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The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, who heads a church of around 12 million Orthodox Christians in Egypt and another 4 million elsewhere, has banned priests from taking confessions over the phone and has also banned monks in Coptic monasteries from using mobiles. Pope Shenouda III says there is a chance that telephones are monitored, meaning that the confessions could possibly be overheard by state security, according to news reports. He also said that monks were supposed to be secluded from the world when in monasteries, which is why he'd banned the use of mobiles by monks but had allowed monastery administrators to keep their phones. [Source: Cellular-News.com]