(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 04.10. 2026).- On the morning of Friday, April 10, Pope Leo XIV received in audience the Chaldean Catholic Bishops who were in Rome for the Synod of this Eastern Christian Community, which has a significant presence in Iraq. One of the main purposes of the Synod was the election of its new Patriarch. Below is the English translation of the Holy Father’s address.
* * *
Your Excellencies, Dear Brother Bishops,
Peace be with you! It is a pleasure to find you here in Rome, gathered to celebrate your Synod, intended to carry out a fundamental act for the life of the Chaldean Church of Baghdad: the election of the new Patriarch. I am happy to be with you at this time of valuable ecclesial discernment. Through you, I send heartfelt greetings to the priests, men and women religious, seminarians, and all the beloved faithful of the Chaldean Church, both in its own territory and in the numerous diaspora scattered throughout the world. I know that many are spiritually united to this moment, participating intensely in it through prayer.
Your Church has its roots in the early Apostolic Church, representing an ancient and fruitful tradition that, intimately linked to the places of origin of salvation, carried the Gospel beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, developing a Christianity rich in faith, culture, and missionary spirit, as far as India and China. You are custodians of a living and noble memory, of a faith transmitted throughout the centuries with courage and fidelity. Your history is glorious, but it is also marked by very harsh trials: wars, persecutions, tribulations that have struck your communities and lost many faithful throughout the world. And indeed, in these wounds shines the luminous witness of faith, because if your Church bears the scars of history, it is precisely the Risen Lord who shows us how the most painful wounds can be transformed in Him into signs of hope and new life. With you I can make my own the words of Saint Ephrem and say to Christ: «Glory to You, who from Your cross have made a bridge over death. […] Glory to You, who have clothed Yourself in the body of mortal man and transformed it into a source of life for all mortals» (Address on the Lord, 9).
Dear brothers, in the hope of Easter, which invites us not to be afraid to face new and unexpected challenges without becoming discouraged, your Synod represents a time of grace and great responsibility. You are called to elect the Patriarch at a delicate and complex, sometimes even controversial, stage. I invite you to let yourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, finding in Him concord and seeking not what seems most useful in the eyes of the world, but what is most in accordance with the heart of Christ.
May the new Patriarch be above all a father in faith and a sign of communion with all and among all. It might seem that living according to the Gospel, that is, with gentleness and in the patient pursuit of unity, goes against the grain and is sometimes even counterproductive, but in reality it reveals itself as the wisest path, because love is the only force that overcomes evil and defeats death. What prevails and never ends is that charity of which the Apostle Paul speaks: patient, persevering, able to forgive and endure everything, without ever disrespecting anyone (cf. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8).
May His Beatitude be a man of the Beatitudes: not called to extraordinary gestures or to cause a stir, but to everyday holiness, made of honesty, mercy, and purity of heart. May he be a Shepherd capable of listening and accompanying, because the authority of the Church is always service and never hegemony. And if the world or the surrounding context should tempt him to do so, may he not be deceived, but always return to the fruitful and prophetic simplicity of the Gospel. May the Patriarch be an authentic and approachable guide to the people, not a striking and distant figure. May he be a man grounded in prayer, capable of bearing the weight of difficulties with realism and hope, a pastoral master who identifies concrete paths for the good of the People of God together with the brother Bishops, in that spirit of concord that must characterize a patriarchal Church, whose authority is represented by the Synod of Bishops presided over by the Patriarch, promoter of unity in charity, in full cohesion with the Successor of the Apostle Peter.
In light of the events that have marked your Church in recent years, I feel with particular intensity the responsibility of the moment you are living through. And I would like to tell you: I am with you. May the trials you are enduring impel you to offer a response enlightened by faith and imbued with communion, also towards Christians of other denominations, true brothers and sisters in faith with whom it is fitting to establish relations of authentic sharing. You will be a great example and a great encouragement also for your beloved and admirable people, whom I hold in my heart and for whom I pray.
While gratefully acknowledging the many contributions that the various Patriarchs have made to the Chaldean Church — I am referring also to the important contributions of His Beatitude Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako and the remarkable efforts he has made — I feel that this is the moment for spiritual renewal, a renewal faithful to your precious and unique traditions, which must be preserved. I am thinking of the richness of your liturgical and spiritual heritage, and in this respect I wish to echo what the Council affirmed: “Let all know that knowing, venerating, preserving, and supporting the most rich liturgical and spiritual heritage of the East is of the utmost importance for the faithful safeguarding of the whole Christian tradition” (Unitatis Redintegratio, 15).
Allow me a few more fraternal and paternal exhortations. I urge you to be attentive and transparent in the administration of goods, sober, measured, and responsible in your use of the media, and prudent in your public statements, so that every word and every action may contribute to building up — and not to harm — ecclesial communion and the witness of the Church. Take to heart the formation of priests, your first collaborators in ministry: support them with your closeness, building with them and for them a concrete and tangible fraternity. And above all, help consecrated persons, by your example, to safeguard the ineffable gifts of obedience and chastity. Accompany the lay faithful, providing them with pastoral care, so that they may feel encouraged, despite all trials, to remain steadfast in the faith received from the Fathers and to stay in their territories. This is important for the whole Church, because the regions where the light of faith arose — the Eastern light — cannot do without believers in Jesus, the Christians, who are in the Middle East like stars in the sky. May the clouds that obscure this light be dispelled: may the Christians of the entire Middle East be respected, not only in word, and enjoy true religious freedom and full citizenship, without being treated as guests or second-class citizens!
Brothers, you are signs of hope in a world marked by absurd and inhuman violence, which in these times, driven by greed and hatred, is spreading ferociously precisely in the lands that saw the birth of salvation, in the holy places of the Christian East, profaned by the blasphemy of war and the brutality of business, with no regard whatsoever for human life, considered at most as a collateral effect of self-interest. But no interest can be worth more than the lives of the weakest, of children, of families; no cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood. You, called to be tireless peacemakers in the name of Jesus, help us to proclaim clearly that God does not bless any conflict; to shout to the world that whoever is a disciple of Christ, Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who yesterday wielded the sword and today hurl bombs; let us remember that it will not be military actions that create spaces of freedom or times of peace, but only the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue between peoples.
Your mission is great: to proclaim the Risen Christ even in contexts of death, to be a living presence of faith and charity, to keep hope alive where it seems to be fading. Do not be discouraged: the Lord walks with you. I thank you for what you do and I accompany you, especially through the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches. I entrust this Synod and the election of the new Patriarch to the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, of Saint Thomas the Apostle, and of his disciples Addai and Mari, authors of a splendid Anaphora that continues to be your pride. May the Holy Spirit enlighten and guide you in your decisions. Upon you and upon all the faithful of the Chaldean Church, I wholeheartedly invoke the Lord’s blessing.
Translation of the Italian original into Spanish by ZENIT’s Editorial Director and, into English, by Virginia M. Forrester.
Publicaciones relacionadas:
Pope Leo XIV avoids schism, ends mission of bishop in liturgical dispute in India
This is the new Catholic bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV for London: he is from Africa, enjoys horse riding, and was a soldier
Pope Leo XIV accepts resignation of bishop whom Pope Francis appointed cardinal, but who “did not want” to receive the appointment
Cuban bishops cancel special visit to the Pope: there is no gasoline in the country, not even for airplanes
