By Baghdadhope
Exactly ten years ago in the sunny cloister of his church in the centre of Baghdad a Chaldean priest confided to me that if the Americans were going to overthrow the regime that had been keeping Iraq under strict control for decennia they should be careful because the danger of a civil war would be very high, and "Christians would pay the highest price."
On August 1, 2004, the fear of Iraqi Christians turned into terror.
On August 1, 2004, the fear of Iraqi Christians turned into terror.
On that Sunday five churches were attacked, four in Baghdad and one in Mosul, and the toll of the dead and the injured was serious. The flight of Christians from the country and the capital became huge and someone began to talk of an Iraq without Christians.
The institutions, however, resisted, with difficulty, but they did. While in danger the Chaldean Church tried to keep the churches, the Babel College - the only Christian theological university in the country - and the Chaldean Major Seminary open. But the situation, right in the Dora, the district of southern Baghdad where the buildings of the college and the seminary still are, continued to deteriorate.
On August 15, 2006, Fr. Sa'ad Sirop Hanna was kidnapped. It was not the first abduction having as victims Christians priests, but it was the first that lasted more than two days and unleashed panic in the Christian community who perceived it, and had the confirmation in the following years, as a prearranged plan: hitting the religious symbols to facilitate the flight of Christians, take possession of their properties and clean up, quarter by quarter, one city and the whole country from a presence that for centuries had lived with the Muslim majority and that suddenly was looked upon as alien and hostile.
On September 2006 only a week had elapsed after the release of Father Sa'ad that, on the 18, again in the district of Dora, the then vice rector of the seminary, Father Basel Salem Yaldo who had been threatened for a long time, and who had been living for months inside the patriarchal building together with the students, was kidnapped. In November it was the turn of Father Douglas Al Bazi, director of the Institute for catechesis and in December that of the seminary rector, Father Sami Dinkha.
The situation was clear by then: the seminary had to be closed. It was too dangerous to remain barricaded in a kind of fortress with few guards. Already in the autumn the students were discreetly transferred to the north for a long spiritual retreat, and equally discreetly the church began to search for the premises that were going to house the detached see of the seminary awaiting for better times. On January 2007 the announcement: for the security of the students and the teachers the Chaldean Major Seminary of Saint Peter, the Babel College and the Institute for catechesis were transferred to the temporary offices in Ankawa, in the north of the country controlled by Kurdish Regional Government.
On August 15, 2006, Fr. Sa'ad Sirop Hanna was kidnapped. It was not the first abduction having as victims Christians priests, but it was the first that lasted more than two days and unleashed panic in the Christian community who perceived it, and had the confirmation in the following years, as a prearranged plan: hitting the religious symbols to facilitate the flight of Christians, take possession of their properties and clean up, quarter by quarter, one city and the whole country from a presence that for centuries had lived with the Muslim majority and that suddenly was looked upon as alien and hostile.
On September 2006 only a week had elapsed after the release of Father Sa'ad that, on the 18, again in the district of Dora, the then vice rector of the seminary, Father Basel Salem Yaldo who had been threatened for a long time, and who had been living for months inside the patriarchal building together with the students, was kidnapped. In November it was the turn of Father Douglas Al Bazi, director of the Institute for catechesis and in December that of the seminary rector, Father Sami Dinkha.
The situation was clear by then: the seminary had to be closed. It was too dangerous to remain barricaded in a kind of fortress with few guards. Already in the autumn the students were discreetly transferred to the north for a long spiritual retreat, and equally discreetly the church began to search for the premises that were going to house the detached see of the seminary awaiting for better times. On January 2007 the announcement: for the security of the students and the teachers the Chaldean Major Seminary of Saint Peter, the Babel College and the Institute for catechesis were transferred to the temporary offices in Ankawa, in the north of the country controlled by Kurdish Regional Government.
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There, thanks to the security that the particular situation in the region for now ensures, the lessons were resumed and with them the path of faith of the seminarists who, as Father Douglas Al Bazi said on the occasion of the journey they did in Europe on last summer, "have faith and courage as they want to become priests in Iraq in these days."
While in Baghdad the buildings of the seminary and of the Babel College became, on March 2007 - and still are without any authorization by the Chaldean Church detaining their property - Cop Hamanche, the American base of the 4˚ Squadron of the First Infantry Division, in Ankawa the lessons in the seminary began again with the assistance of a new rector and the presence of many students.
