Iraqi bishops’ standoff now at ‘higher ecclesiastical court’, cardinal says
Cardinal Sako said Saturday that he has handed off a canonical dispute, a move widely perceived as an act of de-escalation within the Chaldean Church
The Patriarch of Baghdad has forwarded his canonical complaint against several Chaldean bishops to “the higher ecclesiastical court,” according to a statement on September 7.
The statement did not specify to which higher canonical authority he had forwarded his threatened canonical action against five Chaldean bishops, including the Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda.
However, the move is being received among some senior Chaldean clergy as a de-escalation by Cardinal Louis Sako, who was widely expected to attempt unilateral canonical action against the bishops, whom he accused of acts of disunity in the Eastern Catholic Church.
“We are all prone to making mistakes, and without honest self-reflection, we will live in a state of stress and anxiety, possibly losing our friends and ourselves!” Sako wrote. “Do we realize that we lie when we spread fabricated news according to our personal standards to appear strong? Truth does not need embellishments. The rope of lies is short! People know when we lie, steal, or oppress others in our pursuit of success!”
“False bubbles do not prove that we are in the right, but rather expose our disconnection when we use false evidence to support our positions! It is deeply painful when some people turn lies into weapons for moral assassination,” the cardinal said, while clarifying that “this spiritual and educational reflection has no relation to the dissenting bishops; that matter has been referred to the higher ecclesiastical court.”
Sako had previously issued an Aug. 28 statement criticizing the five Chaldean bishops for skipping a July episcopal synod of the Eastern Catholic, which bishops are ordinarily required by canon law to attend, and similarly missing an August spiritual retreat. Sako also noted the bishops had decided to withdraw their students from a Chaldean seminary, which he claimed “constitutes a serious breach” of ecclesial unity.
Sako did not specify exactly what delict, or canonical crime, the five bishops are alleged to have committed, instead attaching a number of penal canons to his Aug. 28 statement.
Sources close to the Archdiocese of Erbil have previously told The Pillar that the cardinal seemed not to have followed the required canonical procedural steps, including canonical warnings, if he believed the bishops were or are close to committing a delict, or if he believes they are committing one currently.
The cardinal originally imposed a Sept. 5 deadline for the bishops to “apologize and make amends” or he would forward the matter to Pope Francis, recommending that the bishops face canonical sanctions — specifically mentioning the prospect of excommunication.
On the day of the deadline, The Pillar reported that sources close to the five bishops, led by Archbishop Warda, had no intention of apologizing and the expectation among them was that Sako could attempt to impose some kind of canonical suspension on the bishops, a potentially seismic event in the Eastern Church.
Instead, Sako’s indication Saturday that he has now forwarded the matter to another “higher” authority is being seen as an indication that the cardinal has moved to de-escalate the standoff, removing the possibility of imminent unilateral action against the bishops.
It is unclear to which authority the patriarch has handed the matter off.
It is possible he has referred the case internally within the Chaldean Church, deferring it to the governing synod of bishops — a deliberative body in Eastern canon law, distinct from the merely consultative groups sometimes convened in the Latin Church.
The Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches allows for patriarchs, like Sako, to issue penal precepts to bishops, with serious canonical penalties attached — but only with consent of the episcopal synod.
Given Sako’s previous indications that he would appeal to the Holy See directly, it is seen as more probable that the matter has been forwarded to Rome, either to the Dicastery for Eastern Churches or to the pope personally.
And, senior sources within the Chadeal Church have previously told The Pillar, an appeal directly to the Vatican would suggest that Cardinal Sako might not have much support among the rest of the Chaldean Church’s bishops.
Some close to the standoff have speculated to The Pillar that if Sako decided to appeal to Rome he would likely prefer to approach Pope Francis directly, bypassing the dicastery with which Sako is thought to have a complicated relationship.
The pope is currently on a scheduled apostolic tour of Asia and Oceania, with a following European tour scheduled shortly after he returns to Rome, so it is unclear if and when he would turn his attention to any appeal from the Chaldean patriarch — or what action Sako may have asked the pope to take.
It is equally unclear if Francis would choose to intervene formally in the relations between Chaldean bishops, or how positive an effect such an intervention could have.
The pope has previously moved to try to help settle an ongoing dispute within the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, which has for years seen a sizable portion of clerics in its largest archdiocese in open rebellion over liturgical norms passed by its governing synod.
In July last year, Francis appointed Archbishop Cyril Vasil’ SJ as he personal delegate to resolve the standoff, which helped force the resignations of several members of the Church’s senior leadership.
Division in the Chaldean Catholic Church centers on the relationship between Cardinal Sako and Archbishop Warda of Erbil, whom Sako has called the “godfather” of the Babylon Movement, an Iraqi political party in a long-running and high-profile dispute with Sako, which culminated in a 2023 government decision to revoke a decree that recognized Sako as the legitimate leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq.
After the decree was revoked, Sako spent some nine months in a kind of self-imposed exile in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. The cardinal now insists that Warda failed to defend him and the Church during that period.
The patriarch says that Warda should have condemned the revocation of the decree, and the figure behind it — Iran-backed Iraqi militia leader and strongman Rayan al-Kildani, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. State Department for human rights violations, and who has styled himself in Iraq as a kind of protector of Christians.
According to Sako, al-Kildani has tried to sideline him in order to seize control of Church properties, and the property of Christians, in Iraq.
Sako has argued that in several media interviews, in both Iraq and in the West, Warda seemed to downplay the significance of the decree’s revocation, which Sako frames as an attack on his leadership of the Chaldean Church.
Some Iraqi Catholics suggest that Archbishop Warda has been unwilling to criticize al-Kildani because of the strongman’s influence in the Nineveh Plain region of Iraq.
But sources close to the Erbil archdiocese have told The Pillar that Sako’s narrative is not accurate — that the patriarch has been personally in a long-running power struggle with al-Kildani for political influence in Iraq, and has unfairly put the Church in the center of that dispute — doing so even without diplomatic support from the Vatican.
While Sako has painted Warda as a Kildani sympathizer, sources close to the Erbil archdiocese have a different take, saying the archbishop is focused on trying to avoid Sako’s political fight, especially amid the fracturing reality of a country in which ISIS remains a threat, especially for Christians — with ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria reportedly set to double this year.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic sui iuris churches in the Catholic communion. Headquartered in Baghdad, the church has more than 600,000 Catholics — but because of decades of violence and instability in the region, it is difficult to estimate how many live in Iraq, and how many live in diaspora, either in the United States, Europe, Australia, or across the Middle East.
Appreciate y'all reaching out to some sources closer to Warda, to get a fuller picture. Seems much more complicated than at first glance. A lot of pragmatic calculations are in play here.