Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

In his recent book ‘al-Kanīsah wa al-Sīyāsah’ [Church and Politics], Andrāwis ‘Azīz, a defrocked Orthodox priest, describes the Church as a state within a state presided over by Pope Shenouda. The Pope is seen to practice a kind of psychological war on his opponents, and his time in power is one of the darkest ages the Church has ever experienced. It is a spiritually weak age when compared to other ages of the Church. He refers to the defrocking of priests and monks without canonical reason, as well as the absolute dominance of the Pope and bishops over the Christian people. He also stresses the Church’s resistance to enlightened Coptic minds because the Church deliberately excludes them from participating in the church’s decisions. The most controversial point in this book is ‘Azīz’s declaration that the Christian people who were killed in Naj‘ Hammādī’s incident are not martyrs, as Pope Shenouda said. He comments on the Church’s negligence of the people’s spiritual life and its care about earthly matters.