Pope Francis arrived in Egypt and started meeting with Sisi

Vatican’s Pope Francis arrived in Cairo on Friday in a two-day visit to meet with a number of governmental and religious leaders. After his arrival to the country, the pope headed to Heliopolis presidential palace to meet with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to discuss the developments on regional and international side.

Francis is expected to give his key address to a conference on religious dialogue at Al-Azhar, part of efforts to improve relations with the 1,000-year-old centre after Egyptian Muslim leaders cut ties in 2011 over what they said were repeated insults against Islam by Pope Benedict.

Tayeb visited the Vatican last year after restoring relations. Widely considered among the most moderate clerics in Egypt, Tayeb has condemned Islamic State and its practice of declaring others as infidels as a pretext for waging jihad.

Francis denounces violence in God's name and papal aides say a moderate like Tayeb would be an important ally in condemning radical Islam.

But Tayeb is under fire over the slow pace of reform at Azhar, which critics in Egypt's parliament and media accuse of failing to combat the religious foundations of Islamist extremism. They say Azhar is an ossified institution whose clerics have resisted pressure from Sisi to modernise their religious discourse.

Egyptian Catholic Archbishop Kirilos, Pontifical Vicar for the Vatican in Egypt, revealed the details of the two-day visit scheduled to be conducted by Vatican’s Pope Francis on April 28. He said that Francis decided to visit Egypt during the current critical period, as he carries a message of peace.

He added that the visit aims to follow the Catholic community in Egypt in addition to strengthening ecclesiastical relations between the Catholic Church on one hand and other eastern Orthodox Churches and Azhar on the other hand.

In an address to the Egyptian people this week, Francis said he hoped his visit would help bring peace and encourage dialogue and reconciliation with the Islamic world. But it comes at a painful time for Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community; three weeks after Islamic State suicide bombers killed 45 people in twin church bombings.