By BaghdadhopeSources: Kaldaya.net, Ankawa.com
In the photo by Kaldaya.net Mons. Emanuel Shaleta
In the church dedicated to Saint George in Michigan (USA) a special ceremony was held to celebrate the 25 years of priestly service of Father Emanuel Shaleta, pastor of the church, who for the occasion was appointed Chorepiscop taking the title, then, of Monsignore. The ceremony was celebrated by Msgr.Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, bishop of the Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle (USA).
Msgr. Shaleta was born in the village of Peshabur in northern Iraq. In 1971 he entered the seminary of St. John in Mosul. In 1977 he was awarded a scholarship for theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome where he obtained a Ph.D. in biblical theology.
He was ordained a priest by John Paul II in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on May 31, 1984.
In June 1987 he was assigned to St. Paul Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Church in North Hollywood, California, where he served for about eleven years. In December 2000 he was assigned to St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in Troy in Michigan and in 2002 became its pastor. Subsequently he became the first pastor of St. George Chaldean Catholic Church in Shelby Twp. in Michigan.
The day before in Baghdad, in the church of the Virgin Mary, Fr. Mushtaq Mikhail Zanbaqa had been ordained chorepiscop too. The ceremony was officiated by the Chaldean Patriarch Vicar Msgr. Shleimun Warduni and present were also Msgr. Louis Shabi, Chaldean Chorespiscop, Msgr. Mati Shaba Matoka, Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad and Msgr. Jean Sleiman, the Latin bishop of the city.
Msgr. Zanbaqa was born in 1942. He entered the seminary in 1957 and completed his studies in Rome where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in theology. Ordained a priest in Rome in 1969 he returned to Iraq and was assigned to the Church of Assumption in the district of Mansour in Baghdad. Since 1989, the date of its opening, he served in the church of the Virgin Mary in the district of Zayouna.