Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad Patriarchatus Chaldaeorum | |
---|---|
Catholic | |
Incumbent: Louis Raphaël I Sako elected 31 January 2013 | |
Location | |
Country | Iraq |
Headquarters | Baghdad, Iraq |
Information | |
First holder | Saint Thomas the Apostle (as Patriarch of the Church of the East by tradition), Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa (as Chaldean Catholic Patriarch) |
Denomination | Chaldean Catholic Church |
Rite | East Syriac Rite |
Established | Apostolic Era [1] 280 as Diocese of Seleucia-Ctesifonte [2] 1553 as Eastern Catholic Patriarchate [3] |
Cathedral | Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows |
Language | East-Syriac |
Website | |
Official website |
The Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad, or simply the Chaldean Patriarchate (Latin : Patriarchatus Chaldaeorum), is the official title held by the primate of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The Patriarchate is based in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq. The current patriarch is Louis Raphaël I Sako. He is assisted by the archbishop of Erbil Shlemon Warduni and the Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad, Basel Yaldo. [4] [5] [6]
Chaldean Catholics are the majority of Assyrians in Iraq, an indigenous people of Upper Mesopotamia. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
In 1552, there was a schism within the Church of the East, caused by discontent among the bishops(metropolitans) over actions of the patriarch Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb following the tradition of previous patriarch Shemʿon IV Basidi who made the patriarchal succession hereditary, normally from uncle to nephew. Joseph I (1681–1696), who served as the Metropolitan of Amid (modern-day Diyarbakır, Turkey) led an off-shoot of the Church of the East and joined the Catholic Church. His successor, Joseph II (1696–1713), was officially bestowed with the symbolic title Patriarch of Babylon. Although this patriarchate was established in the city of Diyarbakır, it was eventually moved to the city of Mosul and finally to Baghdad where it remains to this day. The title Patriarch of Babylon or Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans remained in popular usage until the name Babylon was officially abandoned in August, 2021. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
The Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE), sometimes called the Church of the East and officially known as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, is an Eastern Christian church that follows the traditional Christology and ecclesiology of the historical Church of the East. It belongs to the eastern branch of Syriac Christianity, and employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari belonging to the East Syriac Rite. Its main liturgical language is Classical Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language, it is part of Syriac Christianity. Headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq, since 1950, it is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. According to a 1950 CIA report on Iraq, Chaldean Catholic Assyrians numbered 98,000 and were the largest Christian minority. In the late 2010s, it had a membership of 616,639, with a large population in diaspora and its home country of Iraq.
A catholicos is the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and, in some cases, it is the title of the head of an autonomous church. The word comes from ancient Greek καθολικός, derived from καθ' ὅλου from κατά and ὅλος, meaning "concerning the whole, universal, general"; it originally designated a financial or civil office in the Roman Empire.
Catholics in Iraq follow several different rites, but in 2022, most (82%) are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church; about 17% belong to the Syriac Catholic Church, and the remainder are primarily Armenian, Greek and Latin-rite Catholics.
Mar Raphael I Bidawid was the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1989–2003. He was also a Syriac scholar.
Mar Joseph III Timothy Maroge was the third incumbent of the Josephite line of Church of the East, a patriarchate in Full Communion with the pope mainly active in the areas of Amid and Mardin. He was the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1713 to 1757.
Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa was the first Patriarch of what was to become the Shemʿon line of the Chaldean Catholic Church, from 1553 to 1555, after it absorbed this Church of the East patriarchate into full communion with the Holy See and the Catholic Church.
Bishop Mar Shlemon Warduni is Auxiliary Bishop of the Patriarchate of Babylon, Iraq, of the Chaldean Catholic Church. In 2003 he was the Locum tenens of the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.
The Metropolitanate of Shemsdin, created after the 1552 schism in the Church of the East, the predecessor to the Assyrian Church of the East, was the second most important ecclesiastical province of the Qudshanis patriarchate after the province of the patriarch himself. The metropolitans or matrans of Shemsdin traditionally took the name Hnanishoʿ and lived in the Shemsdin village of Mar Ishoʿ in the sub-district of Rustaqa. There were around twelve metropolitans of Shemsdin between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, most of whom were chosen by hereditary succession. The last metropolitan of Shemsdin, Mar Yosip Khnanisho died in Iraq in 1977, and the office of mutran lapsed on his death.
Dioceses of the Church of the East after 1552 were dioceses of the Church of the East and its subsequent branches, both traditionalist and pro-Catholic.
The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Kirkuk is an archeparchy of the Chaldean Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. The archeparchy was created in the early years of the nineteenth century. Its present ordinary, Archbishop Yousif Thomas Mirkis, was consecrated in 2014.
The Church of the East or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches of Nicene Eastern Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies in the 5th century and the 6th century, alongside that of Miaphysitism and the Chalcedonian Church.
The patriarch of the Church of the East is the patriarch, or leader and head bishop of the Church of the East. The position dates to the early centuries of Christianity within the Sassanid Empire, and the Church has been known by a variety of names, including the Church of the East, Nestorian Church, the Persian Church, the Sassanid Church, or East Syrian.
The schism of 1552 was an important event in the history of the Church of the East. It divided the church into two factions, of which one entered into communion with Rome becoming part of the Catholic Church at this time and the other remained independent until the 19th century. Although the Eliya line, which emerged as a result of this schism, did eventually enter into communion with Rome, various Eastern Protestant sects with their origins in the Church of the East emerged as a result of this schism. The Shimun line whose entry into full communion with Rome caused this schism became independent again by the 17th century. The circumstances of the 1552 schism were controversial at the time and have been disputed ever since.
Louis Raphaël I Sako is a Chaldean Catholic prelate who has served as Patriarch of Baghdad since 1 February 2013. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018.
Archbishop Mar Jacques Ishaq was an Iraqi Chaldean Catholic hierarch who served as Curial Bishop of the Patriarchate of Babylon. He served as locum tenens of the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans between the retirement of Emmanuel III Delly in December 2012 and the election of Louis Raphaël I Sako in January 2013.
The Cathedral of our Lady of Sorrows, also called Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows, is a Chaldean Catholic cathedral located in Baghdad, Iraq, dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. Consecrated in 1898, it is the seat of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic particular church sui iuris in full communion with the Holy See in Rome, and the rest of the worldwide Catholic Church.
Rabban al-Qas was an Iraqi prelate of the Chaldean Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Amadiya from 2001 to 2021. He also served as Bishop of Zakho from 2013 until 2020 when the Eparchy of Amadiya was split from the Eparchy of Zakho.