Coptic Christians choose new pope

CAIRO – A bishop from the Nile Delta was chosen to lead the Coptic Orthodox Church on Sunday when a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a glass chalice in a ceremony resonant with tradition but marked by anxiety over heightening tensions between Christians and Muslims across Egypt.

Bishop Tawadros became the church’s 118th pope after his name was selected from three finalists at a Mass in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo. He succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after four decades as patriarch of the largest Christian community in the Middle East. About 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 82 million are Copts.

Tawadros inherits a church uneasy over simmering sectarianism and the rise of hard-line Islamists. Many wonder if he will choose to be a vibrant voice for a Christian community that has endured recent church burnings, deadly attacks and fears that Copts will be further isolated by the government of President Mohammed Morsi, a former leader of the once-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Tawardros, 60, was a pharmacist before entering a monastery in 1986, according to the official state news agency. He had been serving as a bishop in Beheira in northern Egypt.

The Coptic Church, founded in the first century, has, despite periods of unrest, long coexisted with Muslims. Former President Hosni Mubarak routed radical Islamist movements and offered Copts a degree of security. But Christians have felt increasingly marginalized in recent years, and thousands began leaving the country when Islamists rose to political prominence in 2011 with Mubarak’s ouster.