The date 22 December 1958 marked the day the first issue of Watani hit the news stands in Cairo. In November 2008, Watani celebrated its Jubilee with a gala dinner in Cairo. The guest of honour was Pope Shenouda III.
The date 22 December 1958 marked the day the first issue of Watani hit the news stands in Cairo. In November 2008, Watani celebrated its Jubilee with a gala dinner in Cairo. The guest of honour was Pope Shenouda III.
Everyone waited expectantly for the Pope to speak, his word being the final in the series of speeches at Watani’s Jubilee celebration.
Youssef Sidhom had warmly thanked the Pope for coming; as well as the bishops, officials, and all public figures present, and the founders of and contributors to Watani. He had strongly reminded that Watani was no mere paper; it was a mission. “I was no journalist,” he said, “I am an architect by profession. I took an interest in Watani, as a paper founded and run by my father, because I realised it was there to fulfil a certain mission, to call for a cause I firmly believed in. But I must own that I absolutely enjoyed the work, joined the Journalists’ Syndicate, and carried on after my father.”
Earliest contributor to Watani
The Pope’s participation in the celebration made everyone especially happy; the Pope is one of the best-loved and respected figures in Egypt and it was no secret that his public duties might have prevented him from coming. The guests lined up on both aisles fringing the red carpet especially spread for the Pope, to cheerfully welcome His Holiness.
Pope Shenouda has been contributing articles to Watani for some thirty years, and even before, when he was yet Bishop Shenouda. This, as Sidhom, pointed out in his official welcome to the Pope, makes His Holiness the earliest regular contributor to Watani.
Pope Shenouda III lived up to his reputation; his famed wisdom and sense of humour enraptured the audience and drew cheerful laughter and wide applause. He praised Watani as a successful newspaper that, against all odds, managed to survive and thrive for 50 full years, a feat which places it among a few suchlike on the Egyptian press field. His Holiness expressed admiration of the wide and objective coverage of women’s issues in Watani and remarked that the paper’s female journalists outnumbered their male counterparts. He said he appreciated the fact that Watani printed a special corner for children.
The worst harm
The Pope commented on Mr Sidhom’s editorials, especially the “Problems on hold”, advising prompt follow-up of these problems. Talking of problems on hold, he said, swiftly brings to mind the building of churches and all the obstacles involved. “People tend to think the problem is in the Hamayouni Edict which dates back since the Ottoman period and places in the ruler’s hand alone the approval of building places of worship for non-Muslims,” the Pope explained. “But the worst harm is not done by the edict,” he said, “but the notorious Ten Conditions of al-Ezabi Pasha, the deputy to the Interior Minister in 1934. These are ten rules for the approval of the building of any church; the least that can be said of them is that they are unjust and oppressive. Despite incessant Coptic demand to reconsider these rules, they were never altered. “One of these conditions stipulates that no church may be erected in the vicinity of a mosque,” he said. “Yet in Egypt, every church has a mosque as its neighbour, meaning that the mosques were built after the churches. When we commented to officials that mosques are being built next to the churches they said ‘but this is a show of fraternity!’ Obviously, fraternity goes in one direction where the Ten Conditions are concerned.”
This article was printed in Watani International on 30 November 2008
WATANI International
22 April 2012