Jubilee of Eastern Churches begins with tributes to Coptic Christians, Pope Francis
May 13, 2025
The Jubilee of the Eastern Churches, part of the 2025 jubilee year, began on May 12 with celebrations of the Divine Liturgy in the Ge’ez rite, the Armenian rite, and the Coptic rite.
The Vatican newspaper reported that 5,000 pilgrims are taking part in the jubilee, which includes a May 14 audience with Pope Leo in Paul VI Audience Hall.
Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, CM, the head of the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and Archbishop Menghesteab Tesfamariam, MCCI, the head of the Eritrean Catholic Church, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Ge’ez rite. Patriarch Ibrahim Sedrak, who leads the Coptic Catholic Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in the Coptic Rite.
At the latter liturgy, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, said that “God does not look at the numbers, but at the quality of the faithful.”
“You are very ‘expert’ in martyrs, because you have had many of them, and even recently some Copts were killed and became famous only for having had the fortune of being known; others were not known,” the prefect continued, adding:
Pray intensely because you too need hope. Every time, wherever we look, we feel surrounded by the possibility of evil ...
They were terrible years, of massacres, but you made it. It must have been the blessing of the Holy Family of Egypt, it must have been the great saints and theologians, it must have been a strong identification with a land of Egypt from which your name derives, your deep faith that moved mountains.
Patriarch Sedrak paid tribute to Pope Francis as a “shepherd of wisdom who, starting from the places of fragility, has reached the wounded hearts in the Church and in humanity.” The Patriarch highlighted the late Pontiff’s efforts on behalf of “reconciliation with our common home” and for peace. He also prayed for Pope Leo: “may the Spirit guide him as he guided Saint Peter in the early Church.”
The upcoming 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, the Patriarch added, “calls us to remain steadfast in our faith with courage and wisdom and to be witnesses of Christ in our turn.”
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