A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Pope Shenouda's Health, Again

With Western Christmas behind us (though the 12 days of Christmas are still running), but Eastern Christmas still ahead, there's some concern about the health of Coptic Pope Shenouda III. A few months ago I posted on questions about the health of Shenouda III. Now there is a new question: the Pope apparently "swooned" or fainted on December 24 (not Christmas Eve for the Copts, who use the Julian Calendar and celebrate January 7).

On the other hand, a word of caution here. I've been Googling in both English and Arabic and haven't found much in the way of reportage of this outside of Al-Masry al-Youm. English Google brings up only this article; Arabic brings up a lot of articles on the Pope's supporting the government effort to ban illegal organ trafficking (a "well, duh" story as we call it in the scholarly community), and not much else. This may be a gross overreaction, but then, Al-Masry al-Youm, despite a fairly good track record for an independent newspaper, did help turn the Swine Flu into the mass hamicide earlier this year.

Probably nothing to see here. Keep moving.

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