St. Catherine Academy leads schools in effort to raise funds, solidarity

Wixom — St. Catherine of Siena Academy sophomore Jasmine Bakkal can empathize with the persecuted Christians in the Middle East: her own parents fled Iraq years ago.

“It’s genocide,” said Bakkal, a parishioner of St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Church in West Bloomfield. Bakkal, like many of her classmates, has been paying close attention to the latest religious persecution in the Middle East. “People are getting their heads chopped off. It’s terrible,” she said.

This past fall, Bakkal and another student approached math teacher and student council adviser Karen Rivard about the crisis.

“This needed to be addressed,” said Rivard, who said the situation was also troubling student council members Erin Gries, president; Katrina Coley, vice president; Leah Manimalethu, secretary; and Leya Maliekal, treasurer.



The St. Catherine students contacted other local Catholic high schools to build support for a fundraising project, and Brother Rice High School, Detroit Catholic Central High School, Notre Dame Preparatory and Regina High School obliged.

St. Catherine’s student council designed T-shirts bearing the “ن” symbol — the Arabic letter for “n” and first letter of “Nazarene” — used by Islamic State militants to mark Christians for persecution.

The T-shirts were sold for $10 to raise funds for displaced Iraqi Christians, and to promote greater awareness of their plight. They were sold at school games and other events.

Besides the “Nazarene” symbol, the front of the T-shirts state “We Stand With Iraqi Christians” on the front, and the back features the Romans 12:21 verse “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.” The T-shirt backs also features the names of the high schools that participated.

Brother Rice’s bookstore manager, Jenny Cherocci, distributed the T-shirts at a very good deal to maximize the profits earned, said Rivard.

After the costs of printing the T-shirts, the St. Catherine’s students were able to raise $1,577.90, which they sent to Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron with a letter explaining their efforts.

Archbishop Vigneron in turn forwarded the check to Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan — a ministry of the Archdiocese of Detroit— to apply to its Immigration and Refugee Services.

The St. Catherine students were pleased at the results of their fundraising campaign and at the awareness they built with the T-shirts.

“We wore them during Catholic Schools Week to show our universal connection,” said Maliekal, a senior and a parishioner of St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Southfield.

Maliekal, who is of Syro-Malabar rite, said the Chaldean bishop had attended the founding of her own parish and promised that if the Syro-Malabar Catholics ever needed anything “to let him know.”

“It felt good to be able to return the effort,” she said.

Manimalethu, a senior and parishioner of Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington Hills, added that the project “made us proud to be Catholic.” She detailed a Jan. 28 visit by Chaldean priest Fr. Pierre Konja, who celebrated the Chaldean liturgy for the student body.

The T-shirts have been met with great success: Bakkal sold several at her parish, and Brother Rice has purchased several to distribute, too.

Rivard said it’s unfortunate that the situation has no end in sight, though there is a discussion to let the students wear the T-shirts once a month in solidarity.

Coley, a senior and parishioner of Our Lady of Victory in Northville, said her mother is usually the one who tells her about current events, “but this time it’s me at the dinner table,” she said.

Gries, a senior who attends St. Benedict Parish in Waterford, said she sent a T-shirt to her great-aunt in Florida “because I was telling her about it and she was interested.”

“(Iraqi Christians) are not a separate people, but part of our family and people we want to take care of,” she said.

 

Contribute to the Nazarene Scholarship Fund

The Nazarene Scholarship Fund at St. Catherine of Siena Academy was established in honor of the persecuted Iraqi Christians. The scholarship provides a tuition-free education at St. Catherine for Christian girls who recently fled the violence in Iraq. To donate to this fund, send a check to Nazarene Scholarship Fund, 28200 Napier Rd., Wixom, MI, 48393 or visit saintcatherineacademy.org.

 

Help Iraq

Learn how you can help Iraqi Christians through the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle-sponsored program, helpiraq.org, and its partner program, adoptarefugeefamily.org.