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91-836: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that, according to the Iraqi Christian Foundation, an agency of the Chaldean Catholic Church, approximately 80% of Iraqi Christians are of that church. In its own 2018 Report on Religious Freedom, the United States Department of State put the Chaldean Catholics at approximately 67% of the Christians in Iraq . The 2019 Country Guidance on Iraq of

182-685: A century and a half after the Holy See had conferred headship of the Chaldean Catholics on Joseph I of Amid, Pope Pius VIII granted recognition as Patriarch to Yohannan, whose (non-hereditary) patriarchal succession has since then lasted unbroken in the Chaldean Catholic Church. In 1838, the Kurds of Soran attacked the Rabban Hormizd Monastery and Alqosh, apparently thinking the villagers were Yazidis responsible for

273-506: A church [...] We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion [...] I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am Assyrian." Earlier, he said: "Before I became a priest I was an Assyrian, before I became a bishop I was an Assyrian, I am an Assyrian today, tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it." The Chaldean Catholic Church traces its beginnings to the Church of the East , which

364-582: A complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission , alleging that she was fired because she was a Muslim and a member of an advocacy group, the Muslim Public Affairs Council . Current commissioners and some other religious freedom advocates deny the claims of bias. The commission has also been accused of in-fighting and ineffectiveness. Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch said about

455-531: A front for American missionaries. The report recommended that there be more attention to religious freedom in U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy in general and that the USCIRF devote more attention to monitoring the integration of religious freedom issues into foreign policy. In 2018, the appointment of Tony Perkins as a commissioner received criticism. The organizations such as GLAAD , Hindu American Foundation , atheist and humanist groups, and others questioned

546-763: A large immigration to the United States particularly to West Bloomfield and Oakland County in Southeast Michigan . Although the largest population resides in Southeast Michigan, there are populations in parts of California and Arizona as well, which all fall under the Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit . In addition, Canada in recent years has shown growing communities in provinces such as Ontario . In 2008, Bawai Soro of

637-421: A member of the "Eliya line" family, opposed Eliya XII (1778–1804), the last of that line to be elected in the normal way as patriarch. In 1780 Yohannan was irregularly elected patriarch, as Sulaqa had been in 1552. He won over to communion with Rome most followers of the "Eliyya line". The Holy See did not recognize him as patriarch, but in 1791 Pope Pius VI appointed him archbishop of Amid and administrator of

728-546: A new ecclesiastical hierarchy under what is known as the "Shimun line" of patriarchs, who soon moved from Amid eastward, settling, after many intervening places, in the isolated village of Qudshanis under Persian rule. Sulaqa's earliest successors entered into communion with the Catholic Church , but in the course of over a century, their link with Rome grew weak. The last to request and obtain formal papal recognition died in 1600. They adopted hereditary succession to

819-525: A non-profit organization connected to Seiple, reportedly received from officials at the U.S. Department of State to apparently seek to minimize grossly increased religious persecution and widespread human rights violations by the Lao government and the Lao People's Army . In 2007, Central Asia and foreign affairs experts S. Frederick Starr , Brenda Shaffer , and Svante Cornell accused USCIRF of championing

910-526: A profession of faith that Pope Clement XIV accepted, thus establishing communion in principle. When Eliya XI died in 1778, the metropolitans recognized as his successor Ishoyabb, who accordingly took the Eliya name ( Eliya XII ). To win support, Eliya made profession of the Catholic faith, but almost immediately renounced it and declared his support of the traditionalist (Nestorian) view. Yohannan Hormizd ,

1001-504: A professor of philosophy and theology in Mosul. On October 6, 1957, at the age of 35, he was ordained Bishop of Amadiya , by Patriarch Yousef VII Ghanima , becoming the youngest Catholic bishop in the world. As bishop of Amadiya he experienced the mass exodus of Christians from Iraq . Mar Raphael Bidawid was then appointed bishop of Beirut, Lebanon in 1966 and served in this capacity for 23 years. On March 21, 1989 Raphael I Bidawid

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1092-491: A seven-year term (until 2018), on the morning of the 16th. This happened after a new reauthorization bill passed both Houses containing two amendments were made to it that Senator Dick Durbin , D-IL (the Senate Majority Whip ) had wanted as a condition of releasing a hold he had placed on the former version of the bill; he released it on December 13, after the revisions were made. They stipulate that there will be

