CAIRO: Pope Francis rejected fanaticism and appealed for charity on Saturday as he addressed thousands of faithful during a visit to Egypt to promote reconciliation with Muslims and support its embattled Christians.

His visit, coming after IS killed dozens of worshippers in church bombings earlier this month, gave the country’s beleaguered Christian community an occasion to be joyful.

“The only fanaticism believers can have is that of charity. Any other fanaticism does not come from God,” the pope said at a mass for Egypt’s Catholics. “True faith... moves our heart to love everyone ... It makes us see the other not as an enemy to be overcome but a brother and sister to be loved,” he told a crowd of about 15,000 pilgrims.

The mass came on the second and last day of a visit which saw him plead for tolerance and peace on Friday at a Coptic church bombed by IS in December.

On Saturday, the crowd cheered and released yellow and white balloons as Francis lapped the Cairo stadium in a golf cart, waving to onlookers as a chorus sang a joyous hymn.

Worshippers old and young, nuns and priests, had been bussed in under tight security with Egypt under a state of emergency following the church bombings. It was, said Coptic Catholic engineer Maged Francis, a “historic occasion”. “It’s unlikely it will ever happen again,” he said. “Today joy has eclipsed the sadness of the last few weeks.”

The stadium chosen for Saturday’s mass is on Cairo’s outskirts and easier to secure, but in 2015 it saw clashes between football fans and a stampede that killed 19 people.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017