Pope approves exit of US bishop charged with theft

What happened

Pope Leo XIV last month accepted the resignation of Bishop Emanuel Shaleta, leader of the Chaldean Catholic community in San Diego, the Vatican announced Tuesday, a day after Shaleta pleaded not guilty to embezzling $270,000 from his parish. Shaleta was arrested at the San Diego airport last week and charged with 16 felony counts of money laundering and embezzlement. The pope on Tuesday also accepted the retirement of Iraqi Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of the roughly one million Chaldean Catholics worldwide, about half of whom live in the U.S.

Who said what

The Chaldean Catholic Church, based in Iraq, is one of 23 Eastern Rite churches in full communion with Rome. Sako, 76, said he resigned “of my own will” to pursue “prayer, writing and simple service.” It’s “unclear if his retirement is connected to Shaleta’s case,” The Associated Press said. Sako shepherded his “ancient church through the traumatic years” of ISIS persecution and is leaving as the Iran war “has spilled over into Iraq.” There are now only about 150,000 Christians in Iraq, down from 1.5 million when the U.S. invaded in 2003.

Shaleta had led the “small Chaldean Catholic community” of about 71,000 in San Diego since 2017, Reuters said. Prosecutor Joel Madero said a parishioner at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral turned over documents showing possible embezzlement in 2024, and Shaleta “provided completely unreasonable tales of where that money was going.” The bishop said during a Mass last month that he had never “abused any penny of the church money.”

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What next?

Pope Leo named Bishop Saad Hanna Sirop as temporary administrator of San Diego’s Chaldean diocese. Shaleta, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 27.