SW News: For the second time in a decade, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II will meet the Holy Father during his visit to Rome from May 9 to 14. The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church will also be present along with Pope Francis during the General Audience on Wednesday, May 10, in St Peter’s Square.

The following day, the Patriarch and his delegation will be having a private audience with Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace and there will be speeches on the occasion. One of the main highlights of the speeches will be the ecumenism of blood, which is very close to the Roman Pontiff. It is likely that the memory of the Coptic martyrs killed by the Islamic State in Libya in 2015 will be evoked. Later, the duo will spend some time in prayer in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vatican.

According to Dominican friar Fr Hyacinthe Destivelle OP of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, for the first time the Coptic Orthodox Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome on Sunday May 14. It is expected to be attended by thousands of Coptic expatriates in Italy.
Soon after being elected patriarch by the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Tawadros visited Rome and met Pope Francis who had just been elected. They then celebrated the 40th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Shenouda III and declared May 10 as Coptic-Catholic Friendship Day and it has been celebrated since then annually with mutual messages.

Four years after Pope Francis’ election to the papacy, he undertook a trip to Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to sign a joint declaration with Tawadros II, which had a pastoral tone. In the document, they agreed to recognize each other’s baptisms, particularly in the case of mixed marriages. The last time an Orthodox patriarch graced the General Audience of the pope was in 2008 when Armenian Catholicos Karekin II was invited by Pope Benedict XVI. However, he chose not to speak. But this time, Tawadros II is expected to address the gathering.

Ties between both Churches began to improve in the 1960s. In 1968, Patriarch Cyril VI invited Pope Paul VI to visit Cairo and attend the inauguration of the new Coptic cathedral. However, he could not do so. But he did make amends by sending the relics of St Mark, who founded the Church in Egypt, to the Copts. They had been taken from them by Venetian merchants in the 9th century. It marked a new era in the warming of ties between both historic Churches.
Pope Paul IV invited Patriarch Shenouda to the Vatican in 1973 when both Churches were marking the 1,600th anniversary of the demise of St Athanasius of Alexandria. Both of them signed a Christological pact that put to rest the controversy that arose during the Chalcedon Council that led to the split between the Roman Church and several Eastern Churches. They reiterated that all Apostolic Churches shared the same faith in Jesus, who was true God and true man at the same time.