Christians Crushed As Leader Mourned

                                        Pope Shenouda III on display in St Mark's Cathedral

 

At least three people suffocated to death as thousands of Coptic Christians packed an Egyptian cathedral to mourn the death of their church's leader. The body of Pope Shenouda III, who died on Saturday after a long illness, is on display in St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo.

 Tens of thousands of mourners queued to see their beloved pontiff seated on a wooden throne, but as the building became overcrowded dozens of people were caught up in the crush, officials said. State television urged mourners to avoid crowding, saying the pontiff would remain in state until the funeral on Tuesday. Shenouda's body, dressed in formal robes with a golden crown on his head and a gold-knobbed staff cradled on his shoulder, was placed upright on the tall ornate papal throne. Thousands of worshippers in black, hoping for a final blessing from their spiritual leader, took pictures of Shenouda on their phones, amid tears and wailing. "Baba Shenouda" - or "Father Shenouda" - led the Copts, an estimated 10% of Egypt's population of more than 80 million, for 40 years, during which his flock was hit by a wave of sectarian attacks. "It's a great loss for Egypt," tourism minister Munir Fakhry Abdelnur, a Copt and a close friend of Shenuda, said."He was wise and was widely listened to. He will be missed at a time when we need wisdom and a patriotic spirit." The death of the 88-year-old set in motion the lengthy process to elect a new patriarch for the Middle East's largest Christian community. Coptic bishops from around the world have already started to fly in for meetings on the funeral arrangements and succession. They will pick three candidates whose names will then be written on pieces of paper before a blindfolded child is asked to select one at random - guided by "the will of God". However, it could take months before a successor is found, according to Fuad Girgis, a prominent Christian in Alexandria and a member of the church's local layman council, known as el-Maglis el-Melly. "Pope Shenouda assumed the throne of St Mark eight months after the death of his predecessor," he said.