
##2040250 Headnote The survival of a river holy to many believers is inspiring Israeli , Palestinian and Jordanian cooperation . BY EMILY L. HAUSER // ON A STUNNING MIDWINTER 'S DAY , with blue sky above and a gentle breeze blowing , I stand on the banks of the River Jordan , a 30 minute walk from the Sea of Galilee . To my left is a small dam ; the river stops , for all intents and purposes , here . To my right is the source of a nauseating stench : untreated sewage , gushing directly into the Jordan River 's bed . Sixty years ago , the lower reaches of the river in which Jesus was baptized carried 1.3 billion cubic meters of fresh water through its banks . It powered a hydroelectric plant . Today , the flow through the lower Jordan has been reduced by more than 90 percent . Of what remains , about half comes from small tributaries , underground springs and the Yarmouk River , which begins in Syria and joins the Jordan six miles south of the Sea of Galilee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sewage , runoff from agriculture and fish farms , and saline water , diverted from springs north of the sea . Some stretches of the river are so dry you 'd have to portage a kayak . Degrading the Holy Deterioration on this scale would be appalling anywhere , but there is something particularly disturbing about the devastation of a body of water that resonates so profoundly in human culture . As Gidon Bromberg , Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East , exclaims with evident frustration , " Half of humanity sees this river as holy ! " Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Bible are filled with references to the Jordan Valley . In the last chapter of Deuteronomy , we learn that Moses was shown the Promised Land from a mountain on the river 's eastern edge " and Moses the servant of the Lord died there , in the land of Moab " ( Deut 34:5 ) . Mark relates John 's fulfillment of his mission , baptizing " the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem " ( Mark 1:5 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I " ( Mark 1:7 ) . Perhaps the most famous reference to the river , though , comes two verses later : " Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan . As Jesus was coming up out of the water , he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove " ( Mark 1:9-10 ) . For centuries , pilgrims have flocked to Qasr al-Yahud , traditionally considered the site of Jesus ' baptism . Today , Bromberg says , those few who choose to go to Qasr al-Yahud rather than to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism 's official baptism site 10 miles to the north , are literally risking their health : " You 're likely to come out with a rash on your head . " What is often forgotten in the West is that these Scriptures are holy also to Islam , the faith of some 85 percent of Palestinians , nearly 100 percent of Jordanians and about a billion people worldwide . Without a doubt , the globe-spanning cultures that have grown out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here ; yet the demands of modern life in a water-starved region , decades of violent conflict and the kinds of abuse and neglect have conspired to bring the river to the brink of ecological death . A Trinational Response Friends of the Earth Middle East is one of the groups fighting to reverse the Jordan 's downward spiral . A trinational nonprofit organization with Palestinian , Israeli and Jordanian directors , FoEME is a rarity in today 's Middle East : a joint effort by Arabs and Israelis to address vital shared concerns . In separate phone interviews , both Nader Khateeb and Munqeth Mehyar , FoEME 's Palestinian and Jordanian directors , respectively , say they are mindful that many in the Arab world feel they should not cooperate with any Israelis until the Israeli government ends its 40-year occupation of Palestinian territories ; but they are equally , and painfully , aware that time is running out . " Definitely nobody denies the priority of solving the conflict , " Khateeb says , " but by the time the politicians are done , the environmental degradation will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for decades , will not be suitable for living anymore . " Mehyar sounds a similar note : " The ecosystem is so small that any action by any party affects the others . You ca n't say that you wo n't talk to the other side-you 're hurting yourself ! " Indeed , the lower Jordan is the meeting point between the three peoples . The river meanders south for some 125 miles to the Dead Sea , forming the eastern edge of both Israel and the West Bank ( internationally recognized as part of any future Palestinian state ) and the western edge of the Kingdom of Jordan-named , of course , for the river . My guide through the river valley , Mira Edelstein , is the Israeli coordinator of FoEME 's river rehabilitation project . She speaks with evident passion about the Jordan 's fate , touching on the many ways in which Syrian , Jordanian , Israeli and Palestinian actions have contributed to the river 's current state . " Ironically , " she says , " the cooperation on polluting the Jordan River has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the lower Jordan gathers at the ecological