The Jesuits who served in Baghdad are all men of advanced years by now. Almost every one of the surviving priests and brothers has reached at least 70, and many died long ago.
Teachers and administrators in Baghdad College and Al-Hikma University, they were unceremoniously expelled by the Baath Party when it seized power in 1968. That is the party of Saddam Hussein who was only a military officer at that time and would not become dictator till years later.
Of the 146 Jesuit priests, scholastics and brothers who served in Baghdad, about 60 are still alive. You might imagine that events in which they figured decades ago might have become distant memories for these men. On the contrary, their experiences remain vivid, as conversations with them quickly reveal. They still feel grateful for the opportunity to serve their church there and deeply regret the Iraqi government’s decision to expel them.
Looking back, Father Simon Smith says, “It still hurts, but I have stopped bleeding.” He remembers that all the Jesuits based at the university, having been given only 72 hours to prepare, left Baghdad on the same day: against government orders, some 400 people came to say good-bye to their former mentors.
A major reason for the experience remaining fresh in the minds and heart of the Jesuits is the continued loyalty toward them shown by their alumni living in the United States and Canada. Every two years, these alums invite their former teachers to a reunion that features good cheer and reminiscence. The next one will take place in Toronto in the summer of 2,002.
The former students, most of them now American citizens, show much affection for the Jesuits and great generosity as well. It is their custom to contribute money to the New England Jesuit Province, with a view toward supporting their former teachers in their old age. One man has given half a million dollars for the Jesuit infirmary and two others have each given 100,000 dollars, and they are not alone in their generosity.
About one-third of the students at Baghdad College (“B.C. on the Tigris,” the Jesuits sometimes called it) were Muslims; another third Orthodox Christians; and most of the rest Catholics. About ten percent were Jewish. The Jesuits were respectful of traditions different from their own, a respect that the alums still appreciate.
When asked for their views on the current – – and sometimes prejudicial – – treatment of people of Arabic descent in this country, the Jesuits interviewed for this column differ in the strength of their feelings.
They are certainly united in sharing a love for the people of Iraq and especially for their former students. One of them, principal at a Jesuit school in Boston, is reported to pray publicly for the children in Iraq and Iran every day. And these Jesuits strongly advocate lifting the American-driven embargo on Iraq that they see inflicting grievous harm on the children of that country.
James McDavitt, a 71-year-old Jesuit brother based in Boston, has taken the lead in keeping in touch with the Baghdad alums and their families. He has a file of 300 of them who receive his email messages, and many of them respond to him. Though he never served in Iraq himself, Jim McDavitt says of the alums, “They look on me as a conduit to the Fathers.”
An effective conduit he is, sending out messages filled with spiritual meaning and warm human feeling to the alums, among them Muslims who often respond similarly. “I have come to know these people and love them,” says Brother McDavitt.
Four days after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, for instance, he sent out the following message: “We want you to know that you are not far from our thoughts and prayers in these troubled days. . . In seeking out the perpetrators of this horrific terrorism, there are those who will find it in themselves to look to anyone from the Middle East as the guilty. Please God, no harm will come to you, physically or verbally. The contempt for human life demonstrated in these wholesale attacks on the innocent is a fundamental violation of all religious traditions, whether it is Islam, Judaism, or Christianity.”
For a personal contact with alumni, a Jesuit friend referred me to an Iraqi-American family living in a Boston suburb. They reported not having experienced any harassment in their workplaces. The middle-aged son in the family did, however, encounter an angry shop owner who called the FBI. Agents came and questioned him but, he says, “they were very nice.”
Some of the Jesuits still worry about prejudicial treatment of their alums and others from the Middle East in an era when anti-terrorist zeal has led to erosion of some civil rights. “I think ethnic profiling is always bad,” one Jesuit professor based at Fairfield University told me. “Blaming the Arabs for what a few have done” is something about which he continues to feel concern.
Richard Griffin