June 25, 2026
His Beatitude Mar Polis III Nona, Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, addressed a message to the clergy and faithful of the eparchies he visited from June 14-22. Below is the text of the message:
My brothers, the esteemed bishops,
the honorable priests, Dear brothers monks and sisters nuns from different religious orders, and our beloved deacons and deaconesses,
our dear faithful sons and daughters in the eparchies of Erbil, Duhok, Alqosh, Zakho, Mosul, Kirkuk, and Sulaymaniyah:
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7).
We write these words to you with hearts filled with joy after our visit to you from June 14 to 22 of this month. Although it was a short visit, during which we wished to listen to your reality and to the echo of your deep faith, we truly experienced it through your welcoming reception and your profound spirituality, especially during the celebration of the Holy Mass in each eparchy.
We came to you to exchange and renew experiences of hope within our Chaldean Church, and to come to know one another in the love of Christ. In the near future, there will be time for us to visit you again in a longer pastoral visit, one that will include the details of each eparchy, with its parishes, institutions, and faithful. There will also be more time for listening and exchanging experiences, so that together we may bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your warm welcome, we also thank, together with you, all the officials who visited us in the six eparchies to express their closeness to the Chaldean Church. We pray that our Lord may fulfill His will in all of you and bestow upon you His abundant heavenly blessings.
You will always remain in our prayers, and we ask for your prayers for us, that the Lord may help us in leading our Chaldean Church.
“May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
Mar Polis III Nona
Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq and the World