Wednesday 07/May/2025 – 11:58 AM
The Presidential Palace in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, hosted, yesterday evening, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, in the framework of a meeting organized by the Department of Cooperation with Churches and Religious Societies in Serbia on the occasion of the visit of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II to Serbia, where his holiness gave a lecture entitled bridges of love.
The meeting was attended by Serbian Prime Minister Guru Matsovich, Patriarch Porteros, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Dr. Vladimir Roganovich, Director General of Cooperation Department with Churches and Religious Communities in Serbia, Justice, Trade and European Integration.
The meeting was also attended by Ambassador Basil Salah, the Egyptian ambassador to Serbia, the Apostle Santo Roko Gangimi, the Vatican Ambassador to Belgrade, and a number of senior Serbian officials and ambassadors of the accredited Arab and foreign countries, clerics, intellectuals, academics, and public figures.
The meeting started with the national peace of the Serbia Republicans, Egypt, then Dr. Vladimir Roganovich gave a speech in which he expressed his overwhelming happiness by hosting His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, noting that this visit represents a historic moment in strengthening spiritual and cultural relations between Serbia and Egypt, and between the Serbian Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church, the oldest churches of the East, adding: I think that tonight are united in the same feelings Our sweat and our sects diversified. It is a sense of pride that arises, metaphorically, from the two banks of the river, like the stone arches of a permanent bridge.
He continued: We are here to rise from the value of bridges, those that unite peoples and connect the hearts, which constitute one of the noblest tasks of churches and religious groups: building bridges between heaven and earth, between man and his brother, between the present and the future, borrowing the saying of the Serbian writer Evo Andret, Nobel Prize -winning: Among everything that a person builds, nothing is noble from the bridge, it links, does not differentiate; It serves everyone, and does not belong to anyone; It crosses over the water, as love passes over the differences.
He added: In a world that flounders between crises, and the divisions increase, we do not have the luxury of retreat. We need spiritual sounds and reference figures, such as His Holiness Pope Tawadros, reminds us of the power of love, and that dialogue, coexistence and respect for the other are not a luxury but an existential necessity.
Then His Holiness, Pope Tawadros II, gave his lecture, and he started it by saying: “In my career during the past days, I saw a bridge linking the sides of the Sava River, and contemplated in its meaning.
He explained: “The first bridge that humanity has known is the spiritual bridge that connects heaven and earth, when“ God loved the world until his only son humiliated, so that everyone who believes in him will not be blessed. ” (John 3:16), stressing that this is the basis of divine love, and that true love is what the Church adopts and established among people.
During the lecture, His Holiness listed a number of bridges that Egypt built throughout history, starting with its reception of the Holy Family, and passing through the founding of the Coptic Orthodox Church at the hands of St. Mar Mark in the first century AD, then the emergence of the Alexandria Theological School, and the birth of the Christian monasticism in Egypt at the hands of Saint Anthony the Great, indicating that the Monastery of St. Anthony is still a spiritual destination Thousands visit him.
His Holiness also touched on the national positions of the Coptic Church, citing his famous speech in the wake of the burning of churches in 2013: “A homeland without churches is better than churches without a homeland.
He moved to talk about live examples of contemporary history that embodies the idea of building bridges after conflicts, such as the South Africa model led by Nelson Mandela and Rwanda, which recovered after sectarian massacres, stressing that “love builds a better time, a better place and a better human being.”
He gave examples of individuals who made a difference with their love, such as Mother Teresa and Professor Magdy Yaqoub, saying: “These characters built bridges of love, not by speaking, but indeed, and each of them changed the face of humanity in one way or another.”
Then his holiness concluded his speech with an open invitation: “Let us build bridges, no walls. And the truth ”(1 John 3:18) to make this love a light that illuminates the darkness of the world, and a bridge that crosses us all to a better future.
Stressing that true love never falls (1 Cor 13: 8), and that building a better future requires that we put a person in the heart of every project, and to use our technological and cultural achievements to build peace, not to make barriers.
