His Holiness Pope Tawadros II Attends an Event Organized by the Egyptian Embassy in Serbia in Cooperation
with the Department for Cooperation with Churches and Religious Communities at the Serbian Presidential Palace on the Occasion of His Visit to Serbia …
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II during the Lecture: "Love Builds a Better Time, a Better Place, and a Better Human Being"
On Tuesday evening, the Presidential Palace in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, hosted His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark as part of an event organized by the Embassy of Egypt in Serbia, in cooperation with the Office for Cooperation with Churches and Religious Communities in Serbia, on the occasion of His Holiness’s visit to the country. During the event, His Holiness delivered a lecture entitled "Bridges of Love."
The event was attended by Serbian Prime Minister Mr. Goran Matić, His Beatitude Patriarch Porfirije, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Dr. Vladimir Roganović, Director General of the Department for Cooperation with Churches and Religious Communities, and the Ministers of Justice, Trade, and European Integration.
Also present were Ambassador Basil Salah, Egypt’s Ambassador to Serbia; Apostolic Nuncio Santo Rocco Gangemi, the Vatican’s Ambassador to Belgrade; a number of senior Serbian officials; ambassadors from Arab and foreign countries; clergy; intellectuals; academics; and public figures.
The event began with the national anthems of both Serbia and Egypt. Dr. Vladimir Roganović then gave a speech expressing his deep joy at hosting His Holiness, stating that this visit marks a historic moment in strengthening the spiritual and cultural ties between Serbia and Egypt, as well as between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church, the oldest church of the East. He said: “Tonight, we are united in the same emotions, in the richness and diversity of our ethnicities and faiths. It is a sense of pride, symbolically arising from both riverbanks, like the stone arches of a permanent bridge. One of these arches is reflected in the lecture of His Holiness, titled *‘Bridges of Love,’* which we eagerly await. The other arch arises from the depth of the Serbian spirit—as our great poet Njegoš said: *‘The whole nation comes from the spirit.’*”
He continued: “We are here to celebrate bridges—those that unite people, connect hearts, and serve as one of the noblest missions of churches and religious communities: to build bridges between heaven and earth, between people and their fellow humans, between the present and the future.”
Quoting Nobel Prize-winning Serbian author Ivo Andrić, he added: “Of all that man builds, nothing is nobler than a bridge—it connects, it does not divide; it serves all, and belongs to no one. It crosses over water, just as love crosses over differences.”…
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