Chaldean patriarchate transfers seminary, university to northern Iraq

Published: 2007-01-04

ROME (CNS) -- Continued violence against Catholic priests and church property in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad has prompted the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad to move the city's theological university and seminary to northern Iraq. Iraq's only Christian theological university, the Pontifical Babel College for Philosophy and Theology, and the patriarchal major seminary, Simon Peter, were to be transferred to Arbil, said a Jan. 4 report by the Rome-based AsiaNews news agency. The two institutions had been closed for several months because of a lack of security and increasing violence in Baghdad. The seminary's rector and vice rector had been kidnapped in September and December, respectively; the two men eventually were released unharmed. AsiaNews said the move "had been in the pipeline for sometime," but the decision was not made official until Jan. 4.

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