His Holiness commended the strong ties between Egypt and Hungary and the strong relations between the political leadership in both countries, noting Hungary’s keenness on its Christian origins and its preservation of family values.
This came before His Holiness delivered his weekly sermon at the Wednesday meeting he held at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria this evening after returning from visiting Hungary.
His Holiness said: “We thank our Lord that He gave us the opportunity to visit Hungary, a European country in eastern Europe, a very advanced industrial and agricultural country that is distinguished by two things. First, it is a country that is very attached to its Christian roots and preserves its Christian origin. During my visit to the head of state, there was talk about the Bible, and she told me that she had finished reading the book of Job yesterday and would start reading another book.
Secondly, it is one of the few European countries that preserve the principles of the family in light of the currents and ideas that oppose these principles and are spread all over the world, such as homosexuality and same-sex marriage and others, but Hungary with all its officials still maintain the principles of the whole family, father and mother, and God blesses the family with fathers and children.
We thank our Lord. It was an official invitation from the Hungarian government, and I met with the country’s president, prime minister, deputy prime minister, speaker of parliament, cardinal of Hungary, and as H.G. Bishop Pavly mentioned, it was an opportunity to grant me a doctorate. The main reason for the visit is to attend the country’s celebration of its Christianity, as Hungary has 1,000 years since the founding of Christianity at the hands of a saint known as Stephen.

In the morning it was the national celebration, and in the afternoon the ecclesiastical celebration, and in the evening it was the popular celebration.
I also visited the monastery of St. Paul, who is the Egyptian saint, and this monastery has a number of monastic fathers and they have a church called the Church of the Rock, and I met with the monastic fathers there.
We visited the Coptic Church, and we have one Coptic Church there. It belongs to the Diocese of Central Europe, which includes the countries of Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Its bishop is a blessed father, H.G. Bishop Giovanni. the church is named after the Virgin Mary and the priest there is a blessed father named Fr Youssef Khalil. He was sent by the H.H. late Pope Shenouda III about 19 years ago to serve the Copts there, and the service began to grow and became very fruitful with the days.
Hungary is the one that sent us the Hungarian train in Egypt in the sixties, seventies and eighties, and it was characterized by speed and accuracy, so that the word Hungarian here in Egypt has come to mean “fast” and also Hungary is the one that manufactured the agricultural greenhouse, and the word “greenhouse” is a Hungarian word meaning “warm room”.
Hungary has close cooperation with Egypt, and they have good relations, investments and many projects. The real relationship between the political leadership in Hungary and the political leadership in Egypt is at the highest level.
On the occasion of honoring our outstanding students in high school, Hungary annually offers us 200 educational scholarships to study in universities there.
We thank God. It was a very enjoyable, beautiful and intense visit for 3 or 4 days. We visited the Egyptian Embassy in Budapest.
I would also like to mention that the H.H. late Pope Shenouda III, 12 years ago, and on the same day, August 20, he visited Hungary, and this was the last visit of His Holiness outside Egypt, and the same university at that time also awarded him an honorary doctorate degree.
His Holiness, the Pope, honored at the meeting today, 33 of the first students with technical diplomas from the children of the churches of Alexandria, and 42 from the first general secondary certificates, and the equivalent international and American certificates.

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