Rev. Fr. Aren Shahinian Appointed as Spiritual Pastor of the Armenian Community of Rome
16.03.2004
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.
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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.
