The associations of Al-Haq Fil-Hayat (The Right to Live), Al-Zawag al-Thani (Second Marriage) and Aqbat 38 (Copts of 38) all of which call for lenient divorce within the Coptic
The associations of Al-Haq Fil-Hayat (The Right to Live), Al-Zawag al-Thani (Second Marriage) and Aqbat 38 (Copts of 38) all of which call for lenient divorce within the Coptic Church, announced they will jointly hold an open-ended sit-in at the St Mark’s cathedral grounds in Abassiya, Cairo next Monday. Monday will be the day directly following the enthronement of the new patriarch of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, next Sunday.
Bassem Samir, member of ++Aqbat 38++ said that the sit-in will be quiet; each person will write his problem on a paper and hand it to Pope Tawadros; “We won’t speak to anyone except the Pope”, he said. He declared that they already sent many pleas to the late Pope Shenouda III but “he never got them. We hope that Pope Tawadros will open these files, solve our problems and look at our cases with an eye of mercy.”
Aqbat 38, who call for a return of the lenient 1938 bylaws for Coptic Orthodox family law which the Church adamantly opposes on grounds that it contradicts the Bible’s teachings, had been in constant conflict with the Church since they were formed some two years ago. At one point they had called for the application of Islamic sharia on grounds that it abrogates all other doctrines that came before it.
Watani International
16 November 2012