Pope Francis arrives to celebrate Mass at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad March 6, 2021. (CNS/Paul Haring) ...

Father Noel Gorgis leads his congregation in Mass at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon in January 2015. An order for priests to return to Iraq has caused a rift in the church.

Although a devout Christian, Eva Aboona missed the Palm Sunday church services that launched Holy Week on April 9.

A woman holds her rosary beads during an emergency Mass at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon on Oct. 22, 2014. 10News. The Rev. Noel Gorgis talks to reporters on Oct. 22, ...

Pope Francis said Mass at the Chaldean Catholic cathedral in Baghdad on the second day of a three-day visit to Iraq intended to strengthen the hope of the country’s persecuted Christian minority ...

Growing up in the Chaldean Catholic community in Erbil, Hanna, 27, was a little girl when there were rumors that St. John Paul II was planning to come to Iraq for the Jubilee 2000.

The head of the Catholic Church meant a great deal to metro Detroit's Chaldean community. He was the first pope to visit Iraq . "He was one of us," Gorgies said.

Currently the plumpish, bespectacled priest lives at a Catholic hospital, celebrates mass in its chapel, depends for clothing and pocket money on the $2 or $3 his Chaldeans give in weekly collections.

Pope Francis walks next to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad, right, as he arrives to celebrate Mass at the Chaldean Catholic Cathedral of St. Joseph in Baghdad March 6, 2021. (CNS/Paul Haring) ...

Father Amar Agag, a 38-year-old married man and father of three, was ordained as a priest in the Chaldean Catholic Church in France. While this tradition is common in the church's countries of origin ...

The head of the Catholic Church meant a great deal to metro Detroit's Chaldean community. He was the first pope to visit Iraq . "He was one of us," Gorgies said.