Father Sami Dinkha, now pastor of the Chaldean church of Essen in Germany, had been succeded as the new rector by the Redemptorist Father Bashar Warda who, assisted by Father Fadi Lyon, now supervises the 26 seminarists. (22 Chaldean and 4 Syriac Catholic)
But it was a temporary solution, the rented premises were unfit for purpose, and the Chaldean Patriarchate decided to make it permanent. For this reason on Friday, 26 of September, the new building of the Chaldean Major Seminary was inaugurated in Ankawa, to be followed by a convent for nuns, a church, and even a seat of the Patriarchate to be inaugurated in a solemn way on the occasion of the next synod of Chaldean church that will be held in early 2009.
These inaugurations do not represent a radical change. No one in the Chaldean church has ever thought to leave Baghdad and the faithful who still live there. The hope for the future is to reopen the churches, the seminary and the university in the capital. But for now the situation requires to be realistic, the seminarists must be able to live in an environment that allows them to study and consolidate their vocations, and the students of Babel College must attend the lessons without risking their lives.
These needs are met by the new seminary on the outskirts of Ankawa. A building fully equipped with classrooms, meeting rooms, 38 rooms for the students, a chapel and adjacent buildings for the staff.
Right the chapel of the seminary on Saturday afternoon saw the first act of the opening ceremony: a Holy Mass celebrated by the patriarch of the Chaldean church, Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly at the presence of Mgr. Shleimun Warduni, Patriarch Vicar, Mgr. Jacques Isaac, Rector of the Babel College, Father Bashar Warda and Father Fadi Lyon, Rector and Vice Rector of the seminary, Father Denis Como, spiritual father of the seminar, other priests, and of course the protagonists of the future of the institution, the seminarists.
But the real inauguration was held on Sunday morning. Along with those present on Saturday there were representatives of the government and others. There were Chaldean nuns, the episcopal administrator of Erbil, Mons. Rabban Al Qas, the mayor of the city, Nawzad Hadi, and Sarkis Aghajan, Minister of Finance of the Kurdish Regional Government that, as declared to Baghdadhope by Mgr. Shleimun Warduni: "Funded the cost of the building of the seminary." "It was a moment of celebration," continued Mgr. Warduni "A moment that was, however, disturbed by the news of the revoke of the art.50 of the law concerning the election of the provincial councils which gave 13 seats to Christians in six provinces. An error against minority communities - even the seats for the Shabak and Yazidis were canceled - and the Iraqi people that in its complexity would have by the minority communities an important contribution to its development. In any case we must go ahead. This afternoon - on Sunday, editor’s note - Patriarch Delly took part to another inauguration, that of a large multipurpose hall for the Christian community in Shaqlawa, a city where people go for outings and spiritual retreats and where Christians need a great common equipped area for their meetings. In a few days Mar Delly will leave for Lebanon to attend the annual meeting of Catholic bishops of the Eastern churches and from there he will reach Rome for the Synod of Catholic bishops from all the world."
But the real inauguration was held on Sunday morning. Along with those present on Saturday there were representatives of the government and others. There were Chaldean nuns, the episcopal administrator of Erbil, Mons. Rabban Al Qas, the mayor of the city, Nawzad Hadi, and Sarkis Aghajan, Minister of Finance of the Kurdish Regional Government that, as declared to Baghdadhope by Mgr. Shleimun Warduni: "Funded the cost of the building of the seminary." "It was a moment of celebration," continued Mgr. Warduni "A moment that was, however, disturbed by the news of the revoke of the art.50 of the law concerning the election of the provincial councils which gave 13 seats to Christians in six provinces. An error against minority communities - even the seats for the Shabak and Yazidis were canceled - and the Iraqi people that in its complexity would have by the minority communities an important contribution to its development. In any case we must go ahead. This afternoon - on Sunday, editor’s note - Patriarch Delly took part to another inauguration, that of a large multipurpose hall for the Christian community in Shaqlawa, a city where people go for outings and spiritual retreats and where Christians need a great common equipped area for their meetings. In a few days Mar Delly will leave for Lebanon to attend the annual meeting of Catholic bishops of the Eastern churches and from there he will reach Rome for the Synod of Catholic bishops from all the world."
A very active patriarch ...
"Yes, consider that on Saturday beside the inauguration of the seminar we also celebrated his 81° birthday. It could not be in a better way."