Coptic Congress underway in Rome

(Vatican Radio) The Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies is underway at the Patristic Augustinian Institute, here in Rome. The conference is looking at themes including Coptic Religious and Cultural Life in Contemporary Egypt as well as lectures on linguistics and Biblical Manuscripts.

One of the participants at the congress is Gawdat Gabra, a former director of the Coptic Museum, Cairo and a lecturer at Claremont Graduate University in California.

He says that achieving stability in Egypt in light of recent political events will take time.

“We need time, this will take time, we don’t know what will happen. It depends upon how the Muslim Brotherhood and the government which is now mainly Muslim brothers, Muslim Brotherhood how they will succeed in the economy…”

Mr Gabra told Lydia O’Kane that many Coptic Christians and liberal Muslims have left Egypt in search of a better life.

The Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies ends Saturday 22^nd September in the Vatican Library. Listen to Lydia O'Kane's interview with Gawdat Gabra