On Sunday, 24th September 2023, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, being in the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of Agios Georgios in Old Cairo, received a large group of foreign visitors who, making a pilgrimage to Christian shrines in the Nile region, also went to the afore-mentioned Holy Monastery, also known as the “Rotunda of the East”.
Speaking to the visitors, His Beatitude, after developing the history of the Alexandrian Church and the God-walked monastic place where according to tradition the Virgin took refuge with the infant Lord during the “flight to Egypt”, referred to the need for peace to prevail, saying among other things: “… From the centuries-old Holy Monastery of Saint George the Great Martyr of Old Cairo, we send a prayer to the God of Love and appeal for world peace, so that we can live peacefully with social solidarity and a fair distribution of goods. We pray that the peoples of the Earth will live in peace, as this is God’s will.
Today we feel more strongly our responsibility for harmonious coexistence, while at the same time protecting immigrants, refugees and children that are suffering, as our real brothers and sisters.
We call on the leaders of the countries of the world, political and religious, to work in this direction, to work together to stop all war conflicts, so that we can use the natural resources, the gifts of God, to eradicate poverty and to restore the social order of justice, protecting orphans and needy children and in general all suffering fellow human beings. This is the best way to highlight the importance of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations after the sufferings of the Second World War.
Every war is a defeat for humanity, since it endangers the security of the entire global community. The use of weapons, which kill populations, sow sorrow, pain, tears and death, even causing disastrous environmental consequences is terrible and contrary to the Divine Will.
Furthermore, pandemics and climate change, population movements and general inequalities only bring negative consequences for everyone. Other people are our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, the living image of God, without distinctions. We need peace and active social solidarity without discrimination to deal with these harsh situations.
Our world, our common home, is one: it has been bequeathed to us and we must pass it on unscathed to future generations. Let us deliver it from any war or nuclear nightmare. Let us breathe new life into the dialogue between us. Honest and sincere dialogue creates the conditions for a new creative and blessed path.
Let us therefore begin this dialogue, which is the most effective medicine for the reconciliation of peoples. Peace is always possible!”
Present also during the visit of the large group to the Monastery of St George was His Eminence Seraphim, Metropolitan of Zimbabwe.
