Pope Francis Urges Continued Unity Between Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches

Pope Francis sent a message on Wednesday, May 10, to Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, expressing his hope that their Churches will continue to work toward unity in the sacraments. The letter followed his trip to Egypt the previous month.

In the letter, Francis wrote: “Along this path we are sustained by the powerful intercession and example of the martyrs. May we continue to advance together on our journey towards the same Eucharistic table, and grow in love and reconciliation.” He also offered his “prayerful best wishes for your peace and health, as well as my joy and gratitude for the spiritual bonds uniting the See of Peter and the See of Mark.”

The message marked the fourth anniversary of Francis’s meeting with Tawadros II in Rome on May 10, 2013. The day has become an annual celebration of fraternal love between the Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches.

Francis and the Coptic Orthodox patriarch also met on April 28 during the pope’s two-day trip to Cairo. At that encounter, the two signed a joint declaration expressing gratitude for the chance “to exchange a fraternal embrace and to join again in common prayer.” In his letter, Francis thanked the patriarch for his hospitality and for the common prayer they shared.

The pope highlighted an agreement that both Churches would acknowledge the validity of baptisms performed in the other Church. Quoting the joint statement, he said he was “especially grateful that we have strengthened our baptismal unity in the body of Christ by declaring together ‘that we, with one mind and heart, will seek sincerely not to repeat the baptism that has been administered in either of our Churches for any person who wishes to join the other.'” He added that the bonds of fraternity “challenge us to intensify our common efforts to persevere in the search for visible unity in diversity, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” a call to visible unity among those who share one Lord (John 17:21).

Francis assured Tawadros II of his continued prayers for the patriarch and for peace in Egypt and the Middle East. Invoking the Holy Spirit during the Easter season, he asked that the Spirit “fill our hearts with his grace and kindle in them the fire of his love,” adding, “May the Spirit of peace bestow on us an increase of hope, friendship and harmony.”

The Coptic Orthodox Church is an Oriental Orthodox Church that rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Its followers were historically regarded as monophysites, those who believe Christ has only one nature, by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, though the source notes they are no longer considered so. The May 2013 meeting between Francis and Tawadros was the first visit of a Coptic Orthodox patriarch to Rome in 40 years. Shenouda III, Tawadros’s predecessor, had visited Blessed Paul VI in 1973, and St. John Paul II returned that visit to Egypt in 2000.

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