The Coptic Church in Assiut has announced that the pastoral visit of Pope Tawadros II to Assiut, which was scheduled to start on 11 January, has been postponed on advice of the Pope’s doctors, since the Pope is suffering from extreme exhaustion.
The Pope’s marked tiredness was obvious on Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at the Cathedral of the Nativity in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital some 50km east of Cairo. The Pope had to stop several times as he delivered his sermon, then asked for a chair to continue while seated because he could not remain standing. He then asked Anba Danial, Metropolitan of Maadi and Secretary-General of the Holy Synod to take over from him presiding over Mass.
Next morning, Pope Tawadros checked into the hospital upon doctors’ advice, in order to conduct medical investigations. Doctors pronounced him in good health but suffering exhaustion, and advised that he should rest.
The Pope’s anticipated visit was to be his fourth to Assiut. It was scheduled to start on 11 January, and would have included consecration of a number of churches, and participation in the golden jubilee celebration of the Clerical College in the monastery of the Holy Virgin in Muharraq some 20km north of Assiut; Muharraq is among the sites on the Trail of the Holy Family Flight into Egypt. The Pope was also scheduled to visit Dronka on Assiut’s Western Mountain, another spot where the Holy Family lived in a grotto there, and the rock-hewn Hanging Monastery of Mar-Mina.
The Pope’s programme also included a visit to the church of Mar-Girgis (St George) in Assiut, which had been burnt by Muslim Brother supporters on 3 July 2013, but was rebuilt and restored by the Egyptian army; also a number of seminars and get-togethers with the clergy and congregation of Assiut Diocese.
No alternative date has yet been set for the postponed visit.
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