1183-562: A total of 4,498 Chaldean Catholics in that country. Despite the internal discords of the reigns of Yohannan Hormizd (1830–1838), Nicholas I Zaya (1839–1847) and Joseph VI Audo (1847–1878), the 19th century was a period of considerable growth for the Chaldean church, in which its territorial jurisdiction was extended, its hierarchy strengthened and its membership nearly doubled. In 1850, the Anglican missionary George Percy Badger recorded

1274-416: A total of twelve vicariates. Tfinkdji's grand total of 101,610 Catholics in 199 villages is slightly exaggerated, as his figures included 2,310 nominal Catholics in twenty-one 'newly converted' or 'semi-Nestorian' villages in the dioceses of Amid, Seert and ʿ Aqra, but it is clear that the Chaldean Catholic Church had grown significantly since 1896. With around 100,000 believers in 1913, the membership of

1365-1030: A travel budget and a 15–20 member staff. Appointments last for two years, and Commissioners are eligible for reappointment. As of September 16, 2024, the current Commissioners are: The State Department's Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, currently Rashad Hussain , serves as an ex officio , non-voting member of the Commission. Past Commissioners include: Nury Turkel , Frank Wolf , Sharon Kleinbaum , Tom Reese, S.J. , Khizr Khan , Tony Perkins , David Saperstein , Preeta D. Bansal , Gayle Conelly Manchin (Chair) , Gary Bauer , John Hanford , Khaled Abou El Fadl , Charles J. Chaput , Michael K. Young , Firuz Kazemzadeh , Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli , John R. Bolton , Elliot Abrams , Felice D. Gaer , Azizah Y. al-Hibri , Leonard Leo , Richard Land , Tenzin Dorjee (Chair), and Kristina Arriaga de Bucholz. The International Religious Freedom Act requires

1456-572: A two-year limit on terms for commissioners and that they will be under the same travel restrictions as employees of the Department of State. In 2016, the U.S. Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act , which amended IRFA in various ways, including adding a category of designation for non-state actors. USCIRF researches and monitors international religious freedom issues. The Commission

1547-677: Is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998 . USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives . USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to

1638-407: Is a great civilization, and since ancient times she has been a country of multifaith , multilingual , and multicultural diversity." Several Indian-American Muslim, Sikh and Christian groups applauded the USCIRF for its 2021 report wherein it has recommended India be designated as a "country of particular concern (CPC)" for the alleged deterioration of religious freedom in the country. Prior to

1729-475: Is almost certainly far too low. Paulin Martin's statistical survey in 1867, after the creation of the dioceses of ʿ Aqra , Zakho , Basra and Sehna by Joseph Audo, recorded a total church membership of 70,268, more than three times higher than Badger's estimate. Most of the population figures in these statistics have been rounded up to the nearest thousand, and they may also have been exaggerated slightly, but

1820-401: Is authorized to travel on fact-finding missions to other countries and hold public hearings. The Commission on International Religious Freedom issues an annual report that includes policy recommendations to the U.S. government based on the report's evaluation of the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations worldwide. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 provides for

1911-664: Is given in Adrian Fortescue's Lesser Eastern Churches . The "Eastern Assyrians", who, if not Catholic, were presumed to be Nestorians, were distinguished from the "Western Assyrians" (those west of the Tigris River), who were looked on as Jacobites . It was as Patriarch of the "Eastern Assyrians" that Sulaqa's successor, Abdisho IV Maron , was accredited for participation in the Council of Trent . The names already in use (except that of "Nestorian") were thus applied to

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2002-605: Is in accord with its own teaching. Other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), religious freedom and human rights advocates, policy experts, and Members of Congress have defended the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's research work, and various reports on the Pathet Lao government's increased and serious religious persecution in Laos, from Seiple's controversial criticism. They have pointed out potential conflicts of interest involving reported grant monies Seiple, or

2093-578: Is remembered also for his clashes with Pope Pius IX mainly about his attempts to extend the Chaldean jurisdiction over the Malabar Catholics . This was a period of expansion for the Chaldean Catholic Church. The activity of the Turkish army and their Kurdish and Arab allies, partly in response to armed support for Russia in the territory of the Qochanis patriarchate, brought ruin also to

2184-637: The American states of Michigan , Illinois and California . In 2006, the Eparchy of Oceania , with the title of 'St Thomas the Apostle of Sydney of the Chaldeans' was set up with jurisdiction including the Chaldean Catholic communities of Australia and New Zealand . Its first Bishop, named by Pope Benedict XVI on 21 October 2006, was Archbishop Djibrail (Jibrail) Kassab , until this date, Archbishop of Bassorah in Iraq. There has been

