Showing posts with label catholic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label catholic. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Coptic Pope

The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Pope Shenouda III, died March 17, 2012.

His fuller title is, apparently,

Pope and Lord Archbishop of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Orthodox and Apostolic Throne of St Mark the Evangelist and Holy Apostle; Father of Fathers; Shepherd of Shepherds; Hierarch of all Hierarchs; Pillar and Defender of the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church and of the Orthodox faith; Dean of the Great Catechetical School of Alexadria; Ecumenical Judge of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church; Thirteenth among the Apostles.
The Coptics have 7-13 million followers, and are, with the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholics, one of the major catholic churches; but there are other catholic churches.

I don't know much--basically nothing, in fact--about non-Roman Catholic churches, so if you don't mind educating me in public, please pour on the comments. I'm not even sure that I've used "Catholic" and "catholic" (capital and non-capital c's) correctly--or the word "church" correctly. I think that the Coptics and the Greek Orthodox may have started naming Popes earlier than what became the Roman Catholic church--but again, I'm not sure.

"Pope", incidentally, stems from words meaning "Father" (think "poppa").

I'm not sure how true this is, but the site that clued me into the Pope's death, said that when choosing a successor, "the final choice is made by a boy who is led blindfold to the altar and invited to pull one of the names out of a hat."

As we all know that the Pope wears a funny hat, I hope the young fellow can keep a straight face and not think about bears in the woods...