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The ‘Mary’ in the Basilica of Mary Major That Pope Francis Prays Before (Photo by Joyce Thiel, June 2013)

COGwriter

The focus of Pope Francis on his versions of ‘Mary’ keeps being confirmed. Notice also the following:

April 28, 2017

Thursday evening, Pope Francis traveled to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to pray for the success of his 18th Apostolic Visit abroad to the northern African nation of Egypt, April 28-29.

The Holy Father almost always visits Rome’s Marian Basilica to pray for Mary’s protection and intercession before and after his papal trips.

According to the Holy See Press Office, the Pope prayed before the ancient image of Mary, Salus Populi Romani, and invoked the Virgin Mary’s protection on his travels and upon the people he will visit in the country today and tomorrow. https://zenit.org/articles/pope-prays-at-santa-maria-maggiore-before-departing-for-egypt/

This repeated emphasis on ‘Mary’ exceeds that of most other pontiffs. Notice the first place Francis went outside of the Vatican once he became pope:

March 15, 2013

In his first outing from the Vatican, Pope Francis went to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major to pray before the image of the patroness of Rome…

Cardinal Abril y Castelló:… he told me he wanted to visit Saint Mary Major. I told him I was delighted, of course, and that I would accompany him if he so wished. He answered, “Yes, of course.”

So we accompanied him. Cardinal Agostino Vallini also came. There was no one was in the Basilica for security reasons. It was a lovely moment of prayer to the Virgin, after offering her the bouquet of flowers. He stayed a while praying in silence. Then we all sang the Salve Regina.

Yesterday he said to me specifically, I want to go to pray to the Virgin to entrust my whole pontificate to her, so that she will bless it and help me.  http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/welcoming-the-pope-to-mary-s-house

Notice that Pope Francis did not entrust his pontificate to the God of the Bible, but instead to a version of Mary that is contrary to scripture.  This is something that a real man of God simply would not do. Pope Francis seemingly sees ‘Mary’ as the key to his ecumenical and interfaith agendas.

There are many concerns in the Bible (cf. Isaiah 47) and other writings about how apparitions like those claimed to be Mary will influence end time events. And the Pope’s actions, sadly, are consistent with them (those who wish an in-depth review and discussion how ‘Marian’ apparitions may affect the end times should consider getting the book Fatima Shock! What the Vatican Does Not Want You to Know About Fatima, Dogmas of Mary, and Future Apparitions).

As far as his trip to Egypt goes, notice the following related to it:

April 27, 2017

One of the world’s leading Islamic scholars based in Egypt has met in Cairo with one of Christianity’s top leaders on the eve of an international peace conference and the visit to the North African country by Pope Francis.

Following that meeting delegations from the World Council of Churches and the Muslim Council of Elders issued a joint statement on April 27 stressing the importance of valuing diversity, assuring equal rights, and of being able to build mutual relationships with others.

“There were difficulties in our respective past, and sometimes mutual misunderstanding in our present, but these should not stop people of good will from working together for a peaceful future,” they said in the statement.

“Religious leaders should promote this concept of citizenship for the benefit of all communities. We may be diverse in a number of ways, but this diversity is something to be valued and to be offered for the positive building up of our societies,” they added.

The second meeting of a delegation of the Muslim Council of Elders led by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, and a delegation of the World Council of Churches led by Dr. Agnes Abuom, WCC moderator and Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, the general secretary, had taken place at Al Azhar, Cairo, on April 26.

Tveit noted that, together, Christians and Muslims represent about half the world’s population. “So as we are here, we are not talking about only ourselves.”

He said, “We are talking about humanity in many ways. We should address these questions from a basic theological perspective. What does it mean to believe today in one God that created the one humanity?”

Also present were Bishop Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, and Dr. Heidi Hadsell, president of Hartford Seminary, Connecticut in the United States. http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/top-islamic-scholar-in-cairo-hosts-world-council-of-churches-on-eve-of-popes-visit-to-egypt/60336.htm

So, the intent of what is going on in Egypt is essentially to promote an ecumenical and interfaith agenda. Others word it a bit differently:

April 28, 2017

CAIRO — 

Pope Francis landed in Egypt’s capital on Friday for a historic two-day visit aimed at presenting a united Christian-Muslim front to repudiate violence committed in God’s name. …

He will meet first with Egypt’s president and the Christian patriarch – the “other” pope, Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church – and pray for victims of the attacks.

Most importantly, he will also visit Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of learning in Sunni Islam. There, he will meet privately with grand imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, and participate in an international peace conference on Friday afternoon. …

Francis and Tawadros will preside over an ecumenical prayer service in St. Peter’s church, the Coptic cathedral that was the site of a December suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State militants that killed 30 people.

