Following up on his visit earlier this year to the port cities of Northeast Egypt, H.E. Mr. Roberto Pace, Ambassador of Malta to Egypt, on 6 July toured the churches in Cairo that were of relevance to the Maltese community of Egypt. These churches are important as they retain invaluable records of the births, marriages and deaths of the Maltese Egyptian diaspora that settled around these places of worship.  

Amb. Pace started with a visit to Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in the Bulaq neighbourhood of Cairo, where he was welcomed by Franciscan friar Fr. Farid Kamal. Fr. Kamal explained how historically, the neighbourhood of Bulaq served as the entrance to Cairo for many merchants and traders and happened to host the largest community of Maltese that lived in Cairo.

Amb. Pace then continued to Our Lady of Assumption church in the Muski neighbourhood of Cairo, which hosts one of the most extensive archives of the Holy Land in the Middle East. Fr. William Faltas, a Franciscan friar, gave a guided tour to Amb. Pace of the archives and the church, which notably contains a plaque by the Maltese community of Cairo to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. This was celebrated on 20 and 21 June 1887 to mark the 50^th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession on 20 June 1837.

Amb. Pace then visited Saint Joseph’s Latin Church, a Florentine-style Roman Catholic church that was built in 1909 by Italians and served the Maltese community of Cairo. Amb. Pace congratulated Fr. Filippo Farag, a Franciscan friar whom he had earlier met at St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Alexandria, and who was recently promoted to Provincial Minister of the order.

Finally, H.E. Mons. Claudio Lurati, Apostolic Vicar of Alexandria, welcomed Amb. Pace to the Cathedral of our Lady of Heliopolis, where he visited the tomb of Édouard Louis Joseph, 1^st Baron Empain, a Walloon Belgian engineer and amateur Egyptologist who developed the Heliopolis neighbourhood of Cairo. Amb. Pace expressed his heartfelt thanks to Mons. Lurati who has overseen a project to digitise all the archives of the Latin churches of Egypt, and, as such, not only permanently conserving these priceless records, but also significantly expediting genealogy searches.

Amb. Pace was accompanied by Mrs. Bojana Dimitrovska, spouse, Mr. Pascoe Grima, Deputy Head of Mission and Consul, Mrs. Gabriella Grima, spouse of Mr. Grima, and Mr. Nadim Kanawati, from the Embassy.