Blogger Fayrouz, a native of Basra now living in Texas, presents an interview with Father Yousif Thomas, a Dominican brother in Iraq who is planning to build a new Catholic open university in Baghdad. Quite bold. Father Yousif apparently speaks eight languages, and responded to Fayrouz's questions in excellent English. Here's one example:
Q: How is the project of the Open University going?
A: Our Project of Open University was to help questioning this generation; our Logo is based on a phrase of Archimedes 230 BC: "Give me a place to stand and with a lever and I will move the whole world." In my opinion culture is this lever which can move our world, and I hope we who want to stay, because it is our vocation to save the people we can; and we must do it...
Q: What are the largest challenges for the Iraqi Catholic Church to overcome in the next decade?
A: Immigration doesn't help the society, it helps individuals only. This is a big challenge to us; and being spread all over the world makes us so tiny and weak. We have something to give and we say we carry behind us a glorious past, a rich history; but nothing is done by our expatriates. Look at the 200,000 Iraqi Christians who are outside. Do they have schools? Universities? Important Media? And the most dangerous for them is to be dissolved in the new context. The big challenge is to be a bridge between generations, religions, communities, and may be individuals, to help each one to become aware of his identity.
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