While on his pastoral visit to Denmark and Sweden, which started Saturday 12 September, Pope Twadros II was received by Queen Margrethe II at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen.
The meeting concluded the Pope’s three-day visit to Denmark, during which he met the Coptic congregation in Denmark. Sunday was his first day in Copenhagen; he presided over Holy Mass at the church of the Holy Virgin and St Mark there. He also held a prayer meeting which was followed by a community dinner.
In Sweden, Pope Tawadros paid a courtesy visit to Bishop Pierre Eckerdal of Gothenburg who received him for dinner. The two prelates exchanged gifts, Pope Tawadros’s was a modern Coptic icon of the Pantocrator. The Pope said Holy Mass at the Gothenburg Cathedral, and spoke of the 10 ‘woes’ which Jesus Christ addressed to the scribes and the Pharisees, all of which rest on vanity and hypocrisy. According to the Pope, only a solid relation with the Bible can enable a man or woman to overcome vanity.
The Pope then went to Stockholm where he consecrated the altar of the Church of Pope Kyrillos and Mar-Mina, and preached about the concept of consecration; how to consecrate hearts to the Lord. This makes men always remember Heaven, he said.
Pope Tawadros is expected back in Cairo Wednesday 24 September.
Watani International
22 September 2015