A Coptic Orthodox priest was stabbed to death on a street in Cairo last week.
Fr Samaan Shehata had been walking through a poor area of the city when he was attacked. A man has been arrested, Associated Press reported.
Christians in Egypt have faced a surge in attacks this year, with a series of suicide bombings, generally the work of ISIS, killing more than 100 people.
Cardinals at odds over Pope’s decree on liturgy
Two cardinals have offered markedly different interpretations of how much authority the Pope’s motu proprio, Magnum Principium, gives to local bishops’ conferences.
The papal document gives bishops’ conferences greater say over the translation of liturgical texts, so that the Congregation for Divine Worship will have less authority to study and approve the new translations.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference, said the motu proprio was a “huge relief”.
He hinted that the German bishops would continue to ignore a proposed new translation of the Mass that was more faithful to the original Latin text – that is, in line with the 2001 Holy See instruction Liturgiam authenticam. The bishops have long resisted the new translation despite pressure from Rome.
The cardinal said: “Liturgiam authenticam was a dead end. Rome is charged with the interpretation of dogmas, but not with questions of style. Now, thanks to Magnum Principium, episcopal conferences enjoy a much greater freedom.”
He added that the present German translation dating back to 1976 wasn’t “that bad” and that a liturgical commission would discuss the matter at its next meeting.
But Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s liturgy chief, said the confirmatio was “by no means a formality”. Instead, it “presupposes and implies a detailed review on the part of the Holy See”, including the ability to refuse assent unless certain modifications are made.
For instance, he said, if consubstantialem Patri was translated as “one in being with the Father”, then the Holy See could impose the translation “consubstantial with the Father” as a “condition sine qua non of its confirmatio of the entirety of the Roman Missal in English.” He made the remarks in the French Catholic journal L’Homme Nouveau.
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