Chaldean Catholic Bishops Call for Unity

The 2024 Bishops Synod.

Chaldean Catholic bishops, in a message sent from their synod meeting in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have urged their congregations worldwide to show unity and togetherness.

In the July 17 message, the bishops encouraged the more than 600,000 members of the Chaldean Catholic Church to remain firm in faith, despite the severe trials they have experienced in recent years.

The July 15-19 meeting of the Synod of the Chaldean Church was the first gathering of its kind since the Eastern Church’s leader Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako returned to Baghdad after nine months of voluntary exile, following a dispute with Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid.

A handful of Chaldean bishops did not attend the Synod meeting. The July 17 message expressed regret at “the absence of some bishops from the Synod, without legal justification.”

But The Pillar understands that the bishops had different reasons for missing the meeting, which they shared with Synod organizers and Vatican officials responsible for the Eastern Churches, and their absences did not represent a protest or boycott.

In his July 15 opening address, Sako expressed gratitude to the bishops for their support after he left his residence in Baghdad and settled in Iraqi Kurdistan, following Rashid’s decision to withdraw a 2013 civil decree recognizing him as the head of Chaldean Catholics and the person responsible for its assets.

Sako returned to the Iraqi capital in April, at the personal invitation of the country’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani.

In his speech to the bishops, Sako, who celebrated his 75th birthday July 4, stressed that “unity is strength.”

The synod fathers also sent a letter to Pope Francis, thanking him for his support for the Chaldean Catholic Church and recalling his historic 2021 visit to Iraq.

“We know that you strongly defend the Christian presence in the Middle East, and for this, we ask you to pray for us, and to bless us and all our growing communities in the diaspora,” the bishops said.

– Pillarcatholic.com