? Question What is your explanation of the investigation about the existence of some arms in a church of Upper Egypt

A Question:

What is your explanation of the investigation about the existence of some arms in a church of Upper Egypt, and how does it fit with national unity? ^[1]

The Answer:

There are no arms at all in any church or any monastery, whether in Upper Egypt or Lower Egypt, at all. If there were arms, we can ask the Ministry of Interior Affairs: Did they capture or sees any Copt having an arm, or did they find any arm in any church? Nothing happened, only rumors. And how can a church have any arms while our Lord Jesus Christ blamed St. Peter when he tried to use a sword and asked him not to use a sword? Those who take by the sword should be taken by the sword also. We don’t use arms in Christianity, but we use love.

If any person may imagine that there was a sword, he may say, in what church, in what place, is there any case in the court or not?

^{[1] A question answered by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in a lecture entitled “Religious Brotherhood and National Unity – A Lecture at the American University” dated April 26, 1995.}