CNEWA

Journey to Iraq: Cardinal Dolan to Iraqi Seminarians: “You Will Convert the World”

CNA’s Elise Harris, accompanying Cardinal Timothy Dolan and CNEWA’s team on the pastoral visit to Iraqi Kurdistan.

CNA’s Elise Harris, accompanying Cardinal Timothy Dolan and CNEWA’s team on the pastoral visit to Iraqi Kurdistan, filed a report this afternoon on the cardinal’s visit to a seminary in Iraq:

After spending his first full day in Erbil, Iraq, Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave a special message to men studying in Iraq’s only remaining seminary for diocesan priests.

“You, you will be the apostles. You will be the heralds. You will help convert the world,” Cardinal Dolan said 9 April.

He spoke to the nearly 30 seminarians currently studying at St. Peter Patriarchal Seminary for the Chaldean Patriarchate in Erbil after having toured different projects that help the internally displaced and listening to their stories of suffering.

While some might be tempted to say that the Church is dying in Iraq, and that it is more alive in other areas, “we say to you no. Here is where the Church is alive.”

“You are teaching us,” the cardinal said. “So please hear us say we love you, we need you, we cannot forget you.”

Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, spoke to the seminarians on his first full day in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is currently on a pastoral visit intended to offer support and solidarity to families, Church leaders, priests and religious who were displaced as a result of ISIS attacks in 2014.

He is traveling in his capacity as chair of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) along with CNEWA board member Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, CNEWA President Msgr. John Kozar, and the Executive Director of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of New York, Msgr. Kevin Sullivan. CNA is also part of the delegation.

The seminary is the only one left in Iraq that provides formation for diocesan priests in the country, and is one of the many structures and projects supported by CNEWA. First established in Baghdad, the seminary was later moved to Erbil for security reasons, and is headed by the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda.

Read the rest.

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