ASIA/IRAQ – Assyrian Patriarch Mar Awa III takes part in the closing lunch of the spiritual exercises of the Chaldean clergy
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Ankawa (Agenzia Fides) – Exactly one year after his election as Patriarch, Mar Awa III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, was the guest of honor at the lunch organized after the spiritual exercises at which participated, from September 5 to 8, by more than eighty bishops and priests of the Chaldean Church. The spiritual exercises and the closing lunch took place in Ankawa, a predominantly Christian suburb of Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, extended the invitation to Mar Awa,” Chaldean Patriarchate media reported. He welcomed the Assyrian Patriarch and the accompanying delegation, expressing his hope to see the bonds of communion between the two Churches strengthened, for the good of Christians and of all the Iraqi people.
Mar Awa, born David Royel, was elected as the 122nd Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East on September 8, 2021, succeeding Patriarch Mar Gewargis III Sliwa. As Agenzia Fides has already reported (see Fides, 10/22/2021), Mar Awa comes from the United States and studied at Catholic academies, including the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.
The Assyrian Church of the East has never had direct dogmatic conflicts with the Bishop of Rome. Official theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East began in 1984 and resulted in the Common Christological Statement of 1994, which confessed the common faith in Christ of Catholics and Assyrians. Today, this fraternal theological dialogue continues on the theme of the sacraments and the sacramental nature of the Church. Already since 2001, the Assyrian Church of the East has authorized experiences of Eucharistic hospitality with the Chaldean Church, in pastoral situations that require it….
The theology and spirituality of the Assyrian Church and the Chaldean Church strongly emphasize the human nature of Christ.
In September 2013, Louis Raphaël Sako, who became Patriarch of the Chaldean Church a few months ago, sent an official invitation to the Assyrian Patriarch at the time, Mar Dinkha IV, to begin together a path of dialogue to restore full communion between the Chaldean Christian community – united with the Bishop of Rome – and the Assyrian community, which share the same liturgical, theological and spiritual heritage.
Jordanian priest Hanna Kildani, former vicar for Israel of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, preached the spiritual exercises for the Chaldean clergy.
(GV) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2022).
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