Pope Shenuda III of the Coptic church has gone to the United
States in order to have a medical check-up after two years since
the pope received treatment when he broke his thigh bone.
MENA, which is the state news agency in Egypt, said that Shenuda,
who will turn 88 this August, is going to be admitted to a hospital in
Ohio where he first underwent treatment for his broken thigh bone back
in 2008.
The pope, who is t he head of the largest Christian community in the
Middle East, currently suffers from kidney and back problems and has had
to travel a number of times in recent years to the United States in
order to receive various forms of medical treatment.
In 2008, the pope of the Coptic Church was hospitalised in a
Cleveland when he started suffering from kidney problems.
He was later
forced to return to the same hospital in June 2008 when he fell and
broke his thigh.
The Coptic Church pope then returned back home from
hospital about four months later.
The pope’s has come at a time when 21 people were killed as a result of a bombing at a church in Alexandria on New Year’s Day.
Coptic Christians make up approximately 10 percent of the 80 million people in Egypt.
The recent attacks of Coptic Christians has caused riots to start,
with a number of Copts complaining that they have suffered
discrimination and are not receiving adequate protection from Egyptian police.
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