By Catholic News Agency
Perry West
A Catholic university in the U.S. has partnered with an Iraqi Catholic college to promote opportunities for scholarship, collaboration, and understanding between the two countries.
Perry West
A Catholic university in the U.S. has partnered with an Iraqi Catholic college to promote opportunities for scholarship, collaboration, and understanding between the two countries.
Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and the Catholic
University of Erbil (CUE) in Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding
on Dec. 6.
“The agreement forges ties between the two schools and cities that
include cultural exchanges, such as the visit this past September by
Iraqi high school students to Steubenville,” Tom Sofio, a Franciscan
University spokesman, told CNA.
“The agreement also allows for the development of language courses in
Arabic and Aramaic to be offered to Franciscan University students, the
pursuit of scholarship funding for Iraqi students to study at
Franciscan University … and Skype sessions between students at
Franciscan University and The Catholic University of Erbil,” Sofio
added.
The document was signed by Father Dave Pivonka, president of
Franciscan, and Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, who founded the Iraq
university in 2015.
Under the agreement, students from Iraq can receive scholarships to
take Franciscan University courses in person or online, and, in turn,
Franciscan University students will have opportunities to visit Erbil,
study there, and better experience the culture of the Kurdistan region
in Iraq.
Erbil’s Catholic university, only four years old, has 147 students
and offers 10 programs, including pharmacy technology, accounting, law,
and international relations, the Herald-Star reported.
The partnership will also explore avenues of catechetical assistance
for the Diocese of Erbil, which could involve the collaboration of
Franciscan University’s Catechetical Institute, Conference Office, and
Wild Goose, a ministry led by the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order
Regular and founded by Pivonka.
The partnership has been supported by Aid to the Church in Need USA.
The organization also recently funded two of CUE’s computer labs, which
especially benefit students in civil engineering or architecture
programs.
Warda founded the CUE in 2015 to promote higher education and to help Christians displaced by the Islamic State.
Some 125,000 Christians live in Iraq. The Christian population of the
country has declined dramatically in recent years, as Christians fled
the persecution of the Islamic State or were killed. The northern
Kurdistan region in Iraq has about 4,300 Chaldean Christians, the
Herald-Star reported, and several thousand more have fled to Iraqi
Kurdistan since 2014.
Pivonka expressed hope that the partnership will be an opportunity
for U.S. Catholic students to interact with Christians in other
countries who have faced terrible persecution.
“Largely the Christians in Iraq have been forgotten. But they have much to offer us,” Pivonka told the Herald-Star this week.
“We talk about inconveniences in our faith. But in Iraq there are
people who are dying for it. All of the (Iraqi) youth here have family
members who have been killed. It’s just part of their faith.”