Egyptian Christians have gathered to pay their final respects to Pope Shenouda III, who sought to soothe sectarian tension in his four decades leading the country's Orthodox church but saw escalating clashes in the last months of his life.
Shenouda served as the 117th pope of Alexandria from November 1971, leading the Orthodox community who make up most of Egypt's Christians. He died on Saturday aged 88 and his funeral will be held on Tuesday, Egyptian state media reported.
Barack Obama offered his condolences and Pope Benedict, leader of the world's Roman Catholics, offered prayers.
After Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president last year, Shenouda regularly called for harmony and met Muslim and other leaders. Christians comprise about a tenth of Egypt's population and have long complained of discrimination, stepping up their protests in the past year including calling for new rules that would make it as easy to build a church as a mosque.
Thousands queued in Cairo's Abbasiya district overnight and on Sunday morning at the cathedral where Shenouda's body was initially laid in a coffin and later seated on a ceremonial throne wearing gold and red embroidered religious vestments, a golden mitre on his head and holding a gold-topped staff. » | Reuters in Cairo | Sunday, March 18, 2012
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