Pope sends encouragement to Coptic leader

April 21, 2017

In a message of Easter greetings to Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, Pope Francis said that “Christians are called to proclaim the Risen One together.”

The Pope’s message emphasized the hope that springs from Christian faith and “enables every man and every woman to look at their lives with new eyes and a new heart, even in circumstances marked by sadness and difficulties.” The Pope’s encouragement comes at a time when Egyptian Christians have been victims of violence, with Pope Tawadros himself apparently the target of a suicide bomber.

“May Easter—that we Christians celebrate the same day this year—instil into our churches a growing desire for an ever greater solidarity in proclaiming the Gospel and serving those who are in need,” the Pope wrote in the message, which was hand-delivered to the Coptic prelate by the apostolic nuncio in Egypt, Archbishop Bruno Musaro.

Pope Francis will meet Pope Tawadros in Cairo later this month, when both are scheduled to appear at a peace conference hosted by Al Azhar University.

 

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Further information:

• Pope Francis: to Tawadros II, “Christians are called to proclaim the Risen One together” (SIR)