My response to cardinal louis sako regarding his homily where he attacks my priesthood and why I left the seminary many years ago

I’m not the type person who usually replies to comments such as his as I don’t like to cause disruption or cause any type of tension, I would have not replied at all but since he decided out of the blue to attack and spread false misleading information once again and since he started, I would like to make a few notes and clarifications. Mind you the Chaldean Patriarchate Facebook page has removed the homily from its page.

Your Eminence Cardinal louis Sako, with all due respect to you, let me make a few notes to your recent attack against me, it’s been over a year since I was rightfully ordained to the priesthood and you have decided to stir around trouble pointing fingers without close consideration to your unwise words, as far as I know.

You were talking about the situation in San Diego how you have uncanonically  suspended two pious priests, and since then they have continued to say mass in a church they have rented to continue the traditional Chaldean and catholic faith, which no longer exists in the Chaldean church, and you described how they have opened a “store” which you mean the church they have established. then you came to say how a similar situation has occurred In Australia, where “a young man who left seminary because he was not capable of completing and got ordained a priest by someone who is excommunicated which he has no right to validly ordain priests”. You also said that I have made an approach to you asking to give me jurisdiction or validate my orders.

1. The young man you referred to was me, Fr. Mina, you said I left seminary because I did not have the capability to be in the seminary. Your eminence, why did you not speak the real truth about why I left the seminary which you clearly know the truth of why I left? Why didn’t you tell the faithful watching that you knew about the abuse that happened with one of your very own priests? And why didn’t you mention your eminence that you participated in covering up and you were the main source for him to be transferred from one diocese to another? Why couldn’t you tell them the truth that everyone wants to hear about what happened? Surely it must be embarrassing for you to show to people how incompetent you were at handling the situation. Did you forget that you proved you knew what had happened and you clearly said I was the innocent one in all that happened? If I was not capable of being in the seminary then why was I accepted in the first place? Why was the diocese so proud to have the very first Australian born seminarian ever enter and they took great pride in that with no doubt at all? I was very capable, but some unholy and impious priest took away my dream of completing my vocation in the Chaldean church, where then you lacked to show any compassion or mercy let alone you have never up until this day apologized for your mishandling of the situation. I have every right to reject your erroneous comments since it is misleading and spreading doubt which then causes slander against me.

2. You questioned the validity of the Holy orders I received and said there is no validity, on what basis do you make these assumptions and what proof is there to validate that comment, your eminence? Are you able to prove the ordaining bishop has no apostolic succession? Since you cannot then what you have said is disregarded, meaningless and invalid. Every bishop whether in communion with a church or not, whether if he is excommunicated or not can ordain a priest validly to further validate my point (look at the text in Arabic below). Apostolic succession is not only the validity of ordination it’s about the way of doing things which also makes the orders and sacraments valid, let’s say you as a bishop say mass but if you leave out the words of consecration and the eucharistic prayers that mass is not valid no matter even if you are bishop with a valid ordination. So, you cannot say “he is not valid, and the bishop is not either”. You obviously will say this since you very well know that I have received valid orders, but you chose to say this to make it seem to people that I don’t, this is your way of defence since I am not under your authority, so you choose to attack and defame. I accept that with all my heart.

3. You mentioned that I asked the patriarchate to validate my orders. This is not true since I never asked to validate any orders, one of your adviser priests sent me a message saying I should return to my church and if I needed help with that to write to him because apparently, he said this looked positive and that there was a chance awaiting so I can return. Then he recommended that I write to you and ask to be reinstated as a priest into the Chaldean patriarchate of Babylon. However, I never did ask to be validated which this again is erroneous and false. This priest who wrote to me said that everything  was possible, and he would speak to you about this to see what can be done. Why in the first place did he even ask me to come back to the church and why did he make it seem that this was coming from the top rank of the hierarchy? Then the same priest when he writes to me refers to me as abouna and he even congratulated me on my first-year priestly ordination. Now if your saying I’m not valid how come this priest who is very close to you refers to me as Father? Again, what you have said does not make sense at all. However, this priest I respect very much as he is truthful.

4. The fourth note I want to make is why are you spending so much time during your homilies attacking priests and bishops when you should be preaching the word of God and bringing light to the whole Chaldean community during these difficult times. It’s so sad to see a patriarch wasting time during a homily upsetting himself no valid reason and not talking to the people about how to repent and prepare themselves and families for whatever is to come in the near future. Words of wisdom should be spoken and hope given to the faithful and you need to be educating those who need to hear the word of God. Not spending 20 minutes attacking. This is not the job of the patriarch, because you do this you have lost all the respect that is entitled to you. Your eminence take a look at the other patriarchs who pierce the hearts of the faithful when they talk. They have apply a limit on their homilies and are careful of what they say in order they do not commit errors when giving a homily. You have caused the church enough grief to the point where the standards of the church are lowered to her lowest point. Heresy is among the hierarchy and you do not care to address this issue when its leading the church and faithful into error. I feel sorry for those bishops who are afraid to speak up.

5. Lastly, at the beginning of the year during the occasion of new year you said we have celebrated Christmas, which gives us hope and the greatest news which is peace on earth. You asked where do we stand with this plan and or mission? You answered by saying peace is complete when we remove from our hearts the evil tendencies which diminish all values of brotherhood, love, and peace. You also said peace is completed when we cleanse our hearts from all evil intentions and replace it with pureness. Lastly peace is complete when there is a brotherly dialogue and not like enemies, because when there is a brotherly dialogue, we return all the human principles and values and spread this to the people by the grace of God. My question is where is your part in what you have said? You have done the complete opposite and contradicted what you have said. You have used words daily that are out of context which are inappropriate for a patriarch to use, and as you describe them as “words from the street”. Upon all this I want to remind you that your own bishops who are currently active in the western diocese have on multiple occasions said “we know that Patriarch Louis lies all the time but we can not do anything” , they can not do anything because they fear, that’s why. So, if your own bishops are saying this how am I sure that what you are saying is true or not?

In conclusion of my response I would like to express my sadness to see a Patriarch who heads one of the oldest patriarchates in the Eastern Churches lower his standards to viciously attack priests. You constantly talk about being merciful and to repent, I think you should consider mercy for your erroneous actions and repent from the sin of heresy. I thank God we are still preserving the tradition of the church and saying mass with the valid and traditional liturgy.

Your eminence, I could not sit back and allow you to take away my dignity once again, I have the right to defend my reputation and guard my dignity, it’s all in the habit of the hierarchy to take away people dignity. I will not allow it again. Enough of your bullying.

May God bless you and I will remember you in my prayers. I hope you are kept safe during these times.

Fr. Mina George