Iraq: Cardinal Sako Sidelined

For the record, in the summer of 2023, the Iraqi head of state withdrew the “institutional recognition” of the Chaldean Patriarch, a recognition which conferred on him the quality of  being “responsible for the property of the Church.” It is a decision which broke with the tradition perpetuated since the Abbasid caliphate in the Middle Ages.

It is a withdrawal considered by President Abdul Latif Rashid – a Kurdish Muslim – as a “constitutional clarification,” but which the leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church denounced as an attempt to take control of ecclesiastical property and muzzle the Christian opposition to the power in place in the country.

As a protest, on July 22, the cardinal left the seat of the patriarchate in Baghdad and took refuge in a monastery in Iraqi Kurdistan, denouncing the government’s “silence” in the face of the “campaign” against him led by Rayan Al -Kildani, the leader of the Christian militia of the Babylonian Brigades.

Because from the start of the war against the Islamic State (IS) launched in 2014, the Chaldean Patriarch and Rayan Al-Kildani have clashed. As a supporter of neutrality for the Christians of Iraq, Cardinal Sako never ceased to criticize the collusion of the militia leader with the Iranian Shiite power. It is a militia Cardinal Sako also accuses of corruption and the illegal land seizures in the province of Nineveh.

On the Patriarch's side, it is believed that the Supreme Court's rejection lacks any constitutional and legal basis. “Why was [the decree of recognition of the patriarch] withdrawn from His Holiness and not from other lower-ranking clerics? How is it okay to revoke it for him, but not for others? Isn’t this a purely political decision?” asks the patriarchate in its press release.

The Lack of Vatican Support

In this context, Pope Francis received the Iraqi head of state at the Vatican on November 18, 2023. No mention of Cardinal Sako was made in the press release from the Holy See, published shortly after the 25 minute private audience granted by the Roman Pontiff.

During the interview with those responsible for Vatican diplomacy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Paul Richard Gallagher, the latter simply asked that the Catholic Church in Iraq be able to “continue to fulfill its precious mission,” emphasizing the importance of “ensuring that all Iraqi Christians can be a vibrant and active part of society and the territory,” citing in particular the “the Nineveh Plain” case.

The audience and subsequent silence will not improve relations between Cardinal Sako and the Holy See. A few weeks ago, in an interview given to Asianews, the high Iraqi prelate admitted to being “disappointed by the position of the Holy See which, in almost five months, has not intervened to disavow the actions of the President of the Republic, to reject the attacks against the person of the Patriarch, to distance itself from those who proclaim themselves Christian leaders.”

This last feature refers to Rayan Al-Kildani’s claiming to have been received in a private audience by the Pope. The Washington Institute demonstrated the falsity of this assertion. The Iraqi leader only greeted Francis in the crowd during the general audience on September 6. And the Director of the press room of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, confirmed this in a communication to journalists.

But Patriarch Sako wanted a public disavowal of the leader of the Christian militia of the Babylonian Brigades, whom he accuses of wanting to appropriate the property of the Chaldean Catholic Church.