At 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday May 25, 2011, the Catholic School of “Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral” in Phoenix hosted Msgr. Felix Shabi on its premises to recognize the suffering Chaldean refugee community who arrived recently to the Valley. After doing the “The Pledge of Allegiance,” Sister Raphael Quinn, the school principal, welcomed Msgr. Felix and presented him to the school and spoke about the suffering Chaldean Catholics in Iraq. Later a raffle drawing was held.  School children, parishioners and others had purchased raffle tickets for $1 each to win 4 donated passes to an upcoming Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game.  The proceeds from the raffle were designated to help purchase religion books for Chaldean refugees in the Phoenix-area.

Msgr. Felix was given the honor of drawing from all raffle tickets, and the winner was a little boy and his sister from among 500 students and hundreds of others who had participated in the raffle!

Msgr. Felix thanked the school, Sister Raphael, the McNeil Family who helped organize the raffle, and all the SSJ parishioners for thinking about the suffering Chaldean community in the Valley and showing such a nice gesture. He also told the kids that “Mesopotamia” the land of Chaldeans is the place where: writing, culture, and civilization were born.

These are some photos from the event.