Earlier this week, Zenit published an interview with a young Italian priest trained by the Neocatechumenal Way and now incardinated in the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt. (A PRIEST IN EGYPT - Father Orazio Patrone Gives an Outsider's View of Christian Life.) Reproduced below are his comments regarding the Coptic liturgy and penitential tradition, comments that echo many of the perjorative statements routinely made by liturgical progressivists against the Traditional Roman liturgy, and significant in the light of the Neocatechumenal Way's growing influence and involvement in the Eastern Catholic Churches.
In connection with this, our readers might remember that the Patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt, Antonios Cardinal Naguib, was the relator for the 2010 Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, which called for a major reform of the Eastern liturgies (see this as well). Emphases mine.
ZENIT: How are intense times, such as Lent and Easter, lived?
Father Patrone: The season of Lent is lived very intensely, with strict fasting, lived devotionally more than as an occasion of preparation for Easter. Perhaps this is dictated also by the strong influence of the Muslim month of Ramadan. As well, the sacrificial aspect of Good Friday is stressed more than the fundamental importance of the Easter Resurrection. In fact, the funeral of the Lord is celebrated with a very long liturgy as was the custom of the pre-conciliar Latin Churches. Its importance is seen in the fact that participation in worship on Good Friday is almost double that of what it is on Easter Sunday.
ZENIT: What do you intend to do for the Year of Faith and the New Evangelization?
Father Patrone: The Church in Egypt is very tied to her traditions, especially those in the liturgy, and has difficulty in entering the dynamism of the New Evangelization desired by Vatican II. On the other hand, there are attempts and openings especially by the Catholic side, which is attentive to and relatively involved in what happens in the West. This is demonstrated, among other things, by the opening, though slow, to charisms that emerged after the Council. In parishes there are now groups such as the Focolares and the Neo-Catechumenal Way, and other movements born in Egypt with the intention of a renewal in the sense of a New Evangelization.
There is scarcely any clear reference here (and in the rest of the article) to the fact that the Coptic Christian people have given a magnificent witness of suffering and martyrdom at the hands of Muslims for nearly 1,400 years, a feat that could scarcely have been possible without that people's demanding liturgical tradition and its long fasts. (One reference each to "sporadic" persecution and to "social" discrimination, and a couple of references to "fundamentalism", simply don't cut it.)
Egypt is also home to Byzantine and Armenian-Rite communities.
Egypt is also home to Byzantine and Armenian-Rite communities.