Francis has frequently spoken out about today’s Christian martyrs and the “ecumenism of blood” that has united Catholic, Orthodox and other Christians targeted for their faith by Islamic militants. http://www.voanews.com/a/pope-francis-lands-in-egypt-for-historic-2-day-visit/3829508.html

28 April 2017

Pope Francis is hoping to revive Muslim-Christian dialogue and show solidarity with the Coptic community during a visit to Cairo. The Egyptian government is using the trip to polish its image. …

However, many Christians living in Egypt have little confidence that closer contact between Al-Azhar and the Vatican will improve their relations with the Muslim majority. “This is just a formal meeting – no more and no less,” said Coptic writer and political analyst Kamal Zakher. He doesn’t expect any tangible results from the meeting. In his view, Al-Azhar should first do a thorough overhaul of its religious discourse before beginning dialogue with other faiths.

But Cairo-based members of the Jesuit order – the same order as Pope Francis – see things more positively. Jesuit Bimal Kerketta, for example, says Francis’ visit is a good sign because he is reviving contact with the Islamic faith. “But when it comes to the daily matter of how we get along with each other, we still have a long, difficult road before us.” http://www.dw.com/en/the-pope-of-peace-in-the-egypt-of-peace-what-can-francis-achieve-in-cairo/a-38616278

Notice something I posted within a week of him becoming pontifex maximus:

The Pope may very well be friendly to Islam.  Actually, in my new book The Last Pope: Do Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Point to Pope Francis I?, I mentioned that one of the reasons that he may have chosen the name Francis was because the Franciscans have tended to have better relations with Islam than other Catholic groups.  It should be noted that biblical and Catholic prophecy suggest that those allied with Rome will temporarily convert Muslims (probably utilizing lying wonders such as ‘Marian’ apparitions) and then they will invade and take over the Arabic lands (cf. Daniel 11:40-43). (Thiel B. Pope Francis entrusts pontificate to ‘Mary’ and Cardinal hopes for Islamic cooperation. COGwriter, March 2013)

In my book The Last Pope, I wrote:

Choice of the Name Francis

Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s choice of the name Francis may have some prophetic ramifications.

How so?

There is a very famous Catholic saint named Francis of Assisi.  Francis ended up founding the Franciscan Order.  Francis of Assisi is well-loved by many Catholics and some others.

While not ever in total agreement, there has long tended to be a special relationship between that Franciscan Order and Islam [Toth IG. Between Islam and Catholicism: Bosnian Franciscan Missionaries in Turkish Hungary, 1584-1716. The Catholic Historical Review, Volume 89, Number 3, July 2003, pp. 409-433].

Working closer with Islam, and ultimately converting those in that faith, has long been a goal of various Catholics.  The Bible suggests, that for a time (cf. Revelation 13:4), that Islam may temporarily accept some ecumenical Catholicism, before engaging in a battle with the nominally Catholic King of the North (Daniel 11:40).

The Bible (Daniel 11:40-43), Catholic prophecy[Connor, Edward. Prophecy for Today. Imprimatur + A.J. Willinger, Bishop of Monterey-Fresno; Reprint: Tan Books and Publishers, Rockford (IL), 1984, p. 36], and certain Islamic prophecy all suggest that the forces of Islam will lose [Glasse C. New Encyclopedia of Islam: A Revised Edition of the Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, 3rd edition, 2008, pp. 143, 316; Ibn Zubair Ali, Mohammed Ali. The minor signs of Last Days from: The Signs of Qiyamah.].Biblical (Daniel 9:27; 11:27) and Islamic prophecy [Ibid] indicates this happens after some type of “peace deal“ and during the time of the final Antichrist.

IF getting closer to Islam was in any way involved in the selection of the name Francis I, then this is another reason to watch the current pope. (Thiel B. The Last Pope. Nazarene Books, 2013)

Francis has repeatedly reached out to Islam since becoming pope. A temporary deal with the forces of Islam will one day be made (Daniel 11:27), but it will not last (Daniel 9:27; 11:40-43; see also The ‘Peace Deal’ of Daniel 9:27).

