Photo: Courtesy of the Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas the Apostle of Australia and New Zealand
By Peter Bugden
AUSTRALIA’S Chaldean Catholics, burdened with daily reports of the persecution of their people in Iraq, have celebrated a moment of great joy with the installation of their new leader.
Archbishop Amel Nona was installed as Bishop of the Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas the Apostle of Australia and New Zealand at the Cathedral of St Thomas the Apostle in Sydney on March 7.
Archbishop Nona, 47, was one of thousands of Catholics forced by Islamic State to leave Mosul archdiocese in Iraq last June after the militants took over the city.
He was given a rockstar welcome by a large crowd of people from the Chaldean community when he arrived at Sydney Airport on March 3.
Brisbane Chaldean Catholic Rany Nona, an older brother of Archbishop Nona, travelled to Sydney with his family for the installation.
Mr Nona’s daughter Dina said the family was “very excited and happy” to be part of her uncle’s celebration.
“And it’s good to know he’s safe here,” she said.
“We saw him every day (we were in Sydney – three days).”
Ms Nona said given the heartache of everything happening for the Christians of Iraq it was good for the Chaldeans to have a moment of celebration with her uncle.
“It was like – after every storm there’s a rainbow. This was a tiny rainbow after the storm that’s happened over there,” she said.
Archbishop Nona succeeds Archbishop Jibrail Kassab as leader of the Chaldean Catholics of Australia and New Zealand.
Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, in Kurdish northern Iraq, was among those at Archbishop Nona’s installation Mass.
