The following comes from an Oct. 23 story aired on KPBS (San Diego).
….Just 14 priests serve the tens of thousands of Chaldean Catholics who have emigrated from Iraq to the Western United States. A church leader in Iraq has suspended seven of those priests, including the Rev. Noel Gorgis in El Cajon.
Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, the head of the church, wants the Iraqi-American priests who fled violence in Iraq to return home or leave the church.
San Diego County Chaldeans oppose that and say they will appeal to the Vatican to stop it.
A memo issued last month by Sako lists 10 priests who fled violence in Iraq and started churches in their new homes. The memo said they were to return to Iraq by Oct. 22, 2014, or face suspension. The reason: the church never officially approved their moves, which were mostly to escape the Gulf War in the 1990s.
The regional Chaldean Catholic diocese in San Diego has sent several appeals to Sako but learned Wednesday that Father Noel, as he is called in the community, and several other priests in California must cease ministry work as they await a response from Pope Francis.
Mark Arabo is a spokesman for the Chaldean community and says parishioners are dumbfounded by Sako actions. In recent months, ISIS militants have displaced thousands of Catholics and other religious minorities in a bloody offensive across Iraq and Syria.
“These 10 priests are not sacrificial lambs. We’re not going to let them be sent back like cattle to a slaughter,” Arabo said. “Because in Iraq right now, they’re slaughtering priests, they’re slaughtering people, they’re bombing churches.”
San Diego County Chaldeans are invited to an emergency mass Wednesday evening at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon. In accordance with Canon Law, Gorgis will have to hand the service off to two other priests at the church.
Arabo said the suspension will force the church to cut some services and could affect prayer groups, confession and baptisms.
Chaldean churches in Orange and Riverside counties and the Central Valley are also affected by Sako’s decree.
Arabo speculated that Sako recalling the priests shows the “growing disconnect between himself and our people.”
About 80,000 Iraqi immigrants, many of them Chaldeans, live in eastern San Diego County. About 250,000 live in the United States.
To read the original story, click here.
I grew up in east El Cajon and still visit there often. Most of the liquor stores and “smoke shops” (aka cannabis promoting stores) are owned by Chaldeans. Sadly, nearly all of them sell the most vile pornographic magazines. The proprietors behind the counters will often be wearing crucifixes and there will be Catholic images behind the counter. Latex contraceptives are sold at these stores as well. I confronted one owner on this matter, and even asked him if he was a member of the local Chaldean Catholic church. I told him that his soul was in grave danger for promoting such scandal. He told me that if I didn’t like it, then don’t buy it and to get out of his store. I have never heard this addressed at any of the Chaldean Catholic churches. I believe that if the Chaldean Catholics launched a vigorous battle at ending this scandalous behavior, we would see miracles in ending the violence in Iraq. Of course, the first step in making this a reality involves a lot of prayer, penance, fasting, and frequent practice of the sacraments on my part.
All Catholic Parishes throughout the entire world – should be actively encouraging Catholics to read a Catholic Bible and the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”.
Since most don’t, it is no surprise that many people do not accurately know their Faith and have malformed consciences.
As others have said, purchase a Bible and the CCC as Christmas gifts for others.
No Catholic home should be without them.
Help save a Soul for eternity.
Serenelli, if what you say is true, do like I do. Vote with your feet and tell the owner why you will not buy anything from their store. Sooner or later such stores go out of business because decent families do not want to buy from them,. or they end up getting robbed much of the time. Although I am not fond of the prophet Mohammed, one thing I will say about the Muslim men, I have never gone into a Muslim owned store and been faced with pornography of any kind, even soft porn. Also, the Muslim men in our area, even if they are dressed in western clothing, dress as modestly as their women — rarely see a face covering on women in California. For that I thank them.
Nevertheless, I am well aware that some Muslim countries grow opium poppies and sell the opium to other countries. I am also aware that some Mormons in the past, and even perhaps now, have profited from the gambling industry in Nevada. I am not fooled by any of this.
To be fair, in our area the Chaldean Christians own many good stores, including the women being involved as beauticians. We should help them out by buying from their reputable places of business and buying their t-shirts and helpining them in other ways. That way they can support their families in a decent manner.
