Pope Francis to visit Egypt April 28-29

CAIRO - 18 March 2017: Pope Francis will visit Egypt in late April upon an invitation from Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, according to a statement released Saturday by the president’s office.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church will meet with al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb at the Sheikhdom headquarters in Cairo. He also will meet with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the statement added.

Pope Francis will also pay a visit to the Catholic Church in Cairo.

“Egypt is welcoming its great guest… and looks forward for this visit [to help] strengthen the message of peace, tolerance and inter-faith dialogue among people,” said presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef in the statement.

The Vatican confirmed the Pope will visit on April 28-29 in a statement released Saturday by Greg Burke, Director of the Holy See Press Office.

“In response to the invitation from the President of the Republic, the Bishops of the Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and the Grand Imam of the Mosque of Al Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed al-Tayeb, His Holiness Pope Francis will make an Apostolic trip to the Arab Republic of Egypt from 28 to 29 April 2017, visiting the city of Cairo,” Burke said in the

statement

.

In November 2014, President Sisi met with Pope Francis at the Apostolic Palace in Rome. Both sides discussed the resumption of dialogue between Al-Azhar and the Vatican by reactivating the Al-Azhar-Vatican joint committee for dialogue.

The dialogue was suspended in 2011 after the former Roman Catholic Pope, Benedict XVI, called for protecting Coptic Christians in Egypt following an attack in Alexandria, on the Mediterranean Sea, in 2011. On the eve of 2011 a bomb detonated outside Two Saints Church and claimed lives of 23 people, injuring more than 90 others.