The Latest on Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt (all times local) :
CAIRO (AP) — The Latest on Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt (all times local) : 4 p.m. Pope Francis has arrived at Al-Azhar, the world’s primary seat of Sunni Islamic learning, on the first day of a historic visit to Egypt designed to forge a united Christian-Muslim front against religious militancy. The Catholic pontiff headed to Al-Azhar on Friday after meeting President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who briefly hosted his guest at the presidential Ittihadya palace, giving him an official welcome, complete with a military band playing the national anthems of the Vatican and Egypt. The Pope is scheduled later to attend and address an international peace conference hosted by Al-Azhar and chaired by its grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb. He will also meet Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, followed by the majority of Egypt’s estimated nine million Christians. ___ 2: 45 .m. Pope Francis has met Egypt’s president at the start of a historic, two-day visit to the Muslim majority Arab nation fighting an insurgency by Islamic militants. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Friday received the Catholic pontiff at his opulent Ittihadya palace, where a military band played the national anthems of the Vatican and Egypt as both leaders stood in attention. Francis departed Cairo airport with the window of his blue fiat rolled down, in keeping with his wishes for a normal car and not an armored motorcade. The Pope’s visit is designed to forge a united Christian-Muslim front against religious militancy and it is toward that aim that he will attend later Friday an international peace conference organized by Al-Azhar, the world’s primary seat of Sunni Islamic learning. ___ 2: 20 p.m. Pope Francis has arrived for a historic visit to Egypt, where he was received at Cairo airport by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and top Christian clerics. Members of Egypt’s Presidential Guard lined up along the red carpet laid at the foot of his Alitalia plane and stretching all the way to the presidential lounge at one side of the airport. Two children, a girl in a white dress and a boy in a black tuxedo, presented the Catholic pontiff with bouquets of flowers. The Pope was scheduled later Friday to meet with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church. He will also participate in an international peace conference organized by Al-Azhar, the world’s primary seat of Sunni Islamic learning. ____ 2 p.m. Pope Francis has arrived in Egypt for a historic, two-day visit to show a united Christian-Muslim front against religious militancy. The Catholic pontiff will hold a series of deeply symbolic meetings with Egypt’s religious and political leaders and participate in an international peace conference organized by Al-Azhar, the world’s primary seat of Sunni Islamic learning. He will also show solidarity and bring a message of peace to a country that has for years endured an increasingly emboldened insurgency led by a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group. The pope’s Friday-Saturday visit will also lift the spirits of Egypt’s large Christian community after three suicide bombings since December hit their churches, killing at least 75 people. IS claimed responsibility for the attacks. ___ 12: 15 p.m. In Zamalek, an upscale neighborhood on a Nile River island where Pope Francis will overnight in Cairo, streets that will be used by the pontiff’s motorcade have been emptied of parked cars. Some nearby side streets have been blocked for Francis’ two-day visit that starts Friday afternoon. Security has also been visibly tightened in the neighborhood, with uniformed and plainclothes police deployed along routes expected to be used by Francis and his entourage. The pope’s visit, however, is unlikely to cause much disruption to the city of some 18 million people as it falls on the Muslim, Friday-Saturday weekend when the usually congested traffic is significantly lighter. Francis is brushing off security concerns to forge ahead with a two-day trip to Egypt aimed at presenting a united Christian-Muslim front that repudiates violence committed in God’s name. ___ 11: 55 a.m. Security men are posted every hundred yards or so along the 20-kilometer (12-mile) stretch between the airport and central Cairo in anticipation of Pope Francis’ arrival in Egypt. Armored cars are stationed in front of the presidential palace, where Francis makes his first stop Friday. Banners in the Zamalek neighborhood welcomed Francis, with one from a private company saying «1,000,000 workers of Sharm el Sheikh welcome the pontiff.» Francis is brushing off security concerns to forge ahead with a two-day trip to Egypt aimed at presenting a united Christian-Muslim front that repudiates violence committed in God’s name. ___ 8: 40 a.m. Pope Francis is brushing off security concerns to forge ahead with a two-day trip to Egypt aimed at presenting a united Christian-Muslim front that repudiates violence committed in God’s name. Three weeks after Islamic militants staged twin Palm Sunday church attacks, Francis lands in Cairo on Friday for a series of deeply symbolic encounters with Egypt’s religious and political leadership. He will meet with Egypt’s president, patriarch and the «other» pope, Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and pray for victims of the attacks. Most importantly, he will also visit Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of learning in Sunni Islam. There, he will meet privately with grand imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, and participate in an international peace conference Friday afternoon. Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
