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(Vatican Radio) In just one week’s time, Pope Francis takes off on a journey to the Egyptian capital Cairo, where he will visit the prestigious al-Azhar centre of Islamic studies.  Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, is also expected to join the Holy Father there, alongside the Coptic Pope Tawadros II.

Both Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew have been invited by the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb to attend an international peace conference there.

During the brief April 28th to 29th visit, the Pope will meet with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as celebrating Mass for the local Catholic community.

His visit comes less than a month after two bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt by so-called Islamic State militants left 45 people dead and dozens of others injured.

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald is the former nuncio to Egypt and former head of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about expectations ahead of this short but highly significant papal visit…

Listen: 

Archbishop Fitzgerald says it’s significant that the Pope is going to Egypt where there are so many difficulties and uncertainties, with “extremists who are against the institutions and against Christians in a particular way”. He notes it’s not the first papal visit, since Pope John Paul II travelled there in the year 2000 and was “received remarkably well”.

Friendship between two popes

He says the significance lies also in the relationship between Pope Francis and the head of the Coptic Church Pope Tawadros, whose first journey after being elected patriarch of Alexandria was to visit the Vatican. This trip, he says, “will be another moment consolidating this friendship between the two popes”.

Personal relations and theological dialogue

Archbishop Fitzgerald says the dialogue with the Oriental Churches about the role of the pope as bishop of Rome is ongoing and this theological dialogue is important, but it will be personal relationships, rather than theological discussions, that will be at the heart of the Cairo visit.

Reciprocal visit to Grand Imam

Regarding relations with the Muslim world, the archbishop says that one of the main motives for the visit is also to consolidate progress in the relationship between the Vatican and al-Azhar. He recalls that the Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb came to see the pope in Rome and this reciprocal visit will be “highly appreciated”.

Meeting of leaders "a sacrament"

Archbishop Fitzgerald says that while Pope Francis is known as a man of surprises, it’s unrealistic to expect any big changes as a result of this trip. But in itself the meeting between the two leaders is important: he says “let’s call it a sacrament”, because “it’s not just a symbol” but rather it’s “producing something which goes beyond their own persons”.

Muslims and Christians combating extremism

Commenting on the most recent round of talks between the Vatican and al Azhar, Archbishop Fitzgerald notes that “extremism has been condemned by the majority of Muslim leaders around the world”. He stresses the importance of monitoring social media since so many young people are radicalized through the internet. He notes that al-Azhar is also working with the Dominicans in Cairo, forming a group to study extremism together.

Finally Archbishop Fitzgerald recalls that, just as not all Christians see Pope Francis as a figure of authority, in the same way al-Azhar has “a prestigious role within the Islamic world, but it is not followed by all Muslims around the world. So while “we pray for miracles”, he concludes, “we don't always expect them”.

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(Vatican Radio) A cargo ship with 12 people on board has gone down in heavy seas in the Kerch Strait off the Russian Black Sea coast towards the Crimean Peninsula. Rescue crews reached the scene early on Wednesday and officials said one person was pulled to safety. Two bodies were found and nine crew were missing.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Hundreds of people were reportedly searching by sea and by air for survivors in the Kerch Strait. Russia's marine agency said the 3,500-tonne Geroi Arsenala split in two and sank in this area at about 03:40 in the morning local time.

Yet high winds have reportedly hampered the search for survivors.

The ship went down around 19 nautical miles some 35 kilometers south of the Taman Peninsula, explained Vladimir Ivanov, an official of the Ministry of Emergency Measures for Crimea. 

'HERO OF ARSENAL'

He said the Panama-registered Geroi Arsenala or 'Hero of Arsenal' was on its way from the Russian port of Azov to Turkey with a cargo of grain. "There were 12 crew members on the board. Immediately, the centre for managing crisis situations established the interdepartmental cooperation with the Marine Rescue Coordination Center. All vessels that were in the water area of the Black Sea Coast were sent to help those in distress."

He added that a military helicopter and divers with deep water equipment are also involved in the search.  Officials said that nine of those on board were Ukrainian, two were Russians and one was Georgian. 

Oil from the ship has reportedly spilt into the sea.

Russian emergency ministry officials said initially that three crew members were saved but later it emerged that only one had been pulled from the water.

Four others were spotted in life jackets but rescuers were unable to find them in the high waves and strong winds. Russia is currently building a bridge over the Kerch Strait to Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

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Fatima, Portugal, Apr 19, 2017 / 10:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- St. Peter’s Cricket Club, the Vatican’s cricket team, is traveling to Fatima April 19-22 for an interreligious tournament ahead of the 100th anniversary of the appearance of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the country.

The team’s third international tour, the tournament will include Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish teams coming from Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

It takes place just three weeks before the Pope’s pilgrimage to Fatima May 12-13 to join in the centenary celebrations.

Established in 2013, St. Peter’s Cricket Club is made up of priests, deacons, and seminarians currently living and studying in Rome.

