Bishop Andreas Abouna RIP
With deep regret, we announce the passing away of Bishop Andreas Abouna, Bishop of the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans. May he rest in peace.
Bishop Andreas Abouna was 67 and had suffered from a kidney problem. He died in Erbil, Iraq. Funeral was held at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Ankawa, near Erbil.
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He was born on 23rd March 1943 in the village of Bedar, outside the northern Iraqi town of Zakho. At the age of 14, he joined Saint Peter’s Seminary, northern city of Mosul. He was ordained a priest for the Chaldean Catholic Church on 5th June 1966.
He became a parish priest in the diocese of Basra in southern Iraq from 1967.
In 1971 he was appointed parish priest of Saint Joseph the Worker’s Church, Baghdad, where he served for 20 years. In 1989 he became personal secretary to Chaldean Catholic leader Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid of Baghdad.
In 1991 became priest in charge of the Chaldean and Syrian-Catholic Mission, Ealing, West London, where he stayed for 11 years.
On 11th November 2002 he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad and he returned to Iraq. He was ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II, St Peter’s, Rome, 6 January 2004.