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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Focus Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters In the footsteps of Moses
By Nadia Abou El-MagdPope John Paul II concluded his three-day visit to Egypt by fulfilling his lifelong dream of visiting Mount Sinai, on top of which, according to the Bible, Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. The Pope had described the first leg of his pilgrimage, that will take him next month to Jordan, Israel and Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, as "the coronation" of a 22-year papacy that featured 90 foreign trips, including Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Lebanon.
The Pope had originally wanted to start his pilgrimage in Ur, an ancient city in Iraq traditionally held to be the birthplace of Abraham, who is revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. He was unable to make the trip for political reasons.
The Pope had also wanted to be accompanied by representatives of the three religions at Mount Sinai, as a symbol of reconciliation between the three monotheistic faiths, which also did not materialise.
During the visit to Mount Sinai, the resilient Pope drew strongly on the religious legacy of the land and mingled past with present to talk about a hopeful future for all. "In this year of the Great Jubilee, our faith leads us to become pilgrims in the footsteps of God," the pontiff told some 1,500 well-wishers and followers who greeted him on Saturday.
Upon his arrival in Cairo two days earlier, the Pope had said that his visit to Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai "will be a moment of intense prayer for peace and for inter-religious harmony". He continued, "To do harm, to promote violence and conflict in the name of religion is a terrible contradiction and a great offence against God."
Under a huge pink-blossom almond tree and a giant olive tree, the pope took his seat in a white gilt-edged chair mounted on a platform. When he stood up he did so by supporting himself with a cross-shaped cane. But the 80-year-old Pope appeared to be stronger and his English words less slurred than when he was in Cairo. The crowd started to chant, "John Paul II, we love you," and he responded by grabbing the microphone and saying, "John Paul II, he loves you too".
A military plane had flown the Pope to St Catherine Airport. Police and plain-clothes agents lined the 20-kilometre desert route from the airport to the 1,500-year-old Greek Orthodox monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. The 2,285-metre-high mountain summit was capped with snow.
Huge portraits of the Pope and Vatican flags decorated the road leading to the monastery. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," read a banner in Arabic and Italian in front of the platform.
The Pope was offered cuttings of the overflowing bramble that monks at the monastery have no doubt is the same burning bush sighted by Moses. "This holy mountain rises like a soaring monument to what God revealed here. Here he revealed his name. Here he gave his law -- the Ten Commandments of the Covenant. But what is this law? It is the law of life and freedom," the Pope told the crowd outside the monastery.
Hands on his face, the Pope knelt at a church altar inside the monastery and prayed, surrounded by Greek Orthodox monks and Roman Catholic clerics. However, the Catholic clerics were not allowed to pray with him and other Catholic visitors were kept outside the monastery's walls.
The monastery was founded in 527 AD, during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian. It was named in the 9th century after Saint Catherine, the martyr of Alexandria who converted to Christianity in the 4th century and was beheaded for accusing the emperor of idolatry.
The pope, praying close to the relics of St Catherine inside the monastery, removed his ring and brought it to the saint's finger bone and part of her discoloured skull before kissing it and putting it back on his own finger, in accordance with tradition.
"Having done so, the Pope has broken the Vatican's decree of the 1960s that denied that Catherine is a saint," one of the 25 monks who live in the monastery told Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity. "He [the pope] had asked to pray here, but we left the platform before prayers began as we can't pray together," the monk continued.
Archbishop Damianos, the head priest of St Catherine, who spent 40 years eyeing the holy summit, told reporters that "it will be very clear to everyone that the Pope is not the leader of non-Catholic Christians".
Father Justin, 50, while emphasising the differences between the two churches, told the Weekly that "the fact that he came here is very significant -- the Roman Catholic Church came to a place which is the very embodiment of the Greek Orthodox Church". The two churches disagree on the issue of papal infallibility and supremacy. This explains why the monks gave the Pope a reserved welcome.
However, the sentiment of the mainly Coptic Orthodox crowd was different. "For me, he is a symbol of Christianity and Jesus Christ. I feel I met with Jesus Christ today," accountant Hoda Raflah, 33, said.
Merchant Adel Wadie Benyamin, 38, came all the way from Upper Egypt "to pray and be blessed by the Pope". Benyamin was wearing the traditional Upper Egyptian garb.
As the Pope left, a guitar-backed choir from Cairo sang a prayer in Arabic: "Our Lord is God, and God is one."
