Jesuits in Iraq: Contributions to education

By Dr. Adhid Miri

Education can be thought of as the transmission of values and accumulated knowledge of a society. It expands an individual’s understanding of the world, their ability to reason, to solve problems, to communicate, and their ability to get things done.

Value-based education broadens knowledge of culture, tradition, behavior, attitude, and empathy. Its purpose is to promote truth, reality, responsibility and care towards society and family. It is movement from darkness to light.

American Jesuits went to Iraq as educators and founded institutions of learning to further their mission of faith, justice, and solidarity. They work for reconciliation every day – with God, with human beings, and with the environment. Their ministries extend across a world of human need. Collaboration is at the heart of the Jesuit mission.

In this article, we seek to explore what their philosophy of education was, what methods of education they employed, and how successful their mission in Iraq was. We shall also explore why they were eventually expelled and how their work in Baghdad was brought to an abrupt end.

The Beginning

In 1850, two Jesuits were sent from Beirut to Baghdad to determine if the time was right for a Jesuit mission there. Their caravan was robbed on the way to and from Baghdad; consequently, they decided that the time for a mission there had not yet arrived.

In 1932, the same year that Iraq gained its independence, four Jesuits from the United States arrived in Baghdad. They bought two houses by the Tigris River, creating Baghdad College, a high school for boys, with an enrollment of 120. The student body increased eventually to 1,000.

The Jesuits came to Iraq in response to a request by the Chaldean Patriarch Mar Emmanuel II Toma, a graduate of the Jesuit Universite St. Joseph in Beirut. He had made his request as early as 1921, but in 1935 his request was made known to Pope Pius XI who asked the Jesuit General, Fr. Wladimir Ledechowski, to approach the Jesuits in America because they were (and still are) the most numerous English-speaking Jesuits in the world.

The New England Province undertook the project. Jesuits had passed through Mesopotamia before. St. Ignatius Loyola, their founder, had spent some time in the Holy Land and creating a dialogue with Islam was one of his highest priorities.

Initially, Baghdad presented as a strange city for the Jesuits. The language, dress, and customs created that aura of mystery which surrounds cities of the East. The crowded and dimly lit covered bazaar, with its brocades and spices and peculiar smells, was in sharp contrast to the broad pavements and glassed store fronts they had known. Regardless, they settled in and got down to work. Before long they became familiar with the silent scrutiny of the Baghdadis.

In his dissertation on the history of the early days of Baghdad College, Charles Bashara describes good relations between the Patriarch and the King which made the invitation to the Jesuits more secure. He draws his data from the Chaldean Patriarch’s correspondence as well as from the New England Province archives.

The Middle East

“If you have not seen Baghdad, you have not seen the world.” So runs a sentence from Medieval Arabic literature, underlining the splendor and opulence that was Baghdad. It was the city of caliphs and Turkish mercenaries, a center of learning and a locus of intrigue. Baghdad still maintains a charm among oriental cities.

For 37 years, the city fascinated and held the attention of a group of New England Jesuits who came not to see the world or to explore the mysteries of the East, but to aid in the education of Iraqi youth. The brief span at Baghdad College contrasts with the centuries of Christian presence and was only the latest in a long line of efforts made by Jesuits and other religious orders to establish a presence there.

Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, was always interested in the Islamic religion. He wanted to learn about Islam partly because Muslims controlled the Holy Land, and he sent Jesuits to Egypt in 1550 when the Jesuit Order was only 10 years old.

There was a more profound interest in the Middle East at the beginning of the 19th century, with the apostolate dealing mostly with dissident Christian groups, but always with an interest in Islam. There were numerous Christian massacres in the area, especially during the four centuries of Turkish rule ending in 1918. Jesuits had been working in Syria and Turkey; before the Armenian massacre in 1915, Turkey had 11 Jesuit houses.

The Jesuit objective in Baghdad was to help form an active Christian community through sound Christian education. At the same time, by educating several Muslim young men, they would encourage greater tolerance and understanding of the faith, working to the mutual advantage of Christians and Muslims alike.

Rome’s response

What was needed to begin such an enterprise, more than the talents of an educator and executive, was the wisdom demanded in dealing with the leaders and diplomats of an Arab country and the suspicions of a Muslim public.

