Chaldean Catholic Church

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A Chaldean Catholic Church in Basra 2014

The Chaldean Catholic Church (Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܟܠܕܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ‎, ʿītha kaldetha qāthuliqetha), (Arabic: الكنيسة الكلدانية al-Kanīsa al-kaldāniyya) is an Eastern Syriac particular church of the Catholic Church, under the Holy See of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Babylon, maintaining full communion with the Bishop of Rome and the rest of the Catholic Church. The Chaldean Catholic Church presently comprises an estimated 500,000 people in northern Iraq, and adjacent areas in southeast Turkey and northwest Iran. There is a vigorous and often heated discussion about the ethnicity and ethnic self-identification of Chaldean Catholics.

History

The history of the Chaldean Church is the history of the Church of the East founded between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD in Assyria (Persian ruled Assuristan) — represented today by at least eleven different churches, (then ruled by the successive Parthian and Sassanid Empires, where it was known by derivative names for Assyria; Athura and Assuristan) — between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. The region of Assyria was also the birthplace of the Syriac language and Syriac script, both of which remain important within all strands of Syriac Christianity. The terms Syriac and Syrian originally being Indo-Anatolian derivatives of Assyrian.^[4]

It was originally a part of The Assyrian Church of the East before the 1553 consecration of Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa who entered communion with the Roman Catholic Church, when it was renamed the Church of Athura (Assyria) and Mosul. Subsequent to this, it was again renamed by Rome in 1683 as the Chaldean Catholic Church, despite none of its Assyrian adherents being connected ethnically, historically or geographically to the long-extinct Chaldeans, who had been completely absorbed into the general population of Babylonia in the 6th century BC, disappearing from history.

After the extensive massacres of Assyrian and other Christians by Tamerlane around 1400 AD had devastated many Assyrian bishoprics and finally destroyed the 4000-year-old city of Assur, the Church of the East — which had extended as far as China, Central Asia, Mongolia and India — was largely reduced to Assyria, its place of origin. It was followed by its core founders of Eastern Aramaic speaking ethnic Assyrians who lived largely in the area of northern Mesopotamia between Amid (Diyarbakır), Mardin, Harran and Hakkari in the north to Mosul, Irbil and Kirkuk in the south, and from Salmas and Urmia in the east to Al-Hassakeh, Tur Abdin and Edessa in the west; an area approximately encompassing ancient Assyria.^[5]:55 The episcopal see was moved to Alqosh, in the Mosul region, and Patriarch Mar Shimun IV Basidi (1437–1493) made the office of patriarch hereditary in his own family.^[6]

1552: Yohannan Sulaqa

Dissent over the hereditary succession grew until 1552, when a group of Assyrian bishops, from the northern regions of Amid and Salmas, elected a priest, Mar Yohannan Sulaqa, as a rival patriarch. To look for a bishop of metropolitan rank to consecrate him patriarch, Sulaqa traveled to the pope in Rome and entered into communion with the Catholic Church, after first being refused by the Syriac Orthodox Church. In 1553 he was consecrated bishop and elevated to the rank of patriarch taking the name of Mar Shimun VIII. He was granted the title of "Patriarch of the East Assyrians", and his church was named The Church of Athura and Mosul.^[7]

Mar Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa returned to northern Mesopotamia in the same year and fixed his seat in Amid. Before being put to death by the partisans of the Assyrian Church of the East patriarch of Alqosh,^[5]:57 he ordained five metropolitan bishops thus beginning a new ecclesiastical hierarchy: the patriarchal line known as the Shimun line. The area of influence of this patriarchate soon moved from Amid east, fixing the See, after many places, in the isolated Assyrian village of Qochanis.

The connections with Rome loosened up under Sulaqa's successors: The last patriarch to be formally recognized by the Pope died in 1600, the hereditary status of the office was reintroduced and, in 1692, the communion with Rome was formally broken, with this part of the church once more rejoining the Assyrian Church of the East.

1672: The Josephite line of Amid

A new so-called 'Chaldean' Patriarchate occurred in 1672 when Mar Joseph I, Archbishop of Amid, entered in communion with Rome, separating from the Assyrian Church Patriarchal see of Alqosh. In 1681 the Holy See granted him the title of "Patriarch of the Chaldeans deprived of its patriarch."

