VATICAN - “Whenever our Christians suffer unjustly it is a wound to the Body of Christ in which all believers share.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has sent the following message to His Holiness Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, expressing his sorrow for the attacks on Coptic Christians that took place in Nag Hamadi, Egypt: “With sadness I have heard the tragic news of the death and injury of several Coptic Christians after a Christmas midnight Mass in Nag Hamadi in Upper Egypt. Please know that I am united in prayer with Your Holiness and with the Coptic Christian Community at this time. Whenever our Christians suffer unjustly it is a wound to the Body of Christ in which all believers share. Together we share this sadness, and together we pray for healing, peace and justice. All Christians must stand united in the face of oppression and seek together the peace that only Christ can give. I pray for the happy repose of the souls of the deceased and the healing of the injured, as well as comfort for the families of the victims. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 9/01/2010)