Alumni Update
New Bishops Are Sacred Heart Alumni
24
I
MOSAIC
The ordination ceremony of Bishop Kalabat was
held at Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church
in Southfield. He was consecrated by Bishop Louis
Raphael I. Sako, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Chaldean
Catholic Church; Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, now
Bishop Emeritus of the St. Thomas diocese and
a great friend of the seminary; and Archbishop
Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit. Also in
attendance representing Detroit were Cardinal Adam
Maida and Cardinal Edmund Szoka.
In this current academic year, Sacred Heart is
honored to have eleven Chaldean seminarians
enrolled at the seminary. The Chaldean Catholic
Church is an Eastern-rite church based in Iraq
whose liturgy is in the ancient Syriac language, a
dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus.
In his public statement of acceptance, Bishop
Raica, a priest and former chancellor of the Diocese of
Lansing, acknowledged the “providential character”
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout his priestly
journey. His home parish is Sacred Heart Parish in
Munising, Michigan. He received his undergraduate
education at Sacred
Heart College Seminary
Most Rev. Francis Y. Kalabat, the second
and served in the earlybishop of the Chaldean Eparchy of
St. Thomas the Apostle.
2000s as superior at
the graduate residence
of North American
Y. Kalabat as the second bishop of
College in Rome. It
the Chaldean Eparchy (Diocese) of
was here Pope Pius IX
St. Thomas the Apostle, based in
named Margaret Mary
Southfield, Michigan; and Most Rev.
Alacoque a “Servant
Steven J. Raica as the fifth