Background:

Father Marqus ‘Azīz Khalīl talked about the issue of the Hanging Church and criticizes the Ministry of Culture in its stance regarding the issue. The interview was held in Arabic.

Side A:

The Hanging Church issue was focused on two main aspects; the reconstruction of the church and the actions of a minister. The reconstruction was competed in fifteen days which was a very short period of time. Furthermore, reconstruction was done by companies who are not specialized in reconstruction. So, many valuable artifacts of the church were lost, such as a famous grinder that was found at the bottom church. It was not taken care of until it was flooded with water and it was destroyed. Also, there was a roman fortification within the church that eroded after the constant usage of chlorine on the stones. There was also a famous Roman painting that hung on the wall which  was lost during the restoration process.

Father Marqus tried to contact the Minister of Culture, Fārūq  Ḥusnī, the Prime Minister and President  Ḥusnī Mubārak. He also wrote articles on the incident to grab the officials’ attention on what was happening to one of Egypt’s landmarks. A journalist called Amal ʿUthmān started attacking Father Marqus and condemning him for his words. They accused him of being an American spy because he lived in the United States for a while.

Father Marqus criticized Fārūq Ḥusnī for not standing up for the Christians when certain allegations and insults were made on Christianity in a magazine called al-ʿUsūr-al-Jadīda (The New Age). Father Marqus responded to those insults through articles that he wrote in his column in al-Wafd newspaper. Fārūq Ḥusnī put more restrictions on the restoration process of the Hanging Church as a sort of punishment to the articles written in al-Wafd. He also issued a statement that all tourists would be charged an entrance fee at all of the ancient churches in Cairo.

Nevertheless, Father Marqus filed a lawsuit against this statement and he won the case. The verdict stated that no entrance fees shall be issued on churches, mosques or synagogues. 

Although, Fārūq Ḥusnī was filmed in front of the church stating that he had cancelled his statement, and he continued to issue entrance fees on churches.

During the reconstruction process, the Ministry of Culture hired an Egyptian architect called Nabīl Sharābīn to work on the Hanging Church Project, and after several financial disputes, he quit the project. According to Father Marqus,  the ministry deceived Nabīl Sharābīn and told him that they will hire a famous Italian reconstruction specialist called Paulo Moro who turned out to be dead. Then, they said that they would hire a French architect called Andrea Mori but they ended up hiring the students of Paulo Moro. This confusion led to the aforementioned quarrel between Fārūq Ḥusnī and Father Marqus. In several meetings between both of them, Father Marqus discovered that Fārūq Ḥusnī had been lying on the funds that were given by UNESCO and other countries.

Futhermore, Father Marqus believed that the Supreme Council of Antiquities had no knowledge regarding the artifacts within the Hanging Church. ʿAbd Allah-al-Aṭār, who was responsible for the division of the Islamic and Christian artifacts, did not acknowledge the existence of the destroyed Roman painting. Father Marqus then revealed an article in al-Ahrām Newspaper by Kamāl-al-Malākh in November 1983 which talked about this Roman painting.  There was also another article written by Ahmad Abū Kafa that showed a picture of a painting in the Hanging Church with the title “This Picture Needs Renovation”.

Fārūq Ḥusnī formed a committee of unbiased college professors to investigate the Hanging Church issue. The committee promised not to meet with either the bishop or any of the others in charge of the artifacts. Father Marqus filmed the committee meeting with many of those in charge of the artifacts including the project manager who turned out to be the rapporteur of the committee. The committee was composed of members who were not compatible with the case. Most of the members of the committee were allegedly bribed and one of them was professor of Islamic History. This made Father Marqus file another lawsuit against this committee and some college professors decided to join his struggle against the government. Some of the professors came to a press conference that was arranged by Father Marqus to prove that the Hanging Church was in danger. A group of journalists and professors sent a telegram along with Father Marqus to President Ḥusnī Mubārak expressing their anger towards the Hanging Church issue.

Side B:

Father Marqus claimed that he had demanded that the church would be renovated so all of the floor would be built by tiles as it was originally built. However, the government changed the floor into wood and allegedly falsely accused Father Marqus of demanding the floor to be wood instead of tiles. After Father Marqus came forward with what had actually happened according to him, the ministry stated that it wanted to return the church to its origins. Father Marqus stated that the committee confessed that the walls were inclined and the columns were eroding after he showed them the walls.

Furthermore, he was asked about the stance of Pope Shinūdā regarding the Hanging Church issue. He said that there were many churches in Egypt and it is difficult for Pope Shinūdā to follow up with every situation in each church and Pope Shinūdā delegates this task to each bishop in each church. Fārūq Ḥusnī also believed that Pope Shinūdaā was not specialized in architecture to have an opinion regarding the matter. Father Marqus also clarified that if matters get out of hand they could reach out BishopYūḥana. Fārūq Ḥusnī tried to calm down the situation by cancelling entrance fees for Christians only. On the other hand, Muslims and tourists should pay the fees which could increase the segregation between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.

Father Marqus stated that he did not have any contact with institutes abroad to talk about the Hanging Church issue. UNESCO did not intervene during the issue and it allegedly did not offer its support during the press conference that was arranged by Father Marqus. He welcomed any visits from the UNESCO to investigate the issue.

During the case of the entrance fees, Father Marqus took a fatwā from Shaykh Muḥammad Sayyid Ṭanṭāwī in 1996. The fatwā stated that neither Muslims nor Christians should pay fees to enter a religious institution.

Father Marqus commended some people who worked for the Hanging Church case. He talked about Dr. Muḥammad ʿAṣfūr who was the responsible lawyer of the entrance fees case. He also filed a lawsuit against the government regarding a bridge that was being built in front of the church. The bridge would block any means of transportation to the church including the fire and the police departments. Dr. Muḥammad ʿAṣfūr won both cases and paid all of the expenses. He was also grateful to a well-known journalist called Mushīra Mūsā who used to defend Father Marqus in al-Ahrām Newspaper and she allegedly showed both sides of the argument.

Although there were many disputes between Father Marqus and Fārūq Ḥusnī, Father Marqus agreed to meet with Fārūq Ḥusnī to reach a compromise and solve the issue of the Hanging Church.