On Saturday, the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and the world announced that its Cardinal received a phone call from a lawyer for former US President Donald Trump. The church stated, "On Friday, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako received a call from Alina Habba, Trump's attorney and campaign advisor, who is of Chaldean Iraqi descent.
Father Amar Agag, a 38-year-old married man and father of three, was ordained as a priest in the Chaldean Catholic Church in France. While this tradition is common in the church's countries of origin in the Middle East, the ordination of married men among Eastern Catholic communities in the diaspora was authorized by Rome only in 2014.
Hannibal Youssef spoke through his music when he lived in Tehran -- where whispers of Iran's ancient history can still be heard among all the modern noise. Youssef, an Assyrian musician and orchestra performer from Iran, founded the Massy Ensemble and has produced concerts ranging from folk, fusion to church music.
The Feast of the Cross has brought Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac Christians together from different churches throughout Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Hundreds of Christians flocked to Saint John the Baptist Assyrian Church of the East in the predominantly-Christian district of Ainkawa in Erbil to celebrate one of the most important commemorations in Christian liturgical calendar.
The Patriarch of Baghdad has forwarded his canonical complaint against several Chaldean bishops to "the higher ecclesiastical court," according to a statement on September 7. The statement did not specify to which higher canonical authority he had forwarded his threatened canonical action against five Chaldean bishops, including the Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda.
Multilingual education has been launched across Kurdish-led northeastern Syria, where 900,000 children are now learning in their native languages, including Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Turkish. The initiative aims to foster an "ethical and political society", according to Samîra Hac Elî, co-chair of the region's Education and Teaching Committee.
Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako directed the five bishops last week to apologize to him for acts of perceived disunity in the Eastern Catholic Church, setting a deadline of Sept. 5. But according to sources close to the dispute, the five bishops have no plans to apologize, and Sako could soon move to suspend them -- with or without Vatican support.
Assyrians from every corner of Iran came together in large numbers in the village of Ordushahi on August 27. The village pulses with life, filled with the shared spirit and deep-rooted traditions that draw the community back to their sacred celebration.
The following is a video report from TRT World. ...
Hundreds of Syriac Orthodox Christians gathered at Mor Gabriel Monastery in Tur Abdin in Mardin (Mêrdîn), southeast Turkey on Saturday to honour Saint Mor Gabriel, a revered figure known for his miracles and healing powers.
In the ruins of the former capital of ISIS in Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021, a man in white stands in silent meditation. Seven years earlier, in this same city of Mosul, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had proclaimed the return of the caliphate, unleashing a furious new era of hatred and violence stretching far beyond the Middle East.
The Syriac Cultural Association organized the 4th Merdoso Festival in the Hesekê Serdem Hall in cooperation with the Autonomous Administration Cultural Council. Syriac groups, representatives of the Democratic Autonomous Administration, Syriac Women's Union, Syriac Unity Party, and the Syriac Military Council, political parties, and Kurdish and Arab opinion leaders attended the festival.
(AINA) -- Join Ashur and Ninwe on a heartfelt journey through the pages of Bravery Beyond Borders: The Journey of the Assyrian People. This inspirational tale, written especially for children (ages 5-12), follows the resilience of the Assyrian community, blending history, courage, and strong family bonds.
Phoenix (AINA) -- The Arizona Department of Education has officially approved the inclusion of the Assyrian Genocide in the state's social studies curriculum1, marking a significant step towards broader historical education in Arizona schools.
(AINA) -- On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf (وقف), the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI.
(AINA) -- In early December, Patriarch Awa spoke on the possible reunification of the Assyrian and Chaldean Churches, expressing opposition to any form of "uniatism" in the process. Patriarch Sako responded first on December 31 and then more fully on February 28.
(AINA) -- On February 21, the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq ruled on a set of cases pertaining to the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) electoral law. The Court declared that the 11 parliamentary reserved seats for minorities were unconstitutional. So too was the KRG's single electoral district model.
During the years of World War I 75% (750,000) of the Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire was systematically murdered. That genocide of Assyrians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 is a fact, but it has largely been forgotten by the world.
Assyria Township, Michigan -- The Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, or SWMLC, and Barry County Parks have announced a new park in Barry County. Bailey Nature Preserve, formerly known as Metcalf Lake, is a 160-acre property in Assyria Township, just seven miles north of Battle Creek.
For many years the hills were alive with the sounds of music, mostly coming through Charlene's Santorini Mediterranean-style villa's windows in Los Altos Hills... But recently she moved with her baby grand to a beautiful condo in Menlo Park, with large panoramic windows as the sounds of her playing the piano continue to please her new neighbors.