SW News: The Chaldean Catholic Church is rejoicing over the gift of three new priests who were ordained in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on December 18. The ceremony was conducted in St Joseph’s Cathedral and it was presided over by Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako.

It was a time to celebrate for the local Christian community which is recovering from the violence and wars over the past decade. The new priests are Fr Jose Emanuel Martins, a Chaldean born in Spain; Fr Aiden Elia Jejo, who hails from Alqosh but is settled in the Netherlands; and Bashar Basil Najeeb, who is from Baghdad.

Cardinal Sako told the new priests that their priesthood is not a career, but a mission of service that must be kept alive by the "flame of enthusiasm" and which must, therefore "learn to renew itself constantly". He exhorted them to “nourish the relationship with God and with Christ". He warned that it is not a "routine", but an "essential" element that is also a "source of peace, tranquility and security". Cardinal Sako also stressed the "relationship with the Church" within which the priest works as a "harmonious team" who carries "the same message" and "does not deviate from it".

Among the new priests, Fr Martins did his theology in Spain and has a degree in Arabic. He symbolizes the Chaldean diaspora. Fr Najeeb, who was born in the Iraqi capital in 1995, is a computer science graduate and will graduate in theology from the Babylon Pontifical College in Baghdad. Fr Aiden was born in Alqosh in 1982 and did his theology in Holland. He is married and also works as an English professor.

The ceremony witnessed many dignitaries from the Church as well as the presence of a large number of faithful. Also present were the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Mikja Leskovar, Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad the Most Rev Basilio Yaldo and the envoys of Italy, Spain and Australia.