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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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His creed of unity ruffles feathers of every denomination, but he is a veritable zealot of tolerance
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Heritage Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Yohanna Golta:
Keeping the faith
Profile by Samia Abdennour
A Catholic priest with a PhD in Islamic studies and the Arabic language is very unusual in itself. More unusual still is to hear him casually corroborating his arguments by citing verses from the Qur'an. That is how I first met Bishop Yohanna Golta. It was at a conference organised by the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services (CEOSS), entitled Christian/Muslim Dialogue. To its regular conferences, CEOSS invites sheikhs and priests, university professors, journalists and politicians who study current events and send their conclusions to the relevant authorities. Bishop Golta attends regularly.
He was born in 1937 in a small, poor village in Upper Egypt, the seventh child in a family of 18 children (of whom only 10 survived: six boys and four girls). His father was a shop owner, selling cheap fabrics; his wife and daughters complemented his stock with home-loomed rugs. Like the vast majority of homes in the village, theirs had neither electricity nor running water. The schools were very poorly maintained, yet Golta's father had great dreams. He aspired to educate his sons like "the sons of pashas" (only two of his daughters were sent to school, the youngest graduating with a master's degree in French literature). He also had definite plans for each of his sons and, as was the custom in all lower-middle class Copts of his generation, wanted his eldest son to become a priest. He proudly sent Naguib, at the age of 10, to the Jesuit monastery in Cairo, in spite of the wealthy villagers' angry derision. Ten years later, after completing his high school studies and to his father's utter chagrin, Naguib renounced his vocation, threw away his cassock and became known as Monsieur Naguib, the French teacher. Unable to bear the stigma of this desertion, his broken-hearted father left the village and moved the entire family to a city near Cairo.
Golta's childhood in the village had been happy, surrounded by the warmth of parents, brothers and sisters, but he remembers very vividly how the split in the village between Christians and Muslims, poor and rich, had bothered him. When he asked his elders to explain this phenomenon, he was told: "It is like the Nile, which divides the country into east and west". Far from enlightening him, this piece of wisdom only deepened his confusion.
Unable to give up his dream, his father enrolled young Yohanna at the monastery (the Azharite ecclesiastic school, as Golta likes to call it) at the age of 14. Though the boy had known destitution and adversity in the village, life in the monastery was no Garden of Eden. It was fraught with other hardships -- the absence of parental warmth, distress, anxiety, a nonexistent social life and meagre food. His poor background was another reason his superiors seized upon to victimise him, but the promised heavenly reward of priesthood, and its earthly benefits, made him persevere in his studies. He graduated as chaplain at the age of 23.
Bishop Golta is very outspoken and doesn't mince words. He smiles innocently, and says: "People are wrong to think that the priest has a poor, tiring and difficult mission, devoted to prayer and fasting. On the contrary, the priesthood can be very profitable if he takes it as a career. It is prestigious (people respect him, genuflect to him and kiss his hand) and lucrative (he is paid for saying mass, visiting houses, repeating oft-rehearsed words). Since Amon and the ancient Egyptian monks, throughout the world there has never been a needy man of religion."
Although Golta does not conform to the great majority of his colleagues in teaching passivity and humility to his parishioners, two of his brothers, fervent practicing Catholics, are constantly at loggerheads with him, finding fault with the priestly establishment and the inconsistent behaviour of priests with their teachings. Bishop Golta appreciates these arguments and says they do not in any way alter or diminish his love for his bothers, but regards these as "discussions between strong minds".
His first appointment was a two-year assignment in Bardanouha, a small village in Minya province. His enthusiasm at meeting his new parishioners immediately gave way to mortification. His first impression was that the village had not changed since Ramses II. He arrived riding a donkey, which was the only means of transportation available in the area. He found the church in ruins, and the house he was given was infested with crawling insects. The villagers were 90 per cent illiterate, living on agriculture and bee-keeping. Trying to improve their status, he started by inviting villagers of both creeds to afternoon classes. His project was nipped in the bud, as he was met with strong opposition from one source, and complete apathy from another.
Expecting more from life than his situation, he enrolled at the Faculty of Arts of Cairo University in 1959. This proved more tedious than expected, as he would trek to Cairo every week, riding his donkey then boarding the train. He mentions endless sleepless nights spent studying by the light of the lampposts at the Bab Al-Hadid train station, as he could not afford the price of a hotel room, none of his colleagues would take him in for the night and he did not want to impose on his relatives. He was happy at the university, felt no embarrassment going to lectures wearing his cassock, and was welcomed easily by students and professors alike. Mohamed Shukri Ayyad and Soheir El-Qalamawi were the two professors who left the strongest impression on him. After years of struggling with studies and work, he obtained his PhD in Arabic language and Islamic studies in 1977.
