Egypt’s Coptic Pope Shenouda III dies

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese died on Saturday at the age of 88, state television and cathedral sources said on Saturday. Pope Shenouda’s health deteriorated recently. He was unable to give his weekly sermon on Wednesday due to health problems.
The Maspero Youth Union - a Coptic youth group - organized a prayer Wednesday in the Coptic Cathedral under the slogan “your people love you.”
The pope had gone through spinal cord procedure earlier this month and was discharged from hospital and returned to the papal headquarters in Abbassiya district in Cairo.
Named Coptic pope of Alexandria in 1971, Shenuda led the Copts, estimated at 10 percent 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.