ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church have elected Archbishop Emil Nona as the new patriarch following a meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, the patriarchate announced on Sunday. 

“His Grace Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona was elected as Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, and he chose for himself Mar Paul Nona III as his patriarchal name,” the Chaldean Patriarchate said in a statement.

Nona, 58, led the Chaldean Archdiocese of Mosul before the city’s takeover by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in 2014, which forced him into exile. He was later appointed by the late Pope Francis to lead the Chaldean Church in Australia and New Zealand.

He currently serves as the head of the diocese of Sydney. 

The Chaldean church was rocked last month by the sudden resignation of longtime patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, who announced that Pope Leo had accepted his resignation. 

On Friday, the synod of Chaldean Catholic bishops met with Pope Leo at the Vatican as part of their meetings to elect a new patriarch. 

Nona is seen as a forward-looking leader with extensive pastoral experience and is particularly popular among the global Chaldean diaspora, estimated at around one million. 

The election also comes amid growing challenges for the community, with the number of Iraqi Christians plummeting in recent years, from over 1.5 million in 2003 to around 300,000, according to data provided to The New Region by Erbil’s Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda. However, the actual number is expected to be even lower. 

The brutal onslaught by ISIS across swathes of the Christian community’s ancestral homeland only accelerated its exodus.