All Joseph I's successors took the name of Joseph. The life of this patriarchate was difficult: at the beginning due to the vexations from the traditionalists, under which they were subject from a legal point of view, and later it struggled with financial difficulties due to the tax burden imposed by the Ottoman authorities.

Nevertheless, its influence expanded from the original towns of Amid and Mardin towards the area of Mosul and the Nineveh plains. The Josephite line merged in 1830 with the Alqosh patriarchate that in the meantime entered in full communion with Rome.

The Alqosh Patriarchate in communion with Rome

The largest and oldest patriarchal see of the Assyrian Church of the East was based at the Rabban Hormizd monastery of Alqosh. It spread from Aqrah up to Seert and Nisibis, covering in the south the rich plain of Mosul. Already in the short period between 1610 and 1617 it entered in communion with Rome, and in 1771 the patriarch Eliya Denkha signed a Catholic confession of faith, but no formal union resulted. When Eliya Denkha died, his succession was disputed by two cousins: Eliyya Isho-Yab, who was recognized by Rome but soon broke the communion, and Yohannan Hormizd, who considered himself a Catholic.

In 1804, after Eliyya Isho-Yab's death, Yohannan Hormizd remained the only patriarch of Alqosh. There were thus two patriarchates in communion with Rome, the larger one in Alqosh, and in Amid that ruled by Augustine (Yousef V) Hindi. Rome did not want to choose between the two candidates and granted neither the title of Patriarch, even if from 1811 it was Augustine Hindi who ruled the Church. After Hindi's death, on the July 5, 1830, Yohannan Hormizd was formally confirmed Patriarch by Pope Pius VIII with the title of "Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans."^[8]:528 The merger of the patriarchates of Alqosh and Amid was completed.

On the other hand, the Shimun line of patriarchs, based in Qochanis, remained in the Assyrian church, independent of the new Chaldean Church. The Patriarchate of the present-day Assyrian Church of the East, with its See in Chicago, forms the continuation of that line.^[9]

19th century: expansion and disaster

Faisal I of Iraq with all the Chaldean bishops and the Patriarch Yousef VI Emmanuel II Thomas

The following years of the Chaldean Church were marked by externally originating violence: in 1838 the monastery of Rabban Hormizd and the town of Alqosh was attacked by the Kurds of Soran and hundreds of Christian Assyrians died.^[10]:32 In 1843 the Kurds started to collect as much money as they could from Assyrian villages, killing those who refused: more than 10,000 Assyrian Christians of all denominations were killed and the icons of the Rabban Hormizd monastery defaced.^[5]:298

In 1846 the Chaldean Church was recognized by the Ottoman Empire as a 'millet', a distinctive 'religious community' in the Empire, thus obtaining its civic emancipation.^[8] The most famous patriarch of the Chaldean Church in the 19th century was Joseph VI Audo who is remembered also for his clashes with Pope Pius IX mainly about his attempts to extend the Chaldean jurisdiction over the Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. This was a period of expansion for the Chaldean Catholic Church.

In the early 20th century Russian Orthodox missionaries established two dioceses in north Assyria. Many Assyrian leaders believed that the Russian Empire would be more interested in protecting them than the British Empire and the French Empire.^[10]:36 Hoping for the support of the Russians, World War I and the subsequent Assyrian Genocide was seen as the right time to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. An Assyrian War of Independence was launched, led by Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba. On 4 November 1914 the Turkish Enver Pasha announced the Jihad, the holy war, against the Christians.^[11]:161 Assyrian forces fought successfully against overwhelming odds in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey and northwest Iran for a time. However, the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the collapse of Armenian resistance left the Assyrians cut off from supplies of food and ammunition, vastly outnumbered and surrounded. Assyrian territories were overrun by the Ottoman Empire and their Kurdish and Arab allies, and the people forced to flee: most who escaped the massacres and continuation of the Assyrian Genocide died from cold in the winter or hunger. The disaster struck mainly the regions of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean dioceses in north Assyria (Amid, Siirt and Gazarta) were ruined (the Chaldeans metropolitans Addai Scher of Siirt and Philip Abraham of Gazarta were killed in 1915).^[10]:37

A further massacre occurred in 1933 at the hands of the Iraqi Army, in the form of the Simele massacre, which resulted in thousands of deaths.

