Antonios Naguib

Antonios I Naguib (in Arabic أنطونيوس الأول نجيب) (born 18 March 1935 in Samalut) is the Coptic Catholic Patriarch emeritus of Alexandria, and a Cardinal.

From 1953 to 1958, he studied at the interritual seminary of Maadi, Cairo and, later, at the Pontifical Urbaniana College, Rome. He then went back to Egypt and was ordained to the Coptic Catholic priesthood in 1960. After being pastor for a year at Fikryak, Minya, he returned to Rome and obtained a licentiate in Theology in 1962 and in Scripture in 1964. He was Professor of Sacred Scripture in the Maadi seminary from 1964. He worked with a group of Protestant and Orthodox specialists preparing an Arabic translation of the Bible.

He became Bishop of Minya, Egypt in 1977, a post he held until he resigned in 2002. On 30 March 2006 he was elected Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts, after Patriarch Stéphanos II Ghattas retired from the patriarchal office in March 2006, because of age. Patriarch Antonios Naguib received ecclesiastical communion from Pope Benedict XVI on 7 April 2006.

In April 2010, Patriarch Antonios Naguib tendered his resignation to the Holy Synod upon reaching the legal age of 75. But the Holy Synod refused the resignation and asked him to continue his duties as head of the Coptic Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict named him Relator General (recording secretary) of the October 2010 special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, held at the Vatican.

Naguib was made a cardinal patriarch at the consistory of 20 November 2010, and until the creation of Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi as Cardinal on 24 November 2012 was the only incumbent Eastern Catholic Patriarch eligible to vote in a papal conclave.

On 13 October 2011, after attacks by the military against peaceful protesters in Cairo and reported denials of Christian building permits, Cardinal Naguib urged fraternity among Egyptians of different faiths and expressed his confidence in the country's transitional government.^[1]

In February 2012, and after the Patriarch's health deteriorated, the oldest in the ranks of bishops, Kyrillos William, the Bishop of Assiut, was assigned as assistant to the patriarch to run the church in case of incapacity of the Patriarch. Cardinal Naguib had suffered a stroke on 31 December 2011^[2] suffering from a partial paralysis and has difficulty in pronunciation. Although his health improved slowly with the help of physiotherapy, he had to undergo further brain surgery. He resigned as Patriarch on 15 January 2013.

Cardinal Patriarch-Emeritus Naguib was one of the cardinal electors at the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. During the procession and oath taking prior to the doors being shut, Patriarch Naguib was bareheaded and wore predominantly black vestments proper to the Coptic Catholic Church since he was one of the four cardinal-electors during that conclave who were from outside the Latin Church. The other three cardinal-electors from outside the Latin Church were Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop George Alencherry, and Syro-Malankara Major Archbishop Baselios Cleemis and they too, wore distinct vestments proper to their respective churches.^[3]

Cardinal Naguib reached age 80 on March 18, 2015, and lost the eligibility to participate in future conclaves.

See also

• List of Coptic Catholic Patriarchs of Alexandria

References

External links

• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church biography of Antonios Naguib
• Catholic-Hierarchy.org page on Antonios Naguib
• GCatholic.org info