Pope Tawadros II visited on Saturday the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy within his visit to Greece, which will last for 15 days.
The pope was received by the head and members of the assembly who welcomed the pope and indicated communication with the Egyptian parliament. Tawadros said that 99 percent of Egyptians live around the Nile River and that they drink humbleness along with their water.
“In Egypt, we consider the Nile as the father and the land as the mother,” he added. “Pharaonic civilization was established in Egypt and then Roman, Coptic and Islamic civilizations were established. Egypt recently went through several revolutions and many changes. Some of them were positive, others were negative,” the pope said, adding that enduring changes need time.
The relation between the church and government is good, he said, pointing out that the first time ever that a president visited a church was when Sisi visited the cathedral two years ago on Christmas Eve. It is also the first time that the Egyptian parliament has 39 Coptic members.
In Egypt, there have been problems over building churches, but now there are laws to resolve this problem. Churches that were built without license will be recognized, Tawadros added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
