In an official church statement, Priest Armeia, the pope’s personal secretary, told Ahram Online that Pope Shenouda III will preside as usual over Christmas mass at the Saint Mark Cathedral in Abbaseya, taking place next Thursday evening.  

 He added “we feel sorry for what happened and it has severally grieved us, because it is very alien to the love and harmony in which the nation lives”.

The Pope assigned the tarchbishop of Beheira Governorate, Bakhmious, to head today’s funeral prayers over the bodies of yesterday’s explosion victims.