By Baghdadhope
The new academic year of Babel College started yesterday in Ankawa. The college is the only Christian theological faculty in Iraq and it is managed by the Patriarchate of Babylon of Chaldeans. The Holy Mass in the church of Mar Eliya in Ankawa was celebrated by Mgr. Jacques Isaac and Father Rayan P. Atto, parish priest of Mar Qardagh church in Erbil. Ankawa is the city in the north of Iraq where the college was relocated from Baghdad on January due to the worsening security situation in Dora, the south-eastern area of the capital where it was. Attending the event were the priests of Ankawa and those from Al Qosh with their bishop, Mgr. Mikha P. Maqdassi, monks, sisters, representatives of the Kurdish Regional Government in the territory of which Ankawa is, Father Jibrail, General Superior of Chaldean monks and different personalities from the city.
"We need optimism and courage" Mgr. Isaac told to Baghdadhope in a telephonic interview, "and I am optimistic." "Optimistic about the role Babel College has and will have in the education of Iraqi clergy. Our duty, as an ecclesiastic institution, is to educate but above all prepare the future witnesses of Christ. For this reason I invited the priests and the bishops of all the dioceses to take advantage of Babel College, of our teaching staff, of the cultural contribution the college can give."
Click on "leggi tutto" for the whole interview by Baghdadhope
All the people present could also see the progresses of the new wing of the college, a three-storied outbuilding where there will be a lecture-hall, four classrooms and the library. "We already have 6.000 books, a good number, but nothing compared to those that are still in the college library in Baghdad" went on the bishop, "books that we cannot take back by now because the college, the seminary and the convent in Dora are unapproachable. Not only the area is extremely dangerous, but the three buildings are still occupied by the american army that transformed them into their base in the area."
Contemporaneously to the courses of Babel College also those of the Institute of Religious Sciences will restart. They were stopped last year due to the problems linked to the relocation of the institution. In three years the Institute will prepare the future cathechists and those who want to go into more depth religious studies, "and I took the chance to announce that the Institute will start its courses in Baghdad again, in the church of Mar Ghorghis" said proudly Mgr. Isaac, "a sign that in spite of the difficulties Church continues on its path of faith and courage."
Mgr. Isaac is the Rector of Babel College and of the Institute of Religious Sciences but, living in Baghdad, avails himself of some co-workers when in the capital. So deputy rectors of Babel College are Fr. Salem Saha and Fr. Fadi Lion, the latter being also deputy of the Institute of Religious Sciences the director of the studies of which is Fr. Rayan P. Atto.