The Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako told The Tablet that the Dicastery for Eastern Churches fails to treat Eastern Catholic patriarchs as heads of their own sui iuris Churches.
"They should know they are there to serve the Churches," the patriarch said. "They have to respect our identity."
He complained of "a lot of bureaucracy", with correspondence unanswered for months at a time, and a lack of respect for the patriarchs who "precede all bishops of any degree everywhere in the world" according to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Dealings with the patriarchs "should be very polite and very respectful", Sako said, suggesting the dicastery does not understand their status and the difficulties of their situation. "We are like fathers," he continued. "We are not businessmen. We are pastors."
Chaldean Catholics make up 80 per cent of the roughly 200,000 Christians remaining in Iraq, and are also present across the wider Middle East. There were an estimated 1 million Christians in Iraq in 1990, but instability since the US-led invasion in 2003 and persecution by Islamist extremists has driven many to flee the country.
Sako said Pope Leo understands the situation of Eastern Catholics. He spoke frequently to the then-Cardinal Robert Prevost during the conclave in May this year.
"I had time to explain to him what we are," the patriarch said, recounting their historic character, their "mission towards Muslims" in the modern day and how "our presence is threatened now".
The Pope addressed pilgrims for the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches on 14 May, days after his election, urging the Latin Church "to preserve and promote the Christian East" and telling Eastern Catholics: "You are precious."
Leo will hold a private meeting with the five Catholic patriarchs at the nunciature in Beirut on 1 December, during his six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon.
Since his election, he has given private audiences to the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï and the Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Joseph III Younan. The Tablet understands that Sako expected to meet Pope Leo privately during a visit to Rome last week, and was disappointed this did not take place.
In his remarks to The Tablet, the patriarch suggested curial officials were not best placed to advise the Pope about Eastern Churches.
"The Pope should be well informed by the dicasteries," he said, complaining of a lack of local understanding and "practical experience" in the Vatican, with little representation from the Middle East and Asia. "When they speak, they speak occidental speech."
He said that while the prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti knows Eastern Christianity from his academic background and experience as a nuncio, "he has his own ideas, fixed ideas" about the Churches.
The Vatican's approach, he continued, "should be academic, but also realistic" about the situation of Eastern Churches. It "should do more [to intervene with local leaders], not only speeches" because it can "make an impact on political life in the Middle East".
In Rome, the patriarch attended the episcopal ordination of Archbishop Mirosław Stanisław Wachowski in St Peter's on 26 October, following his appointment as apostolic nuncio to Iraq in September. Sako said he would offer "a map for the new nuncio" to follow.
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