Indian Jesuit's perspective on the Pope's Egypt visit

The apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Egypt is just round the corner, April 28-29. The Pope is flying on Friday to Cairo, where over two days he will meet the Egyptian president, the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar, the Coptic Orthodox Pope and the country’s tiny Catholic community and clergy, and he will also address an international peace conference in an effort to promote inter-religious dialogue and harmony in the predominantly Muslim nation.  His visit is also meant to be a special gesture of his closeness with Egypt’s beleaguered Christian community that has been the target of terrorist attacks.

Indian Jesuit priest Fr. Bimal Kumar Kerketta who has been working in Egypt for some 14 years, takes a look at the Pope’s 18th foreign visit from his own perspective.  A member of the Indian Jesuit Province of Ranchi, Fr. Kerketta volunteered to work for the Near-East Jesuit Province and arrived in Egypt in 2002.  After learning Arabic the hard way he served as principal of an Arabic medium school in upper Egypt, and for the past two years he is involved with a French medium school in Cairo. Speaking to Vatican Radio from the Egyptian capital Cairo, Fr. Kerketta commented on the significance of the Pope’s visit: 

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