}}
'''Chaldean Christians''' {{IPAc-en|k|ae|l|'|d|i:|@n}} ({{lang|syr|ܟܠܕܝ̈ܐ}}), or [[Chaldo-Assyrians]], <ref>Mar Raphael J Bidawid. The Assyrian Star. September–October, 1974:5</ref><ref>Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (JAAS) 18 (2): pp. 22.</ref> adherents of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]], originally called ''The Church of Assyria and Mosul'',<ref>George V. Yana (Bebla), "Myth vs. Reality" JAA Studies, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 2000 p. 80</ref> which was that part of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] which entered communion with the [[Catholicism|Catholic Church]] between the 16th and 18th centuries AD.<ref name='BBC'>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7271828.stm |title=Who are the Chaldean Christians? |author=BBC NEWS |date=March 13, 2008 |work= |publisher=BBC NEWS |accessdate=March 26, 2010}}</ref>
In addition to their ancient [[Assyrian homeland]] in northern [[Iraq]], northeast [[Syria]], northwest [[Iran]] and southeast [[Turkey]], (a region roughly corresponding with ancient [[Assyria]]) migrant Assyrian Chaldean or [[Chaldo-Assyrian]] Catholic communities are found in the [[United States]], [[Sweden]], [[Germany]], [[France]], [[Canada]], [[Lebanon]], [[Jordan]] and [[Australia]].<ref name='Iraq'>{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Iraq|authors=Edmund Ghareeb, Beth Dougherty|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8108-4330-1|page=56|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uIyjeUAR5zYC}}</ref>
The terms ''Chaldean'' and ''Chaldo-Assyrian'' are sometimes used to describe those Assyrians Chaldeans who broke from the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] and entered communion with the [[Roman Catholic Church]].<ref name="Maleh2009">{{cite book|author=Dr. Layla Maleh (Kuwait University)|title=Arab Voices in Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literature|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ji1YrUwThkIC&pg=PA396|year=2009|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=90-420-2718-5|page=396|Kuwait University}}</ref> Rome initially named this new diocese ''The Church of Assyria and Mosul'' in 1553 AD, and only some 128 years later, in 1681 AD, was this changed to ''The Chaldean Catholic Church'', despite none of its adherents having hitherto used the name "Chaldean" to describe themselves or their church, or having originated in the region in the far south of Mesopotamia which had long ago once been Chaldea.
Similarly, Chaldean Catholics should not be confused with the [[Saint Thomas Christians]] of [[India]] (also called the [[Chaldean Syrian Church]]), who are also sometimes known as "Chaldean Christians" or ''Assyrian Christians''.
Thus the term ''Chaldean Catholic'' is historically, usually and properly taken purely as a [[denominational]], [[doctrinal]] and [[theological]] term which only arose in the late 17th century AD, and not as an [[ethnic]] identity or designation.<ref>a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Travis, Hannibal. Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010, 2007, pp. 237-77, 293–294</ref><ref name="conference.osu.eu">http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ/08-bohac.pdf</ref><ref name="conference.osu.eu"/>
The modern Chaldean Catholics are in fact [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]]<ref>Nisan, M. 2002. Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle for Self Expression .Jefferson: McFarland & Company. Jump up ^ http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14225.html</ref> and originated from ancient Assyrian Chaldean communities living in and indigenous to the north of Iraq/Mesopotamia which was known as Assyria from the 25th century BC until the 7th century AD, rather than the long extinct [[Chaldea]]ns/[[Chaldees]], who in actuality were 9th century BC migrants from [[The Levant]], and always resided in the far south east of Mesopotamia, adisappeared from history circa 550 BC. However, despite this, a minority of Chaldean Catholics (particularly in the [[United States]]) have in recent times confused a purely religious term with an ethnic identity, and espoused a separate ethnic identity to their Assyrian Chaldean brethren, despite there being absolutely no historical, academic, cultural, geographic, archaeological, linguistic or genetic evidence supporting a link to either the Chaldean land or the Chaldean race.
