VATICAN (SE): “It is with a heart full of joy that I grant you Ecclesiastical Communion,” Pope Leo wrote in a letter addressed to the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Polis III Nona, the Holy See Press Office reported on April 28,
The patriarch was canonically elected on April 12 by the Synod of Bishops of his sui iuris [autonomous] Church, which had convened in Rome.
Patriarch Nona had earlier written to request, in accordance with Canon 76 § 2 of the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium, the granting of Ecclesiastical Communion, which, as the pope writes, is “an expression and bond of full communion with the Apostolic See, in common service to unity in the Church and the building up of the Body of Christ.”
Pope Leo wrote, “I am pleased to raise fervent prayers that Your Beatitude, as Father and Head of this beloved sui iuris Church, will exercise with pastoral care the ministry entrusted to you, leading the People of God according to the Heart of Christ and confirming them in faith, hope, and charity.”
The pope prayed that the Holy Spirit would sustain the mission that the patriarch is called to fulfill, “so that the Chaldean Church, rich in its ancient apostolic tradition and marked by the luminous testimony of numerous martyrs and confessors, may continue to make fruitful the proclamation of the gospel,” strengthening ecclesial communion “in its territory and in the ever-expanding diaspora.”
Pope Leo extended his greetings to the bishops, clergy, religious men and women, seminarians, candidates for consecrated life, and all the lay faithful of the Chaldean Church.
Pope Leo recalled that the election took place “on the day when the Chaldean liturgy commemorates the encounter of the Risen Lord with St. Thomas, from which the living tradition of this Church originates.”
In the luminous wounds of Jesus, the pope wrote, Thomas recognised “the merciful manifestation of his Lord”.
This, he said, is a reason to hope that God will accompany the ministry of Patriarch Nona “in the sign of faith, which demands much courage and perseverance from many of the faithful in Chaldean communities who face, as true believers, trials that are often quite challenging.”
