I came to Jerusalem to perform a funeral prayers not in a picnic, said Coptic Patriarch, Pope Tawadros II in his first comment on his current visit to Jerusalem. Tawadros added that it was necessary for him to lead the funeral prayers of Jerusalem's Archbishop Abraham, saying that Jerusalem's Archbishop is considered the second man in the church's leadership. The current visit of the Coptic patriarch raised a state of controversy among the Egyptians, as it was viewed by a number of intellectuals as contradicted with the church's decision to prevent the Copts from visiting their holy sites in the occupied city. The visit is not to violate the church's position from the Palestinian issue, saying, "I did not come to visit the holy sites."