Emil Shimoun Nona

Who is Emil Shimoun Nona?

Emil Shimoun Nona is the current Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul in the northern part of Iraq since the consent of Pope Benedict XVI to his election on 13 November 2009. He took over the archeparchy after the murder of Paulos Faraj Rahho in early 2008.

Nona, an ethnic Assyrian, was born in Alqosh in 1967. After completing his secondary education in 1985, he entered the Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary and was ordained priest on 11 January 1991 in Baghdad. From 1993 to 1997 he was parochial vicar at Alqosh, then pastor until 2000. He then enrolled at the Pontifical Lateran University. In 2005 he obtained a doctorate in theology and returned home. From 2005 he served as a professor of anthropology at the Babel College. Later, he was named vicar general of the Chaldean Catholic eparchy of Alqosh. He speaks Syriac, Arabic, Italian, and knows English.

On May 5 2009 the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church elected Nona archeparch of Mosul of the Chaldeans. Pope Benedict XVI gave his consent to Nona's election on November 13, 2009. He was ordained a bishop on 8 January 2010, with Mar Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, as principal consecrator.