Thursday 11 May saw the two Popes: Catholic Pope Francis and Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, meet at the Apostolic Palace in Rome. Pope Tawadros, accompanied by a senior delegation of Coptic clergy, is on an official three-day visit to the Vatican that started 10 May.
Yesterday, 10 May, Pope Tawadros joined Pope Francis in his general audience at St Peter’s Square where a Coptic choir sang a few of the Coptic Church’s most famous hymns before the two Popes spoke extolling the bond of love and friendship that binds them.
Pope Tawadros joins Pope Francis in general audience in St Peter’s Square
Fullness of heart
Today in the Apostolic Palace, Pope Tawadros again spoke of the love and prayer between the two Churches and their prelates. He expressed his great joy at being with Pope Francis, saying: “I greet you not only with a handshake, but with the fullness of my heart.
“I diligently keep the promise we made in my last visit to you, to keep you in my private prayers every day. I pray with you for the Lord’s Church on earth, that He might anchor it firm to the end of times, forever singing His heavenly praises.”
Reverting to his cherished topic of love which he described as the major path to perfection and the only way to God who is Himself Love, Pope Tawadros said: “Our role is to be like Him, to offer unconditional love to one another and to the whole world.” He congratulated Pope Francis on his Apostolic Constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium” which, he said, takes care of all human aspects.
Looking unto Jesus
Pope Tawadros moved on to the topic of ecumenical dialogue, stressing that this dialogue between the Coptic Orthodox and the Catholic Church is ongoing, based on love, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith” (Hebrews 12: 2).
“On 10 May 1973,” the Coptic Pope said, the heads of our Churches signed a declaration by which they agreed to form a committee tasked with conducting joint studies in several fields, so as to be able to proclaim together the Lord’s message needed by today’s world.
“We thank God for the ongoing work of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches; we had the honour of hosting their most recent plenary meeting at Logos Center in Egypt’s Western Desert monastery of Anba Bishoy in January 2023. Next year we celebrate their 20th meeting.
“The path of dialogue is long,” Pope Tawadros said, “but it is safe. It is guarded by two shores: the love of Christ and the love we have for one another. So whatever challenges we face, we confront them with that protective love.”
The 21
The saints are among the main stays of our Churches, Pope Tawadros went on to say. “Their long line started with St Peter, St Paul, and St Mark, but it has gone on through history and is still extending. Our Synaxarium [the book of daily commemorations of the saints and martyrs] never ceases to include new names of those who remained faithful to the end in their witness to Christ.
“The Coptic Church has canonised the 21 Libya martyrs [20 Copts and one Ghanaian who were in 2015 beheaded by Daesh, the Islamic State (IS), on a beach in Sirte, Libya, for refusing to deny their Christian faith. They died with the audible mention of “My Lord Jesus” on their lips, as revealed in the video footage posted by their executors on the Internet].
“Today, I offer you relics that had been soaked in their blood when it was shed in the name of Christ, that they may be remembered in all Churches, for us to know that ‘we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12: 1).
“The 21 have become contemporary witnesses of our faith, that the world may know that our Christianity has not been relegated to history, but is of ‘yesterday, today, and forever’ (Hebrews 13: 8).”
Pope Tawadros then gifted Pope Francis with a box containing parts of the orange jumpsuits which the 21 martyrs had been dressed in for their beheading, and three of the cords that had been used to tie their hands.
The relics of the 21 had been handed to Egypt in 2018 by Libyan authorities, and are now kept in a shrine built for them at the church of Martyrs of Faith and the Nation in the village of al-Our in Minya, some 250km south of Cairo, which had been the home village of 13 of the martyrs.
Pope Tawadros also gifted Pope Francis with a painting of the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt.
An altar in their name
For his part, Pope Francis gifted Pope Tawadros with part of the relics of St Catherine of Alexandria, in addition to a collection of the books he had written.
Speaking of the 21, Pope Francis said that these Christian men who had already been baptised with water and the Spirit, had on their martyrdom received baptism by blood. “They are our saints, the saints of all Christians, all sects and Christian traditions.
“They are those who ‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’ (Revelation 7: 14). They are the faithful congregation of God. I will build an altar in their name.
“I thank the Lord our Father who gave us these brave brothers. I thank the Holy Spirit who have them the strength to stand firm in holding onto Jesus Christ even unto shedding their blood in His name.”
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