Chaldean Catholic Church

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The Chaldean Catholic Church aka the Chaldean Church of Babylon (Arabic: الكنيسة الكلدانية, Template:ArabDIN) is an Eastern Rite sui juris (autonomous) particular church of the Catholic Church, maintaining full communion with the Bishop of Rome. The Chaldean Catholic Church has no direct or absolute connotations with the Neo-Babylonian "Chaldeans", but its members were designated with the name Chaldean in the 15th century when they united with the Catholic Church to distinguish from the adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East. The Chaldean Catholic Church presently comprises an estimated 600,000 - 700,000 Chaldean Assyrians. ^[1]

It descends from the Church of the East. In the 15th century the Chaldean Church decreed that the title of Patriarch could pass only to relatives of then-patriarch Mar Simon IV. Dissent over this grew until 1552, when a group of bishops refused to accept the hereditary succession of an untrained boy to the Patriarchy.^{[citation needed]}

They elected Mar John VIII Sulaqa, the superior of an abbey, as a rival Patriarch. Sulaqa travelled to Rome and met with the Pope, eventually entering into communion with the Catholic Church. The Church of the East now had two rival leaders,^{[attribution needed]} a hereditary patriarch in Alqosh (in modern-day northern Iraq), and a Papal-appointed patriarch in Diyarbakır (in modern-day eastern Turkey). This situation lasted until 1662 when the Patriarch in Diyarbakır,^{[citation needed]} Mar Simon XIII Dinkha,^{[citation needed]} broke communion with Rome, and moved his seat to the village of Qochanis in the Turkish mountains. The Vatican responded by appointing a new patriarch to Diyarbakır to govern the Chaldeans who stayed loyal to the Holy See. This group became known as the Chaldean Catholic Church.

The communion with Rome was not final until 1830, when Pius VIII confirmed John Hormizdas as patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic rite, carrying the title "Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans."^{[citation needed]} The most recent development in the Chaldean Rite of the Catholic Church has been the creation of the Eparchy of Oceania, with the title of 'St Thomas the Apostle of Sydney of the Chaldeans'.^{[citation needed]} This jurisdiction includes the Chaldean Catholic communities of Australia and New Zealand, and the first Bishop, named by Pope Benedict XVI on 21st October 2006, is Archbishop Djibrail Kassab, until this date, Archbishop of Bassorah in Iraq.^{[citation needed]} The church's relations with the Assyrian Church of the East have improved in recent years. A meeting in 1996 between H.H Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church and Mar Raphael I Bidawad of the Chaldean Catholic Church began an effort to bring the two churches into eventual communion.^{[citation needed]}

The current Patriarch is Mar Emmanuel III Delly, elected in 2003 on the death of Mar Bidawid. In October of 2007 Delly became the first Chaldean Catholic to be elevated to the rank of Cardinal within the Roman Catholic Church. ^[2]

There has been a large immigration to the United States particularly to Southeast Michigan.^{[citation needed]} There is also a population in parts of California and Arizona. Several thousands are stranded in passage ^[3]. The church's most notable member was Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz.