July 16, 2006

Chicago Woman Building the Catholic Faith in Iraq

Filed under: Positivity — TBlumer @ 7:10 am

Sometimes “Godsends” come via e-mail:

Chicago woman helping build faith in Iraq

Chicago, Jul. 14, 2006 (Catholic News Agency) - Mary Zilligan Becker probably didn’t realize she was going to play a role in the U.S. war in Iraq. But following a chance e-mail encounter back in January, she now facilitates the shipment of thousands of rosaries, scapulars and prayer books to U.S. soldiers stationed there.

According to the Tidings newspaper, Hannigan, a Chicago area Catholic bookstore owner and mother was asked by a friend who didn’t have a computer to send and e-mail to Fr. John Hannigan, a chaplain with the U.S military.

Soon, Becker began hearing Fr. Hannigan’s stories of the faithful in his 30,000 mile “parish” which stretches from Syria to Jordan, and their need for things like Catechisms and rosaries.

In a letter posted on Becker’s website, www.seatofwisdom.net, Fr. Hannigan writes, “It does my heart good as I travel ….. to see Marines, soldiers, Sailors wearing the scapular around their neck. They ask for more than one scapular since it’s now super hot out here plus all the protective gear we wear makes us sweat even more so.”

He also added that recently, “a Marine approached me and said when he gets out of the Marine Corps in 2 years from now, he’d like to start studying for the priesthood. WOW! He’s being a sponsor for one of the Marines here who will be getting confirmed.”

Stories like these are what led Becker to begin something of a campaign to collect the books and high shipping fees to get religious materials into the hands of soldiers.

Since the cost of the prayer materials are not in the U.S. military budget, Fr. Hannigan considers his chance meeting with a Catholic bookstore owner a Godsend. In a letter to Becker and her supporters, he said that “Many of these Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors have found God in this combat zone.”

“Many, upon seeing their buddies get killed in action, now have a greater realization of death in their lives,” he added. “This combat zone has for many, made them appreciate more so the importance of God in their lives.

2 Comments

  1. Thank you for posting this information. The farther this information is spread, the more visitors we have at http://www.seatofwisdom.net and donations to help get items to Fr. Hannigan and the Soldiers. In Christ, Mary

    Comment by Mary Zilligen Becker — July 19, 2006 @ 9:52 pm

  2. Mary, thanks for your note. As a result of it, I realized that your web site was in the text but wasn\’t displaying on the blog itself because of coding errors by me. I have fixed them, and the site address is now displayed and linked above. Godspeed, Tom.

    Comment by TBlumer — July 19, 2006 @ 10:02 pm

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