Rebel priest 'traitor, heretic'

2006-07-06 08:38

Cairo - "Charlatan", "heretic" and "traitor" are but a few words that have been used to describe rebel priest Maximus I, who has decided to break away from the Egyptian Coptic Church under Pope Shenuda III and form his own alternative church.

The self-proclaimed Archbishop Maximus I said: "The church has never known a pontificate as bad as Shenuda's, and Egypt has never lived sectarian clashes as they have under him."

Maximus had said that he planned to appoint bishops around the country, in what some perceived as the first split in the Egyptian Coptic Church to which most Christians there belonged.

A group of Coptic lawyers on Tuesday announced that they were initiating legal proceedings against Maximus for "insulting Pope Shenuda III".

Sectarian violence

But, Maximus justified the need for a new Church in Egypt by saying that Shenuda, who had headed the Coptic Church since 1971, had incited sectarian violence in the country.

Maximus accused Shenuda of having "thrown fuel on the fire by inciting Copts to take arms and to retaliate against Muslims".

Maximus, with a neatly trimmed beard and thin-rimmed glasses, bragged about the United States-backing for his new church and insisted that he had about half a million followers.

Munir Fakhri Abdel Nur, a Coptic politician and leader in the liberal Wafd party, said: "No one has ever heard of this charlatan."

Shenuda undergoing medical treatment

He said: "There is only one church and only one pope", saying that Copts had "always refused any foreign intervention in their affairs".

He added: "The fact that this man boasts about US support will automatically distance him from the people."

Morkos Aziz who was in charge of the Al-Mouallaka parish, one of the most significant in Cairo, said: "This person was chased from the Church. He is a heretic who only represents himself."

Others said that the timing of the whole affair was sensitive, but not coincidental.

For the past month, Shenuda had been undergoing medical treatment in the US and Germany, and was due back in Cairo on July 09.

Shenuda 'controversial'

News of the 83-year-old Pope's ill health had sparked discussion in the Coptic community and beyond as to who would be the future Pope.

Nur said that the timing of Maximus' campaign served the purposes of "certain parties in whose interest it is to divide and weaken the church".

The controversial Shenuda, who was the 117th Pope since Mark the Evangelist, patriarch of the Coptic Church, had been equally praised and criticised during his tenure.

He had been criticised by some for following the Egyptian government line under President Hosni Mubarak.

During the 2005 presidential elections, Shenuda declared his backing for Mubarak in the country's first ever multi-candidate elections.

But, his pro-Palestinian stance and his refusal to accept normalisation of relations between Egypt and Israel had won him favour with many.

- AFP