Bishop Tawadros has been chosen as the new Coptic pope on Nov 4th, 2012.
His name was selected from a glass bowl by a blindfolded boy at a ceremony in Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt. He succeeds the late, thrice blessed, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria.
The other two candidates were Bishop Raphael and Father Raphael Ava Mina. They were chosen in a ballot by a council of 2,400 Church and community officials in October.
- Born November 4th 1952
- BSc. in Pharmacy from the University of Alexandria in 1975
- BSc. in Theology from the Clerical College in Alexandria in 1983
- Ordained monk on July 31st, 1988
- Ordained priest on December 23rd, 1989
- Consecrated as general bishop on June 15th, 1997
After his ordination as a hieromonk in 1989, H.G. Bishop Tawadros began serving in Al-Beheira with H.E. Metropolitan Pachomius, Metropolitan of Al-Beheira and the Pentapolis. In 1997, he was ordained as general bishop, and was assigned to serve as an assistant to H.E. Metropolitan Pachomius. Bishop Tawadros also served on the children’s committee of the Holy Synod.