Cairo crowds flock to see pope
Cheering faithful gather for words of love and tolerance
CAIRO // Cheering crowds greeted Pope Francis at a Roman Catholic mass in the Air Defence Stadium on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital yesterday.
Thousands waved flags with Egyptian and Vatican ensigns and released balloons in the Vatican’s yellow and white colours as the pope was driven around the track before his sermon.
“The only fanaticism believers can have is charity,” he said. “Any other fanaticism does not come from God and is not pleasing to Him.”
The pope was continuing his message of peace on the second day of his visit aimed at fostering peace between Muslim and Christian communities.
“Do not be afraid to love every- one, friends and enemies alike, because the strength and treasure of the believer lies in a life of love,” he said.
Pope Francis’s visit, the first by a pope in more than 17 years, came three weeks after attacks on Coptic churches killed at least 45 people in the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Tanta.
Rather than scare people away, the attacks actually encouraged more to attend mass. “The incident happened at a very holy time for us and you could see it brought our community together,” said Amir Obeid, 38. “After the attacks, the churches were full of people.” The Cairo native said the Pope’s visit and his message were crucial for the country.
“This was very important for Egypt,” Mr Obeid said. “First it showed the attacks had nothing to do with Islam and secondly it showed what Christianity is really about – loving everyone, including your enemy.”
He said that just as any minority in any nation was, to some degree, discriminated against, Christians in Egypt also had to deal with prejudices. But this was not the norm.
“You will find extremists in any religion but it is a matter of statistics – as there are many more Muslims in Egypt there are a greater number of fundamentalists,” Mr Obeid said. Muslims in Egypt outnumber Christians nine to one, with about nine million Christians who are predominantly Copts.
Mr Obeid said he did not need to read the Quran to know Islam was not a violent religion.
“I see it in the way I am treated by my Muslim friends and the community,” he said.
The Pope’s visit signalled another big step in improving relations between Rome and Cairo, which began to break down more than a decade ago.
In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI angered many in the Muslim world when he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor’s negative comments about Islam. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi began rebuilding relations when he visited the Vatican in 2014 and invited Pope Francis to Egypt.
Relations strengthened further last year when Dr Ahmed Al Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al Azhar, accepted the pope’s invitation to the Vatican.
Dr Al Tayyeb’s visit was reciprocated yesterday when Pope Francis became the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit the more than 1,000-year-old Al Azhar, the global seat of Sunni Muslim learning.
After yesterday’s mass, Pope Francis had lunch with Catholic bishops. He then visited St Leo the Great Coptic Catholic Patriarchal Seminary in the suburb of Maadi where he was joined by priests, nuns and other religious leaders before his 5pm flight back to Rome.