Raphael I. Bidawid

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Patriarch Raphael I. Bidawid (approx. 1990)

His Beatitude Raphael I. Bidawid (born April 17, 1922 in Mosul , † July 7, 2003 in Beirut ) was Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldean Catholic Church .

Life

Raphael Yousif Warda received his school and seminar training in Mosul. From 1936 to 1947 he studied in Rome, in 1944 he was ordained a priest and acquired the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Theology in Rome . From 1948 to 1956 he worked as a professor of philosophy and theology in Mosul. In 1956 he was appointed Patriarchal Vicar of the Diocese of Kirkuk , Erbil and Sulaimaniya in Northern Iraq. From 1957 to 1966 he was Bishop of Amadiyah and as such experienced the mass flight of Christians from the embattled Kurdish areas to Mosul and Baghdad . 1966 was transferred to the Chaldean bishopric in Beirut (Lebanon).

On May 21, 1989 he was elected Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, based in Baghdad. During his tenure, relations with the non-Catholic sister church ( Assyrian Church of the East ) improved considerably. In the last years of his life, the patriarch often stayed abroad for health reasons, including during the first Gulf War (1991) and the American invasion (2003). His sharp criticism of the Western embargo against Iraq met with incomprehension abroad.

Works

  • Les Lettres du Patriarche Nestorien Timothée I, (= Studi e Testi 187), Città del Vaticano 1956.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Paul II Cheikho Patriarch of Babylon
1989-2003
Emmanuel III Cardinal Delly