New Iraqi Patriarch Pledges Dialogue, warns Against Emigration

New Iraqi Patriarch Pledges
Dialogue, warns Against Emigration



Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad stands with his crosier after
being installed as the new head of the Chaldean Catholic Church at St. Joseph
Cathedral in Baghdad March 6. (CNS photo/Saad Shalash, Reuters

BAGHDAD (CNS): The new patriarch of
Chaldean Catholics pledged to foster coexistence and dialogue and urged
Christian Iraqis not to leave their homeland, warning that if emigration
continues, “there will be no more Christians in the Middle East.”
Ululating and applause nearly drowned out the
choir as Patriarch Louis Sako approached the altar at St. Joseph Cathedral for
his installation March 6 amid tight security.
The 64-year-old patriarch, who had served as
archbishop of Kirkuk, Iraq, since 2003, replaces Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly,
85.
“I open my heart and mind to you all carrying my
motto: ‘Authenticity, Unity and Renewal,’” Patriarch Sako told church officials,
religious, laypeople, imans and senior Iraqi officials gathered in the
cathedral. Eastern Catholic leaders, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and
Sunni parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi were among those who attended the
installation.
Of the challenges and risks facing him in his new
mission, the patriarch said, “I refuse to put a black cloth over my eyes.
“My responsibility is huge, and the inheritance is
very heavy, but I have a great hope … to face the reality objectively and
clearly.”
The new patriarch pledged to work toward
coexistence and dialogue, as he did in his previous assignments in Mosul and
Kirkuk.
“I want to stimulate dialogue with my brothers,
the Muslim imams, both Shiite and Sunni,” he said, thanking God that “I was
always close to them in Mosul and Kirkuk.”
“We have a common message and we have to spread a
culture of peace, harmony, brotherhood and mutual respect and make our churches
and mosques luminous centers of spiritual and humane values,” Patriarch Sako
said. “In this way, we can glorify God and become what Jesus called ‘blessed
peacemakers.’”
“In the name of humanity and nationality, I urge
everyone, governors and politicians, to dialogue calmly and to find consensus
and appropriate solutions and to avoid all forms of intolerance, fanaticism,
hatred and violence,” the patriarch said.
More than 72 churches have been attacked or bombed
in Iraq since June 2004.
“These past years have been full of events and
dangers, and still the shadow of fear, anxiety and death is hanging over our
people. This can only end when we love each other and work together for the
benefit of our homeland. Enough blood and destruction,” he said.
“True greatness is achieved not by domination, but
by service and sacrifice to consolidate what is good, righteous and honest,” he
added.
“Our prayer and hope is that peace, security and
stability may soon return to our homeland so that it advances and prospers
spiritually, scientifically, economically, and socially.”
Iraq’s Christian population, believed to number up
to 1.4 million in the late 1990s, now is believed to be significantly fewer than
500,000. Almost two-thirds of Iraqi Christians belong to the Chaldean Catholic
Church.
Addressing Iraqi Christians in particular, the
Chaldean patriarch said: “I know your concern and fears. Overcome your fears,
and face the reality with faith and hope.”
“You are not a minority in this country,” he said,
reminding them that Christians have been there for more than 2,000 years, an
important presence and witness.
“If emigration continues, God forbid, there will
be no more Christians in the Middle East,” he warned. “It will be no more than a
distant memory.”
Patriarch Sako thanked God and his brother bishops
of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern rite, for choosing him as patriarch,
a title that he stressed means “father of all.”
Patriarch Sako was chosen patriarch Jan. 31 in
Rome in an election presided by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the
Congregation for Eastern Churches, and attended by 15 Chaldean bishops: seven
from Iraq, two from Iran, two from the United, and one each from Lebanon, Syria,
Australia and Canada. Pope Benedict XVI confirmed the election Feb. 1.