Bishop Sako is a Catholic Bishop and is within his right and duty as such to order his priests back to their places of ordination. We will see what the Vatican does with this football.
I too have witnessed the hypocrisy of many Eastern and Roman Catholic stores , some in the El Cajon area, owned by those who profess the Faith but sell the devils wares. In fact I once wrote Cardinal Manning about it and he answered me and I believed tried to do something about it. Those were the days when I was known and welcomed at the Chancery!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I’m sure these priests took vows of obedience.
This amounts to a call to Martyrdom. Those priests who took the Vow of Obedience probably never considered this.
Well, there is a saying, “If I am arrested for being a Christian, will there be enough evidence against me?’ We are looking at that situation now, over there and over here.
Please Lord Jesus, give me and my family the strength, fortitude, wisdom and courage to be faithful to you until the end.
Bob Bugiada,
ALL true Catholics are called to be willing to become Martyrs, some actual some dry, but Martyrs just the same!
By the way, that is why the Popes before Francis wore Red shoes!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, the head of the church, wants the Iraqi-American priests who fled violence in Iraq to return home or leave the church.
“Mark Arabo is a spokesman for the Chaldean community and says parishioners are dumbfounded by Sako actions.”
It sounds like Patriarch Sako is a leader and he expects his priests to return to help their own suffering people and yes perhaps even face a martyr’s death with their boots on.
What a difference in leadership. If the Chaldeans parishioners think that they are dumbfounded then they should count their blessings for such a faithful courageous leader. Many Catholic parishioners in the United States are even more dumfounded at the actions of our own Church leadership that leaves behind Church teaching to Grand Marshall in a gay parade.
FRESH ACTIONS ALWAYS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!
Cardinal Dolan actions speak so loudly that the faithful cannot hear what he is saying on this You Tube. As the actions of laughing photo ops with pro-abortion candidates go……the vote also went.
“INNOCENCE” & “FRESHNESS”? How about the “STRANGE” or foreign sounding notion of FIDELITY? Would St. Irenaeus, St. Polycarp or St. Ignatius of Antioch have marched as the Grand Marshall of a parade in Sodom and Gomorrah? Or belly roll laugh at dinners with Herod as the Holy innocents were being slaughtered?
Cardinal Dolan on countercultural bishops – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlCVrC2C16Y
Indeed, Cardinal Dolan, they are, and so are some of the Anglican Africans. After all, did not the Holy Catholic Church canonize St. Charles Lwanga and some of his friends (some of whom were Anglicans) for being martyred for refusing the homosexual advances of a pagan African king. St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, pray for us all over here in the United States. We need your intercession more than ever.
And St. Charles the Great, the Frankish Emperor of Europe, pray for Europe’s return to the Faith. In Christ’s name, amen.
Thank you for linking to this video where Cardinal Dolan speaks about how inspirational and prophetic the Bishops of Africa are, especially during the synod. I truly wish you did not hold such a grudge against him. Your post seemed to be aimed at humiliating him. But I see that God has worked to turn your evil to a good end. God bless and heal your soul.
Anonymous, whom are you addressing — Catherine or me?
Good grief! We gay people get drug into everything on this board :-)
“Mark Arabo is a spokesman for the Chaldean community and says parishioners are dumbfounded by Sako actions”
If Mr. Arabo himself is dumbfounded, it is because he dose not know the meaning of being Catholic. What gives him the right to ask these priest to just throw away their vows. Their Bishop is asking for HELP!
Yes, Mosul has been annihilated of Christianity but there are other cities in Iraq who’s Catholic Christians are desperate for Holy Eucharist and the Sacraments.
Matthew 16:23 says; Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/dont-abandon-us-mosul-bishops-head-church-that-no-longer-exists-38162/
Following his time in the Holy Land, Archbishop Coakley, together with Catholic Relief Services’ CEO Carolyn Woo and COO Sean Callahan, traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan, visiting the cities of Erbil and Dohuk.
Together, the two cities are hosting more than 130,000 persons who were displaced from Nineveh province by the Islamic State (ISIS).
Catholic News Agency (CNA) Martin Baani: the Iraqi seminarian who will not leave his people
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/martin-baani-the-iraqi-seminarian-who-will-not-leave-his-people-46979/