Pope acknowledges new head of Chaldean Catholic Church

February 04, 2013 - Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged the election of Iraqi Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk as the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church. After four full days of prayer and discussion in Rome, the synod of 15 Chaldean Catholic bishops elected 64-year old Archbishop Sako late Thursday as the successor to 85-year-old Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, who retired on December 19. “In extending my heartiest felicitations, I pray the Lord so that he may fill you with every grace and blessing,” Pope Benedict wrote to the new head in a message. “May your ministry bring comfort not only to the Chaldean faithful in their motherland and in the diaspora, but also within the entire Catholic community and to Christians who live in the land of Abraham, and encourage reconciliation , mutual acceptance and peace for the Iraqi people,” the Pope wrote. Eastern-rite Churches in communion with the Catholic Church, elect their own heads and bishops, which the Pope later approves. Archbishop Sako who assumes the name Louis Raphael I Sako as head of the Iraq-based Chaldean Catholic Church, was ordained a priest in 1974, earned two doctorates in Rome and Paris in the 1980s and then returned to Iraq. He has written books on church fathers. He speaks Arabic, Chaldean, French, English and Italian.