ROME – Iraqi President Adul Latif Rashid’s recent decision to withdraw an official decree recognising Cardinal Luis Raphael Sako as Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church has added an additional uncertainty to the country’s already fragile Christian community.

On July 3, Rashid, a Kurdish politician who has held office since last year, issued a new edict withdrawing government Decree 147, which was issued in 2013 and recognised Sako as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, ostensibly on the grounds that the decree held no constitutional or legal basis.