Today, at the Papal Residence in Cairo, a meeting was held for journalists of the Coptic file, hosted by His Holiness Pope Tawadros II.
The Media Centre of the Coptic Orthodox Church organized the meeting under the title “Let’s Work Together”.
H.H. opened the meeting with a speech during which he discussed a topic entitled “The Coptic Orthodox Church… Definition and Attributes”.
During which H.H. emphasized that the Coptic Orthodox Church is the oldest popular entity on the land of Egypt, founded in 68 AD upon the martyrdom of St. Mark in Egypt, who was one of the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he went to Rome and wrote his gospel, and the word gospel means good news.
He added: The Gospel of St. Mark is the shortest of the Gospels, and it was written for the Romans, pointing out that St. Mark entered Alexandria with a stick, which symbolizes support and care, and a cross, indicating the strong faith that he carried inside him, and that while he was on his way, his shoes were cut off, and he went to Anianus the cobbler, who became the first to accept the Christian faith in Egypt, and through this person Christianity spread in Egypt, the St. Mark was martyred at the hands of the pagans, and thus he is the first pope in Alexandria.
His Holiness referred to some information about the Popes of the Coptic Orthodox Church, including that Pope Kyrillos V is the one who sat the most on St. mark’s See and remained for more than 52 years, and that the shortest patriarch who sat on St. Mark’s See was Patriarch Yaroclus, for the duration of six months, and the shortest period in which St. Mark’s See was vacated was 4 days, and the longest period was 19 years.
H.H. pointed out that the clergy are the shepherds, i.e. priests who wear black, and at the same time they are part of the people of the Church, and that the Church is a popular entity, founded by the Lord Christ, who said:
“and on this rock I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18) .
H.H. noted that Christianity spread through five centers: Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Rome and Constantinople, and that the Church lived through three eras, and it is repeated in every era, the first of which is the era of education and the second is martyrdom, as the Egyptian Church presented martyrs of different groups and ages, and the third era is monasticism that began and spread throughout the world, and its philosophy is “Detachment from the whole and attachment to the One.” Of course, the “One” here is the Lord Christ.
His Holiness pointed out that these three eras presented 3 symbols of the best that man can offer, which are sweat (education), blood (martyrdom) and tears (monasticism).
H.H. emphasized that the church is the daughter of the homeland and a servant of the homeland, but it does not work in politics, and that participating in elections or drafting the articles of the constitution are considered patriotic actions. H.H. then added: The church serves the community by building schools or hospitals or adopting social and service initiatives, pointing out that the number of Christians in Egypt is close to 15 million citizens, and that the number of its children outside Egypt is close to two million citizens spread in more than 100 countries.
H.H. described what is happening in Sudan as the worst crisis, and he is praying that God will save it from this great crisis.
He stated that the church was founded abroad during the time of H.H. Pope Kyrillos VI in the countries of Kuwait in 1962, Canada in 1964, America in 1968, Australia in 1969 and England in 1971.
These were the first five seeds and these churches were formed through the Egyptian Coptic immigrants, and currently there are more than 500 Coptic Orthodox churches outside Egypt. The farthest church is in Fiji, two hours away from Australia by plane, and that the church has churches in many countries, with about 600 bishops serving and priests and monks, and that the Coptic Church owns 10 monasteries outside Egypt.
H.H. explained that the Church’s role is to gather people and that it has preserved them from dissolving into Western societies, which is the greatest service that the Church has provided to the homeland, and therefore the Church is considered anywhere as an embassy to Egypt.
Since the era of the departed, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, we have been keen on every visit to visit the Egyptian embassy in any country we visit.
H.H. continued: The church has begun to establish many hospitals and schools in many countries and it has established the largest hospital for the treatment of AIDS in the state of Kenya. We serve the country away from politics, so we refuse to establish any parties affiliated with the church.
His Holiness warned the rumor spreaders and the media that do not present the facts through the verses mentioned in the Book of Isaiah:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
(Isaiah 5:20).
H.H. added: In the book of Revelation, the book says about those who will be outside the kingdom:
“But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
(Revelation 22:15)
H.H. hinted that he was not preoccupied with lies and rumors, and that journalists should raise a critical mind and that the person has the ability to differentiate.
H.H. stated that the Coptic Orthodox Church is a “Mother” and that when we find a problem in one of the sister churches, we must intervene, as is currently happening with the Church of Eritrea.
H.H. added that his visit to the Vatican is a visit of love, and that the delegation accompanying His Holiness includes 10 fathers, and that he will deliver a speech at the general meeting of His Holiness the Pope of the Vatican on the 50th anniversary of the visit of the departed, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in 1973.
His Holiness mentioned that the visit to the Vatican will be on the 10th, 11th and 12th of May, and that on the 14th and 15th of the same month there will be a pastoral visit to the Coptic people in Rome, and the Catholic Church gave us the Church of San Giovanni to pray with the Copts there according to our Coptic Orthodox rite, and we thank them for this love.
He noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia allowed us to pray on occasions in the halls of a hotel, and in the last time, H.E. Metropolitan Mark, the Metropolitan of Shubra Al-Khaimah, prayed, and performed the Christmas Mass on the evening of January 6, pointing out that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia bears witness to the great openness that the Kingdom is witnessing.
H.H. pointed out that the war between Russia and Ukraine is useless, and that it is a war between countries and not between churches.
The meeting also included a speech by H.G. Bishop Yolios, General Bishop of Old Cairo and Social Services during which he presented a vision of work in the Bishopric of Social Services and its development in Church and society.
Also, Fr. Boules Halim, Director of the Training and Conferences Department at the Media Center, addressed the topic “The Role of Media in Building Community Awareness”, while Mrs. Barbara Soliman, Director of the Papal Office for Projects, spoke about the role and objectives of the office through the files it handles, the most prominent of which are the fields of education and health.
Mrs. Odette Riyad and Engineer. Pierre George, Responsible of the Official Website of the Coptic Church, presented the sections of the site, which presents its content in five languages: English, French, Italian and Greek, in addition to the Arabic language.
The meeting was concluded with a speech “Let’s Work Together”, by Fr Mousa Ibrahim, the church’s spokesperson.
H.H. presented certificates of appreciation to the attendees, and some souvenirs, then photos were taken with His Holiness.
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