PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Foreign Press Office
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
March 16, 2004
Rev. Fr. Aren Shahinian Appointed as Spiritual Pastor of the Armenian
Community of Rome
By the Pontifical Order of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, Rev. Father Aren Shahinian is appointed as
spiritual pastor of the Armenian community of Rome. The Armenian
communities of Italy are under the jurisdiction of the Pontifical Legate for
Western Europe, His Eminence Archbishop Kude Nakkashian, Primate of Paris.
Fr. Shahinian is a member of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin.
* * *
Father Aren Shahinian
(baptized Shant)
Father Aren Shahinian was born on January 20, 1970, in Baghdad, Iraq. He
received his primary education in the local elementary school.
>From 1989-1992, he studied at the College of Mechanical Sciences in the city
of Kirkuk.
In 1993, he began attending a five-year ecclesiastical course organized by
His Eminence Archbishop Avak Assadourian, Primate of the Armenian Church
Diocese of Iraq. Concurrently, he pursued his education at the “Babylon”
Theological University of Baghdad.
On January 29, 1999, he was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Avak
Assadourian.
On March 2, 2000, he was ordained a celibate priest by Archbishop Avak
Assadourian, in the Armenian Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator, of
Cairo, Egypt. The same year, he successfully defended his thesis entitled:
“The Gospel and the Koran”, and was awarded with a Bachelor’s Degree in
Theology and Philosophy from the “Babylon” Theological University.
Following his ordination, Father Aren departed for Rome to continue his
theological education.
In 2004, upon the Pontifical Order of the Catholicos of All Armenians, he
was appointed spiritual pastor of the Armenian community of Rome.
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