Critical hours for St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai

New developments appear to be emerging even within the Sinai monastic brotherhood following the delays of recent hours in the case of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai.

As reported by Greek newspaper Ta Nea , according to information obtained, the Greek government had expected yesterday to receive the decision of the brotherhood and its abbot, Archbishop Symeon, on whether to accept the agreement with the Egyptian government concerning the monastery’s future institutional and legal status. However, at the last moment, an additional extension until the coming Sunday was requested. The reason reportedly given was that “further time is needed for internal deliberations,” owing to Symeon’s prolonged illness.

In this case, however, only four days would remain for consultations to jointly finalize the definitive text (“the finishing touches,” as competent sources emphasized), which would then be sent to Egypt ahead of the October 24 deadline.

The available time is reduced to just four days because October 24 falls on a Saturday, while the preceding day, Friday, October 23, is a holiday for Muslims. Therefore, any response from the brotherhood would have to be submitted by…