Bishop Yu'annis, secretary of H.H. Pope Shenouda III, said that the Coptic pope sent his approval of the law on the construction of houses of worship and churches to the Egyptian Cabinet and the Supreme Military Council. Bishop Yu'annis added that the Pope had intended to visit the Grand Shaykh of the Azhar and the Muftī of the Republic Dr. A’lī Jum’ah to wish them a happy 'Īd al-Adhā [the Greater Bairam] but he became ill and his temperature rose to (38 C). Instead, Pope Shenouda sent telegrams to the two Muslim clerics, and to Field Marshal Muhammad Husayn Tantāwī Sulaymān and Lt. General Sāmī ʿAnān, the army's chief of staff.