ASSYRIAN CHALDEAN ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

FATHER ADEODATO AND THE ASSYRIAN CHALDEAN ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
The Assyrian Chaldean Ecumenical Patriarchate, commonly known as the Assyrian Chaldean Orthodox Church, was founded in 1992 by His Beatitude Father Adeodato Mancini, born in Venice and died in Antegnate on 15 June 2015.

He moved to Turin, was ordained a priest in 1987 in the Orthodox Metropolia of the Old Portuguese Calendar, which later came under the jurisdiction of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland, and was ordained Bishop of the Assyrian-Chaldean Church in 1992 in Paris.

With the Monastery of the Holy Family in Incisa Scapaccino, in Piazza Cacciabue, since the 1990s Father Adeodato has launched an important series of initiatives, including missionary and philanthropic ones (in Africa, Asia, Turkey, Brazil, etc.), and activities to promote the development of the Church in the region. ), and of activities to foster interreligious dialogue and the re-establishment of cordial and constant relations with the Roman Catholic Church, a path that culminated, in 2005, with the start of a personal Christian monastic and ascetic path, and the realisation of several initiatives for the Unity of Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Adeodato Mancini is also known to have been the leader of the ‘Pietà del Pellicano’, a complex organisational entity dating back to 1648, and traceable to Olimpia Mancini (1638-1708), a French noblewoman of Italian origin, niece of Cardinal Mazarin and collaborator of Louis XIV, wife of Eugene Maurice of Savoy and mother of Prince Eugene, and remained dynastic property of the Mancini family of Ausignano, of which Adeodato, the last male heir after the premature death of his brother, represents the ‘Monarch’ and ‘Universal Patriarch’. The ‘Pietas Pellicani’, placed under the Magisterium of the Assyrian-Chaldean Church in the 1980s, coordinates, patronises and spiritually unites, with numerous offshoots, several dozen orders of knighthood, including those of Templar and Rosicrucian inspiration, in various international spheres, and carries out projects and initiatives for evangelisation, religious and spiritual training, solidarity and assistance (including the construction of several hospitals and schools in Africa, especially in Mali). Adeodato is then known for an intense activity, which he defines as ‘itinerant pastoral care of the Last’, which sees him frequently present with his original ‘Gospel Camper’ in some social realities of marginalisation and hardship (stateless, Roma, destitute, etc.). He recently (2014) directed a ‘Two Days’, organised by the Assyrian-Chaldean Church, which boasts numerous faithful in Lombardy, in Rozzano (Milan), dedicated to the ‘Last’ (prisoners, the sick, the destitute, victims of the economic crisis, and a special project for refugees of Syrian origin). Adeodato is also president of numerous religious associations and academies.

The Assyrian Chaldean Ecumenical Patriarchate (P.A.C.E. ) was inspired by the Assyrian-Chaldean Church of the East (or East Syrian or Assyrian or Aturai or Ashurai or Nestorian) and represented, in its traditional historical-theological basis, the oldest of the Christological divisions developed in the first Councils (the Nestorian one), which, although fading over time, has never doctrinally disappeared: it accepts the first two Ecumenical Councils (Nicaea I and Constantinople), since, classically, Nestorian doctrine envisages two natures (human and divine) and two persons (the Son and Christ) distinct in Christ. Consequently, Our Lady is not Theotokos (Mother of God, as established by the Council of Ephesus in 431) but Theodochos (receives God) and Chistotokos (mother of Christ). This is in contrast to the classical ‘orthodox’ doctrine, according to which the second person (one person) of the Trinity, i.e. Jesus Christ, is ‘true God and true Man’ (two natures). The Assyrian Church originally comprised the vast territories of present-day western Iraq and Iran. From Mesopotamia, its land of origin, it underwent a rapid expansion that led its missionaries to found communities in Europe, America and Asia, as far as India (where it is known as the ‘Syro-Chaldean Church’) and China. The Assyrian monastic community of Chang’an (ancient name of Xi’an, capital of the Tang Dynasty) was, in the 7th century, the first documented Christian community in China. In the 20th century, Assyrians and Chaldeans suffered numerous persecutions and massacres by Iraqis, Turks and Kurds, which strongly affected these churches, also because many believers, in order to survive, emigrated to north-east Syria, to India, the United States and Canada and to Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. The Assyrian Catholicos himself had to relocate to the USA. The recent ecumenical contacts that have developed since the 1980’s with the other Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church have led to the conclusion, that in essence, the Faith of the Assyrian Church, even if it officially professes to be in Christ two natures and two “qnoma” (a Syriac term often interpreted as “person”) in one person, is not considered, on the whole, also due to some linguistic difficulties in the original definitions, to be profoundly different from the Christology taught by the Council of Chalcedon (451) . On a liturgical level, a significant differentiation in the Church of the East is the anaphora of Addai and Mari. This rite is well known to liturgical scholars because of its lack of the phrases, known to all believers, uttered by Jesus during the Last Supper (“This is my body… This is my blood”). For this reason, especially Roman Catholics did not recognise the validity of this liturgy until the post-conciliar reflections and further studies in the 1990s. In 2001, after a very thorough historical-exegetical study conducted on the oldest texts, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger declared that it is to be considered a valid liturgy, and that one can validly receive the sacrament of the Eucharist with this rite. This declaration was approved by Pope John Paul II.On 11 November 1994, a historic meeting between Mar Dinkha IV and Pope John Paul II in the Vatican led to the signing of the ‘Common Christological Declaration’. One of the consequences of this act was the resumption of contacts between the Assyrian Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church. There are approximately half a million faithful in the world, of whom about 80,000 are Chaldeans.

His Beatitude Cosmas I assumed the office of Patriarch of the Assyrian Chaldean Ecumenical Patriarchate, inherited from Patriarch Emeritus, Alexander I and First Patriarch, His Beatitude Leopold Mancini.