Georgetown’s Fr. Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. was chosen. He was sent to Rome for an initial briefing and then to Baghdad as a Vatican representative. Pope Pius XI emphasized to Fr. Walsh the dire need for a Catholic college in Baghdad; however, the project faced double difficulty, personnel and financial.

Fr. Edmund and Pius XI agreed that the personnel problem could be solved with the help of the Jesuit Superior General and the financial problem, by using the reserves of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. This was a Vatican sponsored foundation of which Fr. Walsh was both a fund-raiser and an officer. Fr. Walsh had a practical plan involving the American Jesuit colleges.

The government of Iraq would also be awakened to the realization that part of its people belongs to a great international family of Christians. This arrangement would likewise exclude any idea of a political protectorate. Moreover, in virtue of its affiliation with American universities, the school could look forward to assistance in its development, financially and otherwise.

Fr. Walsh arrived in Baghdad on March 7, 1931 and made his contact with the Iraqi government. They had no difficulty granting him permission to open a school of higher education and agreed that starting with a secondary school made sense. In a treaty which had recently been signed by the United States and Iraq, Americans were granted full freedom to found and run schools in Iraq.

It was not until March 5, 1932, after informing the Iraqi government that the Iraq American Educational Association was ready to undertake formal operations, that he received a cablegram confirmation. It was the same as the one he had received nearly a year before but had not made public.

College vs. boarding house

The only sticky problem in Fr. Walsh’s negotiations came not from the hierarchy nor from the government of Iraq, but from the Vatican’s Oriental Congregation, which wanted to start a boarding house rather than a school. Apparently, they assumed that the Jesuits were not up to the task of starting and directing a college in Iraq.

The Jesuits and the Iraqi bishops were shocked at the Congregation’s very restricted plan, which was several rungs beneath their lofty expectations. They were determined to have a secondary school which would possibly pave the way later for a college and university.

Fr. Walsh visited not only Baghdad, but Mosul and Basra. He found the Christian leaders unanimous in demanding a school and not a boarding house. Fr. Walsh conveyed the wishes of Iraq’s bishops to the Congregation in a very forceful manner; the Oriental Congregation bowed to the wishes of the Iraqi bishops and reluctantly allowed the college to go forward.

The Iraq-American Educational Association

As a result of Fr. Walsh’s report, the presidents of seven American Jesuit colleges formed an association to sponsor and aid the educational work in Iraq. This corporation acted as a sort of holding company, to offer both moral support and representation, if such should be necessary.

These institutions were: Boston College, the University of Detroit, Georgetown University, Loyola University in Chicago, Loyola University of New Orleans, St. Louis University, and the University of San Francisco.

This association was later replaced by the Iraq American Educational Association, duly registered with and approved by the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad. The legal certificate for the incorporation of the Iraq-American Educational Association is in the files of the Recorder of Deeds of the District of Columbia, dated April 9, 1932.

The bishops of Iraq, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the Jesuits from America ever since Fr. Walsh had left Iraq, did not have long to wait.

The Arrival

The American Jesuit provincials were busy picking four men suitable for the job. As for the authorization of the Iraqi government, they anticipated no difficulty and left America without clearance, sure that it would eventually arrive. Thankfully, it did.

The provincials decided to start with one man from each of four provinces. Their choice of these Jesuits was quite delicate, as they were seeking men who could be spared from local apostolates, who knew several languages, who had experience as educators, and who were outgoing and self-sufficient. It is curious that a minor criterion seemed to favor men whose names sounded “American;” whatever that could have meant.

Their choices were: New England’s Fr. Rice (whose father’s French-Canadian name Raiche had been changed to Rice); Chicago’s Fr. Madaras, who arrived in Baghdad in early March 1932; New York’s Fr. Coffey; and California’s Fr. Mifsud, who joined a few months later.

The fact that the names of all four men had Arabic meanings had nothing to do with their selection. Rice in Arabic means “president;” Madaras means “school;” Coffey means “enough;” and Mifsud means “corrupter.” (Later, Fr. Mifsud discretely changed his name to Fr. Miff, which had no meaning at all.)

Within a few years the Iraq Mission was almost entirely made up of members of the New England Province. Until 1960, the Rector of Baghdad College was also the Superior of the Mission.

In subsequent parts of the Jesuits in Iraq story, we will cover Baghdad College, Al-Hikma University, and the expulsion of Jesuits from Iraq.

Special editing by Jaqueline Raxter and Dave Nona.