By Salwa Samir The blessing of the icon of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt by Pope Francis of the Vatican, is an important step towards including the Egyptian route in the Roman Catholic pilgrimage programmes. Pope Francis presented an Egyptian delegation headed by ex-minister of tourism with an icon depicting the Holy Family's journey in Egypt, which he had blessed, during the weekly audience he gave to thousands of people in St Peter's Square, in the Vatican. The flight into Egypt was a biblical event described in the Gospel of Matthew which narrated how the Holy family (Mary, Jesus and Joseph) fled to Egypt to escape the persecution of King Herod. "Blessing the path is a quantum leap in the modern history of religious tourism in Egypt," Nader Guirguis, a member of the Committee for the Revival of the Holy Family's Itinerary, which is affiliated to the Tourism Ministry, told the Egyptian Mail. "Egypt will be a mecca for Vatican pilgrimage, and that is what it deserves," he added. He pointed out that the Pope's adoption of the path of the Holy Family was a good start for reviving tourism to Egypt, especially religious tourism. Guirguis said that tracing the Holy Family's route through Egypt was expected to attract about two million Catholic Christians to the country. The pilgrimage route in Egypt includes 25 sites, from Sinai in the east to Assiut in the south. The Tourism Ministry has said that eight locations were being developed to be the main stops on the journey. The eight stops include the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, the Hanging Church in Cairo, the three monasteries of Wadi el-Natrun namely the Syrians Monastery, the Saint Bishoy Monastery, the Paromeos Monastery, the Church of the Holy Virgin in Jabal al-Tayr in Minya and the Monastery of Al-Muharraq in Assiut. The ministry added that the development was starting from Cairo and the stages that followed would be completed according to schedule. It added that adequate funding was available for the development of the Holy Family's route. Director General of International Relations and Strategic Planning at the Tourism Ministry Adel el-Guindi told the local media that until now about LE400 million had been allocated for the development of all the archaeological points of the Holy Family's path and the surrounding areas and roads, in the various provinces. To the Egyptian destination for this spiritual journeys to be offered to Christians all over the world, a delegation of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi Catholic organisation, which is responsible for the pilgrimage in the Vatican, arrived here last month to go on a guided tour of the places to be covered by the Pilgrimage Programme in Egypt this year. The delegation held meetings with the Tourism minister, Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, and Egypt's Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Dr Ahmed el-Tayyeb. During their visit, the delegates were informed that Egypt was working to seize the historic opportunity and turn the support of the Pope into gain, by reviving religious tourism.
