Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
CP/nhc/2012/07
Gregorios III: Shenouda III or the spiritual
strength and pastoral outreach of Coptic monasticism
“We have lost a friend with whom we have
been linked for very many years. As early as the 1960s, before his election to
head his Church in 1971, the future Shenouda III was collaborating with our
ecumenical review Al Wahdat fil Iman (Unity in Faith), bringing to it his ever
lucid and deep vision.”
Just back from a
fortnight’s round-trip of episcopal conferences and European seats of
government, Gregorios III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria
and of Jerusalem left Beirut on Monday 19 March 2012 for Cairo to take part in
the national funeral of Shenouda III thus expressing the attachment for and
closeness of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church to the Coptic Orthodox Church.
“Shenouda III was the Patriarch of the
biggest Orthodox Church of the Middle East, incarnating in his person all the
history of his Church,” Gregorios III
declared before hailing “the presence of
the Coptic Church in the Arab world, its spiritual strength, its monasticism
and its pastoral outreach that Shenouda III so perfectly incarnated. This
Church, as Mgr Elias Zoghby, for a long time patriarchal vicar in Cairo, once
said, is the only non-Catholic Church that has understood how to renew itself
without ever losing sight of consistency with itself. We are very keen especially
to welcome the various moves towards closer understanding especially in
formulating the tricky but vital areas of doctrine to do with the Council of
Chalcedon or indeed the Incarnation. A tangible sign of this increasing
closeness between the Holy See and the Coptic Orthodox Church was the signing in
Rome on 10 May 1973 of the Common Declaration of Faith in the Incarnation of
the Son of God and the participation of Pope Paul VI in the building of St.
Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo.
“Shenouda III was a Patriarch who was a
very deep spiritual thinker but who knew how to make his thoughts accessible to
everyone, through his memorable sermons and homilies, aided by a wit and sense
of humour that were quite Pharaonic and Egyptian.”
Patriarch Gregorios
III then recalled the celebrations of the Nativity of our Lord in Cairo
according to the Coptic tradition, which he had never missed since his election
to the Melkite Greek Catholic See of Antioch in 2000 and which had enabled him
to be alongside Shenouda III, before joining his “prayer to that of the whole Coptic Orthodox Church for the repose of
the soul of its late lamented shepherd and for the Holy Spirit to illumine
hearts so that the designated successor might allow the Coptic Church to pursue
its very special mission.”
Rabweh, 19 March
2012
Note:
His Beatitude was accompanied on his visit to Cairo for Pope Shenouda’s
funeral, by Archbishops Elias Chacour and George Bakar, and by the Patriarchal
Chancellor, Archimandrite Tony Dib. On his first day in Cairo, Patriarch
Gregorios III gave an interview of an hour’s duration to CTV on the subject of
his friend and fellow-pastor, the late, great Pope Shenouda III.
translated by V. Chamberlain