Current and past members have hailed from England, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. The team was formed under the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture as a way to creatively engage with people from other Churches, ecclesial communions, and religions.

The first day of the trip will be dedicated to visiting the shrine at Fatima, and the three following to the tournament. The team is hosted by the municipal council and people of Miranda do Corvo, near the historic university city of Coimbra.

The cricket club’s third “Light of Faith Tour,” the first was held in England in 2014. On April 23, 2016 the team played their second cricket match against the Royal Household in Rome to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday.

Their second “Light of Faith Tour” was also held in England, in September 2016.

Pope Francis has frequently praised sports, particularly for their ability to bring people together.

In June 2014, he told a crowd of Italian youth gathered in St. Peter’s Square for a field day event that “Sports in the community can be a great missionary tool, where the Church is close to every person to help them become better and to meet Jesus Christ.”

And in October 2016, he told participants in an international conference on sports at the Vatican that the beauty and joy found in sports, whether playing or watching, is something that benefits and unites everyone, regardless of religion, ethnic group, nationality, or disability.

“Sport is a human activity of great value, able to enrich people's lives,” he said. “As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, she is working in the world of sport to bring the joy of the Gospel, the inclusive and unconditional love of God for all human beings.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Jaclyn Lippelmann, Catholic Standard

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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Georgetown University and the Society of Jesus' Maryland province apologized April 18 for their roles in the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved individuals for the university's benefit.

More than 100 descendants attended a morning "Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope" that the university created in partnership with descendants, the Archdiocese of Washington and the Society of Jesus in the United States.

"Today the Society of Jesus, who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned," said Jesuit Father Timothy Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during the liturgy. "We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry."

The event took place the day after the District of Columbia marked Emancipation Day, which celebrates the emancipation of slaves in Washington April 16, 1862. This year, the local holiday was moved to April 17 because the actual day fell on Easter Sunday.

In early April, Georgetown announced plans for the liturgy and a renaming ceremony for two buildings on campus previously named for priests who sold women, children and men into slavery for financial gain in 1838.

Jesuit Father Thomas Mulledy, as Georgetown president, authorized the transaction, and Jesuit Father William McSherry also was involved in the 1838 sale and in other slave sales.

Mulledy Hall was renamed after Isaac Hawkins, the first enslaved person listed in the sale documents. McSherry Hall is now named after Anne Marie Becraft, a teacher and free woman of color who established one of the first schools for black girls in the District of Columbia. She later joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence.

Sandra Green Thomas, a descendant of the slaves and president of the GU272 Descendants Association, spoke at length at the liturgy about the 272 enslaved people, her ancestors and her Catholic faith.

"The ability to transcend the realities of this life in this country has been a necessary tool in the survival kit of my people," she said. "For the 272, I believe that their Catholic faith enabled them to transcend. No matter how incongruous their existence was with the gospel of God's love and protection, they clung to their faith."

President John J. DeGioia of Georgetown also spoke during the liturgy, saying that "slavery remains the original evil of our republic."

The university "was complicit in" that evil, "a sin that tore apart families," he said. "Through great violence, (it) denied and rejected the dignity and humanity of our fellow sisters and brothers. We lay this truth bare -- in sorrowful apology and communal reckoning."

Jesuit Father Robert Hussey, provincial of his order's Maryland province, and DeGioia met with descendants in the afternoon.

Karran Harper Royal, another descendant, thanked Georgetown for its steps toward acknowledging its ties with slavery, particularly the students who took their concerns about the university's history to the administration in 2015.

"The actions of Georgetown students have placed all of us on a journey together toward honoring our enslaved ancestors by working toward healing and reconciliation," she said. "Our history has shown us that the vestiges of slavery are a continuum that began with the kidnapping of our people from our motherland to keeping them in bondage with the brutality of American chattel slavery, Jim Crow, segregation ' the school-to-prison pipeline and the over-incarceration of people of color."

Other events included opportunities for members of the descendant community to connect with one another and with Jesuits through a private vigil the evening of April 17, a descendant-only dinner April 18 and tours of the Maryland plantation where their ancestors were enslaved.

DeGioia and other university officials have met with some descendants of the slaves on various occasions and they have had access to historical materials regarding the sale of their relatives.

Some of the families sold included adults and children the Jesuits had baptized. On March 12, The New York Times published a photo, the only known image, that an archivist in Thibodaux, Louisiana, found of one of the slaves sold by the Jesuits. His name was Frank Campbell and the story accompanying the photo said the slave was sold out of St. Inigoes plantation in Maryland, named after St. Ignatius. He had kept ties to the Catholic Church after gaining his freedom, the story said.

The liturgy and building rededications were recommendations of Georgetown's Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation in September 2016. The group, which included faculty, students, alumni and descendants of slaves, had suggested the university offer some form of reparative outreach as well as a meaningful financial commitment.

"Our work as a group was to help tear down the walls, the walls of mystery and silence and (the) unknown surrounding Georgetown's historical ties to the institution of slavery," said working group member Connor Maytnier at the dedication.

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