Pope Francis heads to Egypt on Friday (April 28th) to bolster relations with Muslims and show solidarity with the Christian community following devastating attacks, AFP reported.
Security will be high for the Cairo visit after two bombings in Coptic churches earlier this month that killed 47 people, with the country currently observing a three-month state of emergency.
During the two-day trip, the pontiff's first visit to Egypt, Francis will meet privately with Grand Imam of Al Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, who visited the Vatican last year.
Al-Azhar University is organising an international peace conference on Friday, where Francis will speak, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said.
He will meet with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, attend a reception with 1,000 guests and meet privately with Coptic Pope Tawadros II.
They will walk on foot together to St. Peter and St. Paul Church, hit by a December attack claimed by the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL).
On Saturday, Francis will hold a mass and meetings with the country's Catholic community, estimated to number around 165,000.
The two recent church bombings "were not aimed at Copts only but at the heart of Egypt... They aimed at breaking the unity of Egyptians", Tawadros said at a Tuesday press conference during his first visit to Kuwait.
"Unity among Egyptians has existed for the past 14 centuries and these attacks will not affect the Egyptian people," he said.
Copts make up about one tenth of Egypt's population.
