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| December 15, 2002 |
A week into UN weapons inspections in Iraq, Fr Pasquale Borgomeo SJ, director of Vatican Radio, criticized the US government's skepticism over their success and said it appeared Washington was determined to make war regardless of the inspections' outcome.
In a December 3 radio commentary, he said that the United States holds a "preconceived attitude that disqualifies the inspection campaign as useless and reduces it to a sort of farce."
"In reality, the desire to use force appears increasingly evident to rely on military megapower to fill the holes and failures of politics," he said.
He said US allies are "more justified than ever" in having reservations about being asked by America to participate "in the fight against terrorism while precipitating unilaterally toward military adventures with unforeseeable consequences."
Fr Borgomeo said the only serious progress in the fight against international terrorism had come through painstaking intelligence work, "carried out not only by the United States but also by its allies."
He said war on Iraq would backfire as an attempt to clamp down on terrorism. "The war on Iraq, which in US public opinion is being sought with every means to be made to seem unavoidable, is in fact an incentive for terrorism itself," Fr Borgomeo said. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) was launched December 10 at the eighth Pan-African Assembly of the International Movement of Catholic Students in Lomé, Togo.
AJAN is an initiative taken by the Major Superiors of the Society of Jesus in Africa and Madagascar (JESAM). At their meeting last June, the Jesuit Superiors decided to intensify the struggle against AIDS by setting up AJAN as a common and shared work.
In each African country where Jesuits are, AJAN hopes to develop an appropriate social ministry that is rooted among those who suffer and accompanies those who care for them; that educates; that is sensitive to the local culture, faith, and spirituality; and that collaborates widely with others.
The main office of AJAN is located in Nairobi, Kenya. It is publishing a monthly electronic newsletter "AJANews" in English and French. Subscription is free on request at AJANews@jesuits.ca. [Source: www.jesuits-europe.org]
Eckhard Bieger of Frankfurt's Jesuits has had stickers printed that proclaim a "Santa-free area." Looking like a traffic sign, they show a Santa figure dressed in red, with a bar across the image. Fr Bieger says that he is trying to show the difference between Saint Nicholas as a traditional figure and Santa Claus as a marketing tool.
According to German tradition, St Nicholas goes from house to house on the night of December 5 and puts sweets in the boots of children who have been good. This tradition dates back to St Nicholas, who was the bishop of Myra in the fourth century. [Source: www.jesuits-europe.org]
The theological reflections and experiences of Catholics in Asia over the past 30 years are gifts often ignored or viewed with suspicion by the wider church, said speakers at a Rome conference.
Belgian Jesuit Fr Jacques Dupuis, an expert on the theology of religions who underwent a long examination of his writings by the doctrinal congregation, said the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences' emphasis on the "threefold dialogue" as the primary means of evangelization has led to accusations that they are "forgetting proclamation" of the Gospel.
But, the priest said, the Asian bishops are immersed in cultures deeply influenced by age-old religious traditions, and those cultures and traditions cannot be ignored.
"Religions are not, first of all, expressions of the aspirations of people" to find God, but expressions of "the aspirations of God--how he has been seeking people throughout history."
Fr Thomas Michel SJ, director of the Jesuits' office for interreligious dialogue, said the Asian bishops' approach is a "holistic approach to evangelization," recognizing that by living out their faith Catholics evangelize.
The way they worship, the way they serve the poor, the way they preach, the way they dialogue with others all are part of sharing the Gospel with others, he said. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The image in popular Canadian history of black-robed Jesuits riding roughshod over native peoples unfairly distorts the historical record, according to new research by Haijo Westra, a Latin scholar at the University of Calgary.
A paper by Professor Westra, due to be published by the University of Muenster in Germany, argues that the eyewitness accounts of French Jesuit priests, written in Latin, reveal admiration for the aboriginal peoples of early Canada. Westra says that the English translations of the Jesuits' reports have missed important classical references that lend altogether different nuances to their observations.
The earliest reports were sent from the missions in Canada back to Rome where they were edited and published. Later accounts were published in Paris for the general public in a series called “The Relations,” which became very popular, imprinting the image of Canada on the European mind. Yet the original Latin accounts have never been checked for their indirect quotations of classical authors.
"The best example of something being lost in translation is the Latin phrase durum genus," Westra says. "The English translation as 'a hardy race or stock' is accurate, but misses the important references in Ovid and Vergil that describe durum genus as the tough, new humans created by Deucalion and Pyrrha after the flood. With its associations of rebirth from sin and punishment, as well as aboriginal hardiness as opposed to European decadence, it suggests the Jesuits had a much higher order of respect for the natives than verbatim English translations credit them with."
Westra is working with a computer database that includes all the major works of classical Latin literature. He cross-references phrases from the Jesuits' reports against the classical Latin works that they would have studied or those they would have read for entertainment.
When he first began looking at “The Relations” and documents like them, Westra noticed there were no footnotes for the Latin sources, meaning subsequent English translations likely missed important classical references. "It was surprising to me that the language of the text had not been evaluated, since this is a major source for Canadian history. I believe it's important to make the historical witnesses speak and be understood fairly.” [Source: University of Calgary]
To read more about Professor Westra’s findings go to: http://www.fp.ucalgary.ca/unicomm/Gazette/Dec202/jesuits.htm
Fr Timothy Lannon SJ has been elected the 26th president of Saint Joseph's University. Fr Lannon will succeed Fr Nicholas Rashford SJ at the start of the 2003-04 academic year.
Fr Lannon comes from Marquette University, where he was vice president for university advancement and associate executive vice president. He previously served presidential internships at Holy Cross and Boston College. [Source: Saint Joseph’s University]
Fr Benjamin J Urmston SJ, of Xavier University’s Peace and Justice Programs, is one of four recipients of the McCrackin Peace and Justice Awards, which are named for the late Rev Maurice McCrackin and are presented by Greater Cincinnati Community Shares. They recognize individuals who have demonstrated long-term commitment to the creation of a just community.
Fr Urmston, a Jesuit for 56 years, first came to Xavier in 1943 as an undergraduate and returned as staff in 1971. He developed "Faith and Justice Forum," a weekly radio talk show, and conceived a peace studies minor at Xavier. He is currently director of the Dorothy Day House, a place where students can actively learn about, and strive for, peace and justice on a global scale. [Source: Xavier University]
2002 is the 450th Anniversary of the Death of St Francis Xavier. The following is a page with extensive links devoted to him. http://www.jesuit.org/Pages/xavier.html
A letter from the US Jesuit Provincials to President Bush concerning the threat of war on Iraq is at http://www.jesuit.org/Pages/iraqletter.html
The December 2002 issue of Blueprint for Social Justice, "Nonviolence or Just War: Two Legitimate Moral Options?" by Mark Mossa SJ is now available on the website. http://www.loyno.edu/twomey/blueprint
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