In congratulatory communiqué to Bishop Tawadros – Egypt's new Coptic Orthodox pope – President Mohamed Morsi stresses unity between nation's Muslims and Christians Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has sent a congratulatory communiqué to Coptic Orthodox Bishop Tawadros, who was chosen on Sunday as the church's 118th pope. In his communiqué, Morsi highlighted the historic unity between Egypt's Muslims and Christians, voicing his congratulations to the nations' Coptic-Christian community on the occasion of the election of their next patriarch. Bishop Tawadros became Egypt's 118th Coptic pope after his name was pulled from a glass ballot box by a blindfolded child at Sunday's long-awaited 'Altar Lottery' at St Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district. The new church head – whose formal title is Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St Mark the Apostle – succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who passed away in March. Shenouda, who led Egypt's Coptic Church for forty years, was chosen in a similar lottery in 1971.
