EGYPT: Coptic pope bans phone confessions

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Egypt’s Coptic pope has outlawed confessions over the phone for fear that state security agents might be listening in, a local newspaper reported this week.

‘Confessions over the telephone are forbidden, because there is a chance the telephones are monitored and the confessions will reach state security,’ the pope was quoted as saying in the independent al-Masry al-Youm daily.

Pope Shenouda III also forbade online confessions as they might be read by others.

“Confession through the Internet cannot be considered confession because everybody can read it and hence it will not be a secret,” added the pope.

Telephoned confessions are a relatively new practice -- only allowed for the last four or five years, Coptic bishop Marcos was quoted in a report by Agence France-Presse.

In the same press report, Marcos said that the pope also has banned monks from using cellphones.

‘The monk is supposed to be secluded from the world,’ he said. ‘But the mobile phone brings the world to him,’

—Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo