Chaldean Patriarchate denies Patriarch Sako’s Israel visit claim

Shafaq News – Baghdad

On Thursday, the Chaldean Patriarchate denied claims circulating on social media that Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and worldwide, had visited Israel, calling the alleged audio recording “fabricated” and “entirely false.”

In a statement, the Patriarchate’s media office stressed that even when Pope Francis visited Israel after a trip to Jordan, Sako—who was accompanying the pontiff—declined to enter Israel “out of respect for the Palestinian cause.”

The statement said the audio was intended to “create confusion and stir unrest,” asserting that those behind it “do not care about Iraq.”

The denial comes amid a broader controversy sparked after Sako used the term “normalization” during a Christmas Mass in Baghdad, prompting widespread debate. The Chaldean Patriarchate later clarified that the reference was to “normalization with Iraq” as a land of civilizations and religions, not normalization with any foreign state.

The clarification followed criticism from caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who rejected the term and linked it to relations with an “occupying entity [Israel],” and comments by Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Patriotic Shiite Movement (PSM), who called for accountability for those promoting normalization.