Pope Francis will also receive Tawadros for a private meeting on Thursday. According to the Vatican Secretariat of State, the May 11 meeting will include a moment of prayer.
Tawadros will also visit the Vatican’s Christian unity office.
On Sunday he will meet with Coptic Christians living in Rome. There are an estimated 1,000 families in the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Rome.
According to the Secretariat of State, Tawadros will celebrate the Orthodox Divine Liturgy at the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran at 9 a.m. on May 14.
Father Martin Browne, an official at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, told the National Catholic Register on April 21 that this is to be distinguished from the unapproved Anglican service that took place recently in the same basilica. The Catholic Church recognizes the Orthodox Church’s sacraments as valid.
On May 10, 1973, St. Pope Paul VI and Tawadros’ predecessor, Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, signed a joint declaration that marked a major development in relations between the Latin Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church.