Chaldean Catholic Church
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church (sui iuris) in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language, it is part of Syriac Christianity. Headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq, since 1950, it is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. In 2010, it had a membership of 490,371, of whom 310,235 (63.27%) lived in the Middle East (mainly in Iraq).
Chaldean Catholic Church | |
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| Classical Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܟܠܕܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ | |
| Classification | Eastern Catholic |
| Orientation | Syriac Christianity (Eastern) |
| Scripture | Peshitta |
| Theology | Catholic theology |
| Governance | Holy Synod of the Chaldean Church |
| Pope | Francis |
| Patriarch | Louis Raphaël I Sako |
| Region | Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon with diaspora |
| Language | Liturgical: Syriac |
| Liturgy | East Syriac Rite |
| Headquarters | Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq |
| Founder | Traces ultimate origins to Thomas the Apostle and the Apostolic Era through Addai and Mari, Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa |
| Origin | 1552 |
| Separated from | Church of the East |
| Separations | Syro-Malabar Church (1599), Assyrian Church of the East (1830), Chaldean Syrian Church (1907) |
| Members | 616,639 (2018) |
| Other name(s) | Chaldean Patriarchate |
| Official website | chaldeanpatriarchate |
| Part of a series on |
| Particular churches sui iuris of the Catholic Church |
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| Particular churches are grouped by liturgical rite |
| Alexandrian Rite |
| Armenian Rite |
| Byzantine Rite |
| East Syriac Rite |
| Latin liturgical rites |
| West Syriac Rite |
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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 the European Union Agency for Asylum gives the same information as the United States Department of State.