Detroit-Area Chaldean Priest, Once Kidnapped and Beaten in Iraq, Is Ordained Bishop of Baghdad

Father Basel Yaldo, a Chaldean Catholic priest who has served for the last nine years in suburban Detroit, was ordained on Friday, February 6, as an auxiliary bishop in Baghdad.  He was one of two Detroit-area Chaldean priests elevated by Pope Francis.  Bishop Yaldo, 44, will serve in Baghdad while the other, 58-year-old Chorbishop Emanuel Shaleta, will serve in Toronto.

Nine years ago Father Basel was kidnapped in his native Iraq by anti-Christian extremists.  For three days, he was beaten by his captors.  After his release he continued to receive death threats, until finally in 2007 he was transferred to the United States for his own safety.  He has served at St. George Chaldean Catholic Church in Shelby Township, a suburb north of Detroit.

Father Basel told the Detroit Free Press that his 2006 kidnapping

“…brought me closer to God and strengthened my faith.  It also pushed me to be more serious and be more involved.  Virgin Mary was the one who helped me when I was kidnapped, and I’m sure she will help me in Iraq.”

Now the Iraqi-born cleric has returned to the country of his birth, where he will find that many Christians have fled the unrest and persecution of ISIS.  Christians face dangers throughout the Middle East; and statistics showed only 6% of the region’s population was Christian in 2014, with that number continuing to decrease.   Anglican vicar Andrew White reported in August 2014 that more than 1,500 Christians in Iraq had been executed for their faith.

The new bishop was born in Telkaif, an Assyrian town in northern Iraq, in 1970.  He completed high school in Baghdad and then graduated from the National Teachers College in 1989.  In 1994, he entered the Chaldean Seminary and   began studies in Philosophy and Theology at Baghdad’s Babel College.   He was sent to Rome in 1996 to complete his theological studies at the Urban College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in theology.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 2002 by Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim.

Father Basel completed a masters degree in Dogmatic Theology (Mariam Studies) from Urban College in 2003.  The following year, he was named assistant director of the seminary in Dora (Baghdad) and a teacher in Dogmatic Theology at Babel College.  He also became personal secretary to Patriarch Emanuel III Delly until his relocation to the U.S. in 2007.

As auxiliary bishop in that troubled region, Bishop Yaldo will serve under the worldwide head of the Chaldean Church, Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, helping in communications with Chaldean dioceses around the world.  His goal, according to the Detroit Free Press, will be to “give people hope and to keep their faith alive.”  He hopes to convince the Iraqi government to protect the Christians of Iraq.