Former Muslim refugee who fled war in Bosnia ordained a priest in Germany

A man who arrived in Germany as a refugee after fleeing the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been ordained a Catholic priest, an exceptional case in that he was born into a Muslim family and embraced Christianity as an adult.

According to the Catholic Churchʼs news site in Germany, 41-year-old Senad Mrkaljevic was ordained a priest a few weeks ago by the archbishop of Berlin, Heiner Koch, at St. Hedwigʼs Cathedral.

“Many people fear that faith will take something away from them. My experience is exactly the opposite: God gives me much more. That is what I want to convey to others,” the new priest stated.

Born in 1984 in Brčko in the former Yugoslavia, Mrkaljevic grew up in a Muslim family where religion did not play a central role.

“Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims lived peacefully alongside one another back then,” he recalled. However, the outbreak of the war in Bosnia in 1992 forced his family to seek refuge, first in Austria and later in Germany.

“As a child, it was hard to grasp what fleeing meant, and I quickly felt like an outsider in Germany,” he recounted.

Compounding these difficulties, Mrkaljevic has a congenital visual impairment, which made…