ANKAWA, Iraq, JAN. 16, 2007 (Zenit.org) - Classes have resumed at Iraq's only faculty of Christian theology as well as at a seminary that moved out of Baghdad for security reasons.
Chaldean Bishop Rabban al-Qas told AsiaNews that the doors of Babel College and St. Peter's Major Seminary reopened on Thursday, after being closed for months.
Abductions, assaults and threats to the Christian community in the capital convinced local Church leaders first to shut down both the college and seminary, and then to move them.
The neighborhood of Dora, where the headquarters of both institutions were first located, has become one of the most dangerous areas of Baghdad.
The reopening of the faculty of theology was marked by a Mass celebrated by Monsignor Jacques Isaac, rector of Babel College, in the Chaldean Church of Mar Eliya.
Bishop Andraos Abouna, vicar patriarch representing Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly, and Sarkis Aghajan, a Christian and finance minister in Kurdistan's regional government, were also present.
About 25 seminarians are registered in Babel College, but there are many other students studying theology and philosophy.
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