Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
James Martin, S.J.September 07, 2011

The inspiring story of the New England Jesuits who founded and ran Baghdad College, that city's premier high school for several decades, is well known to Jesuits.  (The Society was summarily kicked out of the country when the Baath party came to power.)  The school's alumni are among the most loyal of all Jesuit alumni; and the New England Jesuits known as "Baghdaddys" (alt: "Baghdadis") still speak fondly of their time in Iraq.  This morning NPR did a brief story on the school's legacy; it was gratifying to see this chapter in U.S. Jesuit history given its due.

A school founded by Americans in Iraq before the Saddam Hussein era is an emblem of a time when the United States was known in the Middle East not for military action, but for culture and education. That's the view of Puliter Prize-winning New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who recently wrote an essay about the school, titled "The American Age, Iraq."

First opened in the 1930s by New England Jesuits, Baghdad College became the Iraqi capital's premier high school. Classes were conducted in English — and the defining feature of the school was not proselytizing, but a rigorous education, Shadid says.

As Shadid tells Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep, the school was a symbol of Iraq's identity — which he says was more secular and universal in the middle of the 20th century than it is today.

The school "also represented something for both the United States and for Iraq, and the way that they saw each other," Shadid says, "that they could allow themselves an almost idealistic version of each other. I think that's impossible today, and I say that with a certain sense of sadness."

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
13 years 10 months ago
This is a great picture of a basketball game. After Mass one Sunday, I spoke briefly with the late Fr. Joe MacDonnell, S.J., who asked me if I played basketball. He informed me that, as coach for Baghdad College, he led the team to a championship by introducing the "man-to-man" defense to that country. 

The latest from america

A Reflection for the Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Ashley McKinless
Ashley McKinlessJuly 08, 2025
No one ever expected a U.S.-born pope. In this first-ever I “Inside the Vatican” Deep Dive series, those who know him best reveal who Pope Leo XIV—“the American pope”—really is. In Episode 1, we hear from the genealogist who uncovered his Louisiana roots, a teacher, and fellow Augustinian friars
Inside the VaticanJuly 08, 2025
The Vatican Synod office has released a set of guidelines for local churches and bishops to implement the proposals of the recent Synod on Synodality.
When Miami native Tom Llamas was named “NBC Nightly News” anchor following the retirement of Lester Holt, one of the first phone calls he placed was to the rector/president of his Jesuit high school alma mater.