It
is the Catholic branch of the church of the Orient, alias nestorian which
refused the Council of Ephese (431). The Patriarch Jean Simon SOULAKA,
elected in 1551, was recognized by Rome as patriarch of the Chaldeans,
but the union wouldn't be final with Rome until 1830, when the Pope Pie
VIII confirmed in his function the patriarch Jean Hormizd II with the title
of Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldeans.
Mossoul
was the seat of the patriarchate; the patriarch now resides in Baghdad.
The number of the Chaldean faithfuls is evaluated at approximately 42 0000.
SITUATION
IN LEBANON
The first
Chaldeans arrived in Lebanon at the end of the XIXth century in 1895 to
escape the persecutions of the Turks and the Kurds.
Their
number had to increase due to the different worldwide wars to actually
reach ten thousand. They had two parishes, one in Beirut and one in Zahle. |