Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Brisbane Iraqi Catholics appreciate prayer support

byPeter Bugden
14 August 2014 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA

Prayer support: Dina Nona and Bracken Ridge parish priest Fr Gerry Hefferan at a supper after a prayer vigil at the St Joseph and St Anthony Church. Photo: Clare Denkes

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Prayer support: Dina Nona and Bracken Ridge parish priest Fr Gerry Hefferan at a supper after a prayer vigil at the St Joseph and St Anthony Church. Photo: Clare Denkes
Prayer support: Dina Nona and Bracken Ridge parish priest Fr Gerry Hefferan at a supper after a prayer vigil at the St Joseph and St Anthony Church. Photo: Clare Denkes

By Peter Bugden

BRISBANE Catholic families, whose relatives in Iraq were driven out of Alqosh by Islamic State terrorists on August 7 had taken heart a few days earlier from a prayer campaign launched in Brisbane.

“It’s nice to know people are thinking of us,” Dina Nona said at the St Joseph and St Anthony Church, Bracken Ridge, in Brisbane, after an ecumenical prayer vigil on August 3 for peace in Iraq and other troubled spots in the world.

A prayer campaign was launched at the vigil.

Miss Nona is a Chaldean Catholic hailing from Iraq, and she and members of her extended family living in Brisbane were at the vigil, along with a family of Syriac Catholics from Iraq who are Bracken Ridge parishioners.

She is a niece of Archbishop Amel Nona of Mosul who was forced out of the northern Iraq city in recent weeks along with thousands of Christians when Islamic State (or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – ISIS) militants raided.

Since the day of the vigil the situation in Iraq has worsened with thousands more having to flee.

Relatives of the families who were at the vigil were forced to leave their homes in Alqosh and Qaraqosh.

Miss Nona, at the vigil, said she and her family, were “scared and terrified” for their relatives.

Her father Rany, brother of Archbishop Nona, was also at the vigil with his wife and family.

Related Stories

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Mr Nona’s cousin Asaad Jarjees, who was at the vigil with his family, said it was a day-to-day existence for their relatives in Iraq.

Speaking since the exodus from Alqosh, he said the situation was “getting worse and worse”.

“The temperature in the shade is 43 degrees,” he said. “Many people, especially the kids, die from dehydration.”

Bracken Ridge parish priest Fr Gerry Hefferan said the vigil “was solidarity in carrying the cross, with its suffering, together in love and the Hope that Jesus gives”.

“It is very hard for the West to understand what it must be like to be a Church of martyrs, a Church of Calvary, where the prayer is so deep that, like the Garden of Gethsemane, we can actually cry like Jesus with heavy sorrows,” he said in his homily.

“And yet it is with hope that we come today, hope to celebrate – also to grieve – but to hope in Jesus Christ because Friday of Holy Week is Good Friday. Jesus prayed, suffered and died to bring us life.”

About 130 people attended the vigil.

The parish is encouraging others in Brisbane archdiocese and beyond to join its Pray@8 prayer campaign for the people of Iraq and other troubled areas. The aim is for people to stop at 8pm each night in their own homes to be united in prayer.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Vatican calls on Muslim leaders to condemn Islamic State

Next Post

Devoted to St Mary

Peter Bugden

Related Posts

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning
QLD

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

19 May 2022
Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health
QLD

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict
News

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022
Next Post

Devoted to St Mary

Pope tells Korean bishops to keep evangelisation as primary mission

Forum boosts evangelisation effort

Popular News

  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Hearts ‘fused’ together living their vocation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turned 95 on a ‘very happy’ day

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning
QLD

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

by Staff writers
19 May 2022
0

CHRISTIAN Brother Alan Moss was remembered by his friends, family and fellow brothers for his gifted mind,...

Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022
Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

18 May 2022
Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

18 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping