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‘To Live within Islam’: The Chaldean Catholic Church in modern Iraq, 1958–2003

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Kristian Girling
Kristian Girling*
Affiliation:
Heythrop College, London
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Extract

Since June 2014 the Chaldean Catholic Church has faced an existential crisis. The recent attacks of the terrorist forces of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the northern Iraqi provinces of Duhok, Erbil, Mosul and Sulaymaniya have resulted in increasing levels of persecution and forced displacement. This essay reflects on a more secure period in Chaldean history, during which the community made a strong contribution to the development of the modern state of Iraq, established in 1921. Although proportionally small in size, the essay will show that the Chaldean community contributed in ways which far outweighed their numbers, especially in the sphere of inter-communal relations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 51: Christianity and Religious Plurality , 2015 , pp. 366 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2015

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References

1 Antoine Audo SJ, statement at the Asian Synod of Catholic Bishops, February 2003, quoted in O'Mahony, Anthony, ‘The Chaldean Catholic Church:The Politics of Church-State Relations in Modern Iraq’, Heythrop Journal 45 (2004), 435–50, at 447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For recent consideration of Christianity in Iraq, see Wilmshurst, David, The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East (Sawbridgeworth, 2011)Google Scholar; Rassam, Suha, Christianity in Iraq: Its Origins and Development to the Present Day, new edn (Leominster, 2010)Google Scholar; O'Mahony, Anthony, ‘Patriarchs and Politics:The Chaldean Catholic Church in Modern Iraq’, in idem, ed., Christianity in the Middle East: Studies in Modern History, Theology and Politics (Sawbridgeworth, 2008), 105–42Google Scholar; Teule, Herman, ‘Christianity in Iraq: The Development of Secular Christian Political Thinking’, One in Christ 45 (2011), 312–20Google Scholar.

3 Disputes had arisen over the most appropriate explanation of the relationship between the human and divine natures of Christ. The Christian community in Mesopotamia was influenced by the theological views of the Antiochene School and especially those of Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople (428–31), Diodore of Tarsus (d. c.392) and Theodore of Mopsuestia (350–428), which the Council of Ephesus condemned as a heretical, dyophysite Christology denying the title of Mother of God to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Whether or not Nestorius was heretical or indeed professed the beliefs ascribed to him came under scrutiny during the twentieth century. Dyophysitism is far from an alien concept, being a cornerstone of the Christology of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches: that Christ exists with two natures, human and divine, in one person. What came to be of concern was as to the arguments of Nestorius and others regarding the moment of hypostatic union in Christ and as to whether he could be regarded as in effect taking on his divinity at some point subsequent to his birth. See, for instance, Birnie, M.J., ‘The Church of the East and Theodore of Mopsuestia: The Commitment to his Writings and its Implications for Dialogue’, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 10/1 (1996), 14–19 Google Scholar, at 14–15; Chapman, John, ‘Nestorius and Nestorianism’, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 15 vols (New York, NY, 1911), 10: 755–9Google Scholar; Anastos, Milton V., ‘Nestorius Was Orthodox’, DOP 16 (1962), 117–40Google Scholar; Brock, Sebastian P., ‘The “Nestorian” Church: A Lamentable Misnomer’, BJRL 78 (1996), 23–35 Google Scholar.

4 Labourt, Jerome, ‘Note sur les schismes de l'Église nestorienne du XVIc au XIXc siècle’, Journal Asiatique II (1908), 227–35Google Scholar, at 231. The first return of a bishop of the Church of the East to a Chalcedonian confession of faith was towards the end of the seventh century when a bishop, Sahdona, entered into communion with the Church at Antioch: Labourt, Jerome, ‘Chaldean Christians’, Catholic Encyclopedia, 3: 559–61Google Scholar, at 559. Metropolitan Elias of Cyprus entered into union with the Holy See in 1340, but the term Chaldean was not used to describe him: Wilmshurst, David, Tlie Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East 1318–1913, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 582 (Louvain, 2000), 22, 63Google Scholar.

5 To date, the only major study of Audo's life and his work in the sphere of Chaldean ecclesiology, which was vital to the formation of modern Chaldean identity, is Joseph Habbi's unpublished PhD thesis, ‘Mar Joseph Audo et le pouvoir patriarcal. Etude historico-juridique’ (Lateran University, 1966).

6 Amir Harrak, ‘Seminary of St John (Mosul)’, in Brock, Sebastian et al, eds, Gorgias Encylopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Piscataway, NJ, 2011), 612 Google Scholar; Coakley, J. F., ‘The Vincentian Mission Press in Urmia, Persia: A preliminary Bibliography’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 79 (2013), 209–26Google Scholar, at 212.