21st century: eparchies around the world

A recent development in the Chaldean Catholic Church has been the creation in 2006 of the Eparchy of Oceania, with the title of 'St Thomas the Apostle of Sydney of the Chaldeans'.^[12] This jurisdiction includes the Chaldean Catholic communities of Australia and New Zealand, and the first Bishop, named by Pope Benedict XVI on 21 October 2006, is Archbishop Djibrail (Jibrail) Kassab, until this date, Archbishop of Bassorah in Iraq.^[13]

There has been a large immigration to the United States particularly to southeast Michigan.^[14] Although the largest population resides in southeast Michigan, there are populations in parts of California and Arizona as well. Canada in recent years has shown growing communities in both eastern provinces, such as Ontario, and in western Canada, such as Saskatchewan.

In 2008, Mar Bawai Soro of the Assyrian Church of the East and 1,000 Assyrian families were received into full communion with the Chaldean Catholic Church from the Assyrian Church of the East.^[15]

On Friday, June 10, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI erected a new Chaldean Catholic eparchy in Toronto, Canada and named Archbishop Mar Yohannan Zora, who has worked alongside four priests with Catholics in Toronto (the largest community of Chaldeans) for nearly 20 years and who was previously an ad personam Archbishop (he will retain this rank as head of the eparchy) and the Archbishop of the Archdiocese (Archeparchy) of Ahwaz, Iran (since 1974). The new eparchy, or diocese, will be known as the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai. There are 38,000 Chaldean Catholics in Canada. Archbishop Zora was born in Batnaia, Iraq, on March 15, 1939. He was ordained in 1962 and worked in Iraqi parishes before being transferred to Iran in 1969.^[16]

The 2006 Australian census counted a total of 4,498 Chaldean Catholics in that country.^[17]

Persecution in Iraq

Assyrians of all denominations, and other religious minorities in Iraq, have endured extensive persecution since 2003, including the abductions and murders of their religious leaders, threats of violence or death if they do not abandon their homes and businesses, and the bombing or destruction of their churches and other places of worship. All this has occurred as anti-Christian emotions rise within Iraq after the American invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the rise of militant Jihadists and religious militias.^[18]

Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, the pastor of the Chaldean Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul who graduated from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome in 2003 with a licentiate in ecumenical theology, was killed on 3 June 2007 in Mosul alongside the subdeacons Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed, after he celebrated mass.

Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho and three companions were abducted on 29 February 2008, in Mosul, and murdered a few days later.

Ecumenical relations

The Church's relations with its fellow Assyrians in the Assyrian Church of the East have improved in recent years. In 1994 Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East signed a Common Christological Declaration.^[19] On the 20 July 2001, the Holy See issued a document, in agreement with the Assyrian Church of the East, named Guidelines for admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, which confirmed also the validity of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari.^[20]

Structure

The Chaldean Catholic Church has the following dioceses:

• Patriarchate of Babylon
• Metropolitan Archdioceses of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tehran, Urmya
• Archdioceses of Ahwaz, Basra, Diyarbakir, Erbil, Mosul
• Eparchies of Aleppe, Alquoch, Amadia, Akra, Beirut, Cairo, St Peter the Apostle of San Diego, St Thomas the Apostle of Detroit, Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto, St Thomas the Apostle of Sydney, Salmas, Sulaimaniya, Zaku
• Territories dependent on the Patriarch: Jerusalem, Jordan

Hierarchy

The current Patriarch is Louis Sako, elected in January 2013. In October 2007, his predecessor, Emmanuel III Delly became the first Chaldean Catholic patriarch to be elevated to the rank of Cardinal within the Catholic Church.^[21]

The present Chaldean episcopate (January 2014) is as follows:

