His Holiness Pope Shenouda III falls ill during US Visit
0 Comments Published by georgy on Wednesday, January 30 at 5:31 PM.
The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest community of Christians in the Middle East, fell ill before an appearance in Columbus and was hospitalized at the Cleveland Clinic.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, 84, was admitted Monday night, said Mary Sedarous, daughter of the pastor of St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church on the Far West Side.She did not know what was wrong but said it appeared to be an emergency. Shenouda has been in poor health recently.Mary Sedarous' father, the Rev. Sedarous A. Sedarous, rushed to Cleveland about midnight to be with the pope, his former teacher.
“He was very upset and very worried,” she said.
A Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman said the pope had requested that no information be released about his condition.Shenouda had come to the United States to visit several congregations, including St. Mary.
He was scheduled to consecrate the church's 3-year-old altar yesterday morning in an elaborate ceremony of prayers and blessings to be capped by a children's choir and a party.Coptic priests from all over the Midwest and Canada traveled to Columbus for the consecration, but many of them ended up in Cleveland to see him instead, Mary Sedarous said.“Everybody waits for this visit,” said Mike Elmaraghy, a deacon at the church. Just as Roman Catholics follow Pope Benedict XVI, Elmaraghy and others of his faith honor Shenouda as the highest figure in the church, he said. They consider him to be God's representative on Earth.
“We consider him our pope,” he said.
The doctrine of the Coptic Church is similar to Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches. Its rituals are similar to those of Roman Catholicism.Shenouda resides in Egypt, where the Coptic Church was founded in the first century by St. Mark. Today, Copts account for 10 percent of the Egyptian population.
“Everyone feels he represents all the Christian minority in Egypt,” Elmaraghy said.
The church had just four North American congregations when Shenouda became pope in 1971 but now counts more than 100, including four in Ohio.Under his leadership, the church has established congregations in South America, New Zealand and Australia. He has traveled extensively and tried to form bonds with other Christian leaders.
Shenouda suffers from chronic cholecystitis, or stones in his gall bladder that cause a high fever and severe pain, and was hospitalized in November in Cairo.
In October 2006, he underwent spinal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He came to the United States several times last year for back surgery.On Monday, hours before he got word that the patriarch was ill, the Rev. Sedarous talked about his excitement leading up to the consecration. Once the church was consecrated, it would become a sacred place that could be used for prayer and liturgy only, he said.
He was looking forward to showing Shenouda updates to the church, including icons made with materials from Egypt. The building, which was formerly a Baptist church and then a Mormon temple, has been redone since Shenouda last visited in 1999.The Rev. Sedarous was one of Shenouda's students at the Clerical Theological College in Cairo in 1968, he said.
“He is my teacher,” he said. “He is everything for me.”
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