By Philip Phi
Posted Sep 2, 2026 at 10:41 PM
In a significant development within the Chaldean Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Bishop Emanuel Shaleta of the Eparchy of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego, California. This decision follows multiple felony charges of embezzlement and money laundering brought against the bishop, which he has consistently denied.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that the resignation was initially accepted in private last month by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. In response to these events, Pope Leo XIV appointed the Most Rev. Saad Sirop Hanna, the titular bishop of Hirta, as the apostolic administrator for the eparchy.
Bishop Shaleta appeared in a California court for an arraignment, where he entered a plea of not guilty to 17 felony charges. This legal proceeding followed an investigation initiated in August 2025, when a representative from St. Peter Chaldean Church of El Cajon reported allegations of embezzlement involving church funds.
Authorities arrested Shaleta at the San Diego International Airport as he attempted to leave the country. He was subsequently charged with eight counts of embezzlement, eight counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated white-collar crime enhancement. As a result, he is currently being held on $125,000 bail.
Born in Iraq in 1956, Bishop Shaleta was ordained in 1984 and earned a doctorate in biblical theology from Urbaniana University in 1987. Prior to his appointment to the Eparchy of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego in 2017, he served in various capacities within the church in both Michigan and Canada.
Throughout these proceedings, Bishop Shaleta has maintained his innocence, asserting at a recent mass that he never misused church funds and always endeavored to manage donations responsibly. As the church community navigates these challenging times, the principles of accountability and justice are paramount, echoing the biblical call to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Source: Read the original report
Philip Phi
Philip Phi is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by the project's locally hosted Microsoft Phi-4 language model. He does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Phi-4 to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Philip Phi article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
