His trip comes just weeks after 45 people killed in Egyptian church bombings
But bold pontiff has turned down use of armoured car despite security risks
His spokesman said terror attacks are part of the world of 'the new normal'


Pope Francis has asked his Christian followers to pray for him as he heads to Egypt as a 'pilgrim of peace' tomorrow.
The head of the Catholic church made the plea on Twitter as a Vatican spokesman confirmed the pontiff would not be using an armoured car as his predecessors did for foreign trips.
His move is especially bold given it comes just weeks after two Palm Sunday suicide bombings on Egyptian churches that killed at least 45 people.

Pope Francis is facing a religious and diplomatic balancing act as he heads to the Middle East, where he is hoping to comfort the Christian community after a spate of Islamic attacks while seeking to improve relations with Muslim leaders.
Security has been tightened, with shops ordered closed and police conducting door-to-door checks in the upscale Cairo neighborhood where Francis will stay Friday night.
His only public Mass is being held at a military-run stadium.
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Francis wasn't overly concerned and wouldn't be riding in a protected car.

Francis insisted on going ahead with the trip even after the bombings in Tanta and Alexandria as well as the subsequent attack at the famed St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai.
'We're in the world of "new normal",' Burke said. 'But we go forward with serenity.'
The highlight of the two-day trip will be Francis' visit Friday to Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of learning in Sunni Islam. There, he will meet privately with grand imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, and participate in an international peace conference.Francis has insisted that Christian-Muslim dialogue is the only way to overcome Islamic extremism of the kind that has targeted Christians and driven them from their 2,000-year-old communities in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
While condemning extremist attacks against Christians, he has said he is traveling to Egypt as a messenger of peace at a time when the world is 'torn by blind violence.'
But his message of dialogue and tolerance has been rejected as naive by even some of his fellow Jesuits, for whom Islam remains 'a religion of the sword' that has failed to modernize.
Even ordinary Egyptian Christians see his visit as a nice gesture but one that ultimately won't change their reality.
The pope's visit, following el-Sissi's recent reception at the White House, will crown the time and effort he has invested in shaking off the international isolation he suffered after his 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president.
Egypt's Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country's 92 million people, have been strong backers of el-Sissi even after the recent attacks and amid mounting international criticism of human rights violations by his government.
Burke, the Vatican spokesman, acknowledged that the pope could be used by leaders for their political ends during his foreign trips. But he insisted Francis has an agenda of his own: to minister to Egypt's tiny Catholic community, express solidarity with the broader Christian community and improve ties with Muslims.

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