Beacons of Hope

Your editorial Saying No to Israel (3/5) provides a beacon of hope for the many who have raised protests in this Holy Land against the Israeli occupation, protests that rarely surface in Western media. These protests have come from Israelis and Palestinians, from Jews, Muslims and Christians, and they deserve a hearing.

Israel Shamir, a Russian Israeli journalist, has pointed out that these are the darkest days for the people of Israel, because the worldwide silence of Jews indicates that the country’s policies are now rapidly undermining the long-term achievement of Jews in the struggle for democracy, human rights and equality.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, has continuously appealed during these six months for justice and understanding. From the opening weeks of the intifada he pointed out that the Palestinian revolt should not be considered simply a public disorder that has to be quelled and punished. The issue that must be faced is that a people who have been kept hostage are struggling for their freedom. It is a struggle that must be carried out with love, not with hatred and vengeance. In his Lenten message he appealed to both Palestinian and Israeli to see God in one another. He called upon Israelis to see in Palestinians not the image of terrorists, of those who want to hate and kill, but rather the image of the poor and oppressed who are struggling for their liberty, their dignity and a right to the land. He called upon Palestinians to see in Israelis, who withhold liberty in the name of security, carriers of the image of God whom we approach with love, not with anger, and whom we ask with the full force of the Spirit to put an end to oppression and occupation.

In his long and distinguished career, Elie Wiesel has often mentioned that the vocation of the Jew is to teach the world how to be human. I fear that the policies of the State of Israel vis--vis the Palestinian people are a betrayal of this noble and ancient heritage of our Jewish sisters and brothers.

Donald J. Moore, S.J.

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.

When Peace Comes

Drew Christiansen, S.J., describes the Palestinian Christians’ plight when, apparently, no one else will (Christians, Christmas and the Intifada, 2/12). Perhaps we’ve heard so many stories about shellings, arrests and deaths that we’ve been desensitized. We forget that those enduring the oppression have names and faces. They are members of families. They’re members of our family.

The Israeli government clearly cares little, if anything, for their fate. The Israeli army recklessly shells homes and a seminary. Our seminarians have visited Beit Jala. They’ve attended Mass in Arabic in the seminary chapel and enjoyed gracious hospitality in their dining room. They’ve played basketball under lights afterward on their outdoor court and taught one another folk songs.

Please make this the first, not the last story about the fate of our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters. If American Christians do nothing, there will be no native Christians to welcome pilgrims when peace comes.

(Rev.) Patrick F. Halfpenny

Spirit Shared

The acclamations of James Martin, S.J., in support of women religious (1/8) and women in general in the church have lifted me right out of my chair. With a loud Amen! praise to you and to the Spirit that inspired and fired you up to speak a truth that needs to be spoken and heard and responded to.

If only all clergy were so inspired and courageous. What is it that hardens their hearts against women? What do they fear? Being overshadowed by the beauty of the Spirit that emanates from so many women in the church? Can the Spirit not be shared by all, men and women?

Jeanne O’Connor

What Can Be

I found the column Of Many Things by James Martin, S.J., (1/8) on the role of women religious in the church both inspiring and insightfulright up to his final sentence. After two columns detailing women’s leadership activity in the church today, why would he write that the church does not allow women to lead in its name?

The answer is obvious: Martin equates leadership in the church with ordination to the clerical state and the particular legislative, sanctifying and governance roles reserved to certain church offices open only to clerics. This is much too narrow a definition of church leadership, as Martin himself demonstrates. There are, in fact, both clerical and lay leaders in the church. Problems arise when policy is made without recognizing this fact. What we as a church need to assimilate is that both clerics and laity with vision, gifts and commitment should be a part of the decision-making processes. The good news is that the fathers of Vatican II recognized this and mandated changes in the structure and law of the church that could begin to make this possible. There are consultative bodies mandated and/or suggested by law whereby bishops, pastors and their people can work together to govern, teach and sanctify the people of God. The bad news is that both laity and clerics have not fully appreciated how these bodies could work. Some clerical leaders, for their part, have guarded their power of making the final decision, while some lay leaders have pouted, little understanding their powers in consultation and implementation. The result is a polarized church, with its members deeply suspicious of each other’s motives, and strident/frightened leadership, be it clerical or lay.

My suggestion to all church leaders is that, rather than lamenting what cannot befemale clericslet us concern ourselves with what can and should be: broad-based input in decision-making and broad-based implementation of these decisions. And let us recognize the value and joy in the hard work of sharing our different gifts, all of which are necessary to bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ.

Katharine S. Weber

Metaphor or Myth

One important conclusion in Creationism and the Catechism, by Joan Acker, H.M. (12/16)that God creates suffering and death (evil?)is empirical tunnel vision. We need to look outside the tunnel to see metaphysical reality.

Focusing our vision of sin on chronological events turns sin into a material action rather than the relationship that it is. The discovery of death in the universe chronologically prior to the existence of humanity is not the intractable problem that Sister Acker’s writing suggests. The real problem is the attempt to judge the relationships of human spirits, such as sin and innocence, within the restrictions that empiricism imposes on human understanding. A more appropriate forum would be a metaphorical courtroom where we can examine a broader range of evidence without being hampered by the prejudice that intangible equals unreal.

For example, there is the common human perception, which cuts across cultures centuries before the Hebrew Scriptures, that two forces are at work in the universe: a good, creative one, and a bad, destructive one, which leads humans into evil. Complementary to that is the common human experience of being born into the relative paradise of innocence, then in two or three years beginning to succumb to the apple of rebellion, and in a few more years beginning to recognize our nakedness. After that we spend a good portion of our lives attempting to convince ourselves and others, especially the One out there, that the devil made me do it.

Are these perceptions and experiences myth, or are we seeing reality through a glass, darkly? Wisps of perfume, or simply nostalgia? I think we make more complete use of our human powers when we recognize that these perceptions and experiences have probative value and make a good circumstantial case. We should look at fallen angels and Adam and Eve as metaphors for reality, not myths. Theologians would do us all a service by working to dispel the notion that God creates suffering and death, an idea that itself fits more neatly into the category of myth.

James Crafton