Issue of April 11,2003

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CREATING a small space FOR PEACE

By PAUL JEFFREY
Amid war, Philippine village resists historic prejudices.

Not far away, the sounds of war are nearly omnipresent. Yet here it’s quiet, except for the laughter of children as they spin their wooden tops on the basketball court, which soon will be covered with rice harvested from the surrounding fields and raked out on the concrete to dry in the tropical sun.

Full story 

At war

Pope gets credit for averting anti-Christian backlash

By John L. Allen Jr.
Although John Paul II’s opposition has so far failed to stop the war in Iraq, it may have succeeded in brokering a separate peace between Christians and Muslims in the Islamic world.

Full story

Minority of churchgoers say religious beliefs shape view of war

By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Although most Americans who attend church regularly said they have heard about the war in Iraq from the pulpit, only a small minority said their religious beliefs have been the biggest influence on their own thinking about the war, according to a national survey.

Full story

Along with jelly beans and chocolate rabbits: guns and GI Joe

By KELLEY KEPLER
Catholic News Service
For years the Superior area’s chapter of Grandmothers for Peace has been urging parents not to buy war toys for their children, and they have been holding “nonwar” toy drives for the needy

Now, the grandmothers say they are appalled at the latest marketing trend they are seeing -- Easter baskets filled with war toys.

Full story

By Mahnaz Mehdi Shabbir
Dearest god,
During this time of unrest among tribes, I need to reach out to my faith and to find solace in Your words. It’s difficult for me to think that in our wonderful world there are people who want to hurt other people. I look to You, God, to help me understand why this happens.

Full story 

By Robert J. McClory
By mid-November it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Regal East Asian Hotel in Shanghai. A large neon angel blowing her horn and an equally large neon reindeer had been installed on the overhang of the entranceway, and festive lights were glowing in the lobby.

By Len Biallas
Visitors to Turkey have decreased 90 percent since Sept. 11, 2001. Many fear to go because of terrorist threats, war with its neighbor Iraq, and ongoing border struggles with the Kurds. Still, this land of 65 million people -- about twice the size of California -- is a wonderful country to visit.

By Kris Berggren
I could easily become addicted to travel. I love experiencing a new place’s history, geography and culture. I also love leaving behind the banalities of daily life -- in my case, cooking, cleaning and laundry; chauffeuring children to and fro; harping on everyone to do homework and household chores.

By Raymond A. Schroth
Deaths at Terezin and Lidice speak to us of betrayed humanity.

We approach Terezin, about an hour north of Prague, on a gray summer morning through blue hills and rolling fields of wheat and sunflowers.

Living with the costs of winning

In 281 B.C. King Pyrrhus of Epirus, champion of Greek civilization whose skills as a general were said to compare favorably with those of Alexander the Great, landed in southern Italy to lead his army into battle. His intent was to defend Greek settlers from Roman domination. Pyrrhus won the battle, but lost half his men. Dismayed by those losses, he is reputed to have exclaimed: “One more such victory and I am lost.” 

Full editorial

Pope has placed church on side of peace

Writing just prior to the beginning of the first Persian Gulf War, on Christmas day 1990, John Paul II sent this poetic message (emphasis in the original) to the world:

The Light of Christ is with the tormented Nations of the Middle East. For the area of the Gulf, we await with trepidation for the threat of conflict to disappear. May leaders be convinced that war is an adventure with no return!

Full editorial

Tim Unsworth

Cruising through South America

Passing through three ‘nominally Catholic’ countries reveals two churches.

Not long ago, Jean and I flew to Santiago, Chile, where we boarded a 1,700-passenger cruise ship that was a Noah’s ark of humans from all parts of the globe. The uniformed crew came from 39 countries and the passengers -- mostly Americans -- were species from a dozen other countries. It was largely a geezer cruise, filled with Medicare-eligible patients with corrugated faces. One could easily have powered the 52,000-ton ship with captured flatulence.

Full story

Neve Gordon

A different kind of despair

Come to dinner when the war against Iraq ends,” Jamil said, as I opened the car door. He had just parked the sedan a short distance from the Bethlehem military checkpoint, the one closest to Jerusalem.

 Full story

U.S., Arab TV each tell only half the story

By Rami G. Khouri
Pacific News Service
On either side, news of Iraq war colored by biases, manipulation.

To fully understand this war and its consequences, it is necessary to watch both Arab and American television.

Full story

As new president, her goal was quality 

By Arthur Jones
Eight years ago Alice Bourke Hayes had a tough act to follow. It was 1995 and the St. Louis University executive vice president had been appointed president of the University of San Diego.

The beloved president she succeeded had been in office for 24 years. A popular dean who had been at the university for many years, and who felt it was already on the right track, later told her that his chief hope when she arrived was that she wouldn’t screw things up.

Full story

Program examines Catholic identity

By Arthur Jones
In the late 1980s, Tom Landy sensed some sort of “imbalance” in the Catholic university setting.

Full story

Court takes on same-sex marriage lawsuit

By Chuck Colbert
The case for same-sex civil marriage took a significant step forward March 4 when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in a potentially landmark case, Goodrich et al v. Department of Public Health.

Full story

Dioceses at odds over pedophile priest

By Arthur Jones
The diocese of San Bernardino, Calif., has sued the Boston archdiocese for hiding the background of accused child rapist and molester Paul Shanley, 71, a former Boston priest.

Full story

Inside NCR Tom Roberts

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

Thirty-five years ago this month, the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. His is a challenging and complex legacy, one that continues to confront the conscience of this country, particularly as we continue to deal with matters of racism and discrimination. Unfortunately, what doesn’t get talked about much is the absolute centrality of nonviolence to his approach to social reform and how that conviction influenced his view of the conduct of the United States in the wider world.

Full story

Easter Sunday

By Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns
 

God So Loved the World No believer doubts that God created the world in a gesture of love.

Full story

From the tomb, new life awaits

By Mike Daley
Recently, my daughter and I were at Mass. It was just the two of us. We were sitting near the back. Toward the end of the liturgy, she leaned over and asked me a question that only an innocent 4 year old can: “Is he dead, daddy?” she whispered softly.

Full story

By Joel Preston Smith
This morning I woke up to bleak images of Baghdad at sunrise, and the vague rumble and flash of explosions broadcast live on CNN. For more than six months, sometime after U.S. President George W. Bush began his personal crusade against Iraq, I have been praying this day would never come.

Full story

Eye on the Media

Pause and reflect

Full story

Manifesto of hope -- with recipes

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Reviewed By Gary MacEoin 
Frances Moore Lappé is ambitious. She is committed to persuading us to buck the “corporate capitalist system.” She understands that this is a mighty big demand, calling -- as it does -- for a rethinking of the basic assumptions of our society.

Full review

Letters for April 11, 2003
 
 

Classifieds

  Classifieds for April 11, 2003
 
 

Briefs World & Nation

News Briefs for April 11, 2003
 

Addenda

Addenda for April 11, 2003

WALANZO ROBINSON, 31, was executed in Oklahoma March 18. KEITH CLAY, 35, was executed in Texas March 20. JOHN MICHAEL HOOKER, 49, was executed in Oklahoma March 25. LARRY MOON, 57, was executed in Georgia March 25. JAMES COLBURN, 43, was executed in Texas March 26. Colburn was the 842nd person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. We ask prayers for the victims of the crimes that may have been committed by those listed here, for those executed and for those participating in executions done in our names.

Last Words
 

‘I’m a Christian man. If I have to kill the other guy, I will, but it doesn’t make me a hero.’

Sgt. Steven Lee Myers