Vatican

​Bilateral Relations​​

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• Egypt and the Vatican have always maintained friendly relations since the beginning of their exchange of diplomatic relations in 1947.
• The President of Egypt visited the headquarters of the Vatican in November 2014 and met with Pope Francis.
• During their meeting, the two sides stressed on resuming dialogue between Al-Azhar and the Vatican through the reactivation of the joint dialogue Committee with Al-Azhar to build on common pillars from which Islamic and Christian religions come from, and which could be built upon to enhance mutual co-existence between peoples and to strengthen their efforts in the face of extremist ideas.
• The President also held a meeting with the Secretary of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Barawlin, who praised Egypt's new constitution, approved in January 2014 and its guarantees of rights and freedoms, he also expressed appreciation regarding the reference to the Holy Family journey in Egypt in the preamble of the new constitution.
• The Vatican allocated a number of scholarships for students delegated by the Catholic Church in Egypt, in order to study religious and philosophical sciences, and canon law at the specialized universities and institutes in the Vatican.

Visits:

• Pope Francis visited Egypt on April 28th for a two day visit. This visit was the first in 17 years since Pope John Paul visited Egypt in 2000.