7 The northern provinces of Iraq contained perhaps one of the most diverse collections of ethnic and religious groups anywhere in the country, with significant populations of Sunni Arabs, Sunni and Shia Kurds, Shabaks, Zoroastrians, Sunni Turkmen andYazidis, along with members of the Church of the East and of the Syrian Catholic and Syrian Orthodox Churches.

8 During the twentieth century the Chaldean Church was led by patriarchs Emmanuel II Thomas (1900–47), Joseph VII Ghanima (1947–58), Paul II Cheikho (1958–89) and Raphael I Bidawid (1989–2003).

9 The Syrian Orthodox Church maintains a pre-Chalcedonian confession of faith, shared with the Copts, Armenians and Ethiopians. The Syrian Catholics are the descendants of that group of Syrian Orthodox faithful who entered into union with the Holy See in the 1780s. For a discussion of their origins and relationship with the Syrian Orthodox, see, for example, O'Mahony, Anthony, ‘The Syrian Catholic Church: A Study in History and Ecclesiology’, Sobornost 28/2 (2006), 28–50 Google Scholar.

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14 The Iraqi kings were Feisel I (1921–33), Ghazi (1933–9) and Feisel II (1939–58).

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22 A fact which is increasingly recognized among government elites internationally: Laura Gotti Tedeschi, ‘Vatican Is an “Enormous Soft Power”, Says MP after Visit’, Catholic Herald, 25 October 2013, online at: <http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/ news/2013 /10/25/vatican-is-an-enormous-soft-power-says-mp-after-parliamentaryvisit/>, accessed 15 November 2013.

23 Clyde Haberman, ‘Pope, in Christmas Message, Warns on a GulfWar’, NewYork Times, 26 December 1990, online at: <http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/26/world/ pope-in-christmas-message-warns-on-a-gulf-war.html>, accessed 28 November 2013.

24 Despite Aziz's prominent position within the government there is, as yet, no comprehensive study of his life. Closest to a biography is the extended interview conducted by Bouvet, Béatrice and Denaud, Patrick, Torek Aziz: le diplomatc de Saddam Hussein, Des hommes et des conflits (Paris, 2000).Google Scholar However, this contains only a few comments on his religious background and no discussion of how this affected his political views or government policy. Currently Aziz remains in prison in Baghdad.

25 As indicated above, for Chaldeans resident in rural northern Iraq, the situation was complicated by the effects of war between the Kurds and the Iraqi armed forces.

26 By the end of the war 200, 000 Iraqis had been killed, 400, 000 wounded and 70, 000 taken prisoner: Karsh, Efraim, The Iran-Iraq War 1980–1988, Essential Histories 20 (Oxford, 2002), 89 Google Scholar.

27 Alnasrawi, Abbas, ‘Iraq: Economic Sanctions and Consequences, 1990—2000’, Third World Quarterly 22 (2001), 205–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 210, 214.

28 Antoine Audo SJ, ‘Eastern Christian Identity: A Catholic Perspective’, in O'Mahony, Anthony and Flannery, John, eds, The Catholic Church in the Contemporary Middle East: Studies for the Synod for the Middle East (London, 2010), 19–35 Google Scholar, a t 31.

29 Ibid. 29.

30 See, for example, the account of conversion from Islam by the Fadelle, Iraqi Joseph, The Price to Pay: A Muslim risks all to follow Christ (San Francisco, CA, 2012)Google Scholar.

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32 Paul VI, ‘Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions - Nostra Aetate’ (1965), §3, online at: <http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_ councils/ii_vatican-council/documents/vat-ii-decl-i96521028-nostra-aetate_en.html>, accessed 15 July 2013.

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34 This period also witnessed direct interaction between the Chaldeans and the Church of the East, with the intention of reconciling Christological beliefs and presenting a more unified Christian witness. Since the mid-1990s this has borne considerable fruit. Encouraged by the Holy See, which had instigated discussions with the Church of the East, these discussions culminated in a joint Christological statement in 1994. Subsequent discussions produced remarkable documents encouraging pastoral cooperation and offering eucharistic hospitality to members of the Church of the East at the Chaldean liturgy: see Kristian Girling, ‘Engaging “the Martyred Church” - The Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East and the Holy See in Ecumenical Dialogue 1994–2012 and the Influence of the SecondVatican Council’, in Grey, Mary et al., eds, Living Stones Yearbook 2012 (London, 2012), 38–64 Google Scholar.

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37 Within the growing Iraqi diaspora of Muslims and Christians, such activities have continued in those places where both communities live. The ties which hold them together outside Iraq impact upon the future of reconciliation inside the country: see, for example, Jajou, Habib, ‘Christian Muslim Relations [text of a speech given by the Chaldean Catholic Chaplain in Britain at the Al-Khoei Benevolent Islamic Foundation, London, 3 November 2008]’, Mesopotamia: Eastern Christians Newspaper 2/13 (December 2008), 5 Google Scholar.