Pope Francis meets with Assyrian Church head Mar Awa III

The Word | Nov. 20, 2022

Pope Francis received Mar Awa III, head of the Assyrian of the Church of the East, at the Vatican on Saturday. 

The meeting is the first between the two church leaders since Mar Awa’s election as patriarch of the ACOE in Sept. 2021. 

According to the church-affiliated Vatican News, the pope “renewed his appeal” for the rights of Christians in the Middle East “forced to leave their homelands”. He said in his address the Middle East is “beset by great violence, instability and insecurity.”

Pope Francis thanked Mar Awa for “having voiced the desire” for a common Easter date among churches — a point of contention between churches with disputed calendars. The pope said he hopes the separation between the Assyrian Church and the Catholic Church, which he called “the longest in the history of the Church”, can be “the first to be resolved.”

The Assyrian Church claims continuity with the Church of the East, from which the Chaldean Catholic faction came to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1994, a declaration of “common faith in the mystery of the Incarnation” in a question of Christology — the humanity and divinity of Christ — set a precedent for mutual recognition as “sister churches.”

The Pope’s visit to Iraq in 2021 marked the first ever papal visit to the country and prompted hopes for improved livelihoods for Christians in the region. 7 

The ACOE recently opened its Iraq headquarters — the first in the country since 1940 — just over one year since Mar Awa’s election as patriarch. 

This month, the Ancient Church of the East — formerly united with the Assyrian Church — elected Mar Gewargis Yonan as its new patriarch. Earlier this year, the church’s announcement of the election of a new head marked the end of talks on potential reunification.