www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News His Holiness Emmanuel III Retires

David Cheney has posted at www.catholic-hierarchy.com [catholic-hierarchy.com] that His Holiness Emmanuel III (Karim) Delli, Catholicos and Patriarch of Babylon and Ur of the Chaldees for the Catholic Chaldeans has retired. Eis polla aeti, Despota!

Wow, what a year for Christians in the Middle East! Three of the most important local churches are getting new leadership. May the Lord inspire the new Patriarchs to work together in the view of attaining unity and helping their flocks.

I was surprised to see that the synod to elect a successor will take place in Rome, but one could put that down to security issues. But why should it be presided over by the prefect for the Congregation of Eastern Churches?

Is this meant to be an honour, because it seems sort of patronising, no?

The Vatican Bulletin also presented the information as he submitted to the Pope not the Holy Synod and the Pope named the administrator. This is not the action of a sister Church, but rather that of a subservient Church.

Oh well, whatever happened, it's done.

May God grant him many blessed years!

I would like to offer a correction and a few comments.

First, a correction. Unfortunately, there is an error in the English translation. In fact the Pope has not named the Administrator of the Chaldean Church. The original Italian [press.catholica.va] states that Archbishop Jacques Ishaq, as (senior) Bishop of the patriarchal Curia, is Administrator in accordance with canon law (CCEO can. 127).

Second, I don't know why the Synod will be held in Rome and presided over by Cardinal Sandri. However, it is worth remembering that the previous patriarchal election in Baghdad in 2003 resulted in deadlock. Pope John Paul II then called a second synod in Rome to make a new attempt to elect a patriarch. Remarkably, Patriarch Emmanuel III, at the time a 76-year-old retired bishop, was elected as a compromise candidate.

Since then, unfortunately, it seems the divisions within the Synod have remained and may even have grown worse, according to this report (in Italian). [vaticaninsider.lastampa.it] My guess, therefore, is that the arrangements for the Synod on 28 January 2013 in Rome under the presidency of Cardinal Sandri are meant to help the Chaldean Church, not to hurt it.

Third, there is criticism on this forum that Patriarch Emmanuel III offered his resignation to the Pope rather than to the Synod. For all we know he may have gone to the Synod first. Whatever Patriarch Emmanuel's reasons, he had every right to go directly to the Pope if he felt the need to do so.

Finally, I think there is no reason to attack the Pope and the Church of Rome for not behaving as a sister Church. Rather, I think the Vatican is probably trying to help avoid the kind of deadlock and stalemate we saw back in 2003.

Let us pray for a good outcome to the Synod in January!

PS! Here is the link [vaticaninsider.lastampa.it] to the English version of the Italian article I linked to above.

Thank you Latin Catholic for those important and interesting corrections.

May God grant our Chaldean brothers a good and holy Patriarch!

Just my unsolicited 2 cents, but whether there are "divisions" within the Synod or not, it would, I think, be fair if Rome at least allowed the Synod to convene on its own terms (as was done in 2003) before convoking it under Sandri's auspices.

True, malphono.

But I would like to point out that the decisions about the retirement of Patriarch Emmanuel III and the election of a successor were announced following Cardinal Sandri's recent visit [fides.org] to Iraq. It seems likely that these matters were carefully discussed during that visit.