2nd Italian tourist delegation arrives in Cairo for Holy Family’s Journey

CAIRO - 17 June 2018: The second Italian tourist delegation arrived in Cairo on Sunday to visit the Holy Family’s Journey in Egypt, according to officials at the Cairo International Airport.

The Patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church Ibrahim Ishaq will receive the delegation on Sunday evening at the Faculty of Catholic Theology in Maadi district, Southern Cairo, the Church announced in a statement.

This delegation’s visit comes in light of the pilot program for dramatic reenactment of the journey made by the Holy Family in Egypt. The delegation will visit a number of Churches and Monasteries, besides being taken on a tour in the faculty of Theology and Humanities in Maadi. The second delegation’s visit was in February.

The Holy Family came from Palestine to Egypt via the Arish road and arrived in Old Egypt, and then they moved to Upper Egypt. They hid there for a while and then returned to the north, passing through the Natroun Valley, and then continued their way back through Sinai to Palestine.

Pope Francis visited Egypt in April 2017, carried out mass and acknowledged the Holy Family’s journey in Egypt as an official Christian pilgrimage. This announcement puts the Holy Family tour on equal footing to Fatima in Portugal, suggesting that thousands of Christian tourists would visit Egypt.