It's back to Square One in Egypt on the question of divorced Christians re-marrying. In May, the Supreme Administrative Courtordered Pope Shenouda III to allow two Coptic Christians, in two separate cases, to remarry after divorce.

The Coptic church appealed, and now the Supreme Constitutional Court has overturned the earlier ruling and the church will be able, once again, to prevent its divorced members from remarrying.

In the earlier ruling, the administrative court decided that the "right to family formation is a constitutional right, which is above all other considerations". This, in effect, asserted the authority of the state over that of the church.

The church objected, claiming a right to manage its own affairs and decide who it will, or will not, marry. The Egyptian authorities initially sought to resolve the issue with promises of a newpersonal status law for non-Muslims which President Mubarak had reportedly ordered to be ready within a month (it wasn't).

Squabbling broke out over the content of the proposed law and last month a group of secular-minded Coptic lawyers protested against it.

Reporting the constitutional court's decision, al-Masry al-Youm says:

Coptic Archbishop Armia expressed his thanks to the Justice Minister, the presiding judge and members of the court on behalf of the Coptic Church for overturning the controversial decision.

"This historic verdict proves that we have a fair judicial system that does not interfere in Coptic religious affairs," the archbishop said.

Meanwhile, the Coptic church continues to interfere in the personal affairs of ordinary Christians.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 9 July 2010.