The leaders also reaffirmed their rejection of same-sex relations, stating their “firm position of rejecting all forms of homosexual relationships, because they violate the holy Bible and the law by which God created man as male and female, and the Church considers any blessing of such relations, whatever its type, to be a blessing for sin, and this is unacceptable.”
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by Pope Tawadros II, is one of the world’s oldest Christian denominations whose founding dates back to St. Mark the Apostle. The principal Christian church in Egypt (the word “Copt” is derived from the Greek word “Aigyptos,” meaning Egypt), the precise number of its members is unknown but estimated to be between 10 million and 20 million people out of a total Orthodox population of 260 million.
Although it describes itself as Orthodox, it is not in full communion with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Eastern Orthodoxy but remains united with the Ethiopian, Armenian, Eritrean, Malankara, and Syriac Orthodox churches, collectively known as the Oriental Orthodox churches. None of these churches accept the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and its definition of the “two natures” of Christ. Since the late 20th century, the Oriental Orthodox churches have sought to dialogue with Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy, which for centuries had considered them heretical.
Last year, dialogue appeared to have progressed to such an extent that the Vatican allowed the Coptic Orthodox to celebrate their own Divine Liturgy in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. The following month, in an unusual move, Pope Francis included 21 Coptic Orthodox faithful martyred by Islamic State in Libya in 2015 in the Roman Martyrology — an official list of martyrs, saints, and blesseds.
Ibrahim’s video statement came after some observers had said on social media that the statement made no specific reference to the Vatican’s Dec. 18, 2023, declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which allowed a “nonliturgical” and “spontaneous” blessing of same-sex couples. They also said it did not state that the decision to suspend the dialogue was related to the document.
The Coptic Orthodox leaders’ statement did not make any explicit reference to Fiducia Supplicans, but their reassertion in the text of their church’s teaching on homosexuality, firmly based on sacred Scripture, coupled with Ibrahim’s video message, made the cause of their suspension of dialogue incontrovertible.
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