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Rome (Agenzia Fides) – The Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Church, gathered in Rome since Thursday 9 April, today elected Amel Shimon Nona as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church. Until now, he has served as Archbishop of the Chaldean Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle in Sydney, responsible for the pastoral care of Chaldeans in Australia and New Zealand. This was reported on the official website of the Chaldean Patriarchate, announcing that the new Patriarch has chosen the name Paulos III. In accordance with canonical provisions, once elected, the new Patriarch must receive the “Ecclesiastica Communio” from the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XIV.
The electoral synodal assembly, which brought together 17 Chaldean bishops, had been convened in Rome to elect the new Patriarch after Pope Leo XIV, on 10 March, accepted the resignation from the office of Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans submitted by Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, who had led the Chaldean Church for more than 13 years.
Amel Shimon Nona was born in Alqosh, a town in the Nineveh Plains, on 1 November 1967. After completing his secondary education, he entered the Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary in 1985 and was ordained a priest on 11 January 1991 in Baghdad.
From 1993 to 1997 he served as parish vicar in Alqosh, then as parish priest until 2000, when he enrolled at the Pontifical Lateran University. In 2005 he obtained a degree in Theology and returned to his homeland to resume his pastoral ministry as parish priest in Alqosh.
Proto-Syncellus of the Archeparchy of Alqosh and professor of Anthropology at Babel College’, the Iraqi theological faculty of the Chaldean Church, on 13 November 2009 Pope Benedict XVI gave his assent to his appointment as Archbishop of Mosul, as successor to the martyred Bishop Faraj Paulus Raho, who had been kidnapped and killed the previous year.
On 8 January 2010, Amel Shimon Nona received episcopal ordination from the then Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly at the Monastery of Dair al Sayida in Alqosh.
On 9 June 2014, jihadist militants from the Islamic State captured Mosul, Iraq’s second city, which in the following years would become the Iraqi capital of their self-proclaimed “Caliphate”. The city’s Christians immediately began their exodus, fleeing towards the Nineveh Plain. Archbishop Nona remained in the city for several more weeks. At that time, when contacted by Fides, Nona, with foresight, expressed his concern that “the sufferings and problems of Christians in Iraq and the Middle East during this troubled time might become a pretext for alarmist campaigns and propaganda, clearly intended to serve other purposes”. Then, as the jihadist offensive swept through the towns and villages of the Nineveh Plain, Archbishop Nona too was forced to leave Mosul. In October, having also been displaced to Ankara, a suburb of Erbil that had become a safe haven for many Christians fleeing Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, he too took part in a three-day festival organized by the Chaldean Church for young refugees, which he described to Fides as “an attempt to help young people not to shut themselves off in pessimism, not to fall into depression, and to realize that even in the circumstances we are facing, the Lord can safeguard our hope”.
On 15 January 2015, Pope Francis appointed Amel Shamon Nona as Bishop of the Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Sydney, transferring him from the Chaldean See of Mosul whilst retaining his title of Archbishop “ad personam”. His installation in Sydney took place on 7 March.
Since then, Archbishop Nona has devoted himself to the pastoral care of the Chaldean diaspora in Australia and New Zealand, whilst also expanding the list of his publications on liturgical, theological and pastoral topics. The official website of the Chaldean Patriarchate also highlights, among his qualities, his theological depth, his closeness to the people of God and his testimony of faith in difficult times. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 12/4/2026)
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