Chaldean bishop pleads ‘not guilty’ as patriarch calls for ‘unity and harmony’

Shaleta “took proactive steps” to avoid detection, prosecutors said

The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church has called for “unity and harmony” in the Eparchy of St. Peter following the arrest of Bishop Emanuel Shaleta on March 5.

Meanwhile, Shaleta faced a judge Monday, entering an initial plea of “not guilty” on money laundering and embezzlement charges, while his attorney said the bishop denies the allegations against him.

Bishop Emanuel Shaleta. Credit: Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego.

Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako issued a pastoral letter from Baghdad to the Chaldean Catholics of the eparchy March 8, expressing his closeness to them “in this exceptional and painful situation through which your beloved diocese is passing.”

Cardinal Sako told the faithful in his letter Sunday that he “stand[s] with justice, and for this reason [he is] in communication with the Holy See, hoping that the proper measures will soon be taken for the good of the diocese.”

Bishop Shaleta appeared Monday before a judge for an arraignment hearing, at which he pled not guilty to eight counts of embezzlement, eight counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated white collar crime enhancement.

A deputy district attorney argued at the hearing that Shaleta stole more than $250,000 from the Eparcy of St. Peter the Apostle, which he leads, by perpetrating a rent scam — which includes both alleged embezzlement and money laundering — as first reported by The Pillar last month.

Shaleta “took proactive steps” to avoid detection, the prosecutor said, and limited whistleblowers’ access to accounts, ensuring “no transparency, and no oversight” of eparchial accounts.

The bishop spent the weekend in county jail, The Pillar has learned, after bail was set at $125,000 and the bishop was not able to be brought before a judge before the weekend.

Shaleta’s attorney argued Monday that the bail was excessive, and that the bishop does not pose a flight risk because his passport has been confiscated.

The judge rejected that argument, pointing to the number of charges Shaleta faces, the amount of money he is alleged to have stolen, and the fact that he was arrested while at the airport, with a flight booked to Europe, and more than $9,000 in his possession.

If Shaleta makes bail, the judge said, he will be required to undergo GPS monitoring until his trial.

According to sources close to the bishop, Shaleta was expected to post bail after the hearing, but The Pillar has not yet confirmed whether Shaleta has been released.

The bishop’s attorneys said he will no longer have access to eparchial bank accounts, though Shaleta remains the diocesan bishop, and it is not clear whether an administrator will be appointed in his stead.

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In his pastoral letter Sunday, Cardinal Sako appealed for patience and peace as the legal process unfolds.

“I ask you, as we are in the time of the Lent, not to allow division and discord, nor to give place to voices lying in wait to attack our Church, rather, I ask you to unity and harmony with a living conscience and a compassionate, faithful heart, far from the spirit of revenge or vindictiveness,” he wrote. “Let the legal procedures take their course in revealing the truth and upholding justice.”

“I had wished to come to you and stand beside you, but the current troubling and frightening circumstances in the region do not allow me to do it, it could [be possible] in the future,” said the patriarch.

In the meantime, Sako urged local Chaldeans to “cooperate” with the eparchial vicar general, and noted that Bishop Francis Kalabat, who leads the Chaldean eparchy for the eastern United States, was in San Diego “in order to calm hearts.”

In a Sunday homily in San Diego, Bishop Kalabat recognized the suffering of the local community because of “let’s say it as it is: all the garbage that is going on, all the pain and suffering that is going on, all the hurt that is going on.”

Referencing “all the accusations” relating to “a father in this community” Kallabat said that “when the children look at the father, the hurt and the pain is deep, and it’s a reality.”

“It’s difficult [in] times like these, where we have two conflicting voices,” said the bishop, “we have the voice of Christ who wants to heal, and we have the voice — and right now the reality — that keeps stinging our hearts and our minds and thinking also that somehow, maybe, was there a betrayal of some kind? By the father of this community? By the people that were working with him somehow, somewhere? By God Himself?”

“How could this be? How can we be living in such pain and shame? Now we’re the talking point around the world and — I am going to use this word — it hurts like hell. And I am specifically using the word hell on purpose because it is hell, and it does exist.”

Offering a meditation on the cross, the bishop said that the reaction to Christ’s passion was that “this is shame, this is ugly, and this isn’t what we signed up for.”

“Am I saying all news reports are wrong?” he asked.

“No.”

“Do we have the right to know?” he asked the congregation. “Absolutely, and the [media outlets] who are coming out and saying the truth as it is, without putting judgments, are necessary. You have the right to know what is going on. You are the children, you have every right to know what the father of this household is going through.”

“But,” said Kallabat, “there is something deeper, and that which is deeper is that we are in need of a medicine.”

“What is the medicine of [Lenten] fasting? Trust: trust that the Lord is going to take us through this. Humility: instead of looking at his or her sins, I look at mine first, and I need to ask for forgiveness — that’s what Jesus said [...] It’s the humility of saying ‘this is unacceptable’ and therefore those who are accused are in need of our prayers more than anybody else. You know, it is easy to love somebody in the good times, it’s not so easy to love somebody in the bad times. Offering up the medicine of our fasting for this, allowing the Lord to heal […] and it’s very painful, but there is a Lord and He gives healing and He gives strength.”

“We need truth, but that means we need Jesus.”

Bishop Shaleta was arrested Thursday on several counts of embezzlement and money laundering. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that the bishop was picked up at the San Diego airport as he attempted to leave the United States, after The Pillar reported last week that the bishop was expected to travel to Rome.

He had submitted his resignation to the Vatican in late January, The Pillar has reported, following criminal complaints made by members of the eparchy last August, and a Vatican-ordered investigation into allegations of substantial embezzlement and personal misconduct, which concluded last year.

The Pillar has also previously reported that after the bishop submitted a letter of resignation from his diocesan post in late January, Cardinal Sako consulted with Chaldean bishops about his hope to see the bishop transferred to an administrative post in Baghdad, as a high-ranking official of the Chaldean patriarchate.

Sako had previously acknowledged to The Pillar that he raised the prospect of a transfer to Vatican officials, but suggested the idea was floated only before the Vatican-ordered investigation into Shaleta was “clear.” Sources have told The Pillar that the dicastery received a report on the case in late 2025, well before Sako polled Chaldean bishops about a transfer this year.

Shaleta is accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his cathedral, attempting to reimburse missing funds with checks signed by him from a cathedral charity account.

While Shaleta has insisted that he did not mishandle money, The Pillar reviewed financial records indicating that he “reimbursed” his cathedral with checks from its own charity account, signed by him, after reportedly directing a parish tenant and others to make payments to the parish through him in cash, which went unaccounted for.

The bishop has not offered an explanation for the reimbursement discrepancies in his diocesan accounts. Shaleta has said he is the victim of a media campaign and of Chaldeans in his diocese who opposed his leadership.

In addition to financial misconduct, Shaleta is accused of personal misconduct, including his connection to a woman with whom he has maintained a joint bank account, into which he made frequent deposits, for several years and who has repeatedly moved across North America to follow Shelata’s different pastoral assignments.

Findings by a private investigator showed the bishop and the woman appeared to have unfettered access to each others’ houses and made frequent mutual visits.

The investigator also found that the bishop habitually visited a Tijuana brothel flagged for its involvement in human trafficking. These findings were later endorsed publicly by employees at the establishment, known as the “Hong Kong Gentlemans’ Club.”