Egypt’s Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III Dead At 89

Egypt’s Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III died on Saturday, he was 89-years-old. Shenouda passed away of natural causes after leading his people for more than four decades.

The Coptic Christian faith serves nearly 10% of Egypt’s faith, nearly 80 million people in total.

Shenouda fought for Coptic rights during the early years of his leadership, at one point being forced into exile for a three year period of time in the 1980s.

Eventually the Coptic Pope would take on a conciliatory tone even as sectarian violence increased in the region.

Once he returned from exile Shenouda under the rule of Hosni Mubarak emphasized dialogue and unity between churches all over the world. The pope was often criticized for telling protesters to go home instead of protesting, that message occurred before and after the fall of Mubarak.

Shenouda didn’t however back down completely from his feistier days, after a Coptic protest was brutally dispersed in October 2010 outside of a state-run media agency he spoke out against the needless violence at a time when Egypt was falling apart in protest. During the Coptic protest 26 people were killed.

The new Coptic Pope will face many challenges in a region that has increasingly fallen under the control of Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood with those two groups drawing closer to sharing power and absolute control throughout Egypt.

Do you think a new Coptic Pope can gain enough of a voice in a region dominated by Islamist and Muslim leaders to keep his coptic people’s rights securely in place?

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