In a sense, then, Pope Shenouda came to personify the collective struggles of the Copts -- and so his death has likewise been felt especially deeply by the community as a whole.

By Oren Dorell and Sarah Lynch USA Today CAIRO (RNS) From her home, Samia Ramsis holds a key chain bearing the face of the Virgin Mary as visitors...

It is still unclear how Egyptian legislation under increasingly Islamist influence might treat the Copts and other religious minorities, but it is an increasingly grim outlook.

Some Middle East church leaders, it seems, never embraced the Vatican's denunciation of theological anti-Semitism.

While entitled in many countries to equality of citizenship and religious freedom, religious minorities in the Muslim world increasingly fear the erosion of their rights -- and with good reason.

By Francis X. Rocca Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) As descendants of the original Christians, Catholics in the Middle East occupy a uniquel...