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Hopes are high, ahead of the meeting of the Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East with the Pope. Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome, spoke to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), remarking that he expects much from the meeting. “We are hoping for greater closeness towards our Churches in these difficult times. We need more support from the Holy See, more encouragement and more solidarity.”Patriarch Louis Raphael expressly thanked Pope Francis and his predecessors for being on the side of...

October 19, 2013. (Romereports.com) Years before turmoil in Egypt and Syria, turmoil swept Iraq, following a U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sadam Hussein. A period of sectarian violence replaced his dictatorship. Suffering became an everyday struggle for the nation's Christians.    LOUIS RAPHAEL I SAKO Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon “Christians normally are educated to live in freedom and peace and where there is no freedom and no peace they leave and they look for a shelter to educate their children and also to live our their faith.”  Numbers for the centuries-old Chaldean Catholic Church explains just how bad things have deteriorated. In...

Things have gotten worse for the Christians in Iraq as the Muslims there have become "more outwardly pious and politically Islamist," says AP. This is a backhanded admission that Muslim piety leads to greater hostility toward Christians. But if anyone said that straight out, AP would tar him as an "Islamophobe." "Iraqi Catholics celebrate Easter," by Diaa Hadid for the Associated Press, March 31: BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Catholic Christians flocked to churches to celebrate Easter Sunday, praying, singing and rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ behind high blast walls and tight security cordons. It was the first Easter since...

(Vatican Radio) The ‘delicate historical moment’ that the ancient Chaldean Church of Babylon is experiencing and the need for unity in its leadership were the chief concerns expressed Monday morning as the Patriarchal Synod opened here in Rome. Emer McCarthy reports: Convoked by Pope Benedict XVI, under the Presidency of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, the Synod has the task of electing a new Patriarch, Pater et Caput of the Chaldean Church, to succeed Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly.Comprised of fifteen men, the bishops come mainly from Iraq, ancestral home of the Chaldean Church, but...

Pope Benedict XVI has erected the Chaldean Eparchy of Canada under the title of Mar Addai of the Chaldeans of Toronto and appointed SE Archbishop Hanna Zora first Bishop of the new Eparchy, transferring him from the See of Ahwaz and retaining the title of Archbishop ad personam. “We are very pleased at the news”, Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk told Emer McCarthy “we Chaldeans are part of the universal Church. However, at the same time we are a little saddened by the continuing exodus from our land, where the Church has been present since the 5th century. We appeal...

By all accounts the Chaldean church came into existence in 1551 because of a dispute in the Assyrian "Church of the East", the dissidents formed a separate church under the leadership of Yohanna (John) Sulaga, a monk of Rabban Hormizd located 30 miles north of Nineveh. This church was recognized by the Roman Catholic church and was later called Chaldean...The name Chaldean had became fashionable among the Christians since the 12th century AD when some syriac writers such as Basil Bar Shumana came to believe that the city of Urfa known as Urhay in northern Mesopotamia was the ancient sumerian...

Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities across the country as al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege at a Baghdad church two months earlier. A council representing Christian denominations across Iraq advised its followers to cancel public Christmas celebrations out of concern over new terror attacks and as a show of mourning for the victims of the church siege and other violence.

Under Saddam Hussein, Christians in Iraq were around a million. Today, more than half have fled, living as refugees in other countries, in particular Syria and Jordan. Those who are left behind feel betrayed and abandoned by the government and the international community, with only one desire, to ... Birmingham – “There is now a real danger that Christians in the Middle East, and in Iraq in particular, of being exterminated, due to both persecution and large-scale emigration,” this according to Dr Joseph Seferta, an Iraqi-born Chaldean Catholic living in Birmingham, Britain, where he is a member of the Commission...

Archbishop Matokas cries for help to the international community of nations: 'If someone would like to drive us Christians out of the country, then they would succeed. We don't know any more what we should say. Families want to leave. It is horrible!'Bagdad [kath.net/Fides] In Baghdad a new wave of attacks against Christians: On Wednesday in the early morning between 4 and 6AM explosive devices were set off at several Christian homes. The attacks took the lives of at least three people and 26 were wounded, as reported by a representative of the Interior Ministry. Already on Tuesday evening, three...

An Iraqi soldier stands guard near a campaign billboard of Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Mosul, Iraq, Feb. 24. The billboard reads "State of Law coalition, the willing of change and construction." (CNS photo/Khalid al-Mousuly, Reuters) The news has escaped much of the mass media but Christian families are leaving the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in their droves to escape a concerted campaign of violence and intimidation. Chaldean Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona has said that Mosul is experiencing a “humanitarian emergency” and that “hundreds of Christian families” left the city Feb. 24 in search of shelter, leaving behind...

