The Chaldean Patriarchate distanced itself this week from an Iraqi Christian council, over its alleged ties to a politician at odds with the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church.
In a Dec. 16 statement in Arabic, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad questioned the legitimacy of the body it called the Council of Christian Sects in Iraq, which is also known in English as the Council of Christian Church Leaders of Iraq.
The Chaldean Patriarchate is the seat of Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako, the leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome. Sako has clashed publicly with Rayan al-Kildani, the head of the Babylon Movement political party, accusing him of falsely claiming to represent Iraq’s Christian community in the political arena.
“Regarding the so-called Council of Christian Sects in Iraq, we know who is behind this council,” the Chaldean Patriarchate said in its statement, according to an English translation by Shafaq News.
“We, the Chaldeans, who represent 80% of Iraqi Christians, are not part of it and will not engage with it,” it added.
The Chaldean Patriarchate said that council members were not heads of Churches, but rather bishops or priests serving under leaders who lived outside of Iraq. The exception, it said, was the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, which is based in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
The patriarchate is also understood to be concerned that the council’s membership is drawn mainly from Baghdad and does not include Christian leaders in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, in northern Iraq.
The patriarchate noted it had called for the creation of a Council of Iraqi Churches, saying the title was more fitting because “we are churches, not sects.”
It explained that the term “sect,” or “millet,” originated in the Ottoman Empire, which held sway in Iraq from 1534 to 1920. The millet system was a way of organizing minority religious groups within the empire.
The Chaldean Patriarchate insisted the council had “not achieved a single thing for Christians and has not taken a clear stance for Iraqis since its establishment.”
It added: “To some of them, we say: those who buy you today will sell you tomorrow. Christianity is about nobility, elevation, principles, and ethics.”
“We, the Chaldeans, remain committed to our independence, spiritual principles, and patriotism. We stand by all our fellow citizens and support them in good times and bad.”
At an August meeting in Baghdad, the Christian council’s leaders expressed support for government measures to protect citizens’ rights.
Meeting participants included Archbishop Jean Sleiman, the Latin Rite Archbishop of Baghdad, Archbishop Severius Hawa, the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Baghdad, and the Rev. Farouk Hammo, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Iraq.
Also present was Rami Joseph Aghajan, head of Iraq’s Bureau of Endowments for Christian, Yezidi, and Sabian Mandaean Religions, who is said to be associated with the Babylon Movement. The Chaldean Patriarchate criticized his appointment to the post in January, insisting the appointee should be a figure nominated by the Church.
The Chaldean Patriarchate previously criticized the Christian council in August, when it announced that it had withdrawn from the body “for several reasons.”
The principal reason, it said, was “the loyalty of a number of these Church leaders to certain political party” — an implicit reference to the Babylon Movement, led by Rayan al-Kildani.
Cardinal Sako publicly clashed with al-Kildani ahead of his departure from Baghdad in July 2023. Sako returned to the Iraqi capital nine months later at the personal invitation of Iraq’s prime minister.
Not all Chaldean Catholic leaders are believed to share Sako’s negative view of al-Kildani — one of many disagreements besetting Iraq’s Chaldean hierarchy.
In September, Sako said he had forwarded a canonical complaint against several Chaldean bishops to “the higher ecclesiastical court,” after he accused them of acts of disunity.
The Chaldean Patriarchate said in August that it also rejected the council “because the name is incorrect and the council’s internal regulations are not in harmony.”
According to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the Council of Christian Church Leaders of Iraq was created in 2006. Its members include representatives of 12 Christian communities officially recognized by the Iraqi authorities, including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant figures.
The dicastery said the body seeks to “unite the opinion, position, and decision of the Churches in Iraq,” especially on Church-state matters, according to its statutes.
Earlier this month, Cardinal Sako said that Iraq had lost two-thirds of its Christian population due to wars and instability.
“If the situation continued, we might lose the rest, as peace and harmony remained out of reach,” he said Dec. 3.
In a Dec. 18 Christmas message, he appealed for Iraqi Christians to be “given a chance to play a role in building the new Iraq.”
