Pope Francis Takes Message of Peace to the Muslim World

In his visit to Cairo, Pope Francis has met with Muslim leaders, government officials, diplomats and members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, in an impassioned campaign to counter violence perpetrated in the name of religion.

The pontiff celebrated a mass at a stadium in Cairo.
Pope Francis and Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak of Alexandria celebrate mass in Cairo. The pontiff also addressed a peace conference organized by Al-Azhar Mosque and University.

“True faith makes us more charitable, more merciful, more honest and more humane,” he said at an open-air mass in Cairo, celebrated with Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak of Alexandria and leaders of the other Catholic rites in Egypt. “It moves our hearts to love everyone without counting the cost.”

The pontiff addressed a peace conference organized by Al-Azhar Mosque and University earlier in his visit, in which he decried the violence of the two suicide bombings that took 44 lives on Palm Sunday. He called on leaders of all faiths to bring calm to the country that has been under a state of emergency since the bombings: “As religious leaders, we are called, therefore, to unmask the violence that masquerades as purported sanctity.”

Pope Francis Coptic Catholic Patriarch Al-Azhar Mosque and University Open-air mass Cairo Palm Sunday suicide bombings
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