CAIRO: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese met Thursday with a U.S. Congressional delegation at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, Youm7 reported.
The delegation’s visit aimed to review the situation of the Copts in Egypt.
The delegation includes the U.S. congress members Louie Gohmert, Victoria Coates, Samantha Leahy, Stephen Colvin and Patrick Paul.
“Egypt is in its way towards stability and the situation is much better than the previous years; Copts are in good relations with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and with all the Egyptians,” Pope Tawadros II told the l delegation, according to an official statement from the church.
The visit was attended by a number of representatives from the Pope’s office.
Sisi was the first Egyptian president to attend the Coptic Christmas Mass on Jan. 7 this year; the visit was received positively and jubilantly by the Egyptians.
After Sisi’s departure, the Cathedral was also visited by the prime minister and several other ministers, the intelligence chief and Al-Azhar scholars.
Dozens of churches were attacked and hundreds of Copts were harassed in several governorates, especially in Upper Egypt, in the aftermath of the bloody dispersal of Cairo Islamist sit-ins calling for President Mohamed Morsi’s reinstatement in August 2013.
On the New Year Eve of 2011, at least 21 people were killed when a car bomb detonated outside an Alexandria church, an attack still mourned by Egyptians.
Additional reporting by Hanan Fayed