Pope Tawadros II, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, is meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan and is set to inaugurate the Monastery of Saint Anthony the Great in Amman later Sunday on his first official visit to Jordan since assuming the papacy in 2012.
The pope headed earlier Sunday a mass in the Coptic Church of the Virgin Mary and the Martyr Mar Girguis in Amman, Egypt's state-owned MENA news agency reported.
Pope Tawadros II succeeded Pope Shenouda III in November 2012.
In 2005, the late Pope Shenouda III made his only official visit to Jordan during his 41-year tenure as Patriarch of the Coptic Church.
Jordan has a population of six and a half million. Christians make up six percent of the country's population. Coptic Christians in Jordan are estimated at 120,000.
