JANUARY 2022

dad College and Al-Hikma University,
where Christians and Jews
worked, studied, and played together
harmoniously.
Although initially suspicious, the
Muslims came to admire the Jesuits
for their dedication and persistence.
They were impressed that the Jesuits
held their posts during the shortlived
pro-Nazi occupation of Baghdad
during World War II and during
the 1967 June war with Israel when
the American Embassy closed and all
other Americans fled.
In both cases, indeed over that
37-year period, the Iraqi people supported
and encouraged the Jesuits in
their educational work. The support
of these warm and generous Iraqi people
contrasted with the indifference
toward the Jesuit work displayed by
our own American Embassy in Iraq.
In 1968, the Baathi coup d’état
brought about the demise of the
Jesuit schools. The Baathi socialist
party moved quickly, closing not
only the Jesuit schools but also all
private schools in Iraq, just as the
Syrian Baathi government had done
a decade before.
The only ones to come to the
defense of the Jesuits were the Iraqi
Muslim professors from the University
of Baghdad. They pleaded in vain
with Iraq’s new Baathi president:
“You cannot treat the Jesuits this
way: they have brought many innovations
to Iraqi education and have
enriched Iraq by their presence.”
Nevertheless, the Baathi socialist
government ordered the Al-Hikma
Jesuits out of the country in November
of 1968. Hundreds of students
came to the airport to bid them farewell,
despite threats to their wellbeing
that were indeed carried out by
Baathi party members.
In August of 1969, the Jesuits of
Baghdad College were also banished
from Iraq. Both schools were taken
over and all fifteen major buildings,
including two libraries and seven
modern laboratories, were confiscated
by the Baathi party.
The most interesting part of the
Baghdad Jesuit adventure does not
concern buildings or huge campuses
but concerns rather the students,
their families, the Jesuits, and their
colleagues. It was the people involved
who made the mission such a
happy memory, since there was much
interaction between young American
Jesuits and youthful Iraqi citizens
and their families.
Much more than other Jesuits in
their American schools, the “Baghdadi”
Jesuits entered the family lives
of their students frequently and intimately
through home visits, celebrated
Muslim and Christian feast
days as well as myriad social events
together, both happy and sad. Jesuits
found the Iraqi students warm, hospitable,
humorous, imaginative, receptive,
hardworking, and appreciative
of educational opportunities. The
Iraqis found the Jesuits happy, funloving,
intelligent, and dedicated.
In the recent past, great attention
has again been paid to the Baghdad
mission by the New England province,
who made major investments
of manpower, money, equipment,
and prayers.
After the American invasion of
Iraq in 2003, some Iraqis asked, “When
are you Jesuits returning to Baghdad?”
The sad fact is that of the original 145
Jesuits, few are still alive. Likely Jesuits
from some province certainly will return
because a place so important to
Islam as well as to Christianity cannot
be ignored for very long.
Reflecting on their work over
the past 37 years, the Jesuits feel it
was all very worthwhile and they are
grateful to the many benefactors who
made their work possible. It was an
investment of men and of money
in the process of human development.
The yield has been great if one
measures results in terms of human
growth, love and understanding.
The Jesuits may have vanished
from Iraq, but still have no closure.
They have been trying to keep landmarks
of their former lives in Iraq,
arguing that their memorabilia is of
historic interest and huge value to
the rest of the Iraqi people. While
Iraqis themselves are increasingly
acknowledging the selfless loyalty
of the Jesuits, the blocking of their
return to Iraq rubs salt into the
wound, adding yet another injustice
to a very long list.
What form the future mission will
take? We leave it to the Holy Spirit,
who took the Jesuits to Baghdad in
the first place. One thing is clear —
the Jesuit mission to Iraq that ended
in 1969 was a great loss to Iraq, its
younger generations, and its educational
system.
The history of the Jesuit mission in Iraq
has been chronicled by the Rev. Joseph
MacDonnell, S.J., late of Fairfield
University, in his book Jesuits by the Tigris.
Special editing by Jacqueline Raxter
and Dave Nona.
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JANUARY 2022 CHALDEAN NEWS 35