2275-594: The Assyrian Church of the East and 1,000 Assyrian families were received into full communion with the Chaldean Catholic Church. On Friday, June 10, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI erected a new Chaldean Catholic eparchy in Toronto, Ontario , Canada and named Archbishop Yohannan Zora , who has worked alongside four priests with Catholics in Toronto (the largest community of Chaldeans ) for nearly 20 years and who

2366-491: The Catholic Church , but in the course of over a century loosened their link with Rome and under Shimun XIII Dinkha , openly renounced it in 1672, by adopting a profession of faith that contradicted that of Rome, while they maintained their independence from the "Eliya line". Leadership of those who wished to be in communion with Rome then passed to the Archbishop of Amid Joseph I , recognized as Catholic patriarch, first by

2457-749: The Central African Republic , Egypt , Indonesia , Iraq , Kazakhstan , Malaysia , Sri Lanka , Turkey , and Uzbekistan be included on the State Department's Special Watch List. USCIRF has repeatedly designated India as a country of particular concern or on the Special Watch List. These reports have drawn criticism from the Indian press . The Pioneer , in an editorial, termed it as "fiction", "biased", and " Surpassing Goebbels ". It criticized USCIRF for projecting

2548-659: The Council of Ephesus in 431 was a turning point in the history of the Church of the East. The Council condemned as heretical the Christology of Nestorius , whose reluctance to accord the Virgin Mary the title Theotokos "God-bearer, Mother of God" was taken as evidence that he believed two separate persons (as opposed to two united natures) to be present within Christ. The Sasanian Emperor provided refuge for those who in

2639-549: The European Union Agency for Asylum gives the same information as the United States Department of State. The Chaldean Catholic Church arose following a schism within the Church of the East . In 1552, the established "Eliya line" of patriarchs was opposed by a rival patriarch, Sulaqa , who initiated what is called the "Shimun line". He, and his early successors, entered into communion with

2730-588: The First World War was made in 1913 by the Chaldean priest Joseph Tfinkdji, after a period of steady growth since 1896. It then consisted of the patriarchal archdiocese of Mosul and Baghdad, four other archdioceses ( Amid , Kirkuk , Seert and Urmi ), and eight dioceses ( ʿ Aqra , ʿ Amadiya , Gazarta , Mardin , Salmas , Sehna, Zakho and the newly created diocese of Van). Five more patriarchal vicariates had been established since 1896 (Ahwaz, Constantinople, Basra, Ashshar and Deir al-Zor), giving

2821-587: The French Revolution , Rome was long unable to choose between two rival claimants to headship of the Chaldean Catholics. The 1672 adoption by the "Shimun line" of patriarchs of Nestorian doctrine had been followed in some areas by widespread adoption of the opposing Christology upheld in Rome. This occurred not only in the Amid-Mardin area for which by Turkish decree Joseph I was patriarch, but also in

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2912-797: The Hebrew Bible , he would naturally recognize each time which language would be much more difficult for him when the passages changed from Hebrew to Chaldean. Only in 1445 did it begin to be used to mean Aramaic speakers in communion with the Catholic Church , on the basis of a decree of the Council of Florence , which accepted the profession of faith that Timothy, metropolitan of the Aramaic speakers in Cyprus , made in Aramaic, and which decreed that "nobody shall in future dare to call [...] Chaldeans, Nestorians". Previously, when there were as yet no Catholic Aramaic speakers of Mesopotamian origin,

3003-704: The Nestorian schism rejected the decrees of the Council of Ephesus enforced in the Byzantine Empire . In 484 he executed the pro-Roman Catholicos Babowai . Under the influence of Barsauma , Bishop of Nisibis , the Church of the East officially accepted as normative the teaching not of Nestorius himself, but of his teacher Theodore of Mopsuestia , whose writings the 553 Second Council of Constantinople condemned as Nestorian but some modern scholars view them as orthodox. The position thus assigned to Theodore in

3094-641: The President , the Secretary of State , and the Congress . USCIRF was authorized by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 , which established: The legislation authorizing the USCIRF stated that the Commission would terminate on September 30, 2011, unless it was reauthorized or given a temporary extension. It was given several extensions by Congress, but would have expired at 5:00 pm on Friday, December 16, 2011, had it not been reauthorized for

