Louis Raphael I Sako

Louis Raphaël I Sako (Syriac: ܠܘܝܣ ܪܘܦܐܝܠ ܩܕܡܝܐ ܣܟܘ‎) (born 4 July 1948) is the current Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon and the Head of the Chaldean Catholic Church since his election on 1 February 2013.

Biography

Early life

Sako was born in the city of Zakho on the Iraq–Turkey border. He is ethnically Assyrian and from a community that has had a religious presence in the city since the 5th century AD. Before he was consecrated bishop, then-Fr Sako had demanded to see President Saddam Hussein after the Iraqi Government refused to allow him to teach religious education. Saddam refused his request but the cleric responded by doing a separate doctorate and, because it had little religious content, the Government gave him his teaching licence, which enabled him to teach the subject.

On 1 February 2013, Pope Benedict XVI granted him ecclesiastica communio (ecclesiastical communion) which the leaders of the Eastern-rite Catholic churches seek as a sign of their unity with the wider Catholic church. Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako speaks Syriac, German, French, English, Italian, and Arabic.