Sacred Heart Chaldean Church, Chaldean Catholic church in Detroit, Michigan, United States
Sacred Heart Chaldean Church is a Chaldean Catholic church built in 1975 in Assyrian Revival style on 7 Mile Road in Chaldean Town, Detroit. Its Assyrian name is ʿēttāʾ d-lebbēh d-māran d-ḵaldāyēʾ. The congregation left the building in 2015 for a new facility in Warren, Michigan, and the structure was put up for sale.
Sacred Heart Chaldean Church was built in 1975 in Assyrian Revival style on 7 Mile Road in Chaldean Town. In 1979, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein donated $250,000 to the church and was given the key to Detroit. Its pastor, Jacob Yasso, later described Hussein as a generous, warm man who let too much power go to his head. The church closed in 2015 as the local Assyrian population thinned out.
The church's name appears in Imperial Aramaic as ʿēttāʾ d-lebbēh d-māran d-ḵaldāyēʾ, the language of its Chaldean congregation. Its pastor Jacob Yasso described Saddam Hussein, who gave $250,000 in 1979, as "a very generous, warm man who just let too much power go to his head". The parish belonged to the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit.
The church closed in 2015 and the congregation moved to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Warren, Michigan, so the 7 Mile Road building no longer holds services. A "for sale" sign stood outside from around October 2015 and was gone from street view by November 2016. The building belongs to the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit.
In 1979, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein donated $250,000 to the church and was given the key to the city of Detroit. The church's pastor, Jacob Yasso, later described him as a very generous, warm man who just let too much power go to his head.
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