By Orthodoxia News Agency-
Intensive monitoring of the issue concerning the challenge to the ownership status of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai, following the court decision of the Ismailia court, is requested by His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Faran, and Raitho, Abbot of the Monastery, in an interview he gave to Orthodoxia Agency.
While consultations for the Holy Monastery continue in both Greece and Europe, His Eminence sends a clear message that there should be no compromise for the historic Monastery, with substantial initiative from the Greek government. He also calls for a united response from the Orthodox Churches, because, as he characteristically states: “silence is guilt.”
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Interview given by His Eminence Archbishop Damianos:
Q- Your Eminence, I meet you during a very difficult period and trial for the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai and for you personally, as you are the Abbot of the Monastery and the spiritual father of its brotherhood, since the Monastery’s ownership status is being disputed.
Firstly, I would like to thank you for your kindness and your good disposition to come here to meet me and to hear not my opinion but the truth, a truth that truly wounds my elderly heart, which has gone through many storms to reach this point. Do not forget that since 1961, when I have been in the monastery, and especially since 1973, when I assumed the abbacy of the Monastery as Archbishop of Sinai, we have gone through many, mainly political, social, and other upheavals, and thank God, we have survived to this day.
Q- Do you feel persecuted from your monastery?
To this question, allow me to answer with questions. You live in a house you inherited from your parents, they from their parents, your grandparents, and you reach, in this way, through an imaginary chain of succession, back to the fifth century. If today, in 2025, some ill-intentioned person came and told you that, you know, this house you live in does not belong to you but belongs to someone else. What would you think of that? How would you react? What would you say to the photographs and the souls of your ancestors? Would there be any chance that you would question or not defend the truth you live and that was bequeathed to you? So, in some way, this is how we feel after the decision – that is, like tenants in our own home. That is why it is very difficult for us to accept it, not as a judicial decision, but as a judicial judgment that is vastly distant, at the opposite pole of reality, and especially of truth.
Q- In all the years you have been in the Monastery, have you had such problems regarding the ownership status?
Our Monastery was founded, as you know, in the fifth century. Its walls withstood hordes of barbarians and protected the fathers. Many times, the monks of our monastery bought the salvation of our monastery with their blood. Crusaders, Ottomans, Mamluks, Blemmyes, the great Napoleon, and many barbarian tribes tried to subjugate and alienate it. But this was not possible. The lamp of the monastery always remained lit. None of them ever questioned its ownership status. This has only happened today, in an era of justice and by a state of law that has seriously considered lawsuits from fundamentalist circles, which it fights daily.
Q- I would like you to tell us what, in your opinion, is the root of the problem. Where, in other words, does it all begin?
I think now that the situation is becoming clearer and it seems that the battle we are fighting does not concern barren land in the heart of the Sinai desert, but the court decision puts us in the very difficult position of contending with an aspiring project-endeavor called “Great Transformation” which threatens to ecologically as well as existentially annihilate our Monastery.
Q- Has the Egyptian government given you any guarantees that you will not have a problem with the ownership?
On the contrary. It deals with the issue judicially and only judicially, prioritizing the court decision and not committing to disregard it. On the contrary, its stance makes it strong. The Ismailia court is a small court that decides on such large issues as the issue of Sinai. Who initiated this judicial dispute? As is known, Ismailia was one of the centers of activity of the “Muslim Brotherhood” organization, which is a purely fundamentalist organization. Members of this organization initiated the lawsuits, and the Egyptian State service of the South Sinai Governorate, continued them, and the intended outcome, the dissolution of our Monastery, was completed by the court decision.
Q- Are you satisfied with Greece’s handling of the situation and your meeting with Mr. Tasoulas?
We are satisfied that the Greek government, for the first time, has focused and is seriously dealing with our problems. Since we do not judge intentions but results, we await the outcome of the negotiations to answer your question. The meeting with His Excellency the President of the Republic was successful and productive, as we invited him to the feast of our Holy Monastery and informed him about aspects of the issue-problem we are facing, he having already received the relevant information from the government.
Q- Do you believe something could have been done that hasn’t been done so far?
The Greek Government could have been more dynamic and cautious regarding the out-of-court settlement, because it acted with trust in the corresponding Egyptian Government, but reality disproved it, and we never learned why.
Q- How can the issue with the fathers’ passports be resolved so that they are not there only on a visa and are forced to constantly renew it? (I imagine this also entails risks for the future.)
I hope that this issue will be included in the bilateral negotiation and resolved permanently.
Q- What exactly are the lands and properties that are at risk?
Unfortunately, all of them. Our Monastery, the gardens we maintain for our sustenance, and even sacred churches that have been there since the Byzantine era.
Q- How do you view the activity for the Monastery’s rights at an international level?
We are pressured from all sides to internationalize our issue. However, we want to protect Egypt and the very capable President Sisi. Whatever has happened so far is independent of our will. That is, whoever acted, acted voluntarily. Our monastery reserves the right to speak substantively and communicate when required. For now, we remain silent!
Q- What does the moral support from the Greek people mean for the Brotherhood?
For us, after the help of God, Saint Catherine, and the Saints of Sinai, the love of the Greeks and all Hellenes is everything. It supports and strengthens us in our struggle. The Greek people, through their stance, understood what was at stake despite the various siren calls that tried to mislead them. We feel that all of Greece is by our side, waiting to hear us, to hear our truth, our anxiety, our pain, sharing with us our love for our monastery, since in this monastery, prayers have been offered and are being offered millions and billions of times for the whole world, especially for Hellenism. We will never forget their unanimous support, which we will ask for again if the course of this matter requires it. Our historical survival also has to do with the historical survival of Hellenism, of which we constitute its intangible southern spiritual boundaries. I want to say this: “Greek people, you are our courage!”
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