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PHOTO BY ALI ABDUL HASSAN/AP<br />
His Beatitude Mar Louis Raphaël Sako (second from left), with Lt. Gen. Abdul-<br />
Wahab al-Saadi (right), and Gen. Abdel Ghani al-Asadi (second from right),<br />
of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces visit a church damaged by Islamic State<br />
fighters, in Bartella, Iraq.<br />
“It is unfortunate that we in Iraq<br />
live in the midst of a wide network<br />
of self-interest, narrow factionalism,<br />
and hypocrisy that has produced an<br />
unprecedented political, national,<br />
and moral chaos, which is rooted<br />
by now more and more,” Mar Sako<br />
wrote. “Therefore, I have decided to<br />
withdraw from the patriarchal headquarters<br />
in Baghdad.”<br />
“I call on Christians to remain in<br />
their faith, which is their consolation,<br />
strength, light, and life, and on<br />
their national identity until the storm<br />
passes with the help of God,” Sako<br />
added. “May God help the helpless<br />
Christians and Iraqis.”<br />
There are an estimated 300,000<br />
Chaldean Catholics in Iraq, and, according<br />
to the U.S. Commission on International<br />
Religious Freedom report,<br />
they make up 80% of the Christian<br />
population in the country.<br />
The U.S. State Department’s Matthew<br />
Miller said at a press conference<br />
that the department was “disturbed<br />
by the harassment of Cardinal Sako,<br />
the patriarch of the Chaldean Church,<br />
and troubled by the news that he has<br />
left Baghdad.” He went to say, “We<br />
look forward to his safe return. The<br />
Iraqi Christian community is a vital<br />
part of Iraq’s identity and a central<br />
part of Iraq’s history of diversity and<br />
tolerance.<br />
“I will say we are in continuous<br />
contact with Iraqi leaders on this matter,”<br />
Miller stated. “We are concerned<br />
that the cardinals’ position as a respected<br />
leader of the Church is under<br />
attack from a number of quarters,<br />
in particular, a militia leader who is<br />
sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky<br />
Act.”<br />
Iraqi Christian rights activist Diya<br />
Butrus Slewa, speaking to The Christian<br />
Post, called the action “a political<br />
maneuver to seize the remainder<br />
of what Christians have left in Iraq<br />
and Baghdad and to expel them. Unfortunately,<br />
this is a blatant targeting<br />
of the Christians and a threat to their<br />
rights,” Slewa said.<br />
“We hope the Iraqi presidency<br />
hears our people and revokes this (decision)<br />
as soon as possible, otherwise<br />
it will become an international matter<br />
and the Vatican will get involved,”<br />
Slewa added.<br />
“Personally, I believe the approach<br />
to revoking the decree was flawed,”<br />
Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda<br />
said in a statement. “The President<br />
of the Republic could have convened<br />
a meeting with all the Church leaders<br />
to explain the history of these decrees<br />
and his decision to retract them. Instead,<br />
the matter was played out in the<br />
media, leading the Patriarch to interpret<br />
this action as punitive,” he wrote.<br />
The Chaldean bishops in the U.S.,<br />
Europe, and Asia issued a letter of<br />
their own urging Rashid to reverse his<br />
decision.<br />
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Chaldean News half pg vert-4.375 x12.indd 1<br />
<strong>AUGUST</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN 7/7/<strong>2023</strong> NEWS 10:17:21 AM