ASIA/IRAQ - Chaldean Church, the former seminary becomes a condo for needy families

Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) - The Chaldean Patriarchate has announced the upcoming distribution of the first batch of 16apartments thanks to the renovation of the former Patriarchal Seminary, intended for families in need. According to sources of the Patriarchate consulted by Fides Agency, the homes will be delivered in 15 days. Another 32 housing units, nearing completion, will be delivered in coming months. The new residential complex with gardens and play areas for children, focuses around the parish church dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
The initiative to transform abandoned buildings into residential condominium that housed the Chaldean Seminary – which moved in 2006 to Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, when the rector and some professors had undergone a series of kidnappings - was strongly supported by Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako also as a concrete measure to help young Chaldean families not to leave their homeland and thus stop the exodus which in Iraq is gradually eroding the indigenous Christian communities of apostolic tradition. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 21/10/2013)