“Of course, this affects us psychologically,” said Sura Salem, a Christian social activist in Baghdad. “You feel like you are in a family without a father.”
Christians held a small protest in Baghdad over Sako’s departure, but Salem said “listening to the voice of Christians is the last thing that matters” to the Iraqi rulers.
Sako says there is a campaign against him orchestrated by Rayan al Kildani, another Chaldean Christian who formed a militia called the Babylon Brigades, which fought Islamic State and still patrols much of the Nineveh plains.
The group is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, a group made up mainly of Iranian-backed Shiite militias. Its associated political party, the Babylon Movement, won four of five seats allotted to Christians in Iraq’s 2021 parliamentary elections.
Sako believes that Al Kildani is seeking to seize Christian property and foundations. Al Kildani says the same regarding Sako.
“I have faced this militia and others who wanted to keep what rightfully belongs to Christians,” Sako told The Associated Press days after arriving in Irbil, where he was warmly welcomed by Kurdish authorities. “Of course, no one defends Christians except the Church.”
In Baghdad’s posh Mansour neighborhood, Al Kildani was busy forging political alliances.
On a recent afternoon, several sofas in his palatial foyer were occupied by elegantly dressed women wearing veils. On the wall was a painting of the Last Supper and a portrait of Al Kildani.
One by one, the women entered the office, each coming out with a bag containing a gift. One of the visitors explained that they were political candidates interested in being included in Al Kildani’s list in Mosul for the December provincial elections.
After the visitors had left, a smiling and courteous Al Kildani appeared.
He insisted that he had nothing to do with the withdrawal of the decree on the patriarch, and rejected claims that he was trying to seize Church land.
“I am a son of this Church, and it is my duty to respect it, but it is unfortunate when a cleric accuses someone without presenting evidence,” he said.
Al Kildani has accused Sako of selling Church property, allegations the patriarch rejects, and has filed a lawsuit against Sako accusing him of defamation. But Al Kildani said that he is ready to meet with Sako in order to reconcile.
Sako rejected that suggestion. Al Kildani “has a militia, and his loyalty is not with the Church,” the patriarch said. “He is not a respectable person.”
The Iraqi president has downplayed his revocation of Sako’s recognition as a simple matter of internal management, arguing that it did not diminish the patriarch’s legal or religious status.
The Vatican has been largely silent. Its embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that the Iraqi constitution guarantees that church heads can manage church properties.
A senior Holy See official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he lacks authorization to comment to the media, said the decree was unnecessary given constitutional guarantees. He said the Vatican did not want to get involved in the dispute, but had invited Sako to defuse tensions with the Iraqi authorities for the sake of the country’s Christians.
The United States endorsed Sako. Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said last month that Washington is concerned that Sako’s position “is under attack” by a militant leader who was sanctioned by the US government in 2019 for his alleged involvement in violations. to human rights, including cutting off a prisoner’s ear.
Al Kildani denied the allegations, accusing the international community of ingratitude after the role his group played in fighting IS.
He accused the Kurdistan Democratic Party — which rules the Kurdish region and is a rival to the Kurdistan Patriotic Union Party, to which Iraq’s president belongs — and the United States of orchestrating Sako’s withdrawal from Baghdad for political reasons.
For some Christians, that fight is overshadowed by more pressing issues.
Leaving an unattended Sunday mass, Baghdad resident Anan al-Dawi’s main concern was a recent blackout in sweltering summer heat. Regarding the dispute between Sako and Al Kildani, she was cautious in her statements.
Although Sako is physically absent, he noted, “he lives in all of our hearts.” As for Al Kildani’s group, she said: “I serve the country in my own way. You serve them according to yours, and they are also serving the country.”
Back on the Nineveh plains, in the town of Batnaya, patrolled by members of the Al Kildani militia, Lawrence Sabah owns a small factory manufacturing mop handles from wood imported from Russia. Sabah did not share his views on Sako or Al Kildani, but she had other complaints.
“There are no services, even the water does not arrive at times, and 70 or 80% of the houses were destroyed,” he declared. He is hopeful of reaching out to his parents and siblings, who immigrated to California.
About 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the north, in Kurdish-controlled territory, Raad Ekram owns an electrical goods store in the sparsely populated town of Telskof.
When his family was displaced from that town to the city of Dohuk, Ekram believes it received little attention from the Iraqi government and the Church.
“We never saw the patriarch,” he said. “Of course, I don’t accept what happened to him… and I don’t accept that they harm him.” But the patriarch “did not do all that he should have done for us.”
He is encouraging his children to seek their luck abroad.
“In Iraq there is nothing left,” he said, “especially for Christians.”
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Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press’s religious coverage is supported through the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
