Greece and Egypt pledged to protect the status of Saint Catherine's Monastery, a historic Christian and Greek Orthodox site at the foot of Egypt’s Mount Sinai, following a recent Egyptian court ruling that challenged the monastery’s ownership rights.
What happened: A statement from Egypt’s State Information Service said Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Greek counterpart, Giorgos Gerapetritis, met in Cairo on Wednesday. The two sides pledged to maintain the status of Saint Catherine's Monastery following a dispute sparked by an Egyptian court ruling that appeared to challenge the ownership rights of the Greek Orthodox-administered Christian site.
On May 28, a ruling by an Egyptian appeals court reportedly denied Orthodox monks ownership rights over the monastery. Egyptian media reported that the court ruled the monastery “is entitled to use” the land and surrounding sites but added that the land remains state-owned “as public property.” Reuters reported that the ruling ordered Orthodox monks to vacate several plots of land in and around the monastery, citing that the grounds had been illegally sequestered.
The head of the Greek Orthodox church in Athens, Archbishop Ieronymos, on Thursday called the ruling a “violent violation of human — and specifically religious — freedoms by the Egyptian judicial system.” He warned that the monastery’s property is “being seized and expropriated.”
The Egyptian government has denied that the 160-page ruling changes the site’s status. A statement from the Egyptian presidency last Thursday said that the ruling “consolidates” the unique and religious status of the monastery.
“Pending the full review of the court decision, the two governments will continue discussions in the immediate future to resolve the issue through an institutional framework,” read a statement issued on Friday by the Greek government.
In their meeting, Abdelatty “made clear that the ruling explicitly upholds the religious and monastic ownership of the monastery and surrounding areas.”
In a separate statement, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Abdelatty told his Greek counterpart that “the judicial ruling preserves the monastery’s esteemed spiritual value and religious standing … without any alteration to the existing status quo." Abdelatty did not explicitly address the monastery’s legal ownership in his remarks.
Speaking live following the meeting, Gerapetritis said he and Abdelatty had agreed "to work toward safeguarding the rights of the monastery, as well as its legal status.”
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