Egypt's state news agency says Pope Shenouda III, head of Coptic Christian church, has died
CAIRO - Egypt's state news agency says Pope Shenouda III, head of Coptic Christian church, has died. He was 88.
MENA says Shenouda died Saturday after battling liver and lung problems from several years.
Known in Arabic as "Baba Shenouda," the pope had presided for more than three decades over the Egypt-based Coptic Orthodox Chuirch, one of the oldest churches in the world. For Egypt's estimated 10 million Coptic Christians, he was seen as the guardian of their minority living amid a majority Muslim population in this country of more than 80 million people.
