Pope Tawadros II

The Copts have a new leader:

Bishop Tawadros, a trained pharmacist who headed a medicine factory, was chosen Sunday as the 118th pope to lead Egypt's Coptic Church on the same day he celebrated his 60th birthday.

Born Wagih Sobhy Bakky Suleiman in the Delta region of Mansoura, the new pope will head the largest Christian minority in the Middle East under the name Tawadros II...

Noted for his knowledge of theology, he favors a more pastoral role for the church and rarely involves himself in political matters...

Tawadros also advocates further unity between Egypt's Copts, estimated at between 6 and 10 percent of the country's 83-million population, and those from the diaspora whose leaders have often been more outspoken against abuses suffered by the Christians in Egypt.