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Fr. Joseph A. Paquet, S.J.
Volume 38

 

TEACHER, MISSIONARY
PASTORAL MINISTER




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Hope and Crisis in Baghdad

Strong Influence by Great Jesuits

In answer to your question about strong influence from my Jesuit teachers, I can't point any finger at any one. But the people there collectively made a great impression on me. I did like Frs. John Butler, John Conklin, Leo Pollard, Reggie O'Neill-they're all dead now. Fr. Larry Herne in my third year was very impressive. All the kids in the class just thought he was the greatest, and he was. You could say that he was the first among equals, since they were all good. Anyway, when I graduated from B.C. High, I had decided I was going to join the Jesuits.


Joyfully off to Baghdad

So I went off to Baghdad in a group of eight scholastics and Fr. Charlie Crowley. He's now here in Campion Center. We went by ship from New York to Beirut. It was on a very nice, even XXXluxurious cruise ship. It took us nineteen days to go across with stops here and there for tourism. When we got to Beirut, we had to wait for a few days. We then had a long, 500-mile overland trip by bus to Baghdad. It was a real adventure. By the time we got there, we knew that we were in a remote place. It had been a long trip.


Nine Months on Twenty-six Acres

Of course, it was a small and rather confined group there at Baghdad College. Obviously, there would be gloomy days, and, at times, there were differences of opinion, but there were never any real divisions. Somebody described life at Baghdad College as "nine months on twenty-six acres." Though there wasn't much to do in the city, you had public transportation right from our door. When I got back after ordination, the new Al-Hikma University and its community were not very far away. We would go there occasionally and have dinner in their garden. And, of course, they would visit us from time to time. All that was rather nice and balanced out our hard work.

The Death of a Dream

We didn't think the our expulsion from Iraq would be that abrupt. It took us two or three days to transport things from Al-Hikma to Baghdad College. This included chapel supplies and a lot of books. The Al-Hikma Jesuits couldn't get into their library or even their own offices in the school buildings. But they managed to get some of their records.
When they left, they went on several flights-Lufthansa, Air France, etc., but no American airlines. In any case, Fr. Ray Powers, the principal, and Fr. Jack Carty, the rector. said, "We can't cancel the school for their departure, but we're not going to forbid anybody from going to the airport if he wants to. We'll just make arrangements to cover your classes." So I was down at the airport at 5:30 that morning. And, though it was pretty well known that the government officials didn't want any sort of display at the airport, and the students of Al-Hikma were even told that if they went to the airport they'd be arrested, they and the alumni just thumbed their noses at the government and went to the airport. When I got there myself, there were already about three hundred of them milling around, waiting for the first group to fly out. The security police were powerless to stop them.

 

Born: May 25, 1928, Dorchester, Massachusetts

• Entered: July 30, 1946, Lenox, Massachusetts, St. Stanislaus Novitiate/Shadowbrook

• Ordained: June 13, 1959, Weston, Massachusetts, Weston College

 
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