Vatican confirms deliberation on papal visit to Egypt

(Reuters/Osservatore Romano)Pope Francis talks with Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb (L), Egyptian imam of al-Azhar Mosque, at the Vatican, May 23, 2016.

Vatican spokesperson and Director of the Holy See Press Office Greg Burke has disclosed that a papal trip to Egypt is under deliberation as of March 11.

According to Burke, as of the moment, there are neither definite itineraries nor established journey dates as the Vatican is still considering the trip. Burke's statement followed the reports of Italy's state-run media that Pope Francis would visit the highest center for Sunni Islam learning — the University of Al-Azhar — in Cairo on May 20–21.

Six years after the Cairo institute cut its relations with the other religious authority, Al-Azhar University and the Vatican have recently restored their ties. Their relations severed following now-retired Pope Benedict XVI's demands for greater protection for the Catholics residing in Egypt in 2011, after the New Year's Day bombing that killed 23 people in a Christian church in Alexandria.

Relations between the two parties began to become strained in 2006, when Benedict XVI gave an address in Regensburg, Germany, in which, according to Al-Azhar authorities and Muslims, the now-retired pontiff wrongfully linked Islam to terrorism.

Last year, efforts were made by both sides to reconnect. In May 2016, Al-Azhar's grand imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb visited Francis. It was the first meeting between the Vatican head of state and the Islam authority since the latter suspended communications with the Catholic Church.

St. John Paul II was the first modern pontiff to visit Egypt. He paid homage to both the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which houses the largest Christian community in the Middle East, and the Islamic University of Al-Azhar as part of his special itinerary. This trip was in celebration of the Roman Catholic Church's Great Jubilee in 2000.

Burke also delivered his statement in response to queries about Francis' upcoming papal trips that the pontiff mentioned in his interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit.

This year, the head of the Roman Catholic Church will visit Bangladesh, India, Colombia, and Portugal. On March 10, the Vatican released the pontiff's itinerary for his trip to Colombia.

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