Iraqi seminarians will help convert the world, according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The Archbishop of New York spoke to the men studying in Iraq’s only remaining seminary for diocesan priests last Saturday.
The cardinal is on a pastoral visit to Iraqi Kurdistan to offer support and solidarity to families, Church leaders, priests and Religious who were displaced as a result of ISIS attacks in 2014.
“You, you will be the apostles. You will be the heralds. You will help convert the world,” he told the nearly 30 seminarians studying at St Peter Patriarchal Seminary for the Chaldean Patriarchate. Originally in Baghdad, the seminary moved to Erbil for security reasons. It is led by the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda.
While some might be tempted to say that the Church is dying in Iraq and more alive elsewhere, Cardinal Dolan said, “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 said that after spending the day at various projects that help the displaced and listening to their stories of suffering, he was inspired by the witness of the priests, who tirelessly serve the people and are “great models” of Pope Francis’s call for shepherds to be in the midst of their sheep.
One priest slept on a mattress outside when nearly 100,000 people poured into Erbil following ISIS’s attack on their hometown of Qaraqosh. “That’s the model of the priesthood, that’s Jesus. To be with our people all the time,” Cardinal Dolan said.
Persecution of Christians and Jews ‘demands an outcry’
Intolerance against both Jews and Christians is growing, a Catholic-Jewish group said last week.
Anti-Semitism is still thriving in the world and increasing Christian persecution demands a louder outcry, said members of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee in Warsaw last week.
“Although the last 50 years have largely seen unprecedented openness between our two communities in many places, not least on the international level, the last few years have witnessed a surge of problematic developments impacting both,” the committee said. “Anti-Semitism in both speech and action has resurfaced in Europe and elsewhere, and persecution of Christians, most notably in much of the Middle East and parts of Africa, has reached levels not seen in a long time.”
They underlined that “anti-Semitism is real” and being expressed in many different ways.
“It is a danger not only to Jews but also to democratic ideals. Improved and revitalised educational programmes are necessary to combat it,” the committee said.
Porn is child abuse, say bishops
Exposure to pornography harms children to such an extent it should be considered child abuse, Australia’s Catholic bishops have said in a recent call for action.
“Children have a right to be children,” they said. “Bombarding children with sexualised images can hurt their normal development.”
The bishops said pornography “harms the fabric of our community”.
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