Together with his ecclesiastic duties, he taught Arabic at the American University in Cairo and French literature at the Academy of Arts' Institute of Theatrical Arts. It took him great effort and several discussions with his superiors before he succeeded in obtaining a post teaching Islamic studies at the Catholic Faculty of Theology (a subject that was previously taught by foreigners only) to would-be priests.
Bishop Golta's strongest wish is that joint religious teaching be initiated in all schools at the preparatory level. He says: "There is no fear in either knowledge or truth. Both religions teach the same basic principles; it is only the practice that is different." He asserts that learning to respect both creeds will only bring people closer, and adds: "I was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give a series of lectures about Christianity at their institute for diplomats. The lectures were very well received, the discussions fruitful and enlightening and none of the attendees had any qualms or changed his/her religion. The result was definitely a better understanding of their fellow countrymen's faith."
During Ramadan 1998, Bishop Golta contributed an article to Al-Ahram entitled "Christian meditation" in which he wrote: "I bow with respect to the prophet of Islam, who elevated his country from a desert run by nomads to become a powerful nation, respected by the world." This article created a tempestuous reaction in several unexpected circles. Several of his parishioners were furious and wrote him aggressive, even threatening letters. One of the churches posted a sign on its door reading "Bishop Golta turns Muslim". A Coptic emigrant sent him a fax addressed to "Imam Golta". This reaction left him unperturbed. His answer was simply: "My religion teaches me to respect man, not only the one who agrees with me. I respect my fellow countrymen and the religion of my country." On the other hand, a French Catholic magazine translated the article verbatim, expressing its wish that Christian/Muslim dialogue follow this example. Bishop Golta also says that his superiors in the Vatican did not disapprove of this article. He was merely following their example, after all: in one of the Vatican's publications, Pope John Paul II was photographed kissing a Qur'an presented to him by a Saudi Arabian delegation. "Where is the blasphemy in that?" he asks.
Golta believes that, "on the political and social levels, religion has become a tool used by various bodies to serve their purpose. Nowadays religion is very rarely referred to as the communion between God and man; it has become a vehicle to exploit others." He deplores fundamentalism in both creeds, which has turned religion from its original principles, and adds: "It is sad that playing on the poor man's simplicity and lack of knowledge, enemies have succeeded in influencing and altering the peaceful nature of some ordinary Egyptians, encouraging them to carry out criminal acts."
Napoleon wrote in his memoirs "L'Egypte est le pays le plus important du monde" and Bishop Golta adds: "Napoleon was neither naive nor stupid. His statement is 100 per cent correct. Egypt will definitely rise from its torpid state to occupy its illustrious place in the world once more. Fundamentalism will be eradicated with the improvement of the economy."
A student once asked Bishop Golta at the end of a lecture: "Which religion do you think will prevail in the future?", to which the bishop replied: "The religion that will provide food, dignity, freedom, equality, justice and brotherhood to its people." This, he explains, is also Muslim dogma. He quotes a verse from the Qur'an, to the effect that "God is with the pagan country, if it is just." He asserts that "religion is here to serve mankind, not vice versa. The exalted concept of religion is being misconstrued. Society has made a religion of its worldly traditions and a tradition of its religion."
Bishop Golta remembers with great love and respect the Revolution of 1952. "Gamal Abdel-Nasser will always be a symbol of Egypt's renaissance, the conqueror of imperialism and the champion of the poor and down-trodden. The nationalisation of the Suez Canal, the Egyptianisation of foreign commercial enterprises and land reclamation, were all dreams that came true through him." During that period, the country was united, and one never heard words like "terrorism" or "fundamentalism"; instead, people spoke of development, free education, culture, and industrialisation.
The sewing and knitting workshop attached to his church in Shubra is open to all the girls of the neighbourhood, irrespective of their faith. A new department has also been installed to teach the rudiments of computer science, free of charge, to the young people of the area.
Bishop Golta has written six books in Arabic and French. His autobiography Qaria Gharb Al-Nil (A Village West of the Nile) is a sociological study of village life, suffused with love and respect for the poor of his country.
National unity plays a big role in his life. He spares no effort in his attempts to encourage various Christian factions to join the interfaith dialogue. He proudly mentions two of his brothers who fought in the 1973 War; one, Camille Thabet, was martyred on 18 October. War, however, is not the only struggle he sees as valid: Bishop Golta displays his patriotism and love of his fellow Egyptians in his own way -- on his cassock.
(photo: Randa Shaath)
