Chaldean Patriarch Sako Criticizes Vatican’s Eastern Churches Dicastery for Lack of Respect and Understanding

Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, has been in a dispute with five Chaldean bishops in Iraq, according to a report published by fsspx.news on September 7, 2024. The report said that on that date Cardinal Sako declared he had transmitted the judicial action he had initiated against the five bishops to the higher canonical authority. The five include the bishop of Erbil. The Chaldean Church has 600,000 followers worldwide, the report said.

The report traced the dispute to Cardinal Sako’s exile. He went into exile in Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2023 to denounce what he described as the State’s attempt to plunder ecclesiastical property. Since returning to Baghdad the previous April, he had asked the prelates to denounce the State’s decision not to recognize his right to manage Church property, according to the same report.

On August 28, 2024, the Patriarch published a press release accusing the five bishops of seriously violating ecclesial unity. He gave them until September 5 to perform an act of submission and reparation. The report said Monsignor Bashar Warda had so far refused to carry out that petition. The fsspx.news report also said Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid was accused of favoring Iranian influence through the Babylonian Brigades militia. These are accusations as reported by fsspx.news; the report does not present them as established findings.

More than a year later, Cardinal Sako’s criticism turned to the Holy See. In an interview with The Tablet online, published on November 5, 2025, he said some officials in the Roman Curia must learn to work with the local Churches, not above them. He criticized the Dicastery for Eastern Churches for not treating Eastern patriarchs with the respect they deserve, and said correspondence from the Vatican bureaucracy often went unanswered for months.

Cardinal Sako also said Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, has only bookish and academic knowledge of Eastern Christianity. He said he believes Pope Leo XIV better understands the situation of Eastern Catholics. According to the interview as reported, Chaldean Catholics make up 80% of the approximately 200,000 Christians remaining in Iraq.

The two reports describe different stages of the Patriarch’s relations with church leaders, one focused on disputes inside Iraq and the other on his relationship with Vatican offices. The fsspx.news account framed the matter as a question of Church unity and property, while The Tablet interview centered on how the Curia treats the Eastern Churches. Neither source, as supplied, states how either matter was resolved.