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CWN - Pope Francis has arrived in Egypt for a two-day visit, which will be highlighted by a Friday address to an inter-religious conference hosted by Al Azhar University.

The Pope’s flight from Rome arrived at the airport in Cairo in the early afternoon. He was greeted there by Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattat al Sisi, and by a delegation of the nation’s religious leaders. From the airport, he traveled to the presidential palace for a courtesy visit. Then he traveled to Al Azhar, where he met with the institution’s leader, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, in advance of the afternoon conference.

During the flight from Rome to Cairo, the Pope followed a custom of papal trips, sending telegrams of greetings to the heads of state of the countries over which he flew: Italy and Greece.

References:

• Apostolic Trip of the Holy Father Francis to Egypt (28-29 April 2017) – Welcome ceremony (Vatican press office)
• Apostolic Trip of the Holy Father Francis to Egypt (28-29 April 2017) – departure (Vatican press office)
• The Latest: Pope Francis arrives at Al-Azhar (AP)

CWN - Pope Francis offered Mass on April 25, the Feast of St. Mark, for Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The Church in Alexandria traces its origin to St. Mark, and the Mass took place three days before Pope Francis’s apostolic journey to Egypt.

During the Mass—attended by members of the Council of Cardinal Advisors—the Pope preached on evangelization, calling on the faithful to pray for the grace to go out of themselves in order to proclaim the Gospel with humility.

References:

• Pope Francis: Gospel must be proclaimed with humility (Vatican Radio)

CWN - Pope Francis has issued a video-message to the people of Egypt on the eve of his apostolic journey there.

“With a joyful and grateful heart I will come in a few days’ time to visit your dear homeland: cradle of civilization, gift of the Nile, land of sun and hospitality, where Patriarchs and Prophets lived and where God, Clement and Merciful, the One and Almighty, made His voice heard,” the Pope said.

“I am truly happy to come as a friend, as a messenger of peace and as a pilgrim to the Country that gave, more than two thousand years ago, refuge and hospitality to the Holy Family fleeing from the threats of King Herod,” he continued. “I am honored to visit the land visited by the Holy Family!”

The Pope added: "I hope that this visit will be an embrace of consolation and of encouragement to all Christians in the Middle East; a message of friendship and esteem to all inhabitants of Egypt and the region; a message of fraternity and reconciliation to all children of Abraham, particularly in the Islamic world, in which Egypt occupies a primary position. I hope that it may also offer a valid contribution to interreligious dialogue with the Islamic world, and to ecumenical dialogue with the venerated and beloved Coptic Orthodox Church.

Our world, torn by blind violence, which has also afflicted the heart of your dear land —needs peace, love and mercy; it needs workers for peace, free and liberating people, courageous people able to learn from the past to build a future without closing themselves up in prejudices; it needs builders of bridges of peace, dialogue, brotherhood, justice, and humanity."

References:

• Videomessaggio del Santo Padre Francesco in occasione dell’imminente Viaggio Apostolico in Egitto (28-29 aprile 2017)

CWN - A Syriac Orthodox bishop in Lebanon has expressed confidence that two Orthodox prelates who were kidnapped in Syria in 2013 are still alive, despite a lack of information about their whereabouts.

Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Boulos Yazigi, were seized by rebels in Syria in April 2013, while traveling just outside Aleppo. No public information has ever been obtained about their fate.

Speaking on April 22, however, Orthodox Bishop Daniel Kourie of Beirut said that to be best of his knowledge “the two bishops are still alive.” He said that a commission he leads has “knocked on every door” in search of information about the kidnapped prelates, to no avail, but will continue the search.

References:

• Beirut Bishop Kourie says the two bishops abducted in Syria in 2013 are still alive (AsiaNews)
• Syrian Christians hold out hope for kidnapped bishops, priest (CWN, 4/20/15)

CWN - In a message of Easter greetings to Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, Pope Francis said that “Christians are called to proclaim the Risen One together.”

The Pope’s message emphasized the hope that springs from Christian faith and “enables every man and every woman to look at their lives with new eyes and a new heart, even in circumstances marked by sadness and difficulties.” The Pope’s encouragement comes at a time when Egyptian Christians have been victims of violence, with Pope Tawadros himself apparently the target of a suicide bomber.

“May Easter—that we Christians celebrate the same day this year—instil into our churches a growing desire for an ever greater solidarity in proclaiming the Gospel and serving those who are in need,” the Pope wrote in the message, which was hand-delivered to the Coptic prelate by the apostolic nuncio in Egypt, Archbishop Bruno Musaro.

Pope Francis will meet Pope Tawadros in Cairo later this month, when both are scheduled to appear at a peace conference hosted by Al Azhar University.

References:

• Pope Francis: to Tawadros II, “Christians are called to proclaim the Risen One together” (SIR)

vatican.va - The Holy Father has appointed as bishop of the eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Chicago of the Ukrainians (United States of America) His Excellency Msgr. Venedykt (Valery) Aleksiychuk, M.S.U., transferring him from the titular see of Germaniciana and the office of auxiliary of the archieparchy of Lviv of the Ukrainians.

Msgr. Venedykt (Valery) Aleksiychuk, M.S.U. was born on 1 January 1968 in the village of Borshchivka, in the region of Rivne, Ukraine. He attended the major seminary of Drohobych and on 29 March 1992 he was ordained a priest.

In 1993 he was received in the Univ Holy Dormition Lavra of the Studite Rite and on 21 December 1995 he gave his first vows. He obtained a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.

He exercised his ministry in the parish of Bystrytsia (deaconry of Drohobych); in Belarus in Polock, and in the in parish of Vitebsk (1994-1996); and in Canada (1996-1999). He has served as Igumeno of the Lavra of Univ (2000 and re-elected in 2005); member of the commission of the Major Archbishop for Monasticism (2004); and administrator of the parish of St. Nicola Peremyshlany (2004). Since 2007 he was head of the secretariat of the Council of Monks of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; president of the liturgical council and president of the major superiors of male religious institutes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

He was elected as auxiliary bishop of Lviv of the Ukrainians on 3 August 2010, and was consecrated on the following 5 September.