CAIRO - In the early hours of morning, tens of thousands of Christians started converging on Saint Mark's Orthodox Cathedral in el-Abbasiya, where they joined the long queue outside the Cathedral, in order to pay their last respects to Pope Shenouda III, who died on Saturday at the age of 88. The mourners, most of them dressed in black, wept and screamed, as they mourned the late Pontiff. They braved the heat of the sun of the Egyptian capital, determined to bid farewell to a man who had led the Coptic Orthodox Church for more than 40 years, witnessing some of Egypt's most turbulent times. "Pope Shenouda is not just about a religious authority that used to unify Egypt's Christians," said Nermeen Ra'afat, a 21-year-old mourner from Cairo. "He was like a father to all of us," she told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. Nermeen and her fellow mourners, some of them Muslim men andwomen, all expressed their deep sadness at the loss of Pope Shenouda III, a man who wisely steered Egypt's Christians, accounting for about 10 per cent of the 83 million population, through the murky waters of Egyptian politics for over four decades. Thousands of mourners wrestled their way into the church, but some failed to make it to the place were the body of the Pope had been arranged in a seated position on a throne, while others tried to jump the queue by clambering over the wall around the Cathedral complex. "I am ready to sacrifice my life to see him," said one mourner, who couldn't get into the church because of the throng. Inside, the mourners paused briefly by the throne to pay their last respects. As they did so, many cried or uttered a few simple words of farewell. "I will never forget you, Father," murmured one woman, as she waved goodbye to the seated body of the Pope. The mourners are expected to continue to converge on the church until tomorrow, to pay tribute to the Pope. The head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayyeb, were among those who offered their condolences to Egypt's Christians on the death of their Pope. But some of the mourners said the death of Pope Shenouda could not have come at a more inopportune moment, hoping that he could have stayed longer, to lead the Christian community through Egypt's post-revolution transition. "My worst fear is that the Pope's successor will not be so adept at leading us, as the problems continue to accumulate," said Riyad Adel, a 28-year-old factory worker from the 10th Ramadan City. "In the absence of a strong leadership, I am afraid the Christians will be vulnerable," he added in an interview. Egypt has seen a rising pitch of sectarian violence since a popular uprising deposed the country's long-time ruler, Hosni Mubarak, in February last year. Mubarak was seen as a protector by many Christians. After the revolution, however, the rise of political Islam seems to have made the Christian community more fearful. The Muslim Brotherhood and the more conservative Salafists almost totally dominate Parliament, while three of the leading presidential candidates are Islamists too, compounding the Christians' fears. "I am sure God will not let us down," said Michael Hanna, a 25-year-old trader from Cairo and one of the mourners at Saint Mark's Cathedral. "God will not let us down," he repeated.
