4 Stabilization of religious minorities in Rome, the center of Catholicism: the case of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox community – For teachers

Introduction

The case of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox community in Rome is extremely interesting and exemplary because it is an Orthodox Christian community with a long history not well known in the West. The community examined lives in the capital of Western Christianity and this aspect makes it unique.

Scientific denomination

The Copts are a minority Egyptian Christians in a Muslim context. Coptic means Egyptian, derived from the greek “aigyptios” from which fell the prefix "ai" and the suffix "ios", remaining “Gipt” or “Qipt”. The term "Coptic" also has a more ancient origin, is derived from the Egyptian "Ptah", the name of an important deity of Pharaonic Egypt.  The term "Coptic" is intimately linked to Egypt, because it indicates the people of Egypt who were Christians before the conquest of the Arab-Islamic (639 A.D.).“Coptic” was the name by which the Muslims called the Christian inhabitants of Egypt. So it became synonymous with the Christian Coptic Egyptian. The Copts, as opposed to the Egyptians, Muslims, proudly think they are the true descendants of the ancient Egyptians of the times of the Pharaohs.

Brief information about the Coptic Church

The Coptic church refers to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and is recognized as the apostolic church: according to tradition, it was founded by St. Mark the Evangelist during his preaching between 43 and 48 AD. It is one of the churches that is called pre-Chalcedonian or Orthodox Eastern and became detached from the Byzantine church and the church of Rome (still one and undivided church) during the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD), because of a theological dispute about the human and divine nature of Christ. Finally in 1973 it happened, for the first time after 451 AD, the mutual recognition between the Church of Rome and the Church of Alexandria on the occasion of the visit of Pope Shenouda III with Pope Paul VI in Rome.  At that time it was confirmed the common faith: " one nature of the incarnate Logos."
Often Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians are commonly called “Cops” because their churches were born under the jurisdiction of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, but they are not considered Copts, because they are not ethnic Egyptians. This is however a misnomer since both the Ethiopian and  Eritrean Churches, although daughter churches of the Church of Alexandria, are currently autocephalous churches (autocephaly means self-headed. Is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop, used especially in Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches). In 1959, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted its first own Patriarch by Pope Cyril VI. Since ancient times had developed dimensions of spirituality and liturgical practices specifications that differ significantly from those of the Egyptian Coptic tradition.
Furthermore, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church similarly became independent of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in 1994. In 1998, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church gained its autocephelacy from the Coptic Orthodox Church when its first Patriarch was enthroned by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.
Situation of the Copts in Egyptian society
Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are also negatively affected. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
The Coptic community has been targeted by hate crimes and physical assaults. In 2006 one person attacked three churches in Alexandria, killing one person and injuring 5–16. The life of the Copts in  contemporary Egypt is difficult. As an example we cite a number of international journals: in May 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported increasing "waves of mob assaults" by Muslims against Copts, forcing many Christians to flee their homes. Despite frantic calls for help the police typically arrived after the violence was over. The police also coerced the Copts to accept "reconciliation" with their attackers to avoid prosecuting them, with no Muslims convicted for any of the attacks. Time magazine reported on the fears of the Coptic population after the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The New York Times reported an increase in sectarian violence against Copts after Mubarak's downfall with an estimated 24 dead, 200 injured and three churches in flames.

The Coptic presence in Italy

The Coptic community in diaspora constitute a minority within a minority. Because it is a minority in Muslim lands. They migrate for religious and economics reasons. The condition of "migrant" is always difficult. Especially when the confession of faith is persecuted in their homeland, the land which one considers the legitimate successors of the ancient Pharaonic civilization, then the rightful "owners." Through the practice of liturgical music, Copts preserve and transmit their faith, language, culture, social hierarchies and the different roles related to gender,
For these reasons many are the Coptic community are in diaspora in the world. An important example is that of the Coptic community in Rome because Rome it is the center of Catholicism.

