Farewell John Paul II
Well I am sad for the death of the Pope John Paul despite being from different religions yet because I am a Muslim and a human I respected him and still do ,I respect him because I respect the religion he presented and the symbol ,Also for his opinions in the Middle East ,his refusal for the the Iraqi war,his refusal for Israeli Aggression,also and more important the religions conversation that he was one of its leaders calling for understanding and respect to others religions .It is loss
I remember when He came to Egypt ,it was planned that he would have opened a religious tourism project of the journey of the Holy Family ,I guess I don't need to explain what is it ,it is visiting the places were Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary went in Egypt ,most of it turned to churches this didn't happen because the Orthrdox church which had or own these churches ,refused his visits ,also the in Saint Catherine Mountain monastery in Sinai ,they refused to let him in the church to pray ,and he prayed outside it
I am not Christian to understand this conflict between the Orthodox and the catholic ,but I look to it from Economic point of view ,if this visit of the holy family route was made by the Late Pope ,that could have a great promotion chance ,already The catholic church believers are billions ,seeing the Pope is walking on the same route of the Holy family,this would have a great opportunity for tourism and for the Economy .For God Sake the Jews come to Egypt to visit their places and temples
The Orthocox church refused his visit? I am not sure this is true. Any reference?
ReplyDeleteAll places you talked about are open to people from all the world to visit. There are no such restrictions.
As for St. Catherine Monastery, this I don't know. They also allow visits to everybody but at particular times of the year.
I found this link:Pope Shenouda III Message to the Catholic Cardinals and the congregations all over the world.
ReplyDeleteI invite you to have a look on some photos from my blog about this visit. I don’t remember that he was supposed to participate in the “journey of the Holy Family” project but I remember that he was welcomed by all Christian denominations. He entered in the St. Catherine monastery, entered the church (see last photo) where he prayed like anyone can do and was welcomed by the archbishop of Sinai (head of he monastery) like you can see in the photo before last. He was not allowed to celebrate the mass inside the Church but they arranged to let him do it in the garden. I agree it would be much better if they allowed him to celebrate inside, but unfortunately this is a consequence of church divisions that are not yet solved.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the refusal of the Orthodox Church it is true, and no need to document that, have a look on the newspapers of that time.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, and two years ago I went to St. Catherine Monastry, and Monks there told me they refused to let Pope John Paul to pray inside the Church to avoid any claim from the Catholics in the future concerning the property of that monastry. What a shame...