On Wednesday, June 5 the Synod of the Chaldean Church convened by the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans Louis Raphael I Sako began in Baghdad. The beginning of the assembly was also attended by Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, Apostolic Nuncio to Jordan and Iraq. With the arrival of the bishop of Aleppo Antoine Audo, all the Chaldean Bishops - except Sarhad Jammo, Bishop of St. Peter the Apostle in San Diego of the Chaldeans – are gathered in the center of the Iraqi capital.
The agenda of the synodal assembly is more than challenging. Several points on the agenda: the appointment of bishops in several Chaldean bishoprics left vacant; the formation of priests; the final draft of a “law” of the Chaldean Church; updating and harmonization of the liturgical rites celebrated unevenly in the various dioceses; the study of concrete measures to curb the phenomenon of migration and encourage Christians to remain in their homeland or to make return.
In a statement issued by the Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans, the bishops called upon all "the sons and daughters of the Chaldean Church" to invoke the success of the Synodal Assembly. The Almighty Father is invoked in order to be helped "to love our Chaldean Church as it is, in all its varieties and differences, in its greatness as its weakness." In front of the "storms" that "blow against the boat in which we find ourselves". .