|
|
| January 29, 2003 |
Indian president A P J Abdul Kalam praised the contribution of the Jesuits in the field of education in his opening speech at the 6th Jesuit Alumni World Congress in Calcutta recently.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent Hindu organization had called for the president to withdraw from involvement in the event because, it said, his presence would "legitimize the Jesuits' activities in India". He alleged the Jesuits were a "violent Christian organization." Fr Lisbert D'Souza, Jesuit provincial of South Asia, said the Congress was a meeting, not of Christians or Jesuits, but of former Jesuit students, many of them Hindus.
Meanwhile President Kalam said in his speech on January 21: "The Jesuits are doing something holy, something sacroscant by working in the field of education ... Education gives one the ultimate human value ... They have made excellent contributions not only in India but the world over."
The president also talked about his own education in a Jesuit institution, St Joseph's College in Tiruchirapalli, paying tribute to two teachers who shaped him. He said that education should take students beyond religion, recalling that his own father was the chief of the village mosque while enjoying the friendship of a local Jesuit parish priest and a priest who was a Sanskrit scholar. [Source: Indian Express]
Rome's cold weather emergency program has been in operation since December. JRS Italy/Centro Astalli had made continuous appeals to the local authorities to start this program, which was initiated last winter. Of particular concern to Centro Astalli are the many Kurdish refugees and asylum seekers living in the park of Colle Oppio near the Colosseum. The program consists of a bus service, which picks people up from Colle Oppio and the Caritas soup kitchen near Rome's Termini train station and takes them to a dormitory.
"Every night we are able to provide shelter to around 120 people," says Fr Francesco De Luccia, director of JRS Italy, who most nights meets the local municipal police at Colle Oppio. "This doesn't solve the problem entirely but at least it gives some respite to those who suffer."
Finding shelter for asylum seekers in the capital has become increasingly difficult during the past few months due to the increased number of asylum seekers arriving from Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, and Eritrea. Usually after about a month stay in reception centers in the south of Italy, asylum seekers are sent to Rome. The Centro Astalli soup kitchen has also had to adapt to the increase in numbers where now some 400 people per day regularly come to eat. [Source: JRS Dispatches]
The Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica rejected US justification for a potential "preventative war" against Iraq, suggesting America's true motives were interest in Iraq's oil reserves and a US sense of a "messianic vocation" to democratize humanity.
None of the United States' reasons for war on Iraq hold up because many other countries have committed similar offenses, the magazine said in an unsigned editorial in its January 18 issue.
It carried a point-by-point rebuttal of America's stated reasons for striking militarily against Iraq:
Iraq has violated 91 UN resolutions, the magazine said, but Israel and Turkey, two US allies, have violated 59 UN resolutions without prompting US military intervention.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a dictator who has committed serious crimes against his people "but in today's world, dictatorial regimes are many and are not less tough or ferocious than the Iraqi regime; some of them are friends of the United States and enjoy [US] political protection and economic grants."
Iraq may possess biological and chemical weapons, "but it should be said that biological and chemical weapons are produced and possessed by many other states, in particular by those that are most powerful and advanced, first among them the United States and Russia."
Iraq hopes to develop nuclear weapons but "many states" who did not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty already have such weapons.
Despite accusations that Iraq has assisted international terrorists, there is no sure proof. If Iraq is accused of encouraging Palestinian terrorism, it should also be remembered that Iran supports three known Palestinian terror groups, the magazine said.
[Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Boston College High School, in conjunction with the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, settled claims with 15 individuals who were victims of alleged sexual abuse by two priests, James Talbot SJ and Francis McManus SJ, who had taught at BC High in the 1970s and early 1980s. The amount of settlement was $5.8 million.
BC High President William Kemeza stated, "We hope that those who have been hurt, the brothers and sons of the BC High family, receive some consolation in what we have done." [Source: Boston College High]
Frustrated by the lack of justice in Honduras, Jesuits there have asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene in the cases of three assassinated Honduran environmental activists.
The case against Honduras is being brought by the Center for Reflection, Investigation and Communication, a Jesuit organization based in El Progreso. The Center for Justice and International Law, which supports human rights activists throughout the Americas, is providing legal assistance.
