Who will be the next Pope from these five men ??

After considerable delay the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria announced officially the top 5 papal candidates for the Pope’s position from the 17 candidates declared last August 2012.
The top 5 are :

• Father Raphael Ava Mina from Mari Mina in Alexandria. Mina was born in 1924 in Cairo and has a degree in law from the University of Ain Shams. He is considered the oldest candidate in the list.
• Father Bakhomious Al Sorian from the monastery of Virgin Mary in Wadi Al Natroon. Father Bakhomious was born in Aswan in 1963 and has a degree in Science and education. He is considered the youngest candidate in the list.
• Father Serafeem Al Sorian from the monastery of Virgin Mary in Wadi Al Natroon. Father Serafeem was born in 1959 in Cairo and has a degree in science from the University of Ain Shams.He serves in the church in the United States.
• Bishop Raphael, the auxiliary Bishop of Central Cairo and Heliopolis as well a former aide for late Pope Shenouda III and member of the Holy Synod. He was born in 1954 in Cairo and graduated from Ain Shams University, Faculty of Medicine. He was ordained as a bishop in June 1997.He is the most famous candidate.
• Bishop Tawadros, the general bishop of El Bahaira who was born in 1952. The member of the Holy Synod was graduated from the faculty of Pharmacy, University of Alexandria. He was ordained as a Bishop in June 1997.

It is unclear when the church will announce the final list with 3 top candidates. I believe Father Raphael Ava Mina will not be included due to his old age.
Many Egyptian Orthodox Christians were extremely happy that both Bishop Bishoy and Bishop Youannes.
It is worth to mention that there is a huge delay in the process of electing a new Pope in a very alarming way. The Church should have elected a new pope in last summer. It seems tat there are a lot of fights and trouble going on whether in the Holy Synod and General congregation council
Of course some may argue that the Church was careful to see in which direction Egypt is heading to politically , which is true somehow.
The new Pope already has got a lot of challenges in front of him , not we are speaking about new regime and rise of Islamists but also he is to occupy Pope Shenouda’s place. This new Pope will be compared to Shenouda III whether he likes it or not.

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