Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, who led the Chaldean Catholic Church
from 2013 to 2012, has died in a San Diego hospital, according to a
Fides news service report.
Born in 1927, Cardinal Delly was ordained to the priesthood in 1952 and
the episcopate in 1963. In October 2003, seven months after the US
invasion of Iraq, he was elected patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic
Church, and Pope Benedict XVI named him a cardinal in 2007.
“Cardinal Delly served the Chaldean Church for more than 60 years with
dedication, first as a priest and then as bishop and as patriarch,” said
his successor, Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. “He suffered moments of
difficulty: the revolution in 1958; the wars in the last decades; the
persecution of Christians followed by the invasion of the USA. In all
this time he remained loyal to his country and to his people, he did not
abandon his flock, he remained with his faithful, praying, helping,
encouraging them.”