The Existential Threat to Mt. Sinai Monastery
In this episode, we speak with Archimandrite Fr. Porphyrios Frangakis, the venerable Sinai Monastery’s spokesman in Greece, as well as Dr. Ronald Meinardus, a journalist, political analyst and commentator with extensive experience in both Egypt and Greece, where he’s lived and worked for many years.
The abrupt emergence of an existential threat to the continued existence of the St. Catherine Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, as it is officially known, in the form of an Egyptian appeals court ruling in late May, appeared as a “thunderbolt in a clear sky” of otherwise very warm and even strategic relations between Athens and Cairo.
As Meinardus wrote after the initial “shock” of the judicial verdict: “…for the Greek public and the Greek government, which sees itself as a guardian of global Orthodoxy”, the issue is particularly sensitive. A previous agreement ironed-out between the Greek government, which essentially represented the monastery and its dependencies, and the Egyptian side was never finalized, with the blame – according to Athens – lying with the latter.
For the Brotherhood of 1,500-year St. Catherine Monastery the court ruling, as detailed by Fr. Porphyrios, has many elements of unfairness, can serves as a legal means for the Egyptian state to acquire the monastery’s properties, lands and dependencies, especially the main compound.
Meinardus explains the intricacies of the issue, and possible effects on Greek-Egyptian relations.