intersection of Asia , Africa and Europe . An estimated 500,000 birds migrate through the valley every year , and a wide variety of flora and fauna find their northern and southern limits in the valley , including the Palestinian Mountain Gazelle and the Yellow Flag Iris . Early humans migrating from Africa as well as modern armies have all passed through this region . Just outside Jericho , a small , jumbled city best known for its appearance in the Book of Joshua , archeologists have found evidence of humanity 's first farms . In more recent times , Jericho was the first piece of the West Bank to be handed over by Israel to Palestinian rule in the 1990 's . The Causes of Deterioration The reasons for the precipitous deterioration of the river 's health are myriad and interconnected , and are inevitably shaped by the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict . Israel diverts some 60 percent of the fresh water heading downriver from the Sea of Galilee for its farms and kitchens . Jordan maintains a major canal that diverts water @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 40 dams . Jordanian septic tanks allow untreated sewage to seep into the water basin , while Israeli municipalities and kibbutzim release their own sewage directly into the river . On both banks , most of the valley is a closed military zone , its misery hidden from view because of Israel 's and Jordan 's military demands . Later this year , Syria and Jordan plan to inaugurate the recently completed Unity Dam , a joint project on the Yarmouk built to catch winter floodwaters for irrigation , drinking water and hydroelectric power . Because of this added diversion , Mehyar predicts , " there will be no more water going down the Jordan , except from occasional springs and agricultural run off . The riverbed will have absolutely no water . " FoEME has initiated a number of creative projects intended to engage the area 's people and leaders , local and national , but the organization must often battle forces unrelated to environmental issues . A three-day journey down the entire lower Jordan was planned for November , for instance , but was ultimately limited by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clean water , just south of the Sea of Galilee . In mid-January , though , FoEME was able , in spite of enormous tensions in the Middle East , to secure the signatures of Jordanian and Israeli mayors of river valley communities on a memorandum of understanding that recognizes the critical importance of rehabilitating the river and supporting the idea of a cross-border nature park . The very notion of either would have been political anathema a mere 15 years ago . At the end of the day , of course , FoEME hopes to capture not only local attention , but also that of the international community , from the U.S. Congress to the United Nations . " We are losing the river ! " Khateeb says unequivocally . " And it 's not important only for us ; it 's very important for the whole world . We want to see it on the world agenda . " A Powerful Symbol for the World Walt Grazer , director of the Environmental Justice Program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops , believes that the issue is important for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ literal level . " We are a very symbolic people , " he says , " with a sacramental approach to nature .... Since the river is a creature of God , it will demand a certain respect . " The symbolism , he says , is merely compounded by the fact that this particular river " is in the land of our Lord .... Not that the Jordan , as a river , is more important than the Mississippi , " he stresses , but addressing the Jordan 's woes , in the land Jews , Muslims and Christians call holy , will allow those living far away " to make the leap to what we are doing to all of God 's creation . " " What does it mean , " he asks simply , " to be baptized , made whole and clean , with water that is fetid ? " What FoEME proposes is a limited restoration of the river , allowing for controlled access to restricted sections while developing sustainable management plans that would give farmers recycled water and return fresh water to the Jordan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says . " It 's not wasting the water to let it run down the river . " At minimum , in Bromberg 's view , the Jordan must have a flow of at least 300 million cubic meters of clean water . " Without it , " he says starkly , " the river will no longer live . " Though such reclamation can seem prohibitively complex , Americans recendy witnessed the successful restoration of a part of the Owens River in California , a body of water that , if anything , had been in even worse shape than the Jordan . After being drained dry for nearly 100 years by the city of Los Angeles , a 62-mile long stretch of the Owens now has water flowing between its banks once again . " It 's expensive , and it 's hard , " Edelstein concedes as she watches brackish water and the remains of human excrement foam and tumble down the Jordan 's bed , " but we have to do it , if we want to build a sustainable life here . " Restoring the river @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the peoples of the region . " It could be a