This article originally appeared on Catholic News Agency, by Andrea Gagliarducci.
Vatican City, Feb 14, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News). A special invitation to visit Egypt was delivered to Pope Francis by Coptic Catholic bishops during their ad limina visit on 6 February 2017, during which they also gave a report on the state of the Church in their country.
“It was a formal invitation put in written form, that followed other invitations to Egypt,” Bishop Emmanuel Bishay of Luxor told CNA.
The Pope has also received an invitation to visit Egypt from the country’s president and from the Grand Imam of al Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, who occupies a prestigious place in the Sunni Muslim world.
It is widely speculated that the Pope might go to South Sudan in November 2017. There is a possibility he could use the occasion for a longer trip, with a stop in Egypt.