It should also be pointed out that I am not the only one who has wondered about ecumenical-interfaith matters and ‘Mary.’ The following was written about two decades ago by a member of the Orthodox Church who warned people that a false ‘Mary’ would be used to lead to people to Antichrist:

“Mother goddesses” known in the ancient world were not just confined to the Near East and Mediterranean but are universal. The Kogi Indians, among whom we lived in Columbia, worship a spirit called Nabuba, the “Ancient Mother.” When Roman Catholics missionaries attempted to evangelize the Kogi int he last century, they used a not-uncommon strategy for drawing pagan peoples into Rome’s fold: rather than explaining the differences between the pagan mythology and Christian truth, they found “equivalences,” Christ, under this syncretistic view, corresponds to the Kogi Sejukukui (a trickster god who faked his own death by hiding in a cave), while Nabuba is said to be the Virgin Mary. This confusion has led the Kogis to call their pagan temples “cansamaria,” a corruption of “casa de Maria” (house of Mary).

Given these Roman Catholic “evangelistic methods” of more than a century ago, it is it any wonder that contemporary “apparitions” of Mary are invariably accompanied by ecumenistic messages promoting the idea that all religions are equally valid and Orthodox Christianity is but one “path” among many? A recent issue of Orthodox Tradition (1966) contains the account of Matushka (wife of a Russian Orthodox priest) Katherine Swanson’s trip to Medjugorje, Croatia, to investigate the most famous of the recent cases of apparitions of Mary in the Roman Catholic world. In it she recounts a telling episode:

Our guide took our group for an audience with the “seers.” During this audience, a pilgrim asked one of the children the following questions: “Does the Virgin say that the Catholic Church is the true church?” The response given by the child provides clear evidence of the ecumenical content and religious relativism which, oddly enough, increasingly mark the “revelations” at Medjugorje: “Our Blessed Mother says that all religions are equally pleasing to God.“

The Life magazine article, then, is yet another contribution to this line of thought. Given the idea that all paths are equally valid, then all “Marys” are equally valid, too. The author describes several of the Marys of our times: Miearculous Mary (such as at Medjugorje), Mediator Mary (Who, as the author quotes Fr. Andrew Greeley saying, lets people into Heaven through the “back door”), (Editors notes: the Orthodox Church of course never taught about the “back door”, and of course one only prays that this is a matter of a figure of speech, but let us not dwell on the “back door”, but the gates of Paradise, the Kingdom of our God). Mediator Mary of the feminists, and Mother Mary. This last one, Mother Mary, is the role which the author considers the most appealing to non-Catholics: “The emotional need for her is so irresistible to a troubled world that people without an obvious link to the Virgin are being drawn to her. It is known that Muslims revere Mary as a pure and holy saint…Interdenominational Marian prayer groups are springing up throughout the world. Many Protestants, even some who still reject notions of a supernatural Virgin, miss Mary.”

To which Mary are Muslims and Protestants being drawn? The Protestant Reformation rejected the distorted view of Mary which had developed in the West since the Schism of 1054, and which would ultimately result in the Roman Church’s proclamation of their dogma of the Immaculate Conception. But Protestantism did not just reject the Western view of Mary; it ignored Her altogether, in effect denying Her role in the Incarnation and, consequently, the part She plays in our salvation. As Rome began to see her more and more as a “goddess,” a fourth Hypostasis of the Trinity, as it were, the Protestants reacted by down playing Her position and refusing to honor Her at all, this in spite of the Gospel words:“All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed.”

Today, as heterodox Christians become more and more ecumenist and work toward creating a “One World Church,” the search has begun for a Mary of universal recognition, one who will appeal not only to those who bear the name Christian, but apparently to Muslims and others as well, just as attempts are likewise being made to identify the “new Christ” with the Muslim concept of their coming Mahdi and with the Messiah still awaited by the Jews. This, of course, will be no Christ at all but the antichrist. (Jackson P. ORTHODOX LIFE., No. I, 1997., Brotherhood of Saint Job of Pochaev at Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, N.Y. pp. 18-22.  http://fr-d-serfes.org/orthodox/theotokos.htm viewed 05/11/09)

Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Muslims, and others will be affected by this Marian-related Virgin-Lady interfaith movement.

Consider that the Bible warns about a ‘Virgin’ ‘Lady’ in the end times:

The Bible warns of a “virgin” that uses enchantments who is also called the Lady of Kingdoms:

 1 Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called delicate and tender…4 Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and have given them into thy bend: thou hast shown no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceeding heavy. (Isaiah 47:1,4-6, DRB)

Interestingly, the second of the seven wonders of the ancient world has been called, “Babylon the Great, the Lady of the Kingdoms, the glory of the whole earth“ (and the fourth wonder was called the temple of Diana of the Ephesians).

The Bible also seems to connect the Lady’s haughty comments in verses 7 & 8 with those of the harlot of Revelation 17:1, 18; 18:7-8, 11 and the city in Zephaniah 2:15.

