Pope Tawadros said his recent visit to Jerusalem was part of his duty to offer condolences following the death of Bishop Abraham, the Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Near East who died on Wednesday.
"It was the duty of the Coptic Orthodox Church to send a delegation of bishops, priests and deacons, including me, to attend the funeral of the revered pontiff and give him a farewell to his final resting place," said Tawadros.
The head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church traveled to Jerusalem Thursday to attend the funeral of the holy city’s archbishop, a move that breaks with a longtime ban maintained by the church on visiting the city before the end of Israeli occupation.
Tawadros' visit is the first by a head of the Egyptian Church since 1967 as his predecessor, Pope Shenouda III, had maintained a ban on visiting the holy city while it is still under Israeli occupation. Shenouda had said he disapproved of pilgrimage trips by a number of Copts over the past years, which defied the church's ban.
Meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo earlier this month, Tawadros reportedly expressed hope that he would be able to visit Jerusalem once “diplomatic efforts lead to a drastic solution to the Palestinian issue.”
Egypt’s former Grand Islamic Mufti Ali Gomaa also sparked an uproar when visiting the city in 2012.
Sergius Sergius, Undersecretary of the Patriarchate of St. Mark, told MENA Thursday Tawadros' visit to Jerusalem was exceptional and does not mean to break the ban maintained by the church on visiting the city before the end of Israeli occupation.
He added that Tawadros had a strong relation with Abraham since the latter was a monk with the Saint Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Natrun in Egypt where Tawadros was his student.
Tawadros has stressed more than once since his papacy in 2012 that the church would stick to his predecessor's travel ban, Sergius said. He added that Tawadros told Palestinian President Abbas he would only visit Jerusalem with the Al-Azhar grand sheikh.
Sergius called on media to not overreact to the visit, which is a personal visit by the pope.
Chairman of Karama Party Mohamed Samy defended Tawadros' visit, saying it is an exceptional visit for religious reasons. During a phone interview on Mehwar channel Thursday, he said the visit did not break the travel ban imposed by Shenouda.
Emad Gad, MP and deputy head of Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said that the pope's visit to Jerusalem was important to build bridges to an Arab country suffering under occupation and to raise the morales of Palestinians, given the high stature of the pope in the Arab world.
Gad said he expects Islamists to attack Tawadros over the visit, stressing that people should not give attention to them.
