Angelus Memorial Chapel Home of the Christian Brothers

The attack,  during the celebration of Mass, in one of the deadliest carried out against the religious minority in recent memory.The bombing came two days after a bomb elsewhere in Cairo killed six policemen, an assault claimed by a group that authorities say is linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Islamic militants in Egypt have targeted Christians in the past, including a New Year's Day bombing at a Church in the city of Alexandria in 2011 that killed at least 21 people.Authorities said an assailant lobbed a bomb into a chapel close to the outer wall of St Mark's Cathedral, seat of Egypt’s  Orthodox Christian Church and home to the office of its spiritual leader, Pope Tawadros II, who is currently visiting Greece. Speaking after the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square on Sunday morning, Pope Francis expressed special closeness to "my dear brother Tawadros II" and he prayed for the victims of this and other terrorist attacks that have been perpetrated in the past 24 hours.Please find below the statement by His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom:11 December 2016It is with great sadness that we receive the news today of at least 25 people brutally murdered by an explosion during regular Sunday worship at St Peter’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, adjacent to the Grand Cathedral of Saint Mark. Our prayers are with those whose lives have been so senselessly ended, those who have been injured, and every family and community affected. We also pray for every Coptic parish and community across Egypt as they fill their churches this morning, as well as for the broader Egyptian society that fall victim to similar inhumane attacks.Many within our Coptic community in Britain will have family and friends in Egypt, and we also pray for them at this time of uncertainty. We share in this tragedy but are encouraged by the strength and resilience of our brethren in Egypt that we have grown accustomed to and learn from. We pray God’s peace and protection upon the Chris... (Vatican Radio)

During his homily the Pope said, "we can take as our examples Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta, whom the Virgin Mary introduced into the immense ocean of God’s light and taught to adore him."Below find the English translation of the Pope's HomilyHomily of His Holiness Pope FrancisHoly Mass, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima 13 May 2017            “[There] appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun”.  So the seer of Patmos tells us in the Book of Revelation (12:1), adding that she was about to give birth to a son.  Then, in the Gospel, we hear Jesus say to his disciple, “Here is your mother” (Jn 19:27).  We have a Mother!  “So beautiful a Lady”, as the seers of Fatima said to one another as they returned home on that blessed day of 13 March a hundred years ago.  That evening, Jacinta could not restrain herself and told the secret to her mother: “Today I saw Our Lady”.  They had seen the Mother of Heaven.  Many others sought to share that vision, but… they did not see her.  The Virgin Mother did not come here so that we could see her.  We will have all eternity for that, provided, of course, that we go to heaven.            Our Lady foretold, and warned us about, a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures.  Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to hell.  Mary came to remind us that God’s light dwells within us and protects us, for, as we heard in the first reading, “the child [of the woman] was snatched away and taken to God” (Rev 12:5).  In Lucia’s account, the three chosen children found themselves surrounded by God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady.  She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her.  According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims, if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of Light that protects us, here as in almost no other place on earth.  We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: “show unto us… Jesus”.            Dear... (Vatican Radio)