"ISIS had written really vile things about Jesus and the church. The convent was burned and gutted. Everything was stolen. Anything holy in their mind was burned."

Egypt's Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of the Islamic State group, an apocalyptic cult seeking religious war.

Despite recent and repeated terrorist attacks against Egypt's minority Christian communities, Pope Francis will not cancel his visit to Egypt.

Women wailed as caskets marked with the word "martyr" were brought into the St. Mina monastery in Alexandria.

Pope Francis asked God "to convert the hearts of those who spread terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make, and traffic in, weapons."

“We need to have a national debate on these things; it’s not a decision for the president to make in the dead of night.”