The parents of a student tortured to death in Egypt have urged Pope Francis to take up the case during his forthcoming trip to the country.
The Pope will meet President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when he visits Egypt on April 28-29.
PhD student Giulio Regeni went missing in Cairo on January 25. His body was found nine days later, showing signs of torture.
There are suspicions that the Egyptian police were involved in his death. Italian prosecutors complain that Egyptian authorities have failed to come forward with any information.
Following Pope Francis’s arrival at Cairo airport on Friday April 28, there will be an official welcoming ceremony at the Heliopolis presidential palace. The Pope will have courtesy meetings with President el-Sisi and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, before Pope Francis and the grand imam give speeches to participants in an international conference on peace at al-Azhar University.
Pope Francis will meet the Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, Patriarch of the See of St Mark, and both will make speeches.
On the Saturday morning Pope Francis will give a homily at a Mass in Cairo.
Lunch with Egypt’s bishops and the papal entourage will be followed by a prayer gathering with clergy, men and women Religious and seminarians. Francis will make a speech at a farewell ceremony before leaving leaving Cairo for Rome.
This will be Pope Francis’s 18th trip abroad since his election, and his seventh visit to a Muslim-majority nation.
Egypt’s Catholic community numbers 272,000, less than 0.5 per cent of the population.
Cardinal: Trump is right to stop funding UNFPA
Cardinal Timothy Dolan has praised a decision by the US State Department to no longer contribute to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), because of the agency’s involvement in China’s population and family planning law, long known as the “one-child policy”.“This is a victory for women and children across the globe, as well as for US taxpayers,” said Cardinal Dolan, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on pro-life activities, and Archbishop of New York.
“We are so grateful to the Trump administration for taking this important action to end US support for UNFPA so long as it remains committed to China’s coercive abortion and sterilisation programmes,” he said.
The State Department memo said: “There is no evidence that UNFPA directly engages in coercive abortions or involuntary sterilisations in China.” But the memo added that the UN Population Fund continues to partner with China’s national health and family planning commission, and “thus can be found to support, or participate in the management of, China’s coercive policies”.
