Interim President of Egypt Adly Mansūr visited Saint Mark’s Cathedral in ‘Abbasiyyah yesterday to offer his best wishes for the Christmas celebrations. He was the first president to visit the cathedral since Anwar al-Sādāt 42 years ago. Pope Tawadros delivered a speech to mark the visit, attended by many members of the clergy, in which he expressed his hope that the visit would ‘send a beautiful message to the people’. Boulos Halīm, spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, said that Pope Tawadros had also received other political figures during the past few days, including Foreign Affairs Minister Nabīl Fahmī and Minister for Local Development ‘Ādil Labīb, with whom discussions were held about the regeneration of Egypt’s economy (Yūsif Sha’bān and Peter Majdī, al-Tahrīr, Jan. 6, p. 3). Read original text in Arabic here.