Egypt's Coptic Christian Church has chosen a new pope.

Bishop Tawadros became the new head the church early Sunday when a blindfolded boy picked his name from a transparent container in a ceremony at Cairo's Coptic Cathedral.

Bishop Tawadros, who is 60 years old, succeeds Pope Shenouda the Third who died in March at the age of 88.

Church activists are expressing hope the new pope's leadership will guide Coptics safely through the uncertainty in Egypt following the country's political revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Christians make up about 10 percent of the population of Egypt, which is mainly Muslim.