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Highlights of the Holy Father’s 27-hour visit to Cairo.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has said he hoped his visit to Egypt, carried out with “God’s help,” could be

“a sign of peace” for the country and the wider region suffering from “conflicts and terrorism.”

Recalling the April 28-29 visit during his May 3 weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father said Egypt has been a “symbol of hope, of refuge, of help.”

“When there was famine in that part of the world, Jacob and his children took refuge there. Then when Jesus was persecuted, he went there. That is why the memories from this journey enter into the cycle of hope,” he said. “For us, Egypt is a sign of hope for history and for today, for the fraternity that I have described to you.”

He thanked “the entire Egyptian people for their participation and affection” and the Egyptian state for its “extraordinary undertaking” in enabling his risky visit to “take place in the best possible way.”

The Pope’s 27-hour visit to Cairo — which he said had a “double mission” of dialogue between Christians and Muslims and the promotion of peace in the world — has been widely viewed as a success. It was his 18th apostolic voyage outside of Italy.

Carried out amid very tight security, the Pope condemned violence in God’s name at the famous center of learning for Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University; told Egypt’s Catholics that charity is the only acceptable form of “fanaticism”; and called for education and development in his speech to Egypt’s civil and political leaders.

He also emphasized common witness at a meeting with Pope Tawadros II, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church — the largest Christian community in the country — during which a joint declaration was signed that included an unexpected agreement to work on a common baptism between the two Churches.

Historians said it was probably the first time in history that a pope, the Coptic Orthodox pope and the Orthodox Ecumenical leader (Patriarch Bartholomew I was also present in Cairo) had met together.

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