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Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenuda III dies
AFP
Friday, March 16, 2012 08:18:09 PM

CAIRO - Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenuda III, spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, died Saturday night at the age of 88, state television and cathedral sources said.
Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenuda III has died.
The cause of death was not immediately clear, but the Christian leader has suffered health problems for years. State television reported he was 89, but the pope was born in August 1923, which would make him 88 at the time of death.
The official MENA news agency said Shenuda suffered from several diseases, including liver problems and tumours or swelling in the lungs.
He was forced to cancel a weekly sermon last week over health concerns.
Named Coptic pope of Alexandria in 1971, Shenuda led the Copts, estimated at 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 80 million, for the best part of a generation that saw Egypt hit by a wave of Islamic militancy from which he sought to protect it.
News of Shenuda's death was certain to cause dismay among Egypt's beleaguered Coptic population, many of whom looked up to him as a spiritual guide.
Theologically, Shenuda was conservative, slamming a court decision calling on his church to allow divorce.
Shenuda, whose community is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that recognise the primacy of neither the Catholic papacy nor the Eastern Orthodox patriarchate, maintained a keen interest in promoting church unity.
He served as head of both the World Council of Churches and the Middle East Council of Churches, and founded churches in several African countries.

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