Pope Francis Winds Up Trip To Egypt

Sisi, who declared a three-month state of emergency after the Palm Sunday church attacks, appealed for more worldwide cooperation to combat terrorism when he met Francis on Friday.

It was, said Coptic Catholic engineer Maged Francis, a “historic occasion“.

On Saturday Pope Francis told Egyptian Catholics that truly living the faith means ridding ourselves of hypocritical attitudes and focusing on the only obsession that counts: loving others, no matter how hard it is.

“We waved and waved and he actually slowed and stuck his head out”, she said, and the crowd chanted “Viva il Papa!”

ISIL has threatened more attacks against Egypt’s Christians, who make up 10 percent of the 92 million population and constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East.

“I would not be happy“, Trump said in a CBS interview for Sunday’s Face the Nation.

“In order to prevent conflicts and build peace, it is essential that we spare no effort in eliminating situations of poverty and exploitation where extremism more easily takes root, and in blocking the flow of money and weapons destined to those who provoke violence”, he said.

He made reference to Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform, but when it came to the moderate, pro-European, Emmanuel Macron, the Pope said he didn’t know “where he comes from”.

It’s time, around the world, to draw the line on what is good and non-violent as part of a religion and what is not, she said.

Pope John Paul II came to Egypt in 2000, a year before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that convulsed Western relations with the Muslim world.

Also on Friday, Francis met Coptic Orthodox patriarch Pope Tawadros II, and both attended an emotional service at the church attacked in the December suicide bombing.

“Egypt, in the days of Joseph, saved other peoples from starvation; today it is called to save this beloved region from a starvation of love and fraternity”, he said.

The crowd cheered him wildly, waving Egyptian and Holy See flags and swaying to hymns sung by church choirs.

Pope Francis celebrates a Mass for Egypt’s tiny Catholic community, at the Air Defense Stadium in Cairo, April 29, 2017.

Francis began the Mass as he did his address to religious leaders at Al Azhar conference center the day before, with a traditional Arabic greeting that again provoked instant applause: “Peace be with you”.

Francis urged worshippers to be good and merciful to fellow Egyptians and said, “the only fanaticism believers can have is that of charity“.

Francis of Assisi is something of a patron saint of the environment and he is known in Egypt for traveling here 800 years ago on a peace mission to meet with Islamic military leader Sultan al-Kamil during the Crusades.

He also urged for “unconditional respect for inalienable human rights such as equality among all citizens, religious freedom and freedom of expression, without any distinction”. It was also acknowledged that “the divine life is given to us and is nourished in us through the seven sacraments” and that “we venerate the Virgin Mary, Mother of the True Light”, the “Theotokos”.

Francis said that those who acted as though they were “Pharaoh” led them to ignoring their neighbors.

Francis is scheduled to return to Vatican City later Saturday.

On the case of Giulio Regeni, an Italian student and political activist who was living in Cairo, and whose body was discovered in January 2016 bearing signs of torture, that the parents asked the Vatican to get involved and it’s “trying to help” encourage Egyptian authorities to get to the bottom of what happened.

“For us Germans obviously that is a very, very serious term”.