• Mar Louis Raphaël I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon (since February 2013);
• Mar Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch emeritus of Babylon (December 2003 – 2012)
• Emil Shimoun Nona, Archbishop of Mosul (since November 2009);
• Bashar Warda, Archbishop of Arbil (since July 2010)
• Ramzi Garmou, Archbishop of Teheran (since February 1999);
• Thomas Meram, Archbishop of Urmia and Salmas (since 1984);
• Yohannan Zora, Archbishop of Toronto (since June 2011);
• Jibrail Kassab, Archbishop of Sydney (since October 2006);
• Mar Jacques Ishaq, Titular Archbishop of Nisibis and curial Bishop of Babylon (since December 2005);
• Habib Al-Naufali, Archbishop of Basra (since 2014)
• Yousif Mirkis, Archbishop of Kirkuk and Suleimanya (since 2014)
• Mar Mikha Pola Maqdassi, Bishop of Alqosh (since December 2001)
• Mar Shlemon Warduni, curial Bishop of Babylon (since 2001).
• Mar Saad Sirop, auxiliary Bishop of Babylon (since 2014)
• Mar Antony Audo, Bishop of Aleppo (since January 1992);
• Mar Michael Kassarji, Bishop of Lebanon (since 2001);
• Mar Rabban Al-Qas, Bishop of ʿAmadiya and Zakho (since December 2001);
• Mar Ibrahim Ibrahim, Bishop of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit (since April 1982 – 2014);
• Mar Francis Kalabat, Bishop of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit (since June 2014)
• Mar Sarhad Joseph Jammo, Bishop of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego (since July 2002);
• Mar Bawai Soro, Titular Bishop of Foratiana and auxiliary bishop of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego (since 2014)

Several sees are vacant: Archeparchy of Diyarbakir, Archeparchy of Ahwaz, Eparchy of 'Aqra, Eparchy of Cairo.

Liturgy

The Chaldean Catholic Church uses the East Syrian Rite.

A slight reform of the liturgy was effective since 6 January 2007, and it aimed to unify the many different uses of each parish, to remove centuries-old additions that merely imitated the Roman Rite, and for pastoral reasons. The main elements of variations are: the Anaphora said aloud by the priest, the return to the ancient architecture of the churches, the restoration of the ancient use where the bread and wine are readied before a service begins, and the removal from the Creed of the Filioque clause.^[22]

Naming issues

It is believed that the term "Chaldean Catholic" arose due to a Latin misinterpretation and misreading of the Hebrew Ur Kasdim as meaning "Ur of the Chaldees".^[23] The Hebrew Kasdim does not mean or refer to the Chaldeans. Ur Kasdim is generally believed by many to have been somewhere in Assyria, northeastern Syria or southeastern Anatolia.

The term "Chaldean Catholic" is historically, usually and properly taken purely as a doctrinal and theological term for Assyrian converts to Catholicism.^{[24][25][25] [26]}

Despite this, a minority of Chaldean Catholics (particularly in the United States) have in recent times confused a purely religious term with an ethnic identity, and espoused a separate ethnic identity, despite there being no historical, academic, cultural, geographic, archaeological, linguistic, anthropological or genetic evidence supporting a link (or any sort of Chaldean continuity) to the late Iron Age Chaldean land or civilization.

Raphael Bidawid, the then patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church commented on the Assyrian name dispute in 2003 and clearly differentiated between the name of a church and the name of an ethnicity:

“I personally think that these different names serve to add confusion. The original name of our Church was the "Church of the East" … When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic in the 17th Century, the name given to the church was "Chaldean" based on the Magi kings who were believed by some to have come from what once had been the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name "Chaldean" does not represent an ethnicity, just a church… We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion… I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am Assyrian.”^[27]

In an interview with the Assyrian Star in the September–October 1974 issue, he was quoted as saying:

“Before I became a priest I was an Assyrian, before I became a bishop I was an Assyrian, I am an Assyrian today, tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it.”^[28]

See also

• List of Chaldean Catholic Patriarchs of Babylon
• Eastern Catholicism
• Liturgies: East Syrian Rite, Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari
• Film about Chaldean Christians: The Last Assyrians
• Assyrian People
• List of Assyrians
• Names of Syriac Christians
• Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chaldean Catholic Church.

• Chaldean Catholic Church Mass Times
• Article on the Chaldean Catholic Church by Ronald Roberson on the CNEWA web site
• Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Saint Peter
• East Syrian Rite (Catholic Encyclopedia)
• Daughters of the Immaculate Conception, a congregation located in Michigan
• Guidelines for Chaldean Catholics receiving the Eucharist in Assyrian Churches
• History of the Chaldean Church
• Qambel Maran- Syriac chants from South India- a review and liturgical music tradition of Syriac Christians revisited
• St Pauls Chaldean Assyrian church

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