Marcy Kaptur: “This week, the world laid to rest in the Egyptian desert a holy and wise spiritual giant, Pope Shenouda III, the 117th…”

“This week, the world laid to rest in the Egyptian desert a holy and wise spiritual giant, Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and the patriarch of all Africa of the Coptic Orthodox Church. He passed on March 17. His Holiness Pope Shenouda III presided more than 40 years over a worldwide expansion of the Coptic Orthodox Church. During his papacy, he appointed the first-ever bishops to preside over North American dioceses. When His Holiness became Pope in 1971, there were only four churches in North America. Today, there are over 100. He championed a deep commitment to ecumenism interfaith dialogue, not just with Catholic groups--meeting the Roman Catholic Pope of Rome for the first time in over 1,500 years in the year of 1973--but he joined with Protestant churches as well as Islamic leaders and Muslim clerics. He was a man for the world. I had the honor of meeting the Pope at our local Coptic Christian church when it was being constructed. He was a man of immense faith, unforgettable. I never will forget his steady, strong, peaceful countenance when I asked him what it would take to achieve unity among the faith confessions, and he said: It would take love. His contributions to world understanding and bridging horizons yet unmet will flower in decades ahead and progress will move forward in his memory. [From the New York Times, Mar.…”