KNEELING before Pope John Paul II during Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Father Andreas Abouna must have experienced mixed emotions: sadness that he will be leaving London, and a mixture of joy and anxiety at the prospect of returning to his homeland of Iraq, as the new Assistant Bishop of Baghdad.

Father Andreas was one of 12 new archbishops and bishops being ordained by the Pope, in a Vatican tradition which takes place each year on the Feast of the Epiphany. The rest of the group came from Italy, Vietnam, South Korea, Ireland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Benin and Spain. Four will be papal representatives in Asia, Africa and the UN, two secretaries in the Roman curia and six diocesan bishops.

Born in northern Iraq, Father Andreas, 59, has, for the past 11 years, been chaplain to the UK’s Chaldean Catholic community, who come from Iraq and live mainly in the London area. The Chaldean Church, which is an Eastern-rite Catholic Church, resumed full communion with Rome in the 16th century.

Unsurprisingly, St Peter’s was packed for such an event. Among the global congregation were around 50 Iraqis from Britain, along with Monsignor Vincent Berry, representing the Diocese of Westminster, and members of the Benedictine community at Ealing Abbey, where Father Andreas occasionally celebrates Mass.

As the long procession of bishops and priests slowly entered the nave, heads began to crane expectantly. Then applause began to break out and flashbulbs went off, as the Pope, clad in gold and white vestments, and sitting on a mobile platform, wheeled by four men in suits, came into view. Despite being 82 years of age, frail and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he is determined to carry on as the 263rd successor to St Peter. Two bishops assisted him throughout the two-and-a-half- hour sung Latin Mass.

After the readings and the gospel, which told the story of the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child in Bethlehem, came the ordination of the 12 new bishops.

The Pope anointed each of them with the oil of chrism and then laid his hands on them to symbolise apostolic succession. Each was presented with a crozier, symbolising his role as shepherd, a silver ring, representing his marriage to the Church, and a mitre and book of the Gospels. They then embraced the cardinals and numerous bishops gathered around the sanctuary and received their blessing.

In his homily, the Pope said: “Faith in Christ, the light of the world, has guided your steps from your youth to your offerings of yourselves in priestly ordination. To the Lord you did not give gold, incense and myrrh, but your lives. Now Christ asks you to renew that self-offering, so that you may exercise in the Church the episcopal ministry.”

In February, Bishop Andreas will leave his flat in West Ealing for the offices of the Chaldean Patriarchate in Baghdad. As Raphael I Bidawid, Patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans, is suffering from poor health, Bishop Andreas will have to take on extra responsibilities.

Having lived through the Gulf War, he well knows what difficulties may lie ahead as the US gets tough with Saddam Hussein. “It is the will of God, so I have to go,” he said after the Mass.

VENUE: St Peter’s Basilica, Rome

SERVICE: Ordination of 12 new bishops on the Feast of the Epiphany

CELEBRANT: Pope John Paul II

ARCHITECTURE: Built on the site St Peter is said to have been martyred and buried, it is the most famous church in Christendom; it is some 700ft long and has a dome rising more than 400ft. Among the treasures and masterpieces it contains are Michelangelo’s famous Pietà and Bernini’s great baldacchino above the high altar

SPIRITUAL HIGH: The tremendous sense of the universality of the Catholic Church and the spiritual presence of Pope John Paul