"We have decided to initiate this process to clarify these three emblematic cases because we want justice in Honduras," said Fr Ismael Moreno SJ, Honduran Jesuit superior and director of the Honduran legal center. "We want to help the institutions of this country to function better, not because of the capricious exercise of power by the wealthy nor for arbitrary political reasons, but because institutions should respect human rights, including the right to life," Fr Moreno continued.
Should the Honduran government fail to investigate the three cases thoroughly, the litigants can take their cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which can order the government to pay financial damages to the families.
The three victims are: Jeanette Kawas, a Catholic activist and environmentalist who helped establish a national park, shot dead in 1995 after denouncing local business leaders for failing to respect the park's boundaries; Carlos Escaleras, a Catholic catechist and political activist who led a campaign to stop contamination of a rich agricultural valley, shot dead in 1997; and Carlos Luna, an environmentalist who fought against illegal logging in an environmentally sensitive watershed, shot dead in 1998. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
A lab headed by a Saint Louis University researcher Ali Shilatifard PhD has made a major breakthrough that could lead to a better molecular understanding of cancer.
Results published in the journal Molecular Cell by Dr Shilatifard and colleagues show for the first time how a protein known to be involved in the development of cancer functions in normal cells. The research shows how the protein "Bre1" plays a pivotal role in determining how the protein "Rad6" functions in modification of chromosomal DNA.
Dr Shilatifard, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, said this discovery should lead to several new promising areas of inquiry.
"This opens the door for further study of this protein in the regulation of gene expression," he said. "Once we understand the normal, we will have a better understanding of where something is going wrong."
This, in turn, could lead to ways to block the pathway and ultimately could stop cancer development, Dr Shilatifard said. [Source: Saint Louis University]
Despite the violence and tensions in the Middle East, retired Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan is in Jerusalem writing a Scripture commentary as he always had planned to do in retirement.
The cardinal said that his days are passed "in prayer and in work on manuscripts" for his commentary on the Second Letter of St Peter.
"I am doing very well here, although there are the difficulties which come with living in a country at war," he said. "I remember that in Milan, during a prayer vigil at the cathedral during the [1991] Gulf War, I proposed intercession as the appropriate spiritual attitude.
"That's what I'm trying to live here: To not take sides with one or the other, but to walk in the midst of the sides in the conflict, accepting the possibility of being pushed aside by one or the other, but loving all, praying for all, trying to understand all and to weave bonds," he said. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
In a landmark decision, the University Interscholastic League, the athletic organization for Texas' public schools, has agreed to admit private schools, ending a battle between the league and Jesuit College Prep in Dallas, which led the fight for admittance with a lawsuit and a bill in the Texas Legislature.
In the decision, two private schools can apply for membership each year, so long as those two schools meet the league's qualifications--primarily that they are too large to play in the state's private school leagues.
Jesuit College Prep and Strake Jesuit in Houston will be the first two teams to apply; both have been playing as independents since 1999.
Texas is one of three states that segregate private and public school athletics (Maryland and Virginia are the others). Resistance to change within the league was strong because members felt private schools had an unfair advantage in attracting athletes since they are not bound by geographic boundaries as public schools are. [CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The first edition of the web-only periodical Just Good Company is available on the Web. The monthly journal of religion and culture is produced by the West Coast Compaņeros Inc, a group of former US Jesuits mainly from the California and Oregon Provinces, and is edited by Robert Blair Kaiser, a correspondent for Newsweek in Rome.
www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/011003/011003m.htm
Read a column by Fr Robert Drinan SJ, "Bush's Unilateralism Aggravates World's Problems," from the January 10, 2003, issue of the National Catholic Reporter.
JesuitUSA News is a service of Company Magazine. In addition to the print edition, almost all of the items in Company Magazine can be viewed via the World Wide Web at www.companymagazine.org or www.companysj.com. Any correspondence concerning this mailing list should be sent to the editor at news@companysj.com . The newsletter is available to all Jesuits, to those who work with them, or to those who are simply interested in what they are doing. Tell your friends; the price is right! If you are requesting addition to the list, please include your real name as well as your email address. If you are changing your address, please include YOUR NAME as well as both the NEW and the OLD email addresses.
The editor of this Newsletter is Richard VandeVelde SJ who is ably assisted by Ms Rebecca Troha, Assistant Editor. They would both like to remind you of the following useful WWW links for items of Jesuit interest. Many of these links will lead you to others.
|