The Pope’s trip to Austria began and will continue for ten days. The visit will involve the inauguration of a number of churches, simultaneously ordaining bishops and priests of the Coptic Church in Europe. The Pope will also hold a meeting for the Coptic priests of Europe in Austria due to time constraints and the inability to visit all the European states.

The Pope announced that his visit to the Vatican and Italy had been very positive. During the visit he had met with Vatican Pope Francis I and various cardinals from the Papal Office. The Pope also disclosed that Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, would be undertaking his first overseas visit to Egypt next January. The Pope declared this yesterday in his first weekly sermon after the Easter holiday of three weeks, as well as his tour of Europe which included Italy and the Vatican. Hundreds of Copts attended the sermon, greeting the Pope with loud applause as he entered the Cathedral (Author not mentioned, al-Misrī al-Yawm, May 24, p. 5). Read original text in Arabic.