My brother His Holiness Pope Francis… Your Graces… the honorable audience
Christ is risen … Truly He is risen.
Today, my joy is great in being among you, and I shake hands with you with my heart, not just with my hand. I rejoice with you in Christ who is risen from the dead, and I thank you for allowing us the opportunity to make this visit. I am grateful to be on this land, in which the apostles preached, and which was inhabited by St Mark, the Apostle who brought the faith to Egypt. From it, many went out on a long journey to preach the name of our Lord Jesus to the whole world as a Redeemer and Savior
Let us contemplate on what St Paul the Apostle wrote from here in Rome to the Ephesians “That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height”(Ephesians 3:17+18). It is love, beloved, the permanent foundation and the main path to perfection. And the only way to God, because God is love, and everyone who knows Him walks the steps of love with Him and to Him.
I view the world as a big circle centered by God, and each of us stands at a point on the circle, and whenever we get closer to God, the center of the circle, we find ourselves getting closer automatically, and we understand each other because of our closeness to the divine light, and our love increases day by day because of our closeness to God’s love.
It is a long path that we walk together towards God, who said, “I am the way” (John 14:6), to the extent that during certain periods we were called the followers of the way because we follow Him. Thus, “Enoch walked with God.” (Genesis 5: 24). And “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6: 9), and Abraham, David, and the two disciples of Emmaus, and many others. Everyone who walked with him and took him as a companion on the road rejoiced.
As for the breadth, length, depth and height of this love, it is infinite because it is from God and cannot be measured, it is our responsibility to become like Him and offer unconditional love to each other and to the whole world.
One of the signs of the path of love for every human being is your issuance of the new constitution, “the proclamation of the Gospel,” on which I congratulate you, because it testifies to the attention to all aspects of humanity.
During the dialogue sessions between the two Churches: the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, we are walking on the path of love, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
In our modern era, mutual visits began between our Churches since 1962, then the visit of Pope Shenouda III to the See of Rome in May 1973, hosted by His Holiness Pope Paul VI. During this visit, His Holiness received part of the relics of Saint Athanasius during the celebration of the 16th anniversary of his departure. He was the Coptic Pope of the fourth century. His Holiness Pope Paul VI said in his festive speech, “Saint Athanasius is a father and teacher of the universal Church.”
On May 10, 1973, the two heads of our churches signed a joint statement in which it was agreed to form a joint committee, “its mission is to direct joint studies in the fields of: church tradition, patristic science, liturgies, theology, history, and scientific issues, so that we can declare together the means of the gospel that correspond to the authentic message of the Lord and to the needs and hopes of today’s world.”
We thank God for the continuation of the theological dialogue of the Joint International Committee between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (Oriental), which honored us by conducting its last meeting at the Logos Center, the papal headquarters in Egypt, and which we will celebrate next year its twentieth meeting.
This is how the dialogue started and continues. Dialogue is a long but safe path, protected by two sides of love, the side of Christ’s love for us and the side of our love for each other. Therefore, no matter what challenges we face, love protects us, so that we continue our path towards mutual understanding, with prayer as our principle in order to support each other. Bearing our responsibility and putting before us the words of John the Beloved, “Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
And just as the saints are one of the main pillars of our churches, starting with the apostles Peter, Paul, and Mark. We now also write in the book of the church synaxarion new martyrs who preserved the faith and held witness to Christ and did not relent in the face of torture and persecution, thus setting a living example for us in the true testimony of God “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29).
These are the 21 martyrs in Libya, we recognize them as saints in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and we celebrate on the 8th of Amshir every year – which corresponds to the 15th of February – The Feast of the Martyrs of the Modern Era who were martyred during recent years. Today we present part of their belongings immersed in their blood which was shed on the name of Christ to the Church, so that they may be remembered in Synaxarion of all the Churches in the world knowing that “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12: 1), who have become role models and contemporary examples for the whole world, testifying that our Christianity is not a history in the past, but it is yesterday, today and forever.
Finally, I thank Your Holiness for inviting me and the accompanying delegation, and for the kind words of welcome with which you received us, in your name and in the name of all of you. I remember you in my personal prayers daily, as we pledged during my last visit. I pray that God will give you perfect health, long life, and lasting joy, and I pray with you for the sake of the Church of God on earth, for Him to establish it unto the end of ages, so that it may always raise heavenly praise and that He may guard it with His care that does not slumber or sleep, and that He blesses us all forever, Amen.
