His Beatitude, Cardinal Mar Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholics in Iraq and the world, visited the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region on the morning of Thursday 14 September 2023. He was received by the General Director, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, Bernard Youssef, Director of Syriac Heritage and the Museum, Fouad Shimoun, Director of Administration at the General Directorate, as well as the directors of its affiliated departments, and their staff.
During the visit, the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts gave His Beatitude a comprehensive explanation of the General Directorate, its sub-departments, its distinguished activities, the qualitative leap it has witnessed in the past short period, and the qualitative festivals, conferences and events it organises.
His Beatitude and Eminence expressed his happiness with this visit and expressed his great appreciation and pride in all the amazing cultural and heritage activities and events provided by the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts, in addition to its various publications, especially its magazine “Banipal.”
His Beatitude praised the efforts of all the employees of the Directorate, especially its General Director, and pointed out that the General Directorate’s building, although small and modest, contains wonderful and effective cadres whose creativity transcended the place’s limitations. He hoped that the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts would have a building that keeps pace with the requirements of its work and contributes to the development and expansion of the scope of its activities.
His Beatitude also visited the Directorate of Heritage and the Syriac Museum, where he met in a dialogue session with an elite group of our people’s writers and intellectuals, cadres of the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts, the Directorate of Heritage, the Syriac Museum, the Library of Syriac Culture, and members of the Syriac Arts Troupe, during which a number of our people’s intellectuals presented interventions that stressed the Church’s support for the Chaldean Catholic Church against the attack it has been exposed to and their rejection of any insult to the Church and the person of the Patriarch.
His Beatitude spoke about the importance of culture in the lives of peoples and touched on the necessity of modernization, as well as keeping pace with the requirements and rapid developments of the times, far from fanaticism and fundamentalism.
The Director of Syriac Heritage and the Museum also gave a brief explanation of his directorate, the history of its establishment and activities, as well as the development projects that it is witnessing.
His Beatitude was accompanied on the visit by Fr. Afram Gilyana, Director of the Patriarchal Seminary.
