President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Holly See of St Mark, cabinet members and senior officials led an official military funeral procession after prayers at Virgin Mary Church in Nasr City for the 24 people who were killed on Sunday. The suicide bomb blast, at St Peter's Church, adjacent to the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbassiya, killed mostly women and children. It also injured 49. At the end of mass, the congregation was surprised to hear ululations in the church by one woman as soon as the pope walked in to lead funeral prayers. Al-Sisi revealed the names of the terrorists and co-conspirators in the tragic attack. “The name of the perpetrator who carried out this crime is Mahmoud Shafik Mohamed Mustafa. Wearing an explosive belt, he entered the church during prayers and detonated himself. He is 22 years old. Three terrorists were arrested and two others are being identified.” The president said that Copts had shouldered many burdens, evidence of their nationalism. He added that terrorism is frustrated because it failed to achieve its goal of sectarian strife. Al-Sisi called on the government and parliament to quickly draft a stiff law to fight terrorism. “The threat of terrorism continues to cast its destructive shadow, which requires continued strong and determined efforts, as well as closing ranks, solidarity and unity of our front,” he said. He praised the Egyptian people's united ranks in confronting wanton terrorism, adding that the terrorist attack only strengthened the determination of Egyptians to uproot terrorism from its sacred land. Pope Tawadros said that the Egyptian Church had offered martyrs throughout its history. “The souls we bid farewell today raise our hearts to God closer and closer. Life is all in God's hands.” During prayers for the victims, Pope Tawadros said: “We grieve for the passing of these loved ones, and we bemoan this evil that is stripped of all humanity. This tragedy does not afflict only the church but all of Egypt.” He continued that God wanted to honour the martyrs by taking them on the first day of fasting and on a Sunday, the day of resurrection. “We bid them farewell in heavenly Jerusalem to rejoice with St Mary. Today, we only look to the heavens,” he said. “Even as we bear our sorrows we raise our hearts to the heavens. These perpetrators forget the Lord's words: ‘Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground; there is no rest for his conscience or heart if they did this for worldly reasons and believe they can stand in front of God on Judgement Day.' ” He continued: “Did you think about Judgement Day and the shame and eternal damnation? Do not think you accomplished anything. The pain you have caused will destroy you.” Pope Tawadros added: “The Egyptian people do not know violence or terrorism. Egypt's history is pure and if we are subjected to these attacks we know that spilling blood is severely punished by God and leads to eternal damnation. Those who reach the heavens before us are enjoying God's presences and living in Heavenly joy. God chose them to be in heaven where there are no worries. We rejoice and are comforted by their departure. We are consoled by the state's attention and honouring the martyrs of St Peter's Church. We thank them for their great condolences. Pope Francis, President Al-Sisi, and everyone who grieves. We bid them farewell in the hope of resurrection. The pain in the heart is not through crying out; transform your pain into prayer so we can all prepare for Eternity. We should pray for Egypt's safety and our national unity. May God console us all and maintain calm and dignity for those who died.” Pope Tawadros received several telephone calls from senior officials and Arab ambassadors to express their condolences for the victims of the attack. Those who survived the explosion are in a state of shock and denial, reliving the moment of death and horror. In the doorway of Al-Demerdash Hospital, the clothes and white hair of an old man named Qalini Farag Morgan are covered in blood. He is weeping and repeats: “You hurried us to death or prayer, Samiha?” His wife, Samiha Tawfik, always woke him up on Sunday morning to go to mass. That day he was tired and told her he could not get up, but she said: “Forsake the devil and stick your head under the tap. We can sleep when we come back.” The old man said when mass was over and the sermon began, suddenly there was a terrible explosion, a little before 10. “I felt dizzy then I realised I was surrounded by bodies, body parts and faces that I could not identify because of the blood.” The man wept as he said: “She died. She left me. All those who died are women.” By tragic coincidence the alma mater of Dr Nevine Lotfi, another victim, is where her body ended up, at Ain Shams University Hospital. Her mother raced to Al-Demerdash Hospital as soon as she heard about the attack. She frantically asked doctors, ‘where is my daughter, Nevine? Where is Dr Nevine?' One physician pulled back a sheet over her angelic face and her mother collapsed and sat next to her daughter's body. Several of Lotfi's friends and relatives standing outside Al-Demerdash said she graduated from Ain Shams Medical School. She was a deacon at the church, well loved by everyone, and now she is a bride in heaven. Another mourning relative, Fawzi Saleh, said his sister Wedet was widowed and became a single parent for her only child Mira. She worked hard and suffered through hard times so she could rejoice for her daughter after a young man living in London proposed to her. Their wedding day would have been after Christmas. The groom bought his bride-to-be a wedding dress in London, and was going to come to Egypt after Christmas for the wedding. Saleh said doctors removed Mira's and Wedet's pancreas and spleen, respectively, and he is praying to God that they recover. Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali said her ministry will wait until the end of the investigation of the attack to decide the amount of compensation to be paid to victims. The value will be based on Cabinet Resolution 915 for martyrs and the injured which states that the families of the former would receive LE100,000, a special pension, academic and healthcare, and the latter would receive LE30,000. St Peter's Church on Ramses Street in Abbassiya is a famous church established under the names of the apostles Peter and Paul. The family of Boutros Ghali Pacha funded its construction over his grave in 1911 in memory of their patriarch. The family tombs are located underneath the church. The Boutros family is a Coptic Egyptian family who have a prominent place in Egypt's modern and contemporary history. They participated in many of Egypt's landmark events since the Orabi Revolution, including the Sudan Agreement, the 1919 Revolution, the 1936 Treaty, the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Agreement and Camp David talks. Also, Boutros Boutros Ghali was the first Arab to become UN secretary-general.
