Catholic University in Erbil poised to celebrate its 10th. Anniversary.

Christians in Iraq wanted to be “not just a statistic, but a light in society”. This had drawn inspiration behind the founding of The Catholic University in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. It was founded to provide an education to minority groups fleeing ISIS, but now, it aims to promote peace by teaching about Mesopotamia’s religious history.

The university commenced its academic persuasions in 2014, when Iraqi Christians were being displaced from their villages by ISIS. In 2015, His Excellency Archbishop Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil, saw that the Church was helping people by feeding people, protecting them, giving them places to stay, and decided that they needs to be educated also. Hence, the journey began with contacting people around the world to help in making this dream a reality. In the beginning, the Italian Bishops’ conference, and other organisations had poured help. The first students were from the minority groups, like Yazidis, Christians, who had been displaced by ISIS, forced to leave their houses.

Today, there are around 725 students, mostly Christian (60%), Muslims (30%), and the other 10% are Yazidis along with other minorities, representing all the colours of Iraq & the ethnicities.

In the beginning, people thought it to be bit strange, that in a Muslim majority region, Catholicism was in the happening. But the views were “this is our land, and we want to be here, not just as a statistic, but as a light in society. It would be terrible, for all Christians, if in the future there were no Christians in Iraq”.

It’s the only university in the Middle East with that kind of name. There are many Catholic universities in Lebanon, in Palestine, and so on, but none of them have the title ‘Catholic University of X’.

In September 2025, the university will celebrate its tenth anniversary; and for the next ten years, they aspire to integrate more into the world of international Catholic higher education. A few months ago, they were conferred with the membership of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and now pursuit is on to connect with the International Federation of Catholic Universities, with a vision of providing a very high-quality education based on the Catholic intellectual tradition. In their mission statement, it has been clearly reiterated. An impeccable education in Oriental Studies, about Mesopotamia and the origins of Christianity and the other religions, is the sole objective. In the process a department of Oriental Studies and Comparative Religions have been constituted, for teaching the students about the origins of their own religions and other religions, and in the way’s contributing to peacebuilding. The mission of the Church, which is “mater et magistra, mother and teacher”.

Team Maverick