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For over a year, the University has been working to establish something never done before.

Posted: Mar 17, 2021 / 05:03 PM EDT / Updated: Mar 17, 2021 / 05:14 PM EDT

JEFFERSON COUNTY, OH (WTRF) Persecution is seeing healing as the Pope proclaimed, The church is alive in Iraq, and in the Ohio Valley, a university is becoming part of this monumental step.

An email in December would prompt one of the most exciting weekendsofFather Dave Pivonkas life.

The Pope, the Holy Father, is going to come to Iraq and would I be willing to come and be his guest. First off, honestly, I had to think about it. Ive not had to travel to Iraq before.

With two other professors, Fr. Dave embarked tothe Middle East,where they found themselves to besome of the few Americansattendingamong10,000 people.

The Popemade his firstventure to Iraq, signifyingtohis followersa turning point in history.

The world is talking about Christianity in Iraq, said Fr. Dave.

It comes at a dyer time. In the past 10 years, Fr. Dave says 60 percent of the Christian population in Iraq haseither left the country or been martyred.And now, the Pope called onthe remainingrefugees to forgive.

I remember talking with the bishop and I said, How many priests do you know that have been martyred during this time when ISIS took over this area? He began to go through a list of many, many priests who were killed. Its a church that suffered greatly. To be able to be there to celebrate with the Pope was just a great blessing.

Now back from his trip, Fr. Dave tells me Christians in America dont realize how good they have it.

When I was in Erbil, a young adult, she was maybe 22 or 23 years-old, goes Can I tell you something? I said, of course. She goes, Please tell your people to not take things for granted.

Rebuild my church:The mission at Franciscan can takemultiple directions with the most recent endeavor.

For about a year and a half,theUniversityhas been working with ArchbishopWardaof Erbil to establish a Catholic University in Iraq. Its an area that has neverseen the likes of one before.

The Archbishop has developed four different schools and they teach in English. So, it would be great to have people from this area go over to Iraq and be able to teach the children.

Read more here:
Franciscan University President says Christian education is on the way to Iraq - WTRF