Commemorating Bishop Paulus Thabet

Paulus Thabet Habib Al-Mekko (February 14, 1976 – June 18, 2025)

He was a bishop in the Chaldean Catholic Church and, in the final years of his life, served as the Bishop of the Chaldean Diocese of Alqosh. He was renowned for his profound knowledge of the diocese's liturgical and linguistic heritage and played a prominent role in preserving the local language and traditions. Furthermore, he was deeply dedicated to providing spiritual and social care to the faithful of the diocese.

Ecclesiastical Life

Thabet Habib was ordained a priest on July 20, 2008, in Karemlash by Cardinal Emmanuel Delly within the Chaldean Diocese of Mosul. In the following years, he served as a professor of "Patrology" at Babel College of Philosophy and Theology and participated in Christian education programs.

He spent the subsequent years of his pastoral service in the town of Karemlash and other towns in the Nineveh Plains. He served as a priest in Karemlash until 2014, then moved with the people of his village to Erbil following the ISIS attack on the Nineveh Plains. He remained in Erbil for several years until the liberation of the Nineveh Plains in 2017, after which he returned to Karemlash to encourage the residents to return and participate in the reconstruction of their homes and churches.

On August 14, 2021, he was elected Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Alqosh and was consecrated a bishop on October 22, 2021, by Cardinal Louis Sako. He then succeeded Bishop Mikha Maqdasi as the leader of the diocese on October 8, 2022.