CAIRO — Pope Francis began a visit to Egypt on Friday to promote “unity and fraternity” among Muslims and the embattled Christian minority that has suffered a series of militant attacks. The 80-year-old pontiff touched down at Cairo airport before he was ushered in a car to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who welcomed him with a military brass band and priests lining up to greet the pope. “It’s a journey of unity and fraternity. Less than two days but very intense,” he said of the 27-hour trip before disembarking. He will later meet Muslim and Christian leaders before visiting a church that was bombed in December. Pope Francis will also meet Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of the prestigious Sunni institution Al-Azhar, sealing a recent improvement in relations between Catholicism and the Sunni branch of Islam. “This meeting will be an example and a model for peace precisely because it will be a meeting of dialogue,” Francis said on the plane. — AFP
