Posted on 02/25/2011 7:59:02 AM PST by Alex Murphy
The Catholic bishops of Egypt will not call for the repeal of Article 2 of the nation’s constitution, which declares Islam to the state religion.
Thousands of Coptic Christians marched in Cairo on February 20 to demand the removal of Article 2 from the Egyptian constitution. Article 2 reads: “Islam is the religion of the state. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia).”
At a recent meeting, Egypt’s Catholic bishops decided “we will never ask for its abolition because it would [injure] the feelings of Muslims,” said Coptic Catholic Bishop Kyrillos William of Assiut. “In the future we will ask to add some assurances for the non-Muslim communities.”
Bishop William traces much of the Muslim-Christian tension in Egypt to an incident two years ago when a Coptic Orthodox layman “committed an act of sacrilege against Islam”-- an incident that led to the brutal murder of his parish priest.
0.3% of the nation’s 79.1 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics. An estimated 5-10% of Egyptians are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."
“injure their feelings!” “ask for assurances!”
They have no feelings. Assurances from them can’t be trusted.
Making kissy-face with terrorists just gets your face dirty and annoys the hell out of the terrorists.
The Christians have built stone walls to protect themselves from attacks from Islamofascists. As they’ve been targets of recent killings, does the army go after their murderers? No, it decides that the Christians have been building these walls without the proper permits, and has been tearing them down, so that they could be killed at any time by the mobs. And you’re sitting by your safe desk 7,000 miles away, criticizing them for not wanting to push political points which will further inflame the mob.
Nice.
“841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”
Is this really a correct quotation? I find it hard to believe anyone could read the new testament and believe there is even an argument you can make with a straight face that Muslims, who deny the crucifixion and the resurrection, will be saved.
There has to be more to this story.
Did you consider the percentages of Catholics and Orthodox in Egypt.
3/20 of a percent — Catholic
5-10 percent Orthodox
Matthew 7:15-20
Try the link, and see for yourself.
It's not making any assertion that they are, merely allowing for the possibility that some might be. After all, God can save anyone he wishes, can't he?
Catholics don't believe in an blanket assurance of salvation no-matter-what for Catholics, to say nothing of anyone else.
Even if the Copts were to ask as well -- which they won't -- it wouldn't happen.
AB, absolutely.
There is.
They're saying "we're not quite ready for martyrdom, just yet".
Who is?
OK, some of us cyber-warriors maybe, but for those who walk-the-walk on a daily basis and who get to witness Islamic brutality up close and personal, peaceful coexistence and just surviving until tomorrow, tend to take priority.
Whether statements like this will achieve that end, is another question of course, but I can see where they're coming from.
I’ve heard the Coptic number as high as 15 to 18 percent. Do we really know?
The Copts as a group must be the bravest Christians on this earth.
IMO, Copts are the only true Egyptians. The Arab Muslim majority is merely descended from Mohammedan conquerors out of Arabia.
This is where the church is wrong. Islam is a satanic moon worshiping death cult and has no basis in either the Jewish or Christian traditions.
>> Is this really a correct quotation? I find it hard to believe anyone could read the new testament and believe there is even an argument you can make with a straight face that Muslims, who deny the crucifixion and the resurrection, will be saved <<
The quotation is correct. And taken out of context, I can see how the phrase, “the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator” could cause confusion. But I could see how, out of context, one might think it means, “God includes Muslims among those he plans to save.
So what is the context? The next subsection on the same page is entitled, “OUTSIDE THE CHURCH, THERE IS NO SALVATION”
It explains,:
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337
848. Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men.”
So, what it really means is that IF a muslim devoutly seeks God, but has not heard that the Church is the source through which salvation flows, he may nonetheless, possess faith in a Christ whose name he does not know, and thus be saved.
Who, then, can be saved?Catholics can be saved if they believe the Word of God as taught by the Church and if they obey the commandments.
Other Christians can be saved if they submit their lives to Christ and join the community where they think he wills to be found.
Jews can be saved if they look forward in hope to the Messiah and try to ascertain whether God’s promise has been fulfilled.
Adherents of other religions can be saved if, with the help of grace, they sincerely seek God and strive to do his will.
Even atheists can be saved if they worship God under some other name and place their lives at the service of truth and justice.God’s saving grace, channeled through Christ the one Mediator, leaves no one unassisted. But that same grace brings obligations to all who receive it. They must not receive the grace of God in vain. Much will be demanded of those to whom much is given.
-- concluding paragraph (formatting mine), from the thread Who Can Be Saved?, article by Cardinal Avery Dulles
I might further add this comment about Islam:
Living in a society that was once the heart of Christianity, the people of the Islamic Middle East frequently possess many Christian beliefs as a sort of “folk religion,” which has been maintained through tradition, despite the fundamentalists who seek to purge such tradition from their faith because they believe that only their holy sacred scriptures possess any essential truths.
These folk-religion muslims can’t properly be called crypto-Christian because they certainly have adopted heretical notions about the nature of Christ from the dominant culture around them. On the other hand, they cling to whatever Christian faith they can wedge between the oppressive doctrines of Islam. The iconoclasm of the fundamentalists is aimed largely at erasing their faith.
Those who know firsthand of such people’s faith can can simultaneously hold that a merciful God could recognize their love for Him, and also the statements of that 14th-century patriarch of Constantinople, that there is nothing new in Islam that is good.
Vatican II is.
THE RITES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH -- There are many!
| 3.ALEXANDRIAN | Coptic | Coptic | Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts | Egypt |
ALEXANDRIAN. The liturgy used by the church in Alexandria in Egypt is attributed to St. Mark the evangelist. This church became known as the Coptic church because Copt is the Arabic and Greek word for Egyptian. Before the Moslem invasion in 641 the Copts fell into heresy due to their rejection of the Council of Chalcedon (451). Through missionary work, some of these were brought back into union in recent years. Today there exists in Egypt the Coptic rite which is Orthodox and the Coptic rite that is loyal to the Bishop of Rome.
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