Egypt's Copts to select new pope

Egypt's Coptic Christians will learn who is to be their new leader after a blindfolded altar boy, believed to be directed by God, chooses one of three names out of a box.

Two bishops and a monk are on the shortlist to become the 118th leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East - up to 11 million strong.

Acting Pope Pachomios laid on Sunday three names, already selected in a limited vote in church last week, in plastic balls inside the chalice before starting Mass in Cairo's St Mark's Cathedral.

He selected on 12 altar boys between the ages of five and eight, one of whom he will order to be blindfolded during Sunday's ceremony.

He will be the 118th pope in a line dating back to the origins of Christianity and to Saint Mark, the apostle and author of one of the four Gospels, who brought the new faith to Egypt.

Nearly 2,500 Coptic public officials, MPs, journalists and local councilors already voted to select three finalists from an original group of five to succeed Shenuda, who died at the age of 88 after four decades on the papal throne.

They are Bishop Rafael, 54, a medical doctor and current assistant bishop for central Cairo; Bishop Tawadros of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, 60; and Father Rafael Ava Mina, the oldest of the five original candidates at 70.

The new Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St Mark the Apostle will succeed Pope Shenuda III, who died in March leaving behind a community anxious about its future under an Islamist-led government.

Under his leadership, the Coptic Church expanded significantly, including outside its traditional Egyptian base.

He was a passionate advocate of unity among the Christian churches, and also clashed with then President Anwar Sadat, particularly over their conflicting views on the future of Egypt's relationship with Israel.

Coptic Christians have long complained of discrimination by the Egyptian state and the country's Muslim majority.

But when President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year and succeeded by the Muslim Brotherhood, their fears grew.

In October 2011, 25 people died in clashes with the security forces after a protest march in Cairo over the burning of a church.