ST THOMAS CHALDEAN CATHEDRAL, BOSSLEY PARK, 21 APRIL 2026
Your Beatitude, Your Eminence, Your Excellencies, Reverend Fathers and Sisters, brothers and sisters in Christ,
On behalf of the (Latin) Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and the Catholic Bishops of Australia, it is my bitter-sweet duty—bitter-sweet like Dahinia or Zane Zane or Dolma—to welcome and farewell His Beatitude, Patriarch Mar Paulos III Nona, the newly elected Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldees. Sweet, because it is a great tribute to his qualities and a cause of pride in this his adopted country; but bitter because we are losing him as a regular feature of the Church in Australia.
The Chaldeans and Assyrians were ancient Semitic-speaking people of Mesopotamia and Fairfield. They provided men of learning and magic for the court of Darius and the Nebuchadnezzars (cf. Ezra 5:12), gradually adopting the Aramaic tongue of Jesus, and having an enormous cultural and spiritual influence over the region for three millennia—if not quite so long in South-Western Sydney. We can expect the learned Patriarch Paul to do the same!
In fact these people go back almost to the beginnings of Biblical history. Noah’s great grandson Nimrod the Hamite was “a mighty warrior on the earth” and built the city of Nineveh or Mosul (Gen 10:6-12) which features many times in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes as a great city (Jon 3:7), at other times as “the city of blood, lies, and plunder” (Nahum 3:1). Jonah famously preached there (Jonah 1:2; 3:1-7), as His Beatitude must now do, no doubt with equal success but in better spirit.
Abram was of course from Ur of the Chaldees (Gen 11:28-31; 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:4) and Chaldean Catholics claim him as their first member, and so I guess that makes Paul III in some sense successor of the patriarch Abraham!
The Chaldees also appear in the Book of Job raiding Job’s camels and making off with them (Job 1:17), and in the Book of Ezekiel as handsome figures painted on a brothel wall (Ezek 23:14-16,23), but our new patriarch will set a better moral tone! I gather that Chaldean Catholics also think at least one of the Magi who attended upon the newborn Jesus (Mt 2:1-16) was of their tribe and so I suppose His Beatitude is also a successor of King Melchior. Like Melchior he must outwit the Herods of his day and offer true worship to the King of Kings!
Of course, the territory of the Chaldees was to be home to many saints, missionaries, monks and martyrs from the earliest days of Christianity. We think of the Holy Apostle Thomas along with Sts Addai and Mari, the Holy Apostles Jude and Bartholomew, and so many saints, including the martyr-bishops St Simeon bar Sabbae, St Shahdost, Paulus Raho of Mosul and other modern martyrs. Our new patriarch is part of a great line of missionary-monk-martyrs and we pray that God will keep him safe for his great work.
Your Beatitude, as Archbishop of the Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle, you shepherded the wonderful Chaldean community of Australia and New Zealand with warmth, wisdom, and an unwavering trust in the Lord. Your sister Church of the Latins has benefitted from the fidelity and collaboration of your flock. And your brother Latin archbishop has counted you a very dear brother and friend.
We know something of the faith that formed you, a faith forged by carrying a heavy cross in Mosul, where you walked with your people through the darkest of trials. Now the Holy Spirit has called you to carry another cross, as patriarch of this ancient and venerable Church. You bring to your new task the gifts and experience that we here in Sydney have long admired: courage, pastoral charity, and a heart anchored in Christ. We pray that you will be father of a great nation like Abraham of Ur of the Chaldees; that you might be a spiritual warrior like Nimrod of Nineveh; that you will be a great preacher and converter like Jonah to the Ninevites; that you might be a great worshipper of the One true God like Melchior the Assyrian Magus; that you will be faithful to the apostolic tradition of St Thomas; that you might have the perseverance of the missionary-monk-bishops and heroic martyrs of the Chaldeans.
Please be assured of our prayers as you begin this new service to the Lord and His Church, and we give thanks to God for what He will accomplish through your ministry. God bless you beloved father and brother.