3185-874: The Xi'an Stele ), a Tang dynasty tablet in Chinese script dating to 781 that documented 150 years of Christian history in China. Their most lasting addition was of the Saint Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast in India , where they had around 10 million followers. However, a decline had already set in at the time of Yahballaha III (1281–1317), when the Church of the East reached its greatest geographical extent, it had in south and central Iraq and in south, central and east Persia only four dioceses, where at

3276-524: The massacre of 58 Hindu passengers as an accident. It also accused USCIRF of indirectly justifying murder of Swami Lakshamananda , a Hindu cleric and social activist. Christian leaders in Odisha defended India: Archbishop Raphael Cheenath stated that India remained of a secular character, the president of the Odisha Minority Forum that, despite a small hate campaign against minorities,

3367-463: The state religion , and having a secular legal system. Tajikistan Foreign Ministry criticized the USCIRF report on March 13, 2020. Tajikistan called on the U.S. Department of State to refrain from publishing unverified and groundless information unrelated to the actual situation with the rule of law and respect of human rights in Tajikistan. A former policy analyst, Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, filed

3458-680: The 1964 schism between what are now called the Assyrian and the Ancient Church of the East. Dissent over the practice of hereditary succession to the Patriarchate, usually from uncle to nephew, led to the action in 1552 by a group of bishops from the northern regions of Amid and Salmas who elected as a rival Patriarch the abbot of Rabban Hormizd Monastery (which was the Patriarch's residence) Yohannan Sulaqa . "To strengthen

3549-528: The 2001 visit of the USCIRF to Egypt , some Coptic leaders in Egypt protested, viewing the visit as a form of American imperialism . For example, Mounir Azmi, a member of the Coptic Community Council, said that despite problems for Copts , the visit was a "vile campaign against Egypt" and would be unhelpful. Another critic called the visit "foreign intervention in our internal affairs". In

3640-422: The Catholic patriarchate. The violent protests of Joseph IV's nephew, who was then in Rome, and suspicions raised by others about the sincerity of Yohannan's conversion prevented this being put into effect. In 1793 it was agreed that Yohannan should withdraw from Amid to Mosul, the metropolitan see that he already held, but that the post of patriarch would not be conferred on his rival, Joseph IV's nephew. In 1802

3731-491: The Chaldean Catholic Church (1989–2003), who accepted the term Assyrian as descriptive of his nationality and ethnicity, commented: "When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic in the 17th Century, the name given to the church was 'Chaldean' based on the Magi kings who were believed by some to have come from what once had been the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name 'Chaldean' does not represent an ethnicity, just

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3822-593: The Chaldean Catholic Church. Patriarch Bidawid could speak 13 languages. He died in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 7, 2003, at the age of 81. Patriarch Bidawid was known as a champion of the unification of the Assyrian Church of the East (formerly the Church of the East ) and the Chaldean Catholic Church , which split in 1552 AD. In November of 1996, Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of

3913-523: The Chaldean church was only slightly smaller than that of the Qudshanis patriarchate (probably 120,000 East Syriac Christians at most, including the population of the nominally Russian Orthodox villages in the Urmi district). Its congregations were concentrated in far fewer villages than those of the Qudshanis patriarchate, and with 296 priests, a ratio of roughly three priests for every thousand believers, it

4004-618: The Chaldean dioceses of Amid, Siirt and Gazarta and the metropolitans Addai Scher of Siirt and Philippe-Jacques Abraham of Gazarta were killed in 1915. In the 21st century, Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni , the pastor of the Chaldean Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul, who graduated from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome in 2003 with a licentiate in ecumenical theology,

4095-428: The Church of the East to distance itself increasingly from that in the Roman Empire. Although in a time of peace their 420 council explicitly accepted the decrees of some "western" councils, including that of Nicaea, in 424 they determined that thenceforth they would refer disciplinary or theological problems to no external power, especially not to any "western" bishop or council. The theological controversy that followed

4186-557: The Church of the East was reinforced in several subsequent synods in spite of the opposing teaching of Henana of Adiabeme . After its split with the West and its adoption of a theology that some called Nestorianism, the Church of the East expanded rapidly in the medieval period due to missionary work. Between 500 and 1400, its geographical horizon extended well beyond its heartland in present-day northern Iraq , northeastern Syria , and southeastern Turkey , setting up communities throughout Central Asia and as far as China (as witnessed by

