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The patriarch of the Chaldean Church, one of the 23 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, has permanently returned to Baghdad, after a dispute with Iraq’s government led to his self-exile in the north of the country.
"We are one of the colors of the beautiful Iraqi fabric that must be preserved," Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako told his flock in a June 12 homily at the Church of "Mar Girgis" (St. George) in Baghdad.
Cardinal Sako, who turns 75 on July 4, moved to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish area of Iraq and home to many Christians, last July, after the Baghdad government revoked a decree recognizing his religious authority and responsibility for Church properties.
The Chaldean Church canceled Easter celebrations this year in order to express solidarity with the patriarch.
Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid downplayed his revocation of Sako’s recognition as bureaucratic housekeeping, Associated Press reported.
Sad anniversary
Sako’s return to Baghdad comes as the nation’s Christians remember the campaign of terror carried out against them and other minorities by the Islamic State group 10 years ago. The Church is still recovering from the ISIS debacle. Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and home to a significant Christian population, has seen just a trickle of Christian families return.
Wars, Western sanctions, and jihads have led to a sharp decrease in the number of Christians in Iraq, which is considered part of the Holy Land, with its historical connections to the Old Testament and the early spread of Christianity. Abraham was called from the city of Ur, in Iraq.
Out of a national population of some 40 million, Christians are thought to number about 150,000 – meaning the Church has lost 90% of its members since the early 2000s.
In his homily, Sako sought to reassure Christians.
"The indigenous Christians of Iraq are not strangers in this blessed land,” he said, as reported by Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies. “We are the descendants of those who founded the Mesopotamian civilization. We are the descendants of the Epic of Gilgamesh with its profound human content, the descendants of Hammurabi, the author of the first law in human history, and the descendants of Abraham the Chaldean, the father of believers in the One God. Our Church is one of the oldest churches."
And, he added, it is a Church that has always been loyal to Iraq, to which "we have given much."
"New confidence"
Fides explained that in July 2023, Iraqi President Rashid repealed Decree 147, issued by his predecessor Jalal Talabani 10 years earlier, which established the papal appointment of the patriarch as head of the Chaldean Church "in Iraq and in the world" at the level of national legislation and recognized him as "responsible for the property of the Church."
But Sako said in April that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani formally invited him to return. This week, al-Sudani confirmed the "appointment" of Cardinal Sako as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church "in Iraq and in the world," recognizing him once again as the one ultimately responsible for the properties and endowments of his Patriarchal Church. The decree recognized Sako's patriarchal prerogatives.
In his homily, Patriarch Sako thanked God for "putting an end to this difficult period of injustice through the courageous initiative of Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani."
"The Prime Minister's provision gives new confidence to Christians, who have been tested more than once since the fall of the previous regime, and strengthens their hope for a better future," Sako said. "Now we wish that the government negotiates with us on the basis of the principles of citizenship and equality, respects our representation and returns our confiscated homes and property."
Restoring justice to Christians, the cardinal stressed, "can encourage those who have emigrated to return to their country, invest and create jobs."
Infighting
AP reported that at the time of his self-exile from Baghdad, Sako blamed a campaign against him by Rayan al-Kildani, a fellow Chaldean Christian who is head of the Babylon Movement political party and founder of a militia called the Babylon Brigades that fought against ISIS.
The group, which still patrols much of the Nineveh Plain, is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed militias.
“Sako accused al-Kildani of angling to take over Christian endowments and properties, which al-Kildani denied while making similar allegations about Sako,” the wire service said.
