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Columns
A New Saipan
Here’s the latest dispatch from the global marketplace. Dozens of Vietnamese women working in a sweatshop in American Samoa were beaten, deprived of food and not paid minimum wages as they carried out their assigned role in our great borderless economy. The workers were making clothes for a Ko
Editorials
AIDS and the Drug Companies
Through Medicaid and other programs, most poor people in the United States have access to the new AIDS drug therapies. But in developing countries, their cost—over $10,000 a year—has made their use all but impossible. As a result, the AIDS pandemic has widened its devastating scope in bo
Dominus Iesus as an Event
Dominus Iesus, the declaration of Aug. 6, 2000, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has received myriad interpretive responses. This article is not an attempt to add to these. Rather, I shall consider Dominus Iesus as more than a document. I propose to consider it, along with various
Books
Mar 26, 2001 issue
Keeping a Killer in Check
Dr. Daniel P. Sulmasy
This book is at least as interesting because of the process of its creation as it is because of its content It was born of the efforts of a group of concerned scholars who have called themselves the Catholic Theological Coalition on HIV AIDS Prevention convened by Jon Fuller S J and James Keena
Letters
Letters

From the President of Bethlehem University

I read with great interest your editorial Saying No to Israel (3/5). It is not clear that such enormous amounts of aid to Israel benefit the security of anyone in the areaPalestinians or Israelis. A just and honorable peace is the only real security. I find myself thinking that the investment of the $5.5 billion referred to in your editorial in the Palestinian Territories for infrastructure development, economic development, social services and education would be a remarkable step toward peace, stability and safety for all. When there is real hope that one can live free of occupation, with a decent job and a reasonable life for one’s family, there is a strong basis for peace.

I have read polls demonstrating that the vast majority of Palestinians and Israelis support a peace with justice. The situation here cries out for an honorable solution. The energy for peace is here. I see it every day in the faculty, staff and students of Bethlehem University. But I also see the extreme frustration that results from endless peace talks while the economy declines, freedom of movement is restricted, and unemployment and underemployment increase. The status quo continues the suffering of Palestinians, whose standard of living is about one-tenth that of Israelis. No one denies that Palestinian society faces problems as it struggles toward statehood. Some of the problems are caused by the restrictions the years of occupation placed on the freedom of Palestinians to organize themselves and their lives.

Our 2,000 students, with faculty and staff, make tremendous sacrifices to participate in the excellent educational programs of Bethlehem University. Newly barricaded roads, new check points, closures and severe economic hardships present great challenges. Some students travel two hours in each direction every day at a transportation cost that, because of road closures, is higher than the tuition itself. Members of the university community have had their houses destroyed, and their children live in fear of the Israeli tank, rocket and high-caliber machine gun fire on Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.

On March 2, 2001, Cardinal Francis Arinze, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, spoke at Bethlehem University, encouraging our efforts to live together and to engage in dialogue between Muslims and Christians. He noted that politicians at times attempt, for their own purposes, to promote tensions or disharmony between the two religious groups. Sadly, this negative dimension can also be found in the work of some journalists.

Come and see for yourselves, if you can. Read accounts in the English language Palestinian weekly Jerusalem Times and the English edition of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz. (The latter is available on the Internet.) Don’t stereotype us. Don’t accept facile slogans blaming the Palestinians for being under occupation. I hope you and your readers will stay informed about our situation and support us as much as possible in the quest for peace and normal life.

Vincent Malham, F.S.C.

The Amoral University
The young man was clearly uneasy. Most people would insist that he had no cause for worry. After all, he would soon receive his M.B.A. from a very prestigious business school, had already been offered a contract by a large investment banking firm and, if he accepts it, would have a starting salary o
Poland Today
The re-election in October of a former Communist, Aleksander Kwasniewski, to a five-year term as president of Poland should be a lesson to the Polish church, according to Stanislaw Obirek, S.J., editor of the Polish review of spirituality, Zycie Duchowe. For me and others, Father Obirek said, that w
Film
Hollow Men: Pollock
Art is a blood sport. Really. Someone, something must be sacrificed during the game, while heartless spectators stare in fascination at the suffering orchestrated for their amusement. Just think how many of the world’s greatest artists made a demolition derby of their lives, systematically wre
The WordFourth Sunday of Lent (C), March 25, 2001
The Pardoner's Tale

Look to God that you may be radiant with joy (Ps. 34:6)

Books
Mar 19, 2001 issue
A Free Spirit
George M. Anderson
In The Soul Knows No Bars Drew Ledera professor of Eastern and Western philosophy at Loyola College in Marylanddescribes his experience as a teacher at the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore Others involved in prison education have also written of their on-site work but this is a very different t