JANUARY 2024

to persecute Christians in the area,
they might sack an entire village, force
the people to go somewhere else, or
simply kill them for their beliefs.
This type of existence for village
Christians induced centuries-long
periods of isolation and hermitage
that still inspires some of the most
religious people today. Among Chaldeans,
it’s considered special to come
from a village that has a long Christian
history and one that stood on its feet
in the face of attacks and persecution.
PHOTO COURTESY MAR SHARB VIA FLICKR
Modernity
Village-style Christianity continued
in the Chaldean community until it
was faced with modernity. Some of
the towns in which Chaldeans lived,
like in modern-day Eastern Türkiye,
became larger cities. In addition,
plenty of Chaldeans moved to alreadyestablished
large cities, like Mosul and
Baghdad in Iraq.
The experience of Christianity in
these places was fundamentally different;
instead of being widespread and
accepted, Chaldeans were thrust into a
minority status in their daily lives. This
led to more frequent but less harsh
forms of persecution, like second-class
citizenship and daily discrimination.
Church became an important place to
retain your identity and prove that you
couldn’t be swayed by persecution to
abandon your Christian heritage.
The final stage of this story is the
transplanting of the community to the
Western world. In this move, Chaldeans
tried to bring their deep, spiritual,
and historical church life into the
materialistic and individualistic society
that is the United States. Churches
here are often regarded as secondary
to one’s individual identity and unity
is far less common. There are plenty of
options to choose from when picking a
church, and some Chaldeans in Michigan
have chosen to leave the Chaldean
Church entirely and join another with
American roots.
Melony Mikhail leads a youth
group composed of high school teens
at Mother of God Church, and she also
started a bible study for adult women.
She thinks the change in behavior of
Chaldeans and their church habits is
exacerbated by attacks on the family
and children.
“We are living in one of the most incredible
times in history,” Mikhail said.
Chaldean Catholics in Tel Keppe.
“We have a 24-hour eucharistic adoration
available at every church here.”
Mikhail sees the increased availability
of this adoration as an opportunity
for Chaldeans to use the church
more than they did in the past. “Before,
it was very difficult to go to Mass,”
she said. “I’d imagine there were only
certain times when the church was
available.”
The Chaldean Church in the United
States has also taken on many qualities
that you would expect to see from its
American counterparts. For example,
some Chaldeans maintain their identity
as Christians but consider their religion
a smaller part of their lives with each
passing generation. It’s common now
for some families to avoid going to weekly
Mass and instead participate in and
attend church only on special holidays.
Beshar Shukri is a Chaldean from
metro Detroit who works as an accountant
with the Chaldean American
Chamber of Commerce. He was a
life-long participant in the Chaldean
Catholic Church but has since left
and moved to a non-denominational
church called Lord of the Harvest.
Shukri noted the culture of shame
CHALDEAN
STORY
throughout the Middle East as well
as the tighter-knit relations in the
Chaldean community back home. As
a result of the fractionalization in the
United States, he said, we can’t monitor
our community as tightly and keep
one another in check.
“In America, with all of its freedoms
and diversity, we have the ability to remove
ourselves from the community
and cling to other identities,” he said.
Shukri took advantage of those
freedoms and began to explore and
understand the history of church expressions.
“I looked at Protestantism
and saw the validity in their arguments
and what they believe,” he said. Eventually,
he left the Chaldean Church
and joined another one, an option that
would not be available to him if he still
lived in his traditional village.
In village life, Shukri sees a community
connected and unified by
Christ. “We’re identified collectively
back home with our religion,” he said.
“In America, it seems like we identify
with status and wealth.”
In Mikhail’s mind, people leave
the Church for plenty of reasons. “It’s
a denial of God and not a denial of
This report is made possible with generous support from
Michigan Stories, a Michigan Humanities Grants initiative.
yourself,” she said. “A lot of people
are uncomfortable with the Church’s
teachings.”
“It’s all because people used to be a
community and a family,” Mikhail said.
“We have so much more freedom. Back
home, things were tougher, and they
had to rely on each other and God.”
Paradoxically, it can appear from
the inside that the Church is growing
because of increased participation
from youth. The clergy itself has seen a
resurgence of youth and participation
over the last few decades.
In the old country, there were a few
dozen people per priest, which meant
nearly everyone was connected to a
priest in some way. In metro Detroit,
the number is closer to 10,000 people
to one priest.
“It’s difficult for a priest to serve
thousands of people. He’s only human,”
Shukri said. “Because there’s
so much more opportunity in America,
fewer people want to become priests.”
In addition, Shukri thinks that the
biggest hindrance is the celibacy of the
priestly order. He suggests that allowing
priests to marry would ease this
tension.
In the United States, Mikhail recognizes
that living a Catholic life is not
easy. She thinks the personal relationships
with the clergy are extremely
valuable and suggests people fall back
on them to stay in the faith.
“There was a point when we were
so strong, and I think we will get that
strong again,” Mikhail said. “We will
be even stronger than back home.”
JANUARY 2024 CHALDEAN NEWS 29