symbol of death , or it could be a symbol of life . " Diplomatic Challenges As with all things in this part of the world , of course , much depends on the grinding of diplomatic wheels . Israel and the Palestinians seem further away than ever from anything resembling peace , and so far , the Olmert government is rejecting Syrian overtures . While Jordan and Israel maintain cordial relations , a random cross-border raid by a disgruntled Jordanian soldier , or a single Israeli attack on a Palestinian town , could slam the door shut on cooperation . Acknowledging this uncertainty , the leaders of FoEME maintain nonetheless a certain white-knuckled optimism . " Conflict actually increases our strength , " Mehyar says , " because we can see the foolishness of it . " Khateeb , however , provides the most straightforward explanation : " In our area you can not give up , because if you give up , you 're finished .... We need to save something for our children , " he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life . " Author Affiliation EMILY L. HAUSER , a freelance writer who holds both American and Israeli citizenship , has been covering the contemporary Middle East since the early 1990's. // <p> 
##2040251 Headnote Relics are reminders that we can see and touch . // ASHARD OF BONE FROM THE BODY of St. Francis Xavier-I held it in my hand , gazing at this tiny remnant of a human body centuries old , contained under glass in its small reliquary . This particular relic belongs to one of two collections of relics with which I have become familiar at Jesuit parishes where I have lived , one in New York City and one in Washington , D.C. But even scraps of cloth or other materials that might come in contact with the body of holy persons during their lifetimes can be considered relics . In earlier eras , a companion word of slightly different etymology , relict , was used to refer to widows . Carved on the gravestones of some old cemeteries , you see phrases like " Mary , relict of John , " followed by the family name . In both senses of these words , the idea is that something cherished has been left behind here on earth . As for specifically religious relics , they may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the relic of Francis Xavier , to the distant past . They are concrete reminders that these same persons once walked the earth just as we do , with the varied gifts and faults of all human beings . What comes to my mind when I have prayerfully handled relics is the beginning of the First Letter of John : " What we have touched with our hands concerning the word of life . " St. Ignatius , St. Francis Xavier and others less well known all had much to say about that " word of life , " expressed in the fabric of their daily lives . Oscar Romero and Rutilio Grande But what of those not yet canonized or beatified ? Their relics too can have great significance . A friend in El Salvador has told me that the blood-stained vestments worn by Archbishop Oscar Romero have been carefully preserved . He was shot dead in 1980 during the preparation of the gifts at the Mass he was celebrating in the little chapel on the grounds of the Divine Providence Hospital . The Hospitalito , as it is called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is run by the Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa . The archbishop lived in a little cottage nearby . Two sisters present at the assassination recently provided a remarkable testimony about what happened right after Romero 's death : " In the Polyclinic to which the body was immediately taken an autopsy was done , and I do n't know exactly how it happened , but they gave us the internal organs of Monsenor in a plastic bag . When we arrived back at our community residence at the Hospitalito , we had no energy left , but we decided to bury his organs in the garden of Archbishop Romero 's cottage . We were in such shock that we placed them in nothing more than a cardboard box . " Three years later , early in 1983 , in anticipation of the arrival of Pope John Paul II , the sisters decided to disinter the organs and re-bury them in the Virgin 's grotto next to Romero 's cottage with the permission of the apostolic administrator and successor , Bishop ( later Archbishop ) Arturo Rivera Damas . " Our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for when we disinterred it ... the cardboard box had disintegrated , " but the plastic bag containing the organs revealed that the organs were intact , " as if the surgery had been done minutes before . " A miracle ? Who can say . Bishop Rivera Damas " asked us to guard the organs with better protection , which we have done with much affection and gratitude . " The testimony is signed by the two sisters , Socorro Iraheta and Luz Isabel Cueva . Romero has not yet been officially declared a saint . His cause was introduced by the Archdiocese of San Salvador in 1993 . He has been given the title servant of God , a first step toward being beatified and eventually canonized . Even everyday clothing worn by a holy person like Romero can be considered a relic . My friend told me how moved he and others with him were as they handled some of the ordinary clothes the assassinated archbishop had once worn . One July Sunday in 2006 , he said , " I brought some visiting Jesuit scholastics and young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of home-based diner where the archbishop used to take meals . " Elvira , the owner , not only spoke of his visits , but also " pulled out a box which contained a cassock and a clerical shirt with Romero 's name on the inside of the collar . " Some of those present there , he said , had an opportunity to touch these physical reminders of a person many already regard as a saint . At the nearby University of Central America , the same friend added , " we also have on display the bullet-riddled shirt worn by Rutilio Grande , " the archbishop 's close friend who was gunned down in 1977 because of his work with campesinos , work the government considered subversive . That murder marked a turning point in the life of the hitherto conservative Monseor Romero , leading him to a closer focus on the poor of his country and the injustices to which they were subjected , a focus that would lead to his own murder in the presence of the sisters at the cancer hospital 's chapel that March 24th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mayer , Cabrini and Day I may never see any of those relics in El Salvador , but I have seen and touched those of other persons who also lived in a time close to our own . A scrap of cloth stained with blood from the heart of Miguel Pro is in one of the two parish collections . Like Romero , Father Pro died a violent death-not at the hands of sharpshooters aiming from the back of a chapel in El Salvador , but before a firing squad in the yard of a jail in Mexico City in November 1927 . Defying a ban against religious practices by the anticlerical Mexican government , he moved about in various disguises to celebrate Mass clandestinely in private homes and to distribute Communion to those who knew how to recognize him in open spaces like city parks . Not yet declared a saint , Father Pro has been beatified and is thus moving closer to canonization . Yet another relic of a servant of God in the collection at Nativity Church in New York is a scrap of fabric once in contact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the outbreak of World War II , Father Mayer was arrested by the Nazis for preaching against Hitler 's policies . Held in a concentration camp , he suffered such deterioration in health that camp officials , fearing he might die there and be considered a martyr , had him transferred to a Benedictine abbey under what amounted to house arrest . Returning to Munich after the war , he died ( like Romero ) while celebrating Mass . Rupert Mayer 's cause is in process . He was beatified in 1987 . And women ? St. Frances Xavier Cabrini has a place in the New York collection . The first American saint to be canonized , she spent much of her life reaching out to Italian immigrants and orphans , establishing orphanages and hospitals in New York City and then in other parts of the country as well as abroad . Attached to a ring at the top of her small oval reliquary is an old safety pin , a homely reminder that relics were sometimes worn attached to the clothing-of a sick person , for example , who had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The safety pin , now discolored with age , makes clear that relics were indeed meant to be touched . Many now invoke the intercession of Dorothy Day , the co-founder with Peter Maurin of the Catholic Worker movement . She died in 1980 at the Maryhouse Catholic Worker on the Lower East Side of Manhattan . Not long ago I visited the room she had occupied there , facing East Third Street . With many of her own books and personal items still in place on the room 's shelves , her presence is almost palpable-all the more because its present occupant is an elderly Catholic Worker who worked closely with Dorothy from the 1960 's until her death . He and a former managing editor of the Catholic Worker newspaper have been sorting through the contents of the room . Several boxes of papers have already been sent to the Catholic Worker archives at Marquette University in Milwaukee . Even personal items of clothing , like the dresses she wore , have been carefully put aside . And there is the hairbrush she used every morning to brush her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A relic ? At any rate , it has been considered an object worth preserving . Before his death , the late Cardinal John O'Connor introduced her cause , and now Dorothy Day too has been declared a servant of God . Intercessors , Pray for Us Then there are the relics of those who-undeclared as yet as blesseds or saints or even as servants of God-are already revered as intercessors who can be called upon for help . A priest during my early years at St. Aloysius in Washington , D.C. , was widely considered a saint during his lifetime . He was Horace McKenna , a Jesuit priest who spent his life working on behalf of poor people in Washington and in rural parts of southern Maryland , averting evictions in the city and standing up to restaurant owners in rural Maryland who refused to serve African-Americans . When a young woman whose relative was gravely ill asked for a relic of Horace , I snipped off a tiny piece from the border of a stole he regularly used while celebrating Mass