CAIRO, Jun 25, 01 (FIDES/CWNews.com) - The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church has withdrawn to an isolated monastery, and police have clashed with protestors outside Coptic churches in Cairo, in response to a scandal involving Orthodox monks accused of sexual misconduct.
Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Orthodox leader was unavailable for comment after the al-Naba'a newspaper carried a front-page story-- complete with lurid photographs-- of activities at the Deir al- Moharraq monastery in the isolated region of "upper" Egypt, in the arid regions far from the cities of the Mediterranean. Spokesmen announced that Pope Shenouda would be unavailable for "three or four weeks."
The stories centered on the conduct of a priest who was suspended several years ago.
The Coptic Community Council charged that the al-Naba'a newspaper was feeding the flames of "negative and violent reactions against Christians" in upper Egypt-- a region where Christians were the subject of a massacre 18 month ago.
The Egyptian government, reacting to the charges leveled against the newspaper by Coptic Christians, has arrested both the editor and the two people who were primarily responsible for the story: the photographer and the disgraced monk who was the focus of the story.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
25. juni 2001