This story doesn’t fit the campaign focus, so I haven’t written a headline. Its main subject is the Coptic Catholic Church, which is in communion with Rome and is distinct from the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Oriental Orthodox Coptic Church appears only in passing, as a source of suspicion and of marriage-recognition requirements.

Josef Hanna, a 33-year-old priest of the Coptic Catholic Church, is spending several weeks in Bocholt, Germany, where he is a guest of the parish of St. George. It is his fourth stay in the western Münsterland. He thanked Father Matthias Hembrock for his hospitality and the people of Bocholt for their welcome, and he asked for prayers for his service “in the persecuted church in Egypt, the church of martyrs.”

Hanna said the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt has about 250,000 believers. It is in communion with Rome and is not the same as the Coptic Orthodox Church, which he described as having about 10 million members among Egypt’s roughly 100 million people. He said his community faces insults and harassment, not only from Muslims but also from Orthodox Copts. “We are a minority on which one likes to look down,” he said.

According to the article, Roman Catholic Christians have existed in Egypt since the 17th century, when European missionaries from the Jesuits and the Capuchins taught in Coptic villages. The Coptic Catholic Church was eventually founded, and the Coptic Orthodox Church viewed it with suspicion. The Copts regard themselves as the Christian descendants of the ancient Egyptians, and the article states that the Coptic Orthodox Church traces its origins to the Evangelist Mark. In 1829, the Ottoman authorities allowed Catholic Copts to build their own churches in Egypt for the first time.

Hanna also described a recent arrest. While renovating an old Catholic church a few years ago, he was taken into custody because he had not requested permission from state authorities. He spent two days in prison. He was released with a warning to refrain from such independent undertakings, after a ransom was paid from the St. George rectory in Bocholt. “Our situation is complicated,” he said.

Hanna described relations with his Muslim neighbours as mostly peaceful. He said that when his congregation holds its Christmas service, the Islamic mayor and the Islamic police chief pass by to send greetings. “Most Muslims are not fanatical. We live together as neighbours well. But there is also the phase, there is a tank in front of the bishop’s house for protection.” Relations with the Coptic Orthodox Church are more strained in some areas. He said the Orthodox Church does not trust Catholics and, for example, requires a Catholic partner in a mixed marriage to be confirmed again, because it does not recognise Catholic confirmation.

Hanna said he had his longest conversation during his stay in Bocholt with a priest of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which he said pleased him. For some time, Orthodox Copts have been gathering at the Catholic Church of St. Norbert in Bocholt, and the article reports that 25 Coptic families live in the city and its surroundings.

Hanna studied theology in Rome for four years because Egypt has no Catholic theological faculty. He is now a parish priest in his home diocese of Assiut, on the western Nile, and the bishop has entrusted him with the diocese’s youth pastoral work. His parish has 300 families, and he aims to visit each one once a month. “I like that. Family visits serve cohesion,” he said. The article notes that, despite discrimination, the Coptic Catholic Church has a good reputation for its social work, including care for people with disabilities and for neglected families. “All Egyptians, regardless of their religious and religious affiliation, benefit from it,” Hanna said, adding that the church wants to contribute to social cohesion in Egypt, “which is not always easy” (Matthew 25:35).

Hanna said he had wanted to become a Catholic priest, even though his parents were not initially pleased when he went to Rome to study. “I am the only son in the family. Thus the parent. My parents would have liked to have seen it if I had founded a family. But I wanted to be a man of the church.” He said with a smile that he has three sisters and that he and his parents share a happy family life.

Source: Read the original report (translated from German)