Chance e-mail brings help, rosaries for U.S. troops in Iraq

Published: 2006-06-29

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Mary Zilligan Becker, a Chicago-area Catholic, does not view her chance encounter with a military chaplain stationed in Iraq as a mere coincidence. In January, Becker was asked by a friend without a computer to send an e-mail for her to a priest friend, Father John Hannigan, a chaplain with the U.S. Marine Corps. Father Hannigan, who was ordained in the Chicago Archdiocese in 1976, now has a 30,000-square-mile "parish" that reaches west from Baghdad and Fallujah to the borders of Syria and Jordan. He lives with soldiers, sailors, Marines and Seabees. At every helicopter stop he makes or convoy ride he takes, there are more young people who want to learn about their faith, receive their first Communion or confirmation or become Catholic. He told Becker about the enormous spiritual needs of men and women facing pain, hardship or possible death each day. Becker, who with her husband runs an online business called Seat of Wisdom Book and Gifts (www.seatofwisdom.net) that sells religious items, turned out to be the perfect person to contact the chaplain because she has been able to get him the religious supplies he needs.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .