Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria led on Sunday a Mass in observance of launching the innovation process of Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, nearly two weeks after 7 Christian pilgrims were killed in a terrorist bus attack in Upper Egypt’s Minya.
The celebrations of the inauguration of the innovations were postponed as a tribute to Minya’s attack victims.
A huge number of bishops, priests and Christian prayers attended the ceremony. The cathedral, which marks its 50th anniversary, was closed for three years for innovations.
During his speech, Pope Tawadros II asserted that renewing the cathedral is a “significant and historical” event. He added that the process of renewal kicked off four years ago.
Pope Tawadros noted that he hoped Christians could celebrate the cathedral’s innovation process, but the Minya terrorist attack led to postponing holding a huge celebration.
Earlier this month, 7 Christian pilgrims, including six members of the same family, were killed by Islamic State (IS) gunmen in a terrorist bus attack near the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Al-Minya.
The bloody attack is among one of the most serious of terrorist assaults targeting Egyptian Christians and their churches, mostly carried by the IS’s terrorist group’s branch in Sinai.
On December 2016, a bomb ripped through a section reserved for women at the Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral killing at least 25 people and wounding 49 individuals, mostly women and children.
