CAIRO: Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Episcopate Pope Shenouda III returned to Egypt after receiving a host of medical examinations in the US since his first appointment last week in the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Ohio. Sources at the Papal office in Cairo confirmed that the doctors said Shenouda's medical examinations showed the Pope to be in good health, and that he has responded well to a medical care program first set in 2008. Pope Shenouda was accompanied by his Papal secretary — Bishop Botrous, Bishop Uoua'nesm and Bishop Armia — and Maher Asaad, his personal physician, when he left Egypt on Oct. 25. Pope Shenouda assigned Bishop Sergious to manage the affairs of the Episcopate during his absence, and to regularly update Shenouda with the Episcopate's affairs. Shenouda, 87, has regularly traveled to the US for medical examinations ever since he began suffering from gall bladder, backbone and kidney problems, in addition to a right thigh fracture in 2008 which required surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital. Surgeons Wael Barsoum and Fawzy Estafanous of Cleveland Clinic Hospital are supervising Shenouda's medical care program. Meanwhile, the Church is ready to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the Pope's Holy See, which is scheduled to take place on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 14 at the Episcopate's Abbasiya headquarters. Shenouda ranks 117 on the list of Orthodox Church Popes, holding the Holy See in 1971. Bishop Sergious told Daily News Egypt that the Church is currently working on the Holy See preparations, and that the scheduled celebrations program will soon be presented to Shenouda. “There will be a meeting with the Pope the night before the celebrations, which is a [customary] meeting to congratulate the Pope, with no decisions made by the Holy Synod.”
