(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis (click here for audio) condemned the terror attack on a Coptic church dedicated to St. George – Mar Girgis – in the city of Tanta, north of Cairo, which killed upward of two dozen people and injured nearly 60 others.
“[W]e pray for the victims claimed this [Sunday] morning,” Pope Francis said in remarks to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Angelus with him following Palm Sunday Mass, during which news of the attack - the first of two on Coptic targets Sunday, occurred.
“To my dear brother, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II,” Pope Francis continued, “to the Coptic Church and to all the dear Egyptian nation I express my deep condolences. I pray for the dead and the injured, and I am close in spirit to the family members [of the deceased and injured] and to the entire community.”
Pope Francis went on to pray, “May the Lord convert the hearts of the people who are sowing terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make and traffic weapons.”
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Cairo at the end of this month.
The United States should offer to assist with security for his visit to Egypt. He is a man of great faith. He openly loves the people and he will not be deterred. The USA needs to accept the fact when it bombs others there is retaliation within the Muslim world.
It wasn't only Christians that died on Palm Sunday; there were men of a different faith that perished as well.
April 10, 2017
By Bethan McKernan
55-year-old (click here) Nagwa Abdel-Aleem was one of three officers to lose their lives in Palm Sunday bombings claimed by Isis.
Egyptians have been paying their respects to a woman police officer who died when she stopped an Isis suicide bomber from entering a
Coptic Church in Alexandria.
At least 44 people were killed in two bombings targeting Egypt’s Christian minority on Sunday - the first at St George's Church in Tanta, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) north of Cairo, followed by the explosion during Mass at Alexandria’s Saint Mark’s Cathedral.
Nagwa Abdel-Aleem, 55, was guarding the entrance to the church when the suicide bomber attempted to pass her security check. Unable to proceed any further, he detonated the bomb at the main gate. It is thought the attacker's primary target was Pope Tawadros II, who had left the site a few minutes earlier.
The United States should offer to assist with security for his visit to Egypt. He is a man of great faith. He openly loves the people and he will not be deterred. The USA needs to accept the fact when it bombs others there is retaliation within the Muslim world.
It wasn't only Christians that died on Palm Sunday; there were men of a different faith that perished as well.
By Bethan McKernan
55-year-old (click here) Nagwa Abdel-Aleem was one of three officers to lose their lives in Palm Sunday bombings claimed by Isis.
Egyptians have been paying their respects to a woman police officer who died when she stopped an Isis suicide bomber from entering a
Coptic Church in Alexandria.
At least 44 people were killed in two bombings targeting Egypt’s Christian minority on Sunday - the first at St George's Church in Tanta, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) north of Cairo, followed by the explosion during Mass at Alexandria’s Saint Mark’s Cathedral.
Nagwa Abdel-Aleem, 55, was guarding the entrance to the church when the suicide bomber attempted to pass her security check. Unable to proceed any further, he detonated the bomb at the main gate. It is thought the attacker's primary target was Pope Tawadros II, who had left the site a few minutes earlier.