The Coptic presence in Italy is significant both numerically and institutionally. The Copts have been in Italy since1980. They are organized into two dioceses in Milan and Turin. The diocese of Milan is ruled by the Bishop Amba Kyrillos. His territory stretches from Lombardy to Triveneto, including Venice, and has a community of 14,000 parishioners. The diocese of Turin has the bishopric in Rome. It is ruled by the Bishop Barnaba el Soryani, and includes the territories of the rest of Italy, with about 6,000 parishioners. The Coptic community in Rome is the largest after the community of Milan. The Coptic Church has a very good relationship with the Catholic Church. During May 2013, for example, Patriarca di Alessandria Papa Tawadros (the) II has met the Pope Francesco (the) I.
In Rome, there are four churches: St. George Megalomartire, San Mina Megalomartire, The Church of the Apostle Mark, and the church of the Virgin Mary. This last one is the seat of the bishopric. The largest church is St. George that is attended by about 300 young people and 450 families. For this reason this community has been chosen for this research. The churches of Rome are located at strategic points in the city to meet the needs of the Coptic population.
Every church celebrates the Liturgy once or more times a week. There are also Liturgical and para-liturgical activities in which the churches are related to each other.
In this context the structure of the lessons of the liturgical hymns is very important. Every church provides a specific service to all the other churches, according to an annual calendar: for example, the church of St. George provides lessons to the children, the church of St. Mina to deacons.
This reality is strongly rooted in Italy. The Coptic community, which is in a diaspora context similar to the one in Egypt, respects a strong separation between the genders in the sacred space (images 4 and 5). This component is Eastern Christian, is in fact also present in the Byzantine world. The gender breakdown is not the result of Islamic influence.

Source analysis and comments

The images show some moments of liturgical rites at the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. George in Rome. Starting from the 1 you can see the presence of Arabic and Italian at the entrance of the church, this is a clear sign of the coptic presence in the diaspora. you may notice the large presence of children in the photos 2, 3, and 7, in particular, the photo shows 3 of the narthex of the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. George in Rome full of strollers during the liturgy of Palm Sunday 2014. This presence has  a historical origin: from the early twentieth century in Egypt spreads the "movement of the Sunday school" to preserve the Orthodox children from the influence of Catholic missionaries and to transmit the Coptic culture through the catechism, the study of liturgical chants and Coptic language. Religion becomes a vehicle for the transmission of cultural identity to the new generations, a tradition that has been handed down today.
In Italy, as seen from the source number 2, the languages used during the celebrations are arabic, Coptic, Greek and Italian. Arabic is the language of daily use in prayer, the Coptic language is only liturgical and in the diaspora context they use too the language of host countries to meet the needs of the second generation.

Intercultural and interdisciplinary information
(Social sciences and history of art)

The sacred space: the church

The Alexandrian rite, like the Byzantine rite, involves the separation of men and women in the sacred space of the church. It is often thought that the division between men and women in the Coptic Church is due to the influence of Islam, on the other hand is a more ancient Christian tradition that has been maintained in the Eastern rites.

The characteristic of the Eastern Christian churches is the iconostasis. This architectural element is not present in Western churches. The screen known as the iconostasis separating the sanctuary from the main body of the church is one of the main features of any Coptic church. The Coptic iconostasis is usually less completely composed of icons than the Eastern Orthodox one, although there will always be several. It is very often an open-work screen, usually made of ebony and sometimes inlaid with ivory like that in Saint Mary Church (Harat Zewila). These may be in geometrical patterns comparable to the secular screens, which are a feature of traditional Egyptian houses.
As a particular iconostasis’s example look at the cover image:  iconostasis’s central door (called Holy Door or Royal Door) of the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. George in Rome. The main features are: the embroidered icon of Saint George killing the dragon, the Egyptian wooden decoration and a verse of Psalm 83 in Arabic and Italian. That is a sign of diasporic nature of the church.