Louis Raphaël I Sako (Arabic: لويس روفائيل ساكو;[1] born 4 July 1948) is a Chaldean Catholic prelate who has served as Patriarch of Baghdad since 1 February 2013.

[2] He comes from an ethnic Assyrian family of the Chaldean Catholic Church that has roots in a religious community that has had a presence in the city of his birth since the 5th century AD.

[7] In August 2009, and at the beginning of Ramadan, Sako organized an appeal for national peace, reconciliation and end to violence on the part of more than fifty religious leaders in Kirkuk.

[8] The Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church, convoked in Rome on 28 January 2013, elected Sako to succeed Emmanuel III Delly as Patriarch of Babylon.

[10] In July 2014 Sako led a wave of condemnation for the Sunni Islamists who demanded Christians either convert, submit to their radical rule and pay a religious levy or face death by the sword.

[25] On 15 July 2023, Iraq's President Abdul Latif Rashid announced the revocation of the government's 2013 decree recognizing Sako as Patriarch.

His announcement followed a decision by the President of Iraq, Abdul Latif Rashid, to revoke a decree established in 2013 by the previous head of state, Jalal Talabani, recognising Sako as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church.

Al Kildani is the leader of the Babylon Movement, whose militia fought ISIS within the state-linked Popular Mobilisation Forces, a network of largely pro-Iran paramilitaries.

"[31] In April 2024, after nine months of exile, Sako returned to Baghdad with the assistance of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani.

[32][33] On 28 August 2024, Sako demanded a public apology from five bishops based on perceived disunity in the Chaldean Catholic Church, including absence from a mandatory July episcopal synod, setting a deadline of September 5.

The five bishops, led by Bashar Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil, also withdrew from an August spiritual retreat and pulled their students from the Chaldean Seminary.

The 17 bishops who attended the July 2024 synod issued a communiqué, calling for "appropriate legal measures" against the "clear violations" committed by the boycotting group of Warda.

Warda's political ambitions and apparent positioning as a potential successor to the patriarchate have led to a series of calculated moves that undermine Sako's authority.

This personal vendetta against Sako has forced the Cardinal to delay his retirement, despite previously plans to step down at age 75, as he fights to protect the Church from Warda's opportunistic manoeuvrers.