Secretary of the Coptic Orthodox Holy Synod, Bishop Raphael, said in a statement delivered to al-Misrī al-Yawm, after Christmas mass in the Coptic Church in Alexandria last Monday, that Pope Tawadros II will maintain the policy of his predecessors late Pope Shenouda and before him Pope Kyrillos of preventing Copts from visiting “the occupied Jerusalem” as long as it is occupied by the Zionist state of Israel. He added that this decision is a position adopted since long by the Coptic Orthodox Church.  

The Archpriest added that “the withdrawal of the Church from the Constituent Assembly is initially because the Constitution is inferior to the cultural and historical legacies of a country like Egypt. It is true that some Constitutional articles served initially the Coptic Church, he added, however, the Church has never sought her own personal interests on the expenses of Egypt’s wellbeing.”  On rumors on building a Coptic state within the state [of Egypt] is purely fictitious and cannot be related or applied in practice, besides our rejection of such ideas as Egyptian Christians. "We live all over Egypt," he said. On what concerns the revival of elections, after three years since they had been stopped within the Milī (Lay) Council in the Egyptian governorates, especially after a break for about three years, the Archpriest commented that nothing has been decided on this issue, yet.

In response to a question about the fears of Copts from Islamists, Bishop Raphael said, that the anxiety of the Christians is not of Islam as a religion but of the “militants” as he described the ultraconservatives, who “resort sometimes to violence,” he added (Rajab Ramadān, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Jan. 9, p. 9). Read original text in Arabic.