By Baghdadhope*
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| In the photo the first Mass of Fr. Gammo in the church of the Holy Trinity with Bishop Shleimun Warduni |
Despite the many difficulties and dangers Chaldean church in Iraq experienced in the far and near past it tries to live, and above all to make its faithful live, a normal life. For this reason after the appointment in September of the new parish priest of the church of St. Paul in Zafaraniya in eastern Baghdad it is now the turn of the appointment of the new parish priest of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Habibiya, also in Baghdad.
The church that for many years restricted its activities to the Saturday Mass celebrated by the parish priest of the nearby church of Saint Pithion, and that saw the disappearance of many of the families of the parish that moved to safer areas (currently there are about 50 families left) has a new pastor, Father Ameer Gammo.
Father Gammo was born on April 10, 1981 in Baghdad. At fourteen he entered the minor Chaldean seminary in the Iraqi capital but at the end of the study he decided, given his young age, "to experience life outside the seminar to understand what was my real vocation." For this reason he attended the Institute of Technology, worked and even absolved the military service during the last war on Iraq in 2003.
The civil and military life, however, could not delete his vocation to serve God that, indeed, was felt more pressing by him immediately after the attacks, on the first of August 2004, to some churches in Baghdad and Mosul. That day, these are his words: "I knew it was right for me to return to serve God and the church."
He then entered the Chaldean Major Seminary in Baghdad and continued his studies in Ankawa where, in 2007, the institute was transferred for security reasons. In 2008 he was sent to study in Rome, where he attended the Pontifical Urbaniana University and then the Pontifical Gregorian University where, in 2013, he will take the final examination for the licentiate in Dogmatic Theology with a thesis entitled: “The validity of the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari"
Father Gammo was ordained deacon in Rome on May 1, 2010 and priest in Baghdad in the church of Mar Eliya al Hiri on August 13 of the same year.
After alternating his studies in Rome with the priestly service to the Chaldean community in Greece during the summer Father Gammo has just returned to Baghdad welcomed with affection by his family, friends and the community of the Church of the Ascension, the church where he grew up and that he is now leaving to devote himself to his new service as parish priest.
The appointment of Father Gammo and the full reopening of the church of the Holy Trinity is another sign of hope that comes from Iraq, a hope that will find immediate concreteness on Friday, October 5, when in the church there will be the celebration of the first communion of its children and those of the church of Saint Pithion.