Fund to defray costs for Iraqi pilgrims attending World Youth Day

Published: 2008-05-09

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Organizers for World Youth Day 2008 have established a fund to help defray travel costs for a group of about 100 Chaldean Catholics from Iraq planning to attend World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15-20. The Chaldean Catholics include bishops, priests, seminarians and youths. The group has recorded the World Youth Day theme song in Arabic and Syriac and has been giving support and prayers to families who have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the Iraq War. One of the delegation's organizers is Redemptorist Father Bashar Warda, rector of the major seminary of St. Peter, which reopened earlier this year in Arbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region. The seminary had been forced to close its Baghdad location four years ago after it was damaged by a car bomb that killed 15 people. Donations to the "Chaldean Catholic Fund" may be sent to: World Youth Day 2008, Attn: Selina Hasham, Polding Centre, 133 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia.

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