THE Greek Parliament has passed a law that gives legal personality to St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, in Egypt, after fears that an Egyptian court judgment may put the ownership of the historic and UNESCO-protected monastery at risk.
The legislation was put forward by the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, and has wide support within the Hellenic Parliament, as reported by Orthodox Times and other media.
The Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Sofia Zacharaki, described Greece’s legal involvement in the matter as a demonstration “in practice that Greece remains the cradle of Orthodoxy. This is a historic initiative that, for the first time in 15 centuries, grants clear legal status to a unique religious and cultural institution, while respecting its autonomy and ecclesiastical status.”
Representing Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Archimandrite Porphyrios Fragkos explained that the new legal status “allows the monastery to operate more reliably and stably in its dealings”. He emphasised that “the monastery in Egypt isn’t moving [and that] this is about its legal presence in Greece”.
Athens intervened to safeguard the monastery’s status, after an Egyptian court order in May which, Greek religious and official representatives say, jeopardised the monastery’s property rights, prompting a robust diplomatic exchange between Athens and Cairo (News, 6 June).
A recent internal rift between the members of the local monastic brotherhood over Greece’s involvement in the matter, however, threatens to reverse the progress made.
Archbishop Damianos, who is 91, had been the abbot for more than five decades. He was voted out by a group of brotherhood members last week, a move that he rejects as illegal and illegitimate.
The results of the vote were sent to Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, under whose overarching authority the monastery belongs. He said that the decision to remove the Archbishop had been unanimously agreed upon by the General Assembly of the brotherhood.
The Orthodox Times published a statement by Archbishop Damianos, in which he described the difficult period leading up to the latest developments. He accused certain members of the brotherhood of “uncanonical conduct’, which “scandalises the faithful, undermines the unity of the Brotherhood and leads the monastery into a ‘Babylonian captivity’.” He also threatened canonical sanctions against those involved.
“Their actions, carried out without fear of God, shame, or awareness, constitute a coup against the Church. We shall not permit it to have catastrophic consequences for Hellenism’s unity and integrity as other coups have in the past,” Archbishop Damianos said.
Patriarch Theophilos stepped in to try to resolve the situation after this was requested by the Archbishop.
The Jerusalem Patriarch announced that a three-person delegation would be sent to ease the resolution of the matter in “a spirit of truth, reconciliation, and cooperation with the Brotherhood of Sinai”. He specified that any reconciliation efforts must take place “through the recognised canonical path and under the pastoral care of the Throne of the Church of Zion [Patriarchate of Jerusalem]”.
In the letter sent to Archbishop Damianos, Patriarch Theophilos explicitly states that the Patriarchate of Jerusalem holds spiritual and canonical jurisdiction over the Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of Sinai.
According to a report by Ekathimerini, which cites unnamed Greek officials, the timing of the internal discord “could derail progress”, and the attempted coup is viewed as part of broader geopolitical processes, as it coincides with both the recent adoption of the Bill granting the monastery legal personality and the high-level meeting between the two foreign ministers.
The continuing developments at St Catherine’s Monastery come at a critical moment in Greco-Egyptian relations. On Wednesday, the two ministers met in the Greek capital.
Orthodox Times reports that the Greek foreign minister George Gerapetritis said after the meeting: “I received the reassurance that the worship continuity and Greek Orthodox identity of the monastery — a hallmark of religious tolerance and respect for religious freedom that Egypt has always shown — will not be disrupted.”