my Priest asked the question in one of his sermons "how many popes are their" i tried counting them all out like "the pope of the greek russian armenian syrian catholic etheiopian... but then he answerd the question saying "we have only 2 popes and that was pope shenouda and the vatican " i dont understand why he said this why the vatican? is the vatican in chage of our church also? if somone can help me understand why he said this
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my Priest asked the question in one of his sermons "how many popes are their" i tried counting them all out like "the pope of the greek russian armenian syrian catholic etheiopian... but then he answerd the question saying "we have only 2 popes and that was pope shenouda and the vatican " i dont understand why he said this why the vatican? is the vatican in chage of our church also? if somone can help me understand why he said this
He means that that only 2 patriarchs which are referred to as Pope are that of Alexandria and Rome.
We have only two popes = only 2 "popes" exist in Christianity
Of course the Vatican is not in charge of our Church. The patriarchs of Syria, Alexandria, India (do they ahve a patriarch?), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Armenia are in charge of out church.
But only the Coptic one is referred to as pope by convention.
However, all these other churches were under H.H. Pope Shenouda. Likewise, all the listed churches will be under our next pope.
BTW, he is not Coptic.