July 17 marks the 50th anniversary of the coup d’etat in Iraq that brought the Baathist party to power.

The Jesuits certainly will return to Bagdad, because a place so important to Islam as well as to Christianity cannot be ignored for very long. What form the future mission will take we leave to the Holy Spirit, who took us there in the first place. But one thing is clear: the Jesuit mission to the Iraqis did not end in 1969.

In These Pages: From May 26, 2003