Pope Francis flies to Cairo in historic visit

CAIRO – 28 April 2017: Pope Francis has departed Rome in a flight to the Cairo International Airport for a two-day visit at an invitation from President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

The visit marks the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Egypt and the Vatican.





The leader of the Roman Catholic Church will meet with Sisi in Cairo-based Ittihadyia palace on Friday, after which an open meeting will be held between the pontifical delegation and Egyptian officials.

The Holy Father, then, will head to al-Azhar Sheikhdom, the headquarters of Al-Azhar in Cairo, where he will meet with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb to discuss inter-faith dialogue efforts.

Following the two religious figures’ meeting, Pope Francis and his delegation will head to Al-Azhar Conference Center to participate in the closing session of Al-Azhar International Peace Conference, which kicked off Thursday with representatives of Islamic and Christian religious institutions and a large number of politicians and public figures.

At the conference, Tayeb will address the attendees, then the Pope will deliver his speech.

In the evening, the Holy Father will be a guest of honor in a celebration held by President Sisi at al-Massah Hotel, where thousands of public figures will participate. Both the Pope and Sisi will deliver speeches.

After the event, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church will visit the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassiya District of Cairo, where he will meet with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Both Popes will deliver speeches at the St. Peter and St. Paul's churches, both located in the vicinity of the Cathedral.

At the end of the first day of his visit, the Pope will go to the Vatican embassy in Cairo, where he will be received by around 300 young people. He will then speak to them from his balcony.

During his second day, Pope Francis will lead the holy mass at the Air Defense Stadium at 10:30 a.m. He will then visit the Seminary College of Coptic Catholics in Maadi district, southern Cairo.

Ahead of his arrival, Pope Francis

said

in a video message he is coming to Cairo as a friend and a “messenger of peace,” to “offer a valid contribution to interreligious dialogue with the Islamic world and to ecumenical dialogue with the venerated and beloved Coptic Orthodox Church."

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 on two churches in Alexandria in 2011 that claimed the lives of 23 people.