Pope appoints Bishop Shaleta

Bishop Shaleta

Pope appoints Bishop Shaleta to the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle

Last month, Pope Francis appointed Mar (Bishop) Emanuel Hana Shaleta eparchial bishop of Saint Peter Apostle of San Diego of the Chaldeans.

Mar Shaleta is being transferred from the eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto of the Chaldeans, Canada.

He was born in Fishkabour-Zakho, Iraq, on November 12, 1956 and in 1971, following his primary studies in his village, he entered the St. John Minor Seminary near Mosul, which was run by the Dominican Fathers.

In 1977, Mar Shaleta was sent to the Pontifical Urbanian University where he studied philosophy and theology. He was ordained a priest by Pope St. John Paul II on 31 May 1984.

He continued his studies in the faculty of theology of the Urbaniana University and obtained a doctorate in biblical theology in 1987.

He transferred to the Chaldean eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit which at the time was the Chaldean Diocese of the entire United States.  From 1987 to 2000 he served in the parish of St. Paul, North Hollywood, California; from 2000 to 2002 he was deputy priest of St. Joseph, Troy, Michigan; then, until 2006, he was pastor of the same parish and then parish priest of St. George in Township, Michigan, until 2015.

In 2009, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his priestly ordination, he received the title of Chorbishop.

On January 15 2015, the Holy Father Francis appointed him as bishop of the eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto of the Chaldeans, Canada, and he was ordained on February 6, 2015.

Mar Shaleta speaks Chaldean, Arabic, Italian and English, and knows Assyrian, Kurdish, French, German, and among the ancient languages, Latin, Hebrew and Greek.