and mailed it to her . After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mass say , St. Horace , pray for us . One of Horace 's best known sayings was : " Our Lord did his miracles instantaneously , at a word , but his church , his priests , his sisters , his fathers and mothers have to do their miracles slowly . " For those who knew him , it is easy to believe that from his place in heaven , Horace may be providing miracles here on earth ; but now they are perhaps taking place " instantaneously . " Relics of men and women already declared saints , those awaiting beatification or others whom many recognize as saints no matter what the Vatican may eventually decide , provide a sense of the Incarnate Word made visible in the flesh and blood of human beings who put their trust totally in their creator . Through their faith and service to others , especially the poor and marginalized , their relics can strengthen our faith during our own brief life journeys . Sidebar A Salvadoran man prays at the new tomb of slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero at the metropolitan cathedral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind here on earth . Author Affiliation GEORGE M. ANDERSON , S.J. , is an associate editor of America . // <p> 
##2040253 Headnote Barack Obama , faith and the presidential campaign // SENATOR BARACK OBAMA , who announced his candidacy for the U.S presidency on Feb. 10 , has been lauded time and again for his remarkable charisma . It is true that when he is on the stage , you have trouble looking at anybody else . Yet charisma gets you only so far in politics . Another reason Obama has a fair shot at the presidency has received less notice , even though he devoted an entire chapter to the subject in his recent book , The Audacity of Hope . Unlike most Democrats , Obama is at ease discussing matters of faith . One would be hard pressed to find a contemporary politician whose discussion of religion is less forced than the one delivered in Obama 's recent memoir . It is candid and questioning , at ease as much with the challenges of the Creed as with its consolations . It would likely not pass muster as a theological tract in a Catholic seminary ( though it might get an A+ in homiletics ) , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contrast , it was almost painful to watch Senator John Kerry discuss religion . He trotted out the familiar , and by now unpersuasive , position that however much he believed the church 's teachings on difficult matters like abortion , he could not foist his " personal " beliefs on a pluralistic society . Never mind that the civil rights movement was precisely such a moral struggle to foist one set of beliefs upon those who held starkly different beliefs , or that the opposition to the Vietnam War was cast in explicidy moral terms . Obama does not begin his discussion by reciting the typical liberal cant about how religion only serves to inflame politics , turning the art of the possible into a 21st-century version of the Thirty Years War . ( If you want that rendition , consult Ray Suarez 's The Holy Vote , in which every stereotype of religious people is on full display . ) Obama recounts instead the story of a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical School who wrote him to complain about a sentence on his campaign Web site that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman 's right to choose . " Obama removed the offending line and writes that he felt " a pang of shame " and prayed that he would always extend the presumption of good faith to others , as the doctor had done in writing to him . Unlike the traditional liberal stance of claiming that religion is essentially a private affair , Obama admits that " religion is rarely practiced in isolation ; organized religion , at least , is a very public affair . " He argues that while " those of us in public office may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether ... over the long haul , I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people , and so avoid a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern , pluralistic democracy . " He even allows that faith-based programs for ex-offenders and drug abusers , if " carefully tailored , " should warrant liberal support . Obama 's Christianity Obama 's Christianity is undoubtedly a liberal Christianity . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at his reference to religious faith in explaining his opposition to same-sex marriage . He cites " my obligation , not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society , but also as a Christian , to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided ... that I may have been infected with society 's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God . " He writes that " When I read the Bible , I do so with die belief that it is not a static text but the Living Word and that I must be continually open to new revelations-whether they come from a lesbian or a doctor opposed to abortion . " This method of biblical interpretation will not ring true with fundamentalists . Obama was not raised in a Christian home . The hostility his mother felt directed toward her by the church , espedaily after her interracial marriage , instilled