Pope calls Egypt church attack cowardly gesture

(Jan 03, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday condemned a bomb blast outside a church in Egypt which killed at least 21 people, the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in the Middle East and Africa. "This cowardly gesture of death, like that in which bombs were left near the homes of Christians in Iraq to force them to leave, is an offence against God and all humanity," the Pope said after his weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer and blessing in the Vatican. The car bomb explosion outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria on Saturday, wounded dozens of people as worshippers gathered to mark the New Year and Egypt's Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber might have been responsible. It prompted Christians to protest on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 79 million. The pope urged Christian communities to persevere in a non-violent manner in the face of what he described as "a strategy of violence that has Christians as a target".
Pope Benedict also recalled the 23 pastoral workers killed in 2010 in various parts of the world as listed by the Fides news agency of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. "Also to them – the Pope said - goes our loving remembrance before the Lord. We remain united in Christ, our hope and our peace! "
Before the ‘Angelus’ the Holy Father recalled once again the mystery of Christmas, as told in Sunday’s Gospel of St. John. Later, speaking in Spanish, Benedict XVI sent a message to the Catholics of Spain, who gathered in Madrid’s Plaza de Colon on Sunday to celebrate the value of family and marriage. The theme of the celebration was "The Christian family hope for Europe." The Christian family must be an authentic sanctuary of fidelity, respect and understanding, where faith is transmitted, hope is strengthened and love takes shape, the Pope said. He thus invited all to live with renewed enthusiasm the Christian vocation in the home as genuine servants of love that welcomes, accompanies and defends human life.