Successor to a martyred Archbishop Emil Shimoun Nona was consecrated bishop and installed as the new Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul on January 17, 2010. The new Archbishop is 42 years old. He is the successor of the martyred Paulos Faraj Raho, killed by Islamic militants in 2008. More pictures of the consecration and installation rites -- done according to the Chaldean Rite as it now stands -- can be found here.

A 75-year-old greengrocer is shot dead in front of his house. The abduction of a Christian female student is still shrouded in mystery. A wave of violence that includes attacks against churches, abductions and targeted killings of Christians is trying to force them into a mass exodus. Mosul (AsiaNews) – Mosul's Christian community has been the victim of another targeted killing. Hikmat Sleiman, a 75-year-old greengrocer, was killed yesterday. His death follows a wave of violence against Iraqi Christians that included a number of attacks over the past few weeks against churches and convents as well as abductions and execution-style...

The bishops of Kerala-- the home of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church-- have reached an agreement with Syrian Jacobite and Syrian Orthodox leaders to share churches outside Kerala for Sunday Mass and to consider sharing cemeteries and the use of priests at funerals. All four churches trace their origin to the evangelization of St. Thomas the Apostle. Underscoring the agreement’s ramifications beyond India, the Catholic delegation was led by Bishop Brian Farrell, LC, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity since 2002. Although the sacred liturgy in both the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and...

BASRA, Iraq — The small group of American troops and Iraqi Catholics held hands around a table heaped with dishes of rice, chicken, lamb and pizza. "Our Father," began the archbishop of Basra, the Most Rev. Imad Aziz al-Banna, before continuing the prayer in Aramaic, a version of the ancient language likely spoken by Jesus Christ. In the next room at Basra’s Chaldean Catholic Church, a plastic Christmas tree twinkled amid graying photographs of old patriarchs and a newer shot of Pope Benedict XVI. Several of the Americans said while assembling and decorating the tree that it was likely the...

Acting Bishop of Basrah, Imad Al Banna, holds a Catholic Mass at Contingency Operating Base Adder, Nov. 7. Banna also had lunch with troops and civilians and was given a Liberty Bell statuette by the 28th Combat Air Brigade, Pennsylvania National Guard. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Jones, 28th Combat Aviation Brigade. COB ADDER — The acting Bishop of Basrah held Catholic Mass here in honor of the service members and civilians working toward a safer, more secure Iraq, Nov. 7. Bishop Imad Al Banna, a Chaldean priest, spoke Aramaic, an ancient language spoken in Palestine 2,000 years ago and still...

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- When priests are given the choice between marriage and celibacy, the tendency is to choose celibacy, at least according to the experience of the bishop of Cairo of the Chaldeans.Bishop Youssef Ibrahim Sarraf said this today in response to a question concerning married priests at a press conference to present the final message of the synod on Africa. The question was asked in light of the announcement this week that Benedict XVI will publish an apostolic constitution that will allow groups of Anglicans seeking communion with the Church to do so through personal ordinariates....

“This is my body. … this is my blood of the covenant.” (Matthew 26:26-27) As members of the Church, we hold the gift of Jesus in the Holy Qurbana to be the most central act of prayer and worship that we know. The very young are brought to the liturgy of the Qurbana before they can understand its meaning. The very old find comfort and meaning in their lives by deepening their spirituality at the wellspring of the Lord’s banquet. From life’s beginning to its end and all times in between, believers of all ages and walks of life...

Baghdad, Iraq, Jul 14, 2009 / 03:21 am (CNA).- More than 40 people were killed or injured in renewed attacks on Christians in Baghdad on Sunday.Shortly after 7:00 on Sunday evening, a car bomb exploded in front of the gates of St. Mary’s Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad. The explosion occurred just as churchgoers left Mass.Seven were killed and around 30 were injured, with 18 requiring hospital treatment, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reports.Bombs reportedly went off at three other Baghdad churches around 4:30 pm, two of which were St. George’s Church in the Al-Ghadier section and St....

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad, Iraq, had just finished celebrating Mass at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church and was talking to parishioners in the courtyard. Moments later, while he was in his office, a bomb exploded on the road that runs alongside the church. The July 12 bomb blast was one of six that targeted Christian churches in Baghdad July 11-12; another church was bombed in the northern city of Mosul July 13. Contrasting the Mass with the mayhem that ensued, Bishop Warduni told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview, "We...

Hear the voice of a Christian Martyr singing a hymn in Arabic to the Blessed Mother, while watching a slideshow of his funeral mass. Hear the angelic voice of Father Ragheed Ganni, a 35 year old Chaldean Catholic Priest killed on Sunday June 3rd, 2007 with three of his deacons right after celebrating mass at Holy Spirit Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq. The car of Father Ragheed and the three deacons was stopped by terrorists shortly after leaving the church. They were forced to get down from the car and asked to declare their conversion to Islam. When the...