egypt, in collaboration with Faltaous al-Maqkary, a monk who tried to commit suicide last week in the monastery. Isaiah al-Maqary had been recently expelled from the same monastery. ...
After Father Matta died in 2006, Pope Shenouda visited St. Macarius Monastery in 2009 and restored it under the authority of the Coptic Church. Prior to this, it had been independent. Between 2009 and 2012, he appointed about 70 monks who took a conservative approach, including the two monks “Isaiah,” who was stripped of his priesthood, and “Faltaous,” who tried to commit suicide.
...
Bishop Epiphanius was a disciple of Father Matta. ... The episcopal ordination of Anba Epiphanius was perceived as a healing in the supposed rift between the Church’s hierarchy and the spiritual children of Father Matta. The new bishop was regarded as a so-called reformer, who would continue in the ressourcement movement started by Father Matta.
Was Coptic Reform Reason for Orthodox Bishop’s Murder? - The Tablet

But just because they were from different trends isn't enough for a motive necessarily.

In court filings submitted Sept. 3, Alexandria's public prosecutor alleged the monks murdered Epiphanius due to "ideological and financial disagreements."

"According to the monks, there were conflicts with the abbot," said Amir Nassif, who resigned as Saad's lawyer after the police confession was made public. ("The devil controlled the monk," Nassif said, explaining his resignation. "It's impossible for me to participate in the killing of Bishop Epiphanius.")

Saad has been stripped of his monastic name of Isaiah. But church authorities have yet to banish his alleged accomplice Ramsy, known as Faltaous, from holy orders.
Coptic abbot's murder points to strains over ecumenism in Egypt

Maybe mental illness could have been a factor?

I think that this helps explain the preceding events:

In late July, Saad had been disciplined before Epiphanius' murder for improper use of social media, but was not suspended from orders, however, after a group of monks peers signed a petition opposing his removal.
In the immediate aftermath of the murder, Tawadros II ordered monks to deactivate all social media accounts.

"These behaviors are not true to monastic life," said Tawadros, who also imposed a yearlong suspension on taking in new monks.

Coptic abbot's murder points to strains over ecumenism in Egypt

 

[dzheremi]

Thank you for posting your thoughts on this, Rakovsky. I think the Tablet and especially NCR stories are really reaching, however. The so-called 'rift' between Fr. Matta and HH Pope Shenouda III was healed before the departure of either man, and Fr. Matta had actually been the father of confession of HH when he was still a monk-priest back in the 1950s and 1960s, so it was if anything a disagreement between two men who knew each other quite well and respected each other. There is also some question as to whether there was any resentment on part of Fr. Matta over the papal election (as he had been considered for the papacy to succeed HH Pope Kyrillos VI), but such speculation could be said any time. HH Pope Kyrillos VI was before my time, but I remember there were similar speculations regarding the election of HH Pope Tawadros II just a few years ago, with some people saying they thought they saw manipulation in lottery segment of the liturgy, etc. Speculation and conspiratorial thinking is not proof of anything.

And the NCR article...yeesh...out of respect for the RC people, I will say only that their media outlets sometimes have an unstated mission to inject the RCC into everything, even when it is not a factor in whatever is being discussed. They did the same thing when Pope Francis met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew a little while ago, too, even though that meeting was to discuss forming a united voice in defense of persecuted Middle Eastern Christians and other related matters, not about any kind of reunion or rapprochement between the RCC and the EOC. So I believe you're seeing that impulse in the NCR article, too (note: that same source called the relationship between Pope Francis and the EP "a budding bromance"; ugh). There are not even 200,000 Catholic Copts in the entire world, and in many aspects we are too different than the RCC to consider communion with them a serious possibility, so we don't. But it seems the RCC or its media organs see things very differently, as I guess they must.

 

[rakovsky]

I know what you mean when it comes to media outlets. It's common for me to read media articles that say things about the Orthodox that sound like they don't know what they are talking about, like when they call the Ecumenical Patriarch the "Pope" of Eastern Orthodoxy. Unfortunately over the last half year we are having this weird, artificially-created issue in the EO Church regarding the status and limits of the EP, but the media was calling him the eastern "Pope" even before that. When I was reading the dissertation about the Testament of Isaac by John Fadden, a similar idea crossed my mind - there are alot of western scholars who review and theorize about early Church writings, but since the scholars aren't Orthodox, their lack of familiarity with Orthodox Tradition sometimes pops up.

It's certainly a sad event. I was debating whether to even post in the thread because I didn't want to hit a nerve. If I were to make a guess, based on the reports, the monks in the story above might have had mental illness and gotten into heated debates with the bishop over money, the disciplinary action, and ecumenism, and then things got out of hand. I think that if there was no finance involved or mental illness or other issues, the theology doesn't seem anywhere near enough for this.

 

[dzheremi]

Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't want to speculate too much regarding earthly motives. I have never visited any of the monasteries in Egypt, but I am reminded that our great and holy fathers of the desert fought the demons in those same places, the monastery of St. Macarius dating back to the 4th century and hence being one of the oldest continually inhabited Christian monasteries in the world. It is possible, I think, to say that the demons may have won in the battle for the souls of these particular two monks, because you are right that the possible motives don't seem to add up to murder. It is hard to live with the reality that HG Bishop Epiphanius had tried to deal with matters earlier, but the other monks (perhaps with very godly intentions...at least from most of them) interceded to save his eventual murderer. This must weigh heavily on the good monks who remain there. Lord have mercy.