4277-411: The Commission finds some candles soon, Congress ought to turn out the lights." The Commission responded that despite the releases, the Marxist , Pathet Lao government in Laos still had systemic impediments to religious freedom, such as laws allowing religious activities only with the consent of Pathet Lao government officials, and laws allowing the government to determine whether a religious community

4368-439: The Commission to be composed of ten members: IRFA provides that "Members of the Commission shall be selected among distinguished individuals noted for their knowledge and experience in fields relevant to the issue of international religious freedom, including foreign affairs , direct experience abroad, human rights , and international law ." Commissioners are not paid for their work on the Commission, however they are provided

4459-421: The East . Leadership of those who wished to be in communion with Rome then passed to Archbishop Joseph of Amid. In 1677 his leadership was recognized first by the Turkish civil authorities, and then in 1681 by Rome. (Until then, the authority of the Alqosh patriarch over Amid, which had been Sulaqa's residence but which his successors abandoned on having to move eastward into Safavid Iran , had been accepted by

4550-473: The East and Raphael I Bidawid of the Chaldean Catholic Church met in Southfield, Michigan , and signed a Joint Patriarchal Statement that committed their two churches to working towards reintegration and pledged cooperation on pastoral questions such as the drafting of a common catechism, the setting up of a common seminary in the Chicago-Detroit area, the preservation of the Assyrian language, and other common pastoral programs between parishes and dioceses around

4641-465: The Institute of Global Engagement stated that the United States' international religious freedom policy was problematic in that it "has focused more on rhetorical denunciations of persecutors and releasing religious prisoners than on facilitating the political and cultural institutions necessary to religious freedom," and had therefore been ineffective. It further stated that USIRF policy was often perceived as an attack on religion, cultural imperialism , or

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4732-454: The President, who has delegated this function to the Secretary of State, to designate as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, countries that commit systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. Pursuant to IRFA, USCIRF recommends the countries that, in its view, meet the CPC threshold and should be so designated. In addition to recommending countries for CPC designation, USCIRF also recommends countries to be added to

4823-677: The State Department's Special Watch List (SWL). The SWL is for countries whose governments engage or tolerate in severe religious freedom violations, but do not rise to the CPC standard of “systematic, ongoing, and egregious.” Violations in SWL countries must meet two of those three criteria. In its 2023 report, USCRIF recommended the following countries be designated as countries of particular concern: Afghanistan , China , Cuba , Eritrea , India , Iran , Myanmar , Nicaragua , Nigeria , North Korea , Pakistan , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Syria , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Vietnam . Additionally, USCIRF recommended that Algeria , Azerbaijan ,

4914-412: The Turkish authorities.) All the (non-hereditary) successors in Amid of Joseph I, who in 1696 resigned for health reasons and lived on in Rome until 1707, took the name Joseph: Joseph II (1696–1713), Joseph III (1713–1757), Joseph IV (1757–1781) . For that reason, they are known as the "Josephite line". Joseph IV presented his resignation in 1780 and it was accepted in 1781, after which he handed over

5005-427: The Turkish civil authorities (1677), and then by Rome itself (1681). A century and a half later, in 1830, Rome conferred headship of the Catholics on Yohannan Hormizd . A member of the "Eliya line" family: he opposed Eliya XII (1778–1804), the last of that line to be elected in the normal way as patriarch, was himself irregularly elected in 1780, as Sulaqa had been in 1552, and won over to communion with Rome most of

5096-445: The USCIRF's emphasis on the punishment of religious persecution over the promotion of religious freedom. In his view, the USCIRF was "only cursing the darkness". As an example, he highlighted the Commission's decision to designate Laos a Country of Particular Concern in 2002 despite the release of religious prisoners. He further stated, "that which was conceived in error and delivered in chaos has now been consigned to irrelevancy. Unless

5187-465: The administration of the patriarchate to his nephew, not yet a bishop, and retired to Rome, where he lived until 1791. Appointment of the nephew as patriarch would look like acceptance of the principle of hereditary succession. Besides, the Alqosh "Eliya line" was drawing closer to Rome, and the pro-Catholic faction within its followers was becoming predominant. For various reasons, including the ecclesiastical as well as political turbulence in Europe after

5278-467: The city of Mosul, where by 1700 nearly all the East Syrians were Catholics. The Rabban Hormizd Monastery, which was the seat of the "Eliya line" of patriarchs is 2 km from the village of Alqosh and about 45 km north of the city of Mosul. In view of this situation, Patriarch Eliya XI wrote to Pope Clement XII and his successor Benedict XIV in 1735, 1749 and 1756, asking for union. Then, in 1771, both he and his designated successor Ishoyabb made

