Fight or Flight

The War Over the Faithful in Iraq

His Beatitude Mar Louis Raphaël Sako, patriarch of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic church, moments before his enthroning ceremony at St. Joseph’s Church in central Baghdad, Iraq, in 2013.

By Sarah Kittle

It was mid-July when Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked a decree that gave state recognition to His Beatitude Mar Louis Raphaël Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church. The decree had given recognition to the patriarch’s appointment by the Holy See as head of the Chaldean Church “in Iraq and the world” and thus, “responsible for the assets of the Church.” Why did Rashid do that, and what does it mean for Iraq’s dwindling Christian population?

The Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church elected Mar Sako to succeed Mar Emmanuel III Delly as Patriarch of Babylon in February 2013. Pope Benedict XVI gave his assent to the election and granted him ecclesiastical communion as required by the canon law for Eastern-rite Catholic churches in recognition of their union with the wider Catholic Church. That same year, Iraq’s then-president Jalal Talabani issued a decree giving state recognition to Mar Sako as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church.

Open letter to the Iraqi president.

The Revocation

On July 15 of this year, Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid announced the revocation of the government’s 2013 decree formally recognizing Mar Sako as Patriarch. Rashid claimed that the decision to revoke the decree was made to correct a constitutional error; he says as president, he has no right to appoint or recognize religious leaders. According to the press office of the Chaldean Patriarchate, such proclamations have been issued since Ottoman times and are still very common ways of recognizing the legitimacy of the leadership of minority religions in the region today.

Rashid claims that his revocation does not change Sako’s status as patriarch since he was duly elected by the Chaldean Synod and confirmed by Pope Francis. He further stated his decision was because the Patriarch’s office is not recognized by the Iraqi Constitution.

Rashid had recently rejected requests for comparable decrees from the Patriarchs of the Assyrian Church and the Old Assyrian Church; notably, these would be new decrees as opposed to the decade-old decree that was revoked.

Mar Sako, who has been outspoken about the Iraqi government’s failure to protect its Christian population, viewed the revocation as an extension of the government’s ongoing “deliberate and humiliating campaign” against him. Others cited complex political maneuvering within the Iraqi government and through the leader of the Babylon Movement.

Patriarch Mar Sako emphatically defends his right as patriarch to administer the affairs of his community and to have full state recognition.

In a letter to the Iraqi president, His Beatitude said that he is appealing the decree’s revocation to Iraq’s judiciary and wrote to Rashid, “I believe the legal advice that was given to Your Excellency is incorrect and it wanted to undermine your stature and the Christian component.”

In response to the revocation, which Sako called, "unprecedented in the history of Iraq,” the Patriarch announced he was leaving Baghdad to take up residence in Iraqi Kurdistan. In his statement, the cardinal condemned the government's silence over what he described as a campaign against him by the Babylon Movement. He has "decided to withdraw from the seat of the patriarchate in Baghdad,” the statement said, and would instead settle at one of the monasteries in Kurdistan, where he will continue to lead the Chaldean Catholic Church.

The Babylon Movement released a statement regarding the revocation, its political ramifications, and the Patriarch’s move to Kurdistan. “The Babylon Movement insists on emphasizing its tolerant stance, and stresses the return of the patriarch to his ancient position in the capital, Baghdad, as a descendant of Kokhi in Saliq and Catesiphon,” the statement said. “We wish the Patriarch an auspicious return after his visit to Erbil in our beloved Iraqi north.”

His Beatitude Mar Louis Raphaël Sako (second from left), with Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi (right), and Gen. Abdel Ghani al-Asadi (second from right), of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces visit a church damaged by Islamic State fighters, in Bartella, Iraq.

The Faithful’s Response

In a statement issued July 15, Mar Sako called the president’s action — which calls into question his ability to control Church assets in the country — “unprecedented” and “unfair.”

“It is unfortunate that we in Iraq live in the midst of a wide network of self-interest, narrow factionalism, and hypocrisy that has produced an unprecedented political, national, and moral chaos, which is rooted by now more and more,” Mar Sako wrote. “Therefore, I have decided to withdraw from the patriarchal headquarters in Baghdad.”

“I call on Christians to remain in their faith, which is their consolation, strength, light, and life, and on their national identity until the storm passes with the help of God,” Sako added. “May God help the helpless Christians and Iraqis.”

There are an estimated 300,000 Chaldean Catholics in Iraq, and, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom report, they make up 80% of the Christian population in the country.

The U.S. State Department’s Matthew Miller said at a press conference that the department was “disturbed by the harassment of Cardinal Sako, the patriarch of the Chaldean Church, and troubled by the news that he has left Baghdad.” He went to say, “We look forward to his safe return. The Iraqi Christian community is a vital part of Iraq’s identity and a central part of Iraq’s history of diversity and tolerance.

“I will say we are in continuous contact with Iraqi leaders on this matter,” Miller stated. “We are concerned that the cardinals’ position as a respected leader of the Church is under attack from a number of quarters, in particular, a militia leader who is sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act.”

Iraqi Christian rights activist Diya Butrus Slewa, speaking to The Christian Post, called the action “a political maneuver to seize the remainder of what Christians have left in Iraq and Baghdad and to expel them. Unfortunately, this is a blatant targeting of the Christians and a threat to their rights,” Slewa said.

“We hope the Iraqi presidency hears our people and revokes this (decision) as soon as possible, otherwise it will become an international matter and the Vatican will get involved,” Slewa added.

“Personally, I believe the approach to revoking the decree was flawed,” Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda said in a statement. “The President of the Republic could have convened a meeting with all the Church leaders to explain the history of these decrees and his decision to retract them. Instead, the matter was played out in the media, leading the Patriarch to interpret this action as punitive,” he wrote.

The Chaldean bishops in the U.S., Europe, and Asia issued a letter of their own urging Rashid to reverse his decision.