Some may be surprised to see this, but this immoral “Lady” also seems to have the title of “queen” and “harlot”:

7 You thought, ‘I shall be a queen forever.’ 8…’I am the only one who matters. I shall never be widowed, never know bereavement.’ 9 Yet both these things will befall you, suddenly, in one day. Bereavement and widowhood will suddenly befall you… (Isaiah 47:7, 8b, 9 NJB)

4 Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot, The mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations through her harlotries, And families through her sorceries. (Nahum 3:4, NKJV)

5 Look, I am against you!- declares Yahweh Sabaoth- I shall lift your skirts as high as your face and show your nakedness to the nations, your shame to the kingdoms. (Nahum 3:5, NJB)

3 All the nations have drunk deep of the wine of her prostitution; every king on the earth has prostituted himself with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery. (Revelation 18:3, NJB)

17:1…Come, I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters…18:7 As much as she hath glorified herself, and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her; because she saith in her heart: I sit a queen, and am no widow; and sorrow I shall not see. 8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burnt with the fire; because God is strong, who shall judge her. (Revelation 17:1b, 18:7-8, DRB)

So, what will happen to the queen/Lady of the Kingdoms as well as to Babylon is warned against in Revelation.

Furthermore, neither the Bible nor the apostles referred to Mary as any type of queen.  Sacred scripture clearly warns against doing anything, such as making cakes, to honor one known as “the queen of heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18-19; 44:17-25). (Thiel B. Fatima Shock! What the Vatican Does Not Want You to Know About Fatima, Dogmas of Mary, and Future Apparitions. Nazarene Books, 2012)

The late Herbert Armstrong commented, more than once, related to Isaiah 47 where he ties, without directly stating it, the ‘lady’ with the Church of Rome:

But WHO is the Power that will lay this YOKE of slavery upon, Britain and America? We begin to find this answer in the 47th chapter of Isaiah. Notice!

“Come down, and sit in the dust, 0 virgin daughter of Babylon,” is the salutation of this chapter, verse 1. It is addressed, not to the ancient Babylon of King Nebuchadnezzar. It is addressed to a descendant, or successor, of the ancient Chaldean Empire. It is addressed to a WOMAN. And in prophetic symbol the term “woman” represents a CHURCH (Eph. 5:23, 27, 32; II Cor. ll: 1-2; Rev. 19:6-9; Rev. 12:13-17, etc.). This “lady of Kingdoms” of Isaiah 47 is the same CHURCH pictured in Revelation 17 and 18. But let’s understand as we go along “… there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.” (Verse 1).

This “lady” is no longer a virgin! She is a prostitute. She is to LOSE her throne over political kingdoms. Notice her moral and spiritual fall: “Thy nakedness shall be uncovered , yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance … ” (verse 3 ).

God Almighty Himself is going to take vengeance on her. This can result only from spirirual harlotry, which is sin.

Continue: “Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shall no more be called The Lady of Kingdoms.” (Verse 5 ). The Moffatt translation is more plain: “Sit thou silent in the dark.” Light represents TRUTH. Darkness represents error and SIN. She is a fallen woman. She has reigned over KINGDOMS of NATIONS. But, from the time of the conclusion of this prophecy, she shall no longer be called “The Lady of Kingdoms”- that is, the CHURCH that had a kingdom over the political civil kingdoms…

God will give the House of Israel of today-Britain and America-into the hand of this “Lady of Kingdoms.” She, through the armies and secret police of the nations she shall sit upon and rule, will very heavily lay HER YOKE of slavery, torture, and martyrdom on our peoples! (Armstrong HW. BRITAIN’S DOOM Prophesied for Common Market Seeking Membership! Plain Truth, July 1962)

Now, verse five, (Isaiah 47:5) Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms [In other words, a lady, a women that ruled over different governments and different kingdoms. Who could that be? Now notice, that God said]: (Isaiah 47:6) I was wroth with my people [That’s Israel.], I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand [This daughter of Babylon into thine hand ]: … Here is a lady of kingdoms, and in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation … Now do you see? And here is this woman called Babylon. The lady of kingdoms, and in verse eighteen, (Rev 17:18), the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. [Or, has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.] There you are. Now, that’s the daughter of the ancient Babylon! And that, my friends, is the power, that is to take captive modern Israel and my friends, we are the descendants of the lost ten tribes, we are their people in this generation, believe it or not. (Armstrong HW. Outline of Prophecy 11–Coming Great Tribulation, Radio broadcast transcript. http://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getbroadcast&InfoID=1332685881)

