SW News: The Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt has been granted a plot of land in Cairo in concession to construct a pediatric hospital by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In a rare gesture, the Church was granted land to construct the hospital, which will be the first of its kind to be named after the Child Jesus.

Charitable outfit Cairo Bambino Gesu Association led by Coptic Catholic Priest Fr Yoannis Lahzi Gaid is spearheading the initiative to construct the children’s hospital in the great urban area where the New Administrative Capital is coming up. Fr Gaid is a member of the High Committee for Human Fraternity and was a former personal secretary of Pope Francis.

There was a meeting between the representatives of the company in charge of the administrative capital project and the promoters of the hospital project during which the plot of land granted by the government was specified. The meeting was attended by Fr Gaid and members of the Human Fraternity including Hala Mustafa Sayed, former Egyptian health minister, and Pietro Luigi Ronaldo Donato, president of the Italian Hospital in the capital.

The head of the Coptic Catholic Church Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak profusely thanked the Egyptian president for his kind gesture to believers. He also thanked the charitable and social activity undertaken by the Cairo Bambino Gesu Association.

The new hospital will be of great benefit to people in the capital of Egypt, which has a high rate of neonatal mortality. It will also closely collaborate with the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital in Rome, which is owned by the Holy See. It is supposed to be the largest polyclinic for kids in Europe.

The Coptic Catholic Church is one of the 23 sui iuris Oriental Churches in full communion with Rome. It follows the ancient Alexandrian liturgy.