You are the hope and future of your Churches: Card. Sandri to Seminarians

December 18, 2012: The Prince of Peace is at hand, we are about to celebrate his birth, … and You are preparing for your priestly ordination. You are the hope and future of your Churches, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches on Monday. He was speaking to the seminarians in the Erbil Seminary in Iraq.

The Word of God is still alive and opens our lives on the action of God, the Cardinal said, exhorting them to Read, study and appropriate the word of God. He reminded them of the holy fathers who founded their church, whose great knowledge was enhanced by the constant reference to the Divine Revelation.
Citing the Second Vatican Council, the Cardinal said that "with this revelation, the invisible God in his love speaks to men as friends and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into fellowship with himself.
"As seminarians, thinking back to the beginning of your calling, you feel the power of the love of God, who in Christ has "called you friends." Stay in fellowship with Him; call others to the banquet of the Kingdom, Cardinal Sandri added.

The Cardinal continued: darkness seems to thicken the Middle East and on your land, particularly on Christians: do not forget the words of an exemplary priest, who shed his blood in fidelity to the Lord: Father Ragheed Ganni, son of the Chaldean Church, a student in Rome, killed in Mosul in 2007, he said after celebrating Palm Sunday in a terrible state: "We felt like Jesus entered Jerusalem, knowing that the consequence of His love for mankind was the cross. Thus while bullets smashed our church windows, we offered our suffering as a sign of love for Jesus. "Full of hope for this country and the entire human community, he added: "I may be wrong, but one thing, I'm sure that is always true: that the Holy Spirit will enlighten people to work for the good of humanity in this world so full of evil. " Together with him, the Cardinal Sandri said, ‘I commend the priestly witness of Archbishop Raho, kidnapped and killed, as well as that of the priests Tha'ir Saad and Boutros Wasim, sacrificed with their faithful at the Cathedral Sirocattolica of Baghdad October 31, 2010.

Citing Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in the Middle East, he said "Dear seminarians, as it cannot grow without water reed, so you do not can be true builders of communion and authentic witnesses to faith, without deeply rooted in Jesus Christ, without permanent conversion to his word, without love for his Church and not selfless charity for the next [...] The consolidation of the faith of the People of God also depend on the quality of your testimony. I invite you to open up more to the cultural diversity of your Churches, through learning, for example, languages ​​and cultures different from your own in view of your future mission. Also be open to the diversity of the Church, ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.