New Catholic university in Kurdistan

From Zenit: a new Catholic university will open in the city of Erbil, northern Kurdistan.

The first courses of Catholic University in Erbil, the capital of Northern Kurdistan, will begin this year.

Recently, Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, ordinary of the archdiocese of Erbil and a great supporter of the project, announced in a letter the imminent commencement of activity in four faculties, including a college for studies in business administration, reported Fides.

The foundation was laid in 2012 in a suburb of Erbil that is mainly Christian. The university will be open to all, following the pattern of other Catholic universities in the Middle East such as Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Bethlehem University, and Notre Dame University in north Lebanon.

Catholic universities have had success in predominantly Muslim areas, and they have also been a haven for Muslim students in the United States because they have long experience with the challenge of remaining centered even while engaging religious pluralism. The sound byte reason: Catholic universities exist not to make other people Catholic, but to be an authentic expression of the Catholic faith in the knowability of the world. We find God when we seek truth together with friends.

Stay tuned for the next issue of Integritas, due in mid-April, which addresses why Catholic universities are well-poised to address the important challenges of globalization.