On the other hand, Archpriest Raphael Ava Mina, a monk at Dayr Mār Mīnā (Monastery of Saint Mina) in al-Sāhil al-Shamālī, received recommendations from bishops to become the 118th pope, according to a church source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The bishops, who were monks at the Monastery of Saint Mina, recommended him because Ava Mina was the student and secretary of former Coptic Orthodox Pope Kyrillos VI.

A group of bishops in Cairo and heads of monasteries are considering to recommend Bishop Makarius of al-Minya, while bishops of Upper Egypt want to recommend Bishop Yu’annis, who declined to comment.

Counselor Munsif Sulaymān, Attorney of the Coptic Orthodox Church, said that the church is democratic because it allows the citizens to choose their own patriarch in accordance with the 1957 Statute.

Counselor Amīr Ramzī, a member of the Committee of National Justice, said that he is against amending the Statute because the late Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III did not agree to that. Furthermore, the church lot gives assurances to Copts that the next pope is going to be God’s choice. [‘Imād Khalīl, al-Misrī al-Yawm, March 25, 2012, p. 6] Read original text in Arabic