The newly elected Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church visited the Casa San Alfonso and the General Curia on the 13th April 2026. He was accompanied by His Excellency Archbishop of Erbil in Iraq, our very own Bashar Warda, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop Amel Shimon Nona was elected the new Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church on Sunday, 12 April 2026, following the resignation of his predecessor, Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, announced on 10 March. The new Patriarch has taken the name Paulos III. He currently serves as Archbishop of the Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Sydney, with pastoral responsibility for Chaldean Catholics in Australia and New Zealand. He will be installed as Patriarch in Baghdad on 15 May 2026.
It was a joy to welcome both His Beatitude Paul III and our own Redemptorist Archbishop Warda to our General Curia. They spent time sharing with Fr General and the General Council. The newly elected Patriarch thanked Fr General for the years of dedicated and committed service of the pioneering Redemptorists from Belgium and their contribution to the Chaldean Church in Iraq and to the formation of so many priests, religious and faithful in Iraq including the Patriarch himself. The Patriarch hoped that the Redemptorists would strengthen the mission in Iraq with more confreres in the future.
It was significant that his very first visit after being elected Patriarch here in Rome on the 12th April 2026 was to the Redemptorist General Curia and community today, 13th April 2026. Both himself and Archbishop Warda had lunch in the Community of Casa San Alfonso and then stopped to pray before the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in the shrine. They both chanted in Arabic a chant to the Blessed Mother in the Chaldean Rite and then knelt in prayer before the Icon seeking the blessings and intercession of Our Blessed Mother for the new responsibility that the newly elected Patriarch Paul III assumes.
Fr Rogério Gomes, C.Ss.R., Superior General thanked the Patriarch for his visit and expressed his desire to continue to the mission of the Redemptorists in Iraq.
Joseph Ivel Mendanha, C.Ss.R
General Consultor
