Pope Asks for Unity Against Fanaticism During Cairo Visit
Pope Francis urged Muslim leaders to teach their followers to renounce religious extremism during his papal mission to Egypt last weekend. The visit was meant to show solidarity with Egypt's persecuted Coptic Christian minority, which suffered from three church bombings in December and on Palm Sunday.
On Friday, the pope made his way to Egypt's prestigious al-Azhar University and its adjunct mosque, which is considered an important center of Islamic learning. He embraced the Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayyeb and addressed participants in the International Peace Conference, CBC News reported.
There, he cited ancient Egypt as the center of civilization, knowledge, and open-minded education. These qualities, he said, are needed today to fight the "barbarity" of religious extremism among the youth. He called on religious leaders to unmask violence that masquerades as sanctity.
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"Let us say once more a firm and clear 'No' to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the name of God," the Holy Father said. "To counter effectively the barbarity of those who foment hatred with violence, we need to accompany young people, helping them on the path to maturity and teaching them to respond to the incendiary logic of evil by patiently working for the growth of goodness," the pope went on to say.
Pope Francis also met with the country's authorities, including President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to express support to the Egyptian government's crackdown on the militants that are responsible for the bombings. The pope said that Egypt had a unique role to play in "vanquishing all violence and terrorism."
The pope then headed to the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral to meet its spiritual leader, Pope Tawadros II. The two religious leaders presided over an ecumenical prayer service at St. Peter's Church in central Cairo, which was hit by a suicide bombing in December that killed 30 people who are mostly women.
On Saturday, Pope Francis celebrated a jubilant open-air mass for around 15,000 people in Cairo's Air Defense Stadium where he delivered a sermon about tolerance and co-existence before meeting with local bishops. He capped the visit with a prayer meeting with priests, the religious, and seminarians.
