“They should know that they are there to serve the Churches,” Sako declared. “They have to respect our identity.” Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako responded bluntly to questions from the Catholic media outlet The Tablet in an interview published online on November 5, 2025.
The high-ranking prelate, a member of the College of Cardinals by right, criticized the Dicastery for Eastern Churches—responsible for all Eastern confessions that have courageously chosen Roman Catholic unity—for not treating Eastern patriarchs with the respect they deserve.
These harsh words reflect Cardinal Sako's deep frustration with the Vatican bureaucracy, where, according to him, correspondence remains unanswered for months. The Chaldean patriarch took the opportunity to remind everyone that, according to the Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches, patriarchs "precede all bishops of any degree everywhere in the world."
Exchanges with them “should be very polite and very respectful,” the high-ranking prelate insisted, implying that the members of the dicastery in question do not understand their status and the difficulties of their situation. “We are like fathers,” the patriarch added. “We are not businessmen. We are pastors.”
“Chaldean Catholics make up 80% of the approximately 200,000 Christians remaining in Iraq, and are also present across the wider Middle East.” In 1990, the number of Christians in Iraq was estimated at one million, but the instability that has taken hold since the 2003 US-led invasion and the persecution by Islamic extremists has driven many to flee the country.
While the Curia does not find much favor in Cardinal Sako’s eyes, he believes that Pope Leo XIV better understands the situation of Eastern Catholics. The high-ranking prelate spoke frequently with then-Cardinal Robert Prévost during last May's conclave: "I had time to explain to him what we are," the patriarch stated, reminding the successor of Peter how "our presence in the East is currently threatened."
During their conversation, Cardinal Sako suggested that officials of the Curia were not best placed to advise the Pope on the situation faced by the Eastern Churches. "The Pope should be well-informed by the dicasteries," he said, lamenting a lack of local understanding and "practical experience" within the Vatican.
“When they speak, they speak occidental speech.” He added, citing an example, that the current Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, has only a bookish and academic knowledge of Eastern Christianity, acquired through his training and experience as a papal nuncio. “He has his own ideas, fixed ideas” about the Eastern Churches, he asserted.
The Vatican’s approach, continued Patriarch Sako, “should be academic, but also realistic,” and it “should do more to intervene with local leaders, [and] not only [make] speeches,” because the Holy See can “make an impact on political life in the Middle East.”
Cardinal Sako’s criticism of the Holy See’s administrative apparatus is part of its poor track record. In 2023, the Chaldean Patriarch appealed to the Vatican to regain formal recognition of his functions by the Iraqi state. Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked his title of patriarch on July 3, 2023, an action perceived as an usurpation of his position as administrator of Church property.
This revocation was likely instigated by Rayan al-Kildani, leader of the Babylon Brigades, a nominally Chaldean militia linked to Iran, against which the high-ranking prelate had warned his flock. However, according to Sako, the support of the Curia was not forthcoming, and the crisis lasted until the end of 2024, when the Iraqi authorities restored the patriarch's civil rights.
But Cardinal Sako is also controversial within his own ranks, accused of having gone to great lengths to modernize the Mass by favoring the vernacular over traditional Syriac, and by ordering the Mass to be celebrated facing the congregation rather than facing ad orientem.
It remains to be seen whether the Pope's first apostolic journey, scheduled for Turkey and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2, will offer some respite and hope to Eastern Christians whose very existence is now more precarious than ever.