The Bible warns against an end time Babylon unity (note: the New Jerusalem Bible, a Catholic-approved translation, is shown) that Pope Francis and others are promoting:

1 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who is enthroned beside abundant waters, 2 with whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves, and who has made all the population of the world drunk with the wine of her adultery.’ 3 He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitution; 5 on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on the earth.’ 6 I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified. (Revelation 17:1-6, NJB)

9 ‘This calls for shrewdness. The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman is sitting…18 The woman you saw is the great city which has authority over all the rulers on earth.’ (Revelation 17:9,18, NJB)

1 After this, I saw another angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth shone with his glory. 2 At the top of his voice he shouted, ‘Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird. 3 All the nations have drunk deep of the wine of her prostitution; every king on the earth has prostituted himself with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery.’ 4 Another voice spoke from heaven; I heard it say, ‘Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear. 5 Her sins have reached up to the sky, and God has her crimes in mind: treat her as she has treated others. 6 She must be paid double the amount she exacted. She is to have a doubly strong cup of her own mixture. 7 Every one of her pomps and orgies is to be matched by a torture or an agony. I am enthroned as queen, she thinks; I am no widow and will never know bereavement. 8 For that, in one day, the plagues will fall on her: disease and mourning and famine. She will be burned to the ground. The Lord God who has condemned her is mighty.’ 9 ‘There will be mourning and weeping for her by the kings of the earth who have prostituted themselves with her and held orgies with her. They see the smoke as she burns, (Revelation 18:1-9, NJB)

10 Look out! Look out! Flee from the land of the north — Yahweh declares- for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven — Yahweh declares. 11 Look out! Make your escape, Zion, now living with the daughter of Babylon!  (Zechariah 2:10-12, NJB; note in translations such as the NKJV these are shown as Zechariah 2:6-7)

Babylon rises up to its peak prior to the return of Jesus Christ. The type of unity that Pope Francis is advocating is consistent with the Babylonian unity that the Bible condemns.

Notice that it is AFTER the admonition to flee Babylon that the Lord Jesus will bring unity:

10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. (Zechariah 2:8-12 NKJV;  note in translations such as the NJB these are shown as Zechariah 2:12-16)

The unity that Jesus prayed for does not happen until after He returns,

The Apostle Paul also taught that true unity of faith would not happen until after Jesus returns:

13 until we all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself. (Ephesians 4:13, NJB)

“We all” do not attain that unity until the return of Jesus Christ and the first resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). Pope Francis has indicated that those who oppose his ecumenical agenda are doing the “devil’s work” (see Pope Francis misunderstands the devil’s unity).

I believe that the time will come when those of us of the Philadelphia remnant of the Church of God (currently best represented by the Continuing Church of God) will be accused of doing the devil’s work as we continue to oppose the Babylonian unity that Pope Francis and others have been advocating.  We will be considered fanatical on many points and insulted for standing for the faith of the original church.  Few understand real Christianity or where the true Christian Church is today (for scriptures and other details, check out Where is the True Christian Church Today?).

Pope Francis’ praying before a claimed Marian image and his trip to Egypt are promoting an agenda that true Christians need to oppose.

UPDATE 8:30 PDT. Here is some of what Pope Francis said to the Coptic leader Tawadras as translated by the Vatican:

April 28, 2017

Your Holiness, dearest brother, may the same Lord today grant us to set out together as pilgrims of communion and messengers of peace. On this journey, may the Virgin Mary take us by the hand, she who brought Jesus here, and whom the great Egyptian theological tradition has from of old acclaimed as Theotokos, the Mother of God. In this title, humanity and divinity are joined, for in his Mother, God became forever man. May the Blessed Virgin, who constantly leads us to Jesus, the perfect symphony of divine and human, bring yet once more a bit of heaven to our earth. https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-address-to-coptic-orthodox-patriarch-pope-tawadros-ii/

Furthermore, notice what Francis gave the Coptic pope:

April 28, 2017

Gift to Pope Tawadros II from Pope Francis

Icon “Mother of God of Tenderness”. The work is a copy
of the Icon of the Mother of God of Tenderness of Tolga,
also known as the “Manifested” (in Russian, Yavlennaya), in
memory of its miraculous discovery on the banks of the
River Volga, at the confluence with the small tributary Tolga
in 1314, where a monastery was erected in which the
original of the work is still conserved. https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-address-to-coptic-orthodox-patriarch-pope-tawadros-ii/

Marian icons and symbols are part of the ecumenical and interfaith movement.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2017 at 7:00 am and is filed under Religious News.

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