[[Raphael Bidawid]], the then patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church commented on the [[Assyrian name dispute]] in 2003 and clearly differentiated between the name of a church and an ethnicity:
: “''I personally think that these different names serve to add confusion. The original name of our Church was the ‘Church of the East’ … When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic in the 17th Century, the name given was ‘Chaldean’ based on the Magi kings who were believed by some to have come from what once had been the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name ‘Chaldean’ does not represent an ethnicity, just a church… We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion… I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]].''”<ref name="Parpola">{{cite journal | author = Parpola, Simo | year = 2004 | title = National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times | journal = [[Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies]] | volume = 18 | issue = 2 | pages = pp. 22 | publisher = JAAS | url = http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v18n2/Parpola-identity_Article%20-Final.pdf | format = PDF | authorlink = Simo Parpola }}</ref>
In an interview with the Assyrian Chaldean Star in the September–October 1974 issue, he was quoted as saying:
: “''Before I became a priest I was an Assyrian, before I became a bishop I was an Assyrian, I am an Assyrian today, tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it''.''”<ref>Mar Raphael J Bidawid. The Assyrian Star. September–October, 1974:5.</ref>
==Chaldean Catholics in the Middle East==
The 1896 census of the Chaldean Catholics<ref>Mgr. George 'Abdisho' Khayyath to the Abbé Chabot (''Revue de l'Orient Chrétien'', I, no. 4)</ref> counted 233 parishes and 177 churches or chapels, mainly in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The Chaldean Catholic clergy numbered 248 priests; they were assisted by the monks of the Congregation of [[Rabban Hormizd (Saint)|St. Hormizd]], who numbered about one hundred. There were about 52 Assyrian Chaldean Chaldean schools (not counting those conducted by Latin nuns and missionaries). At [[Mosul]] there was a patriarchal seminary, distinct from the Chaldean seminary directed by the Dominicans. The total number of Assyrian Chaldean Chaldean Christians is nearly 1.4 million, 78,000 of whom are in the [[Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul|Diocese of Mosul]].
The current patriarch considers [[Baghdad]] as the principal city of his see. His title of "[[List of Chaldean Catholic Patriarchs of Babylon|Patriarch of Babylon]]" results from the identification of Baghdad with ancient [[Babylon]] (Baghdad is 55 miles north of the ancient city of Babylon and corresponds to northern [[Babylonia]]). However, the Chaldean patriarch resides habitually at [[Mosul]] in the north, and reserves for himself the direct administration of this diocese and that of Baghdad.
There are five archbishops (resident respectively at [[Basra]], [[Diyarbakır]], [[Kirkuk]], [[Salmas]] and [[Urmia]]) and seven bishops. Eight patriarchal vicars govern the small Assyrian Chaldean Chaldean communities dispersed throughout Turkey and Iran. The Chaldean clergy, especially the monks of [[Rabban Hormizd Monastery]], have established some missionary stations in the mountain districts dominated by [[The Assyrian Church of the East]]. Three dioceses are in Iran, the others in Turkey.
The liturgical language of the Chaldean Catholic Church is [[Syriac language|Syriac]], a [[Neo-Aramaic languages|Neo-Aramaic]] dialect originating in Assyria during the [[Parthian Empire]]. The liturgy of the Chaldean Church is written in the [[Syriac alphabet]].
The literary revival in the early 20th century was mostly due to the [[Lazarist]] [[Paul Bedjan|Pere Bedjan]], an ethnic [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] Chaldean Catholic from northwestern Iran. He popularized the ancient chronicles, the lives of [[Assyria]]n saints and martyrs, and even works of the ancient Assyrian Chaldean doctors among Assyrians Chaldeans of all denominations, including Chaldean Catholics, Orthodox Christians and the Assyrian Chaldean Church.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03559a.htm
|title = New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia }}</ref>
|url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7295672.stm|title = Iraqi archbishop death condemned | work=BBC News | date=2008-03-13 | accessdate=2009-12-31}} from [[BBC News]]</ref>
Chaldean Catholics today number approximately 550,000 of Iraq's estimated 800,000 [[Assyrian Christians]], with smaller numbers found among the Assyrian Chaldean Christian communities of northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Armenia.<ref name='BBC'/> Perhaps the best known Iraqi Chaldean Catholic is former Iraqi deputy prime minister, [[Tariq Aziz]] (real name Michael Youhanna).<ref name='BBC'/>
Hundreds of thousands of [[Assyrian Christians]] of all denominations have left Iraq since the ousting of [[Saddam Hussein]] in 2003. At least 20,000 of them have fled through Lebanon to seek resettlement in Europe and the US.<ref>Martin Chulov (2010) [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/23/iraq-christian-exodus-christmas ”Christian exodus from Iraq gathers pace”]''The Guardian'', retrieved June 12, 2012</ref>
As political changes sweep through many Arab nations, the ethnic Assyrian Chaldean minorities in northeast Syria, northwest Iran and southeast Turkey have also expressed concern.<ref>R. Thelen (2008) [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/Sep/26/Thousands-of-Iraqi-Christians-find-refuge-in-Lebanon.ashx#axzz1xcnVc7gD ''Daily Star'', Lebanon] retrieved June 12, 2012</ref>
==Predominantly Chaldean Catholic towns in northern Iraq==