VATICAN — Pope Francis offered this morning’s Mass in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae to the 21 Egyptian Copts murdered yesterday in Libya, whose funerals will be held today. “Let us offer this Mass for our 21 brother Copts, beheaded for the simple fact of being Christians. Let us pray for them, so that the Lord may welcome them as martyrs, for their families, and for my brother Tawadros, who suffers deeply”. He went on to pronounce the antiphon from Psalm 31: “For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me”.
Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father telephoned the Patriarch, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, to express his participation in the profound sorrow of the Orthodox Coptic Church for the recent barbaric massacre of Egyptian Copts at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. He assured him of his prayers and today, the day of the victims’ funerals, joined spiritually in the prayers and the suffering of the Coptic Church, in the morning Eucharistic celebration.
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