By Baghdadhope
It is known that the crisis of vocations affects the Catholic Church throughout the world and Iraq is no exception. Different reasons stop young people from undertaking the priestly life as it was in the past, and among them the emigration, which decimated the already rather small Christian community in the country, has an important role.
"The most remarkable" said to Baghdadhope Father Fadi Lion, vice rector of the Chaldean Seminary of St. Peter who added to that reason the uncertainty in the future of the country.
But the hope did not disappear so that between August 3-30 in the monastery dedicated to Saints Addai and Mari in Ankawa there will be a meeting for "young people who want to follow Christ closely as priests."
According to Father Lion from 8 to 10 young people will partecipate to the meeting that will be headed by priests and trainers and will focus on selected topics agreed with the superiors of the seminary whose rector, we recall, is Father Bashar Warda.
"These meetings are nothing new," said Father Lion, "many years ago similar meetings were organized in the seminary in Baghdad but for the war and the difficulties of the recent years they were suspended."
In January 2007 the Chaldean Major Seminary was moved for security reasons from Baghdad to Ankawa, in northern Iraq, and for now, as Father Lion said, it is unthinkable to reopen its original see.
Talking about vocations on July 24 in the Chaldean cathedral of Mar Yousef in Baghdad 4 young novices entered in the order of the Chaldean Sisters of the Daughters of Mary in a solemn celebration held by the Patriarch Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly and attended by the Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq and Jordan, Msgr. Francis A. Chullikat, the patriarchal vicars Msgr. Shleimun Warduni and Msgr. Jacques Isaac and the Chorepiscop Msgr. Emad A. Albanna.
