Chaldean Catholics


Chaldean Catholics, also known as Chaldeans or Chaldo-Assyrians, are ethnic Assyrian adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church which originates from the Church of the East.
The community formed in Upper Mesopotamia in the 16th and 17th centuries, originating from groups of Nestorians adhering to the Church of the East that split after the schism of 1552 and entered communion with the Holy See. While indigenous to the region of north Iraq, southeast Turkey and northeast Syria, many Chaldean Catholic Christians have migrated to Western countries including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Sweden and Germany. Many of them also live in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, and Georgia. The reasons for migration are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, poor economic conditions during the sanctions against Iraq, and poor security conditions after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Names

Followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church often identify and are identified as "Chaldean", but just like adherents of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church and Church of the East who live in or originate from Upper Mesopotamia, they call themselves Suraye in their own language . After the community entered communion with Rome, the Roman Catholic Church began calling them Chaldean Catholics, wanting to differentiate them from the followers of their mother church, the Church of the East. In the past, the Chaldean name was used for both branches, and was attached to the Nestorians of Chaldean Syrian Church in India.
The name of former Nestorians now reunited with the Roman Church. Ethnologically they are divided into two groups
Strictly, the name of Chaldeans is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Baghdad, there are now very few adherents of this rite, most of the Chaldean population being found in the cities of Kirkuk, Erbil, and Mosul, in the heart of the Tigris valley, in the valley of the Zab, and in the mountains of Kurdistan. The Catholic Encyclopedia states, "It is in the former ecclesiastical province of Ator that are now found the most flourishing of the Catholic Chaldean communities. The native population accepts the name of Atoraya-Kaldaya, while in the neo-Syriac vernacular Christians generally are known as Syrians."
In Iraq, the Chaldeans grouped together with Nestorians are officially known as "Chaldo-Assyrian" because it is their ethnicity, while Nestorian and Chaldean are used to refer to which church they belong to. Iraqi Kurdish organizations often refer to Syriac Christians as Kurdish Christians despite them not being Kurdish, while "Chaldo-Assyrian" is the correct and preferred name of the Assyrian Democratic Movement.

Population

There are 640,828 adherents of the Chaldean Church worldwide according to the Annuario Pontificio.

Iraq

Chaldeans are mentioned as a distinct group in Article 125 of the Iraqi constitution. In northern Iraq, the community inhabits Alqosh, Ankawa, Araden, Baqofah, Batnaya, Karamles, Mangesh, Shaqlawa, Tesqopa, Tel Keppe, and Zakho.

Syria, Turkey and Iran

In Syria, adherents number 10,000; in Turkey, 48,594; and in Iran, 3,390.

Diaspora

In Southeast Michigan there is a Chaldean community numbering 113,000 people. This is the largest Chaldean diaspora community outside Iraq. Members are Arabic- or Aramaic-speaking.
A small number of Chaldean Catholic families live in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Occasionally the Chaldean Patriarchate has tried to administer them through the Chaldean street residence of a currently vacant Chaldean Patriarchal Exarch in Jerusalem.

History and origin

The Chaldean community originates from groups of adherents of the Church of the East that entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th centuries. The community emerged after the schism of 1552. These "Nestorian" Uniates received the name "Chaldeans" from the Roman Curia, which had given the ancient name Chaldaei to them.
The term Chaldean in reference to followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church was historically mainly a denominational term which arose in the late 17th century and became fully established in the 19th century. It did not refer to an ethnic connection with ancient south Babylonian Chaldea and its inhabitants, which emerged during the 9th century BC after Chaldean tribes migrated from the Levant region of Urfa in North Mesopotamia to southeast Mesopotamia, and disappeared from history during the 6th century BC.
Chaldean Catholics are regarded ethnically and historically as a part of the Assyrian continuity. The modern Chaldean Catholics originated from ancient Assyrian communities living in and indigenous to the north of Iraq/Mesopotamia which was known as Assyria from the 25th century BC until the 7th century AD. Chaldean Catholics largely bear the same family and personal names, share the same genetic profile, hail from the same villages, towns and cities in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest Iran, as fellow Assyrians of other religious denominations. The Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Surayt/Turoyo languages do not run parallel to the often associated religious denominations.

20th century

According to a 1950 CIA report on Iraq, Chaldeans numbered 98,000 and were the largest Christian minority.
A 1950 CIA report on Iraq estimated 98,000 Chaldeans, 30,000 Nestorians, 25,000 Syriac Catholics and 12,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians.