5369-639: The credibility of Perkins, citing his stance against non-Christians and LGBTQ people. The Southern Poverty Law Center also chastised Perkins for far-right Christian views, his anti-LGBT views, his associations with the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, terming his evangelical organization, the Family Research Council , a "hate group". [REDACTED] Media related to United States Commission on International Religious Freedom at Wikimedia Commons Raphael I Bidawid Mar Raphael I Bidawid ( Syriac : ܪܘܦܐܝܠ ܩܕܡܝܐ ܒܝܬ ܕܘܝܕ , Arabic مار روفائيل الاول بيداويد) (April 17, 1922 – July 7, 2003)

5460-424: The declining Delhi Sultanate . Timur's conquests devastated most Assyrian bishoprics and destroyed the 4000-year-old cultural and religious capital of Assur . After the destruction brought on by Timur, the massive and organized Church of the East structure was largely reduced to its region of origin, with the exception of the Saint Thomas Christians in India. The Church of the East has seen many disputes about

5551-414: The end of the ninth century it had at least 54, and Yahballaha himself died at the hands of a Muslim mob. Around 1400, the Turco-Mongol nomadic conqueror Timur arose out of the Eurasian Steppe to lead military campaigns all across Western , Southern and Central Asia , ultimately seizing much of the Muslim world after defeating the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria , the emerging Ottoman Empire , and

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5642-448: The establishment of an Assyrian-Chaldean “Joint Commission for Unity,” and declared that each side recognized the apostolic succession, sacraments and Christian witness of the other. The text also spelled out the central concerns of both sides in the dialogue. While both churches wanted to preserve the Assyrian language and culture, the Assyrians of the Assyrian Church of the East were intent on retaining their freedom and self-governance, and

5733-474: The event, the USCIRF was able to meet the Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III and Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of Al-Azhar University , but others refused to meet the delegation. Hisham Kassem, chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights , felt that insisting on the rights of Christians in Egypt might antagonize Muslims and thus be counterproductive. The first-ever U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom , Robert Seiple , criticized

5824-511: The existing church (not a new one) for which the request to consecrate its patriarch was made by emissaries who gave the impression that the patriarchal see was vacant. Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa returned home in the same year and, unable to take possession of the traditional patriarchal seat near Alqosh , resided in Amid . Before being put to death at the instigation of the partisans of the Patriarch from whom he had broken away, he ordained two metropolitans and three other bishops, thus initiating

5915-403: The followers of the Eliya line . The "Shimun line" that in 1553 entered communion with Rome and broke it off in 1672, is now that of the church that in 1976 officially adopted the name " Assyrian Church of the East ", while a member of the "Eliya line" family is part of the series of patriarchs of the Chaldean Catholic Church. For many centuries, from at least the time of Jerome (c. 347 – 420),

6006-404: The latter was appointed metropolitan of Amid and administrator of the patriarchate, but not patriarch. Nonetheless, he became commonly known as Joseph V . He died in 1828. Yohannan's rival for the Alqosh title of patriarch had died in 1804, with his followers so reduced in number that they did not elect any successor for him, thus bringing the Alqosh or Eliya line to an end. Finally then, in 1830,

6097-445: The majority of society had been "cordial and supportive", and the Orissa Secular Front that, despite the 2002 and 2008 riots, India had a strong secular foundation . In the 2019 USCIRF report, the chairman Tenzin Dorjee disagreed with the commission's designation of India as a CPC citing having lived in India for 30 years as a religious refugee stating that "India is an open society with a robust democratic and judiciary system. India

6188-438: The membership of the Chaldean Catholic Church at this period was certainly closer to 70,000 than to Badger's 20,000. A statistical survey of the Chaldean Catholic Church made in 1896 by J. B. Chabot included, for the first time, details of several patriarchal vicariates established in the second half of the 19th century for the small Chaldean communities in Adana, Aleppo, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Edessa, Kermanshah and Teheran; for

6279-407: The mission stations established in the 1890s in several towns and villages in the Qudshanis patriarchate; and for the newly created Chaldean diocese of Urmi. According to Chabot, there were mission stations in the town of Serai d’Mahmideh in Taimar and in the Hakkari villages of Mar Behısho ʿ , Sat, Zarne and 'Salamakka' (Ragula d'Salabakkan). The last survey of the Chaldean Catholic Church before

