Chaldean college returned to clergy in Baghdad

(TC) - The United States Army has returned the Pontifical Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in Baghdad to the Chaldean Catholic Church, promising to repair or replace anything damaged while its troops occupied the buildings, Vatican Radio reported.

Seminarians, students and staff left the complex in January 2007, temporarily moving to northern Iraq, because students and staff were not safe in the area of Baghdad where the college is situated.

Three months later, the US Army occupied the buildings as a combat outpost. The college was occupied first by the 4th Cavalry Squadron of the First Mechanized Infantry Division and then by the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment.

In a recent report, Vatican Radio quoted the college rector, Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Jacques Ishaq of Baghdad, as saying the Army had now transferred the property back to the Church.

"The Americans decided to leave the buildings and have signed an agreement to restore the damaged parts and replace what was destroyed," he said.

The library suffered no damaged, he said, because the Army sealed it when they took over the buildings.

Bishop Ishaq also said Army chaplains held services for soldiers in the chapel, so it was preserved as the Army found it.

He added that it would take Army engineers months to finish restoring the complex.