The Ecumenical Patriarchate learned with painful surprise that the competent court of Egypt has cast into doubt the centuries-old ownership status of the historic Holy Monastery of Sinai, effectively recognizing the local monastic brotherhood only with the right of usage over its property.
Disappointment and sorrow mark the response of the First-Throned Church of Orthodoxy, which has ever embraced this venerable foundation of Emperor Justinian with affection, admiration, and gratitude for its contribution to the faith, to the body of Christians, and to civilization across the centuries.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate appeals to the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, drawing also upon the recent statements of His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, to find the appropriate way for the preservation of the ownership status quo of the Sacred Monastery, a status that even Islam has distinctly respected and preferentially protected through the centuries, and to implement its recent agreement with the Monastery. Respect for what has been upheld through the ages and the observance of what has been agreed may assist the Monastery of Saint Catherine in continuing its religious and cultural mission from the Sinai Peninsula, that hallowed ground where once God spoke to humankind.
The centuries have respected the Monastery of Sinai. May Egypt also respect it today, as a civilized and law-abiding nation, committed to the protection of religious freedom and the safeguarding of human rights in general.
The Monastery of Sinai is a precious and longstanding treasure for the Land of the Nile, one which brings honor to Egypt and both symbolically and essentially unites the two great religious traditions of Christianity and Islam upon its territory.
Phanar, 30 May 2025