21st century

According to estimates by the Catholic Church, in Chaldean dioceses in Iraq there were 150,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baghdad, 30,000 in the Archeparchy of Arbil, 22,300 in the Diocese of Alqosh, 18,800 in the Diocese of Amadiyah and Zakho, 14,100 in the Archeparchy of Mosul, 7,831 in the Archdiocese of Kirkuk, 1,372 in Diocese of Aqrā, 800 in Archeparchy of Basra,

Identity

Assyrian identity

Many Chaldean Catholics identify as Assyrians or Chaldo-Assyrians. Raphael Bidawid, the then patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church commented on the Assyrian name dispute in 2003:
In an interview with the Assyrian Star in the September–October 1974 issue, he was quoted as saying:

Chaldean identity

Some Chaldean Catholics espouse a Chaldean ethnic identity and regard Chaldeans as a nation of its own. Some claim descent from the ancient Chaldeans/Chaldees, who resided in the far south east of Mesopotamia, however, the scholary consensus remains that modern Chaldean Catholics constitute part of the Assyrian continuity rather than being descendants of the ancient Chaldeans. The first political movement of Chaldean Catholics was founded in 1972 in Iraq and named the Chaldean Patriot Movement, after the Baathist regime in Iraq killed many Chaldean Catholics in the Soria village in the Dohuk province, but then this movement dissolved after persecution by the Baath regime. Official statistics in Iraq referred to all Syriac Christians, including Chaldean Catholics, as Christian Arabs. In 1972, the cultural rights of Syriac-speaking Christians in Iraq were recognised by the Iraqi government, but the Baathist regime refused to recognize Assyrians as an ethnic group.
After the fall of the Baath regime in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991, some Chaldean Catholics began to establish Chaldean nationalist political parties around the Chaldean Catholic identity, in 1999 founded the Chaldean Democratic Party and in 2002 the Chaldean National Congress Party. Upon their demands, the Iraqi constitution of 2005 in Article 125 mentions Chaldeans as a distinct group. Several conferences on Chaldean nationalism were held, and a flag was designed.

Condition of the Chaldean Catholic Church

The 1896 census of the Chaldean Catholics counted 233 parishes and 177 churches or chapels, mainly in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The Chaldean Catholic clergy numbered 248 priests; they were assisted by the monks of the Congregation of St. Hormizd, who numbered about one hundred. There were about 52 Assyrian Chaldean schools. At Mosul there was a patriarchal seminary, distinct from the Chaldean seminary directed by the Dominicans. The total number of Assyrian Chaldean Christians as by 2010 was 490,371, 78,000 of whom are in the Diocese of Mosul.
The current patriarch considers Baghdad as the principal city of his see. His title of "Patriarch of Babylon" results from the identification of Baghdad with ancient Babylon. However, the Chaldean patriarch resides habitually at Mosul in the north, and reserves for himself the direct administration of this diocese and that of Baghdad.
There are five archbishops and seven bishops. Eight patriarchal vicars govern the small Assyrian Chaldean communities dispersed throughout Turkey and Iran. The Chaldean clergy, especially the monks of Rabban Hormizd Monastery, have established some missionary stations in the mountain districts dominated by The Assyrian Church of the East. Three dioceses are in Iran, the others in Turkey.
The liturgical language of the Chaldean Catholic Church is Syriac and the liturgy of the Chaldean Church is written in the Syriac alphabet. The literary revival in the early 20th century was mostly due to the Lazarist Pere Bedjan, an ethnic Assyrian Chaldean Catholic from northwestern Iran. He popularized the ancient chronicles, the lives of Assyrian saints and martyrs, and even works of the ancient Assyrian doctors among Assyrians of all denominations, including Chaldean Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East and Assyrian Protestants.
Before the Gulf War, Chaldean Catholics numbered approximately 400,000 of Iraq's estimated 800,000–1,000,000 Assyrian Christians, with smaller numbers found among the Assyrian Christian communities of northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Georgia and Armenia. Perhaps the best known Iraqi Chaldean Catholic is the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz.
Hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians of all denominations have left Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003. At least 20,000 of them have fled through Lebanon to seek resettlement in Europe and the US. In March 2008, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul was kidnapped, and found dead two weeks later. Pope Benedict XVI condemned his death. Sunni and Shia leaders also expressed their condemnation. As political changes sweep through many Arab nations, the ethnic Assyrian minorities throughout the Middle East have expressed concern about the developments and their future in the region.

Organizations

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