6370-501: The monastery of Rabban Hormizd and the College of the Propaganda for the education of its bishops. Seventeen Chaldean bishops were consecrated between 1879 and 1913, of whom only one (Stephen Yohannan Qaynaya) was entirely educated in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd. Six bishops were educated at the College of the Propaganda (Joseph Gabriel Adamo, Toma Audo , Jeremy Timothy Maqdasi, Isaac Khudabakhash, Theodore Msayeh and Peter ʿ Aziz). The future patriarch Yousef VI Emmanuel II Thomas

6461-413: The murder of a Kurdish chieftain, and killed over 300 Chaldean Catholics, including Gabriel Dambo, the refounder of the monastery, and other monks. In 1846, the Ottoman Empire , which had previously classified as Nestorians those who called themselves Chaldeans, granted them recognition as a distinct millet . The most famous patriarch of the Chaldean Church in the 19th century was Joseph VI Audo who

6552-463: The patriarchate, opposition to which had caused the 1552 schism. In 1672, Shimun XIII Dinkha formally broke communion with Rome, adopting a profession of faith that contradicted that of Rome, while he maintained his independence from the Alqosh-based "Eliya line" of patriarchs. The "Shimun line" eventually became the patriarchal line of what since 1976 is officially called the Assyrian Church of

6643-551: The population of the Chaldean Catholic Church as 2,743 Chaldean families, or just under 20,000 persons. Badger's figures cannot be squared with the figure of just over 4,000 Chaldean families recorded by Fulgence de Sainte Marie in 1796 nor with slightly later figures provided by Paulin Martin in 1867. Badger is known to have classified as Nestorian a considerable number of villages in the ʿ Aqra district which were Chaldean at this period, and he also failed to include several important Chaldean villages in other dioceses. His estimate

6734-474: The position of Catholicos. A synod in 539 decided that neither of the two claimants, Elisha and Narsai , who had been elected by rival groups of bishops in 524, was legitimate. Similar conflicts occurred between Barsauma and Acacius of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and between Hnanisho I and Yohannan the Leper . The 1552 conflict was not merely between two individuals but extended to two rival lines of patriarchs, like

6825-544: The position of their candidate the bishops sent him to Rome to negotiate a new union". By tradition, a patriarch could be ordained only by someone of archiepiscopal (metropolitan) rank, a rank to which only members of that one family were promoted. So Sulaqa travelled to Rome, where, presented as the new patriarch elect, he entered communion with the Catholic Church and was ordained by Pope Julius III and recognized as patriarch. The title or description under which he

6916-515: The report: "I think the legislative history of this Act will probably reflect that there was a great deal of interest in protecting the rights of Christians ... So I think that the burden is probably on the US government to show that in this Act they're not engaging in crusading or proselytization on behalf of the Christian religion." In a 2009 study of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 ,

7007-517: The rights of groups that aspire to impose religious coercion on others in the name of religious freedom in the Central Asian states of Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . USCIRF has castigated these countries for excessive and restrictions on religious freedom and repression of non-traditional religious groups, despite them having a strict separation of church and state , refusing to make Islam

7098-754: The rule of the Sasanian Empire , which overthrew the Parthians in 224, the Church of the East continued to develop its distinctive identity by use of the Syriac language and Syriac script . One "Persian" bishop was at the First Council of Nicaea (325). There is no mention of Persian participation in the First Council of Constantinople (381), in which also the Western part of the Roman Empire

7189-584: The term "Chaldean" continued to apply to all associated with the Church of the East tradition, whether they were in communion with Rome or not. It indicated not race or nationality, but only language or religion. Throughout the 19th century, it continued to be used of East Syriac Christians, whether "Nestorian" or Catholic, and this usage continued into the 20th century. In 1852 George Percy Badger distinguished those whom he called Chaldeans from those whom he called Nestorians, but by religion alone, never by language, race or nationality. Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid of

7280-575: The term "Chaldean" was a misnomer that indicated the Biblical Aramaic language and was still the normal name in the nineteenth century. Jerome did know that Aramaic was in the Bible, where he designated the biblical Aramaic (or Old Aramaic ) by the term 'Chaldean.' Jerome implied that one reason the books of Tobit and Judith are undeserving of inclusion within the biblical canon is because they were written in Chaldean. Because he translated

7371-501: The term "Chaldean" was applied with explicit reference to their " Nestorian " religion. Thus Jacques de Vitry wrote of them in 1220/1 that "they denied that Mary was the Mother of God and claimed that Christ existed in two persons. They consecrated leavened bread and used the 'Chaldean' (Syriac) language". The decree of the Council of Florence was directed against use of "Chaldean" to signify "non-Catholic." Outside of Catholic Church usage,

7462-573: The world. On August 15, 1997, the two Patriarchs met again, in Roselle, Illinois , and ratified a “Joint Synodal Decree for Promoting Unity,” that had been signed by the members of both Holy Synods . It restated the areas of pastoral cooperation envisaged in the Joint Patriarchal Statement, recognized that Assyrians and Chaldean Catholics should come to accept each other’s diverse practices as legitimate, formally implemented

7553-622: Was elected Patriarch of Babylon , head of the Chaldean Catholic Church. His election was confirmed by Pope John Paul II in June of 1989. During his patriarchate, in agreement with the Chaldean Synod, he established The Pontifical Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in 1991. The Babel College is situated in Baghdad , Dora, El-Mekaniek, next to St. Peter Chaldean Seminary. The Babel College became an instrumental educational institution for

7644-592: Was founded in the Parthian Empire . The Acts of the Apostles mentions Parthians as among those to whom the apostles preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9). Thomas the Apostle , Thaddeus of Edessa , and Bartholomew the Apostle are reputed to be its founders. One of the modern Churches that boast descent from it says it is "the Church in Babylon" spoken of in 1 Peter 5:13 and that he visited it. Under

7735-470: Was killed on 3 June 2007 in Mosul alongside the subdeacons Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed, after he celebrated mass. Ganni has since been declared a Servant of God . Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho and three companions were abducted on 29 February 2008, in Mosul, and murdered a few days later. There are many Chaldeans in diaspora in the Western world , primarily in

7826-569: Was not involved. The Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon of 410, held in the Sasanian capital, recognized the city's bishop Isaac as Catholicos , with authority throughout the Church of the East. The persistent military conflicts between the Sasanians and the by then Christianized Roman Empire made the Persians suspect the Church of the East of sympathizing with the enemy. This in turn induced

7917-804: Was previously an ad hominem Archbishop (he will retain this rank as head of the eparchy) and the Archbishop of the Archdiocese (Archeparchy) of Ahvaz (since 1974). The new eparchy, or diocese, will be known as the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai . There are 38,000 Chaldean Catholics in Canada. Archbishop Zora was born in Batnaya , Iraq , on March 15, 1939. He was ordained in 1962 and worked in Iraqi parishes before being transferred to Iran in 1969. The 2006 Australian census counted

8008-529: Was rather more effectively served by its clergy. Only about a dozen Chaldean villages, mainly in the Seert and ʿ Aqra districts, did not have their own priests in 1913. Tfinkdji's statistics also highlight the effect on the Chaldean Catholic Church of the educational reforms of the patriarch Joseph VI Audo . The Chaldean Catholic Church on the eve of the First World War was becoming less dependent on

8099-537: Was recognized as patriarch is given variously as "Patriarch of Mosul in Eastern Syria"; "Patriarch of the Church of the Chaldeans of Mosul"; "Patriarch of the Chaldeans"; "Patriarch of Mosul"; or "Patriarch of the Eastern Assyrians", this last being the version given by Pietro Strozzi on the second-last unnumbered page before page 1 of his De Dogmatibus Chaldaeorum , of which an English translation

8190-483: Was the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1989–2003. He was also a Syriac scholar. He was born on April 17, 1922, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul into an ethnic Chaldean family, and took his school and seminar training in Mosul. He was ordained a priest on October 22, 1944 in Rome and in 1946 he obtained the academic degrees of doctor of philosophy and theology . Between 1948 and 1956, he worked as

8281-680: Was trained in the seminary of Ghazir near Beirut . Of the other nine bishops, two ( Addai Sher and Francis David) were trained in the Syro-Chaldean seminary in Mosul, and seven (Philip Ya ʿ qob Abraham, Ya ʿ qob Yohannan Sahhar, Eliya Joseph Khayyat, Shlemun Sabbagh, Ya ʿ qob Awgin Manna, Hormizd Stephen Jibri and Israel Audo  [ Wikidata ] ) in the patriarchal seminary in Mosul. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom ( USCIRF )

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