The Chaldean Catholic Church aka the Chaldean Church of Babylon is an Eastern Rite sui juris (autonomous) particular church of the Roman Catholic Church, maintaining full communion with the Pope in Rome.

It descends from the Church of the East. In the 15th century the Assyrian church decreed that the title of Patriarch could pass only to relatives of then-patriarch Mar Simon IV. Dissent over this grew until in 1552, a group of bishops refused to accept the hereditary succession of an untrained boy to the Patriarchy.

They elected Mar John VIII Sulaqa, the superior of an abbey, as a rival Patriarch. Sulaqa travelled to Rome and met with the Pope, eventually entering into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Assyrian Church now had two rival leaders, a hereditary patriarch in Alqosh (in modern-day northern Iraq), and a Papal-appointed patriarch in Diyarbakir (in modern-day eastern Turkey). This situation lasted until 1662 when the Patriarch in Diyarbakir, Mar Simon XIII Dinkha, broke communion with Rome, and moved his seat to the village of Qochanis in the Turkish mountains. The Vatican responded by appointing a new patriarch to Diyarbakir to govern the Assyrians who stayed loyal to the Holy See. This group became known as the Chaldean Catholic Church.

The communion with Rome was not final until 1830, when Pius VIII confirmed John Hormizdas as head of Chaldean Catholics, carrying the title "Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans."

The church's relations with the Assyrian Church of the East have improved in recent years. A meeting in 1996 between H.H Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church and Mar Raphael I Bidawad of the Chaldean Catholic Church began an effort to bring the two churches into eventual communion.

The current Patriarch is Emmanuel III Delly, elected in 2003 on the death of Mar Bidawid.

There has been a large emigration to the United States particularly to the state of Michigan. The church's most famous member was Saddam Hussein's most senior foreign minister, Tariq Aziz.

External links

• Chaldean Catholic Church - from the website of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.
• Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Saint Peter
• Catholic Churches

Chaldeans | Eastern Rite Catholicism

Chaldäisch-Katholische Kirche | Ĥaldeaj katolikoj | Église catholique chaldéenne | Chaldeeuws-katholieke Kerk | Kościół chaldejski | Халдейская католическая церковь | Kaldeisk-katolska kyrkan