Egypt has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to safeguarding the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai, emphasizing that a recent court ruling has further solidified its protected status.This story made a splash last week, but I'm only getting to it now.Cairo said that the court ruling, which was mistakenly interpreted as a prelude to the seizure and closure of the world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monastery, does the exact opposite: It safeguards its future.
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I don't really understand what was going on. That is, I don't know whether this legal ruling opens the door to the seizure of the site from the monks (the original media narrative) or closes that door and protect the site. Or whether that depends on its intepretation. I don't know where to read the actual ruling and I doubt I could be confident of understanding all its implications anyway.
But in any case, it appears that the Egyptian Goverment recognized that the story was getting a lot of bad publicity, so they stepped in to assure the Monastery that it was safe. There are more details of the Government's respose here.
I commend the Egyptian Government for clarifying its position. They clearly understand the reputational damage that would result from any effort to interfere with the long-established operations of Saint Catherine's Monastery.
But let's do keep an eye on this and make sure they stick to it.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on Saint Catherine's Monastery and its important collection of manuscripts, start here and follow the links.
PRE-POSTING UPDATE: As I was about to post this I found a post by Luke Coppen in his Substack, The Pillar: What’s happening at Egypt’s St Catherine’s Monastery? A controversial court ruling over the ownership of the ancient monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai has caused outcry. He seems to have more information on the Egyptian ruling, based on Greek media. He says:
On May 28, the Egyptian Court of Appeals issued a ruling widely interpreted as declaring the monastery state property, while recognizing the monks’ right to perform their religious duties at the site.I can't vouch for his assessment, having not seen the information directly. But I was worried about this. If the ruling is actually this complicated, then how it is implemented is a matter of goodwill. So, as I said above, let's keep an eye on the situation.But the 160-page text was of such complexity that even legal professionals struggled to grasp it fully.
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