U.S. Copts Association

By   Amr Bayoumi    19/ 10/ 2008

The Coptic Orthodox Church has said return of Pope Shenouda III, Patriarch of S. Mark Episcopate, to Cairo tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m after spending four months in the USA for treatment was due to airline companies’ appointments.

Dr. Tharwat Basili, the General Lay Assembly vicar general, stated that the Pope would return on a private plane directly from the hospital, noting that return from Cleveland Ohio to Cairo onboard a normal flight would require to stop for transit three times; 5 hours in the first time, two hours for the second stop and then waiting for nine hours to catch the plane coming from Cairo, which is considered an “extra effort” to the Pope.

He stressed the Pope could not stand this difficulty and ascending plane’s high stairs three times.

Basili also made it emphatic that the Lay Assembly and the Holy Synod would not exhaust the Pope with any topics at the time being.

For his part, Bishop Murqus of Shubra al-Khima, chairman of the Media Committee with the Orthodox Church, stated that a delegation from bishops, priests and members of the Lay Assembly would receive him at the airport.

Murqus added that the homecoming reception to be held at the papal headquarters would start at 6:00 a.m once the Pope enters the Abbassiya Cathedral. He added: “Although it will be early tomorrow, we will not postpone the reception because joyfulness would be in his reception.”

He also noted that preparations for the reception would start of as of Saturday’s evening, denying at the same time this early time of the reception would affect the number of attendants.

In return, wife of priest Muta’was Wahba of Michel Angel’s Church in Kerdasa, sentenced for five years in prison for helping a Muslim woman get married to a Christian young man with a counterfeit ID, said she had submitted a petition to the Public Prosecutor to re-investigate her husband and consider his case mercifully.