{"id":23919,"date":"2017-08-01T06:28:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T06:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=23919"},"modified":"2017-08-01T06:28:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T06:28:16","slug":"iraq-seminarian-saved-eucharist-returns-priest-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/08\/01\/iraq-seminarian-saved-eucharist-returns-priest-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"IRAQ &#8211; Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS returns as a priest\u00a0&#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\"><strong>IRAQ &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS <\/strong><\/span><strong style=\"font-size: 16pt;\">returns as a priest<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Martin Baani was just 24 years old when he risked his life as a seminarian to rescue the Blessed Sacrament from the imminent invasion of Islamic State terrorists in his hometown.Now, he is returning to his native village as a priest, ready to serve the people through the Eucharist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On August 6, 2014, Baani received a call from a friend who warned that a nearby village had fallen into the hands of ISIS and that his hometown of Karamlesh would be next. Baani promptly headed to the San Addai church and took the Blessed Sacrament, to prevent the jihadists from desecrating it. That day, he fled in a car along with his pastor, Fr. Thabet and three other priests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI was the last one to leave Karamlesh, with the Blessed Sacrament in my hands,\u201d he told the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Despite threats from ISIS, Baani chose to stay in Iraq instead of fleeing with his family to the United States. He continued his studies at Saint Peter&#8217;s Seminary in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In September 2016, Baani was ordained a priest along with six other men. Around 500 people attended the ordination, which was presided over by the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Raphael Sako. A few months before his ordination, Baani told Aid to the Church in Need: \u201cEvery day I go to the refugee camps to accompany the families. We are Christian refugees. ISIS wants to eliminate Christianity from Iraq but I have decided to stay. I love Jesus and I don&#8217;t want our history to disappear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Almost a year later, following the liberation of the villages of the Plain of Nineveh from ISIS control, Fr. Banni confirmed his decision to stay in Iraq in order to \u201cserve my people and our Church.\u201d \u201cNow I am happy to celebrate Holy Mass in Iraq,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Aid to the Church in Need is currently planning the reconstruction of about 13,000 Christian homes that were destroyed by ISIS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Several weeks ago, the foundation held an \u201colive tree ceremony\u201d where they delivered an olive plant to the homeowners of 105 Christian homes in the villages of Bartella, Karmalesh and Qaraqosh as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>ACN Malta<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRAQ &#8211;\u00a0Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS returns as a priest &nbsp; Martin Baani was just 24 years old when he risked his life as a seminarian to rescue the Blessed Sacrament from the imminent invasion of Islamic State terrorists in his hometown.Now, he is returning to his native village as a priest,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>IRAQ - Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS returns as a priest\u00a0- ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/08\/01\/iraq-seminarian-saved-eucharist-returns-priest-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IRAQ - Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS returns as a priest\u00a0- ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IRAQ &#8211;\u00a0Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS returns as a priest &nbsp; 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