Shafaq News / Christians in the district of Ankawa in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, called on Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid on Thursday to reconsider the presidential decree he issued regarding Patriarch and Cardinal Mar Louis Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and the world.
Dozens of Christians gathered in front of the Mar Youssef Cathedral for Chaldean Catholics in Ankawa, which houses the largest Christian community not only in Iraq but in the entire Middle East.
The protesters organized a protest rally, which they described in a statement as representing the Christian people, including Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syriacs, Armenians, as well as the heads and members of civil society organizations and all segments of the Christian community in Ankawa.
In their statement addressed to the Iraqi president, the protesters said, "Through our protest, we express our outrage and condemnation of the step you have taken, which amounts to an insult and humiliation to one of our religious symbols, namely our esteemed father, Patriarch and Cardinal Mar Louis Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and the world. This was done through your issuance of Presidential Decree No. 31 for the year 2023, which annulled another presidential decree issued ten years ago."
The statement also mentioned that such an insult to the head of the largest church in Iraq is a serious and painful precedent that has never happened before in Iraq. It will have negative consequences that will not bode well for our entire Christian presence, whether in Iraq or in the entire region. This precedent is a blow to the core, directed at a peaceful component by those who are supposed to be protectors of Iraqis, all of us.
The statement continued to address Rashid, saying, "Regarding the statement you made about the request of a group of esteemed gentlemen, the heads of other churches, to issue similar decrees to Decree 147 of 2013, we say that this is their legitimate right, and there is no objection to it, and we support it. The decrees could have been issued without any problem. However, anyone who opposes this has ill intentions towards the head of the church and the Chaldean people, and this is something we reject in its entirety."
The statement emphasized that the issuance of republican decrees appointing the heads of patriarchs and bishops and the endowment of their churches, following their appointment by the Vatican, has been a practice endorsed by all Iraqi governments preceding your era, as well as during the monarchical and republican eras, and even during the era of the Ottoman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. It has become a custom that gains legal validity, and custom in the constitutional concept is stronger than constitutional text. Great powers such as Britain do not have a constitution; they operate based on customs that are stronger than the constitution.
The statement mentioned, "Today, as Christians, we sadly feel that we are targeted in the continuity of our existence in our beloved Iraq. We find ourselves facing a malicious conspiracy being plotted by hands and minds harboring evil intentions towards us, working hard to uproot our roots deeply entrenched in this blessed land and pushing us towards the more difficult choice, emigration. This is something we did not expect to happen under your era at all, and history will record it against you if you insist on this wrong approach. Why, then, such a humiliating and unconstitutional procedure?"
The statement called on the Iraqi president, as the protector of the constitution and the protector of Iraq's components, to immediately cancel the infamous Decree 31 of 2023 and restore the authority of our Chaldean Church to His Beatitude Cardinal Louis Sako.