Alqosh is a village in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District and is situated 45 km north of the city of Mosul.
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 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. In 2010, it had a membership of 490,371, of whom 310,235 (63.27%) lived in the Middle East.
Iraqi Assyrians are an ethnic and linguistic minority group, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia. Assyrians in Iraq are those Assyrians still residing in the country of Iraq, and those in the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They share a common history and ethnic identity, rooted in shared linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, with Assyrians in Iran, Assyrians in Turkey and Assyrians in Syria, as well as with the Assyrian diaspora. Assyrian diaspora in Detroit, Chicago and Sydney are predominantly Iraqi Assyrians.
There are over 300,000 Catholics living in Iraq, just 0.95% of the total population. The Catholics of Iraq follow several different rites, but most are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. There are 17 currently active dioceses and eparchies in Iraq.
Mar George Garmo was the Archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul in Iraq from 14 September 1980 until his death on 9 September 1999.
The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul is a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church, located in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Its followers are ethnic Chaldeans and speakers of Aramaic. The diocese comprises the city of Mosul. The territory is subdivided in 12 parishes. The diocese of Mosul was elevated to Archeparchy of Mosul on February 14, 1967 by Pope Paul VI. The ordinary was Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho until his death in early 2008. He was succeeded in November 2009 by Archbishop-elect Emil Shimoun Nona, who until his election and ratification had been a professor of anthropology at Babel College and a pastor and vicar general in the eparchy of Alqosh. As of 2012 the Papal Nuncio was Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt, whose Apostolic Nunciature is the entire state of Iraq.
The Christians of Iraq are considered to be one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world. The vast majority of Iraqi Christians are indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking ethnic Assyrians who claim descent from ancient Assyria, and follow the Syriac Christian tradition. Some are also known by the name of their religious denomination as well as their ethnic identity, such as Chaldo-Assyrians, Chaldean Catholics or Syriacs. Non-Assyrian Iraqi Christians are largely Arab Christians and Armenians, and a very small minority of Kurdish, Shabaks and Iraqi Turkmen Christians. Most present-day Iraqi Christians are ethnically, linguistically, historically and genetically distinct from Kurds, Arabs, Iranians, Turks and Turkmens. Regardless of religious affiliation the Eastern Aramaic speaking Christians of Iraq and it's surrounds are one genetically homogeneous people. They identify themselves as being a separate people, of different origins and with a distinct history of their own harking back to ancient Assyria and Mesopotamia. Christian Assyrians also have communities in northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran as well as in the wider worldwide Assyrian diaspora.
Chaldean Catholics, also known as Chaldeans, Chaldo-Assyrians or Assyro-Chaldeans, are adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which originates from the historic Church of the East.
Paulos Faraj Rahho was a Chaldean Catholic prelate who served as the Archeparch of Mosul in the northern part of Iraq from 2001 until his death in 2008 at the hands of terrorists.
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.
Emil Shimoun Nona is the Archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, prior to this he has been the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul in the northern part of Iraq since the consent of Pope Benedict XVI to his election on 13 November 2009. He took over the archeparchy after the murder of Paulos Faraj Rahho in early 2008.
The Syriac Catholic Church, established in the second half of the 17th century as an Eastern Catholic offshoot of the Syriac Orthodox Church, had around a dozen dioceses in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. Three of these dioceses were ruined during the First World War in the Assyrian and Armenian massacres, and the 20th century also saw the growth of an important Syriac Catholic diaspora in America, Europe and Australasia. As of 2012 the Syriac Catholic Church has fifteen dioceses, mostly in the Middle East, and four patriarchal vicariates for the diaspora communities.
Hormisdas Etienne Djibri [or Stephen Jibri ], 1872–1953) was Archbishop of Kirkuk, Sulaimaniya and Arbil of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1917 until his death in 1953. Making him the longest serving archbishop of the Chaldean church with 46 years of service.
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.
The Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil is a Chaldean Catholic diocese with its seat in Erbil, Kurdistan Region. Erected in 1968 with territory taken from the Archeparchy of Kirkuk, it is immediately subject to the Patriarchal See of Babylon. The see of the archbishop is the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil.
The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Basra is a non-metropolitan Archeparchy of the Chaldean Catholic Church in southern Iraq.
Najeeb Moussa Michaeel O.P. or Najib Mikhael Moussa, born Najeeb Moussa Michaeel Yonan al Sanati al Atrash on September 9, 1955, in Mosul, Iraq, is an Iraqi Chaldean Catholic prelate. He was elected Chaldean archbishop of Mosul. Pope Francis granted him the ecclesiastica communio on December 22, 2018.
