Tilkepe: Past and Present

Bazzi, Michael J.: - The Rev. Fr. Michael J. Bazzi, L.S.T., has been the pastor of St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Church in El Cajon, San Diego, since 1985. Fr. Michael has also seved as a professor of modern and classical Aramaic at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon for 25 years. Fr. Michael is a distinguished Bible authority, author, teacher, linguist, translator, and pastoral cousnselor. Born in Tilkepe, Iraq, a suburb of Nineveh, he graduated seminary at St. Peter's College, Baghdad, and was ordained into the priesthood in that same year, 1964. He served eight years in Tilkepe as an assisitng priest speaking his native language of Aramaic, as well as Arabic. He then travelled to the Vatican in Rome where he earned a Masters Degree in Pastoral Theology. While in Italy he gained a broad knowledge of the Italian and French languages. Fr. Michael arrived in Oshkosh - Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1974. Here he taught and preached Scripture from the Aramaic point of view. Later, he established parishes in Oak Park and Troy, Michigan, and in 1983-85, served in Los Angeles, CA. Fr. Michael moved to San Diego in 1985. In 1987, he became pastor of St. Peters Church in El Cajon, where he is presently serving. Fr. Michael was the San Diego Law Enforcement Assocation's Citizen of the Year in 2010.