Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak was born on 19 August 1955 in Beni-Chokeir,
Asyut Governorate. He studied philosophy and theology at St. Leo's Patriarchal Seminary in
Maadi (a suburb of
Cairo) and was ordained a priest in 1980. For the following two years he served in the Parish of Archangel Michael in Cairo. He was sent to
Rome to study at the
Pontifical Gregorian University and received his doctorate in
dogmatic theology. Between 1990 and 2001, he was the
rector of the Patriarchal Seminary. For a short period in 2002, he served as the parish priest of the patriarchal
Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt in Cairo. In October 2002, he was elected
Bishop of Minya, a post in which he served until his canonical election as patriarch. in
Strasbourg, 2014. Sidrak was elected as
Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria on 15 January 2013, succeeding
Antonios I Naguib, who had resigned because of poor health. (He had a stroke, suffered partial paralysis and underwent brain surgery.) Sidrak asked for and received ecclesiastical communion from
Pope Benedict XVI three days later, on 18 January 2013. Sidrak often worked closely with
Pope Francis and the Coptic Orthodox Pope,
Tawadros II, with the goal and aim of unifying the
Coptic Orthodox and
Coptic Catholic churches of
Egypt. ==References==