The Rev. Thomas B. Mulvehill, S.J., Warns Arab-American Educational Ties Collapsed After Six-Day War

A “Whatever prestige America had with the Arab world collapsed in 1967 after the Six-Day War,” says the Rev. Thomas B. Mulvehill, S.J., “and our efforts as educators gradually became suspect.” Father Mulvehill, who went to Iraq in 1946 to teach at a Jesuit high school in Baghdad, was summarily expelled from the country with other priests on the faculty last November. “We were asked to leave after a political upheaval in which Arab nationalists came into power who strongly resented the financial and military support America gave to Israel. The new regime taking over opposed foreign influence in any area — especially in education,” he explains.

Father Mulvehill, whose father was a prominent selectman and postmaster in Norwood before his death in 1936, was deeply disturbed by this sudden political development but does not feel that his decades in Iraq have been negated. The 55-year-old priest helped develop what he believes was a “first-class American-type high school” in Baghdad and was instrumental in the creation of a university patterned after those in the United States. “We prepared hundreds of students for advanced graduate study in America,” he declares, “and offered college training in civil engineering, business administration, and liberal arts to hundreds of others.” During his first nine years at Baghdad College (“actually a high school,” he clarifies), Father Mulvehill taught English, mathematics, and religion—the latter just to the Christian students who made up five percent of the student body. “Ninety-five percent of the students were Moslems,” Father Mulvehill notes, “who came largely because their parents wanted them to learn English. English has become the preferred second language in Iraq over the past 20 years, replacing French in popularity.”

In 1956, the Iraqi government granted the Jesuits permission to establish a formal college with a curriculum similar to American colleges, donating 170 acres for the campus. Funded by nearly a half-million dollars from the Ford Foundation and $200,000 from the Vatican, the Jesuits constructed six modern campus buildings in a suburb of Baghdad. Father Mulvehill served as the dean of students at this college, named Al-Hikma University, which means wisdom in Arabic. Throughout this period, officials looked upon the Jesuits strictly as expert educators and did not interfere with their operations, even though anti-American sentiment began growing as early as 1948. In 1968, Iraqi authorities initially notified the Jesuits that they intended to “Iraqicize” the school, meaning the Jesuits could continue teaching but the Iraqi government would install its own president and educational supervisor. “Last fall, restive students in other schools in the city and fanatic Arab nationalists pressed for our removal,” Father Mulvehill recalls. “We went along with the new regime as best we could for a while, but cooperation soon became impossible. In November, they notified us that we were expelled from the country — with no reason given. We were given five days to depart, and we all left on various planes before the week was out.”

Tom Mulvehill graduated from Norwood High School in 1931 and from Boston College before entering the Jesuit order. As a young student, he made many friends in town when he worked at the neighborhood “paper store” at the corner of Washington Street and Cottage Street to help pay for his high school and college expenses. He was ordained at Weston College in 1944. On Sunday, he celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination with a Jubilee Mass at St. Catherine of Siena Church, the historic parish where he was originally christened in 1914. On hand for the celebration were many local friends and relatives, including his mother, Mrs. Thomas B. Mulvehill of 262 Vernon St.; two brothers, Ted Mulvehill, who works in the insurance business, and Jack Mulvehill, a local attorney; and a sister, Mrs. John Kelley, all of Norwood. Currently, Father Mulvehill has been teaching United States history at the Cranwell School in Lenox, a Jesuit preparatory school for boys, and expects to return there in the fall. “I would like to go back to the Middle East,” he declares, “but I feel it is extremely unlikely because of the political situation. One thing I miss is the fellowship our group of priests had there. Our faculty included 60 Jesuits from the Boston area who lived as a group, and it was pleasant. I am also grateful for the opportunity I had to travel each summer in Jerusalem and adjacent areas. It was an unusual chance to see almost every inch of the Holy Land.”

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger