Fall of an Eastern Patriarch

摘要

Thousands of Christian worshippers and prominent members of Egyptian society, including officials of powerful Islamist political parties, filled Cairo's St. Mark's Cathedral and surrounding streets for the funeral of Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of Egypt's Coptic Christian community. Shenouda died on March 17 at 88 after presiding for more than four decades over the largest Christian community in the Middle East-roughly 6 million Egyptians. A controversial and conservative leader, he upheld the church's strict anti-divorce policy and initially strove to keep Christian youth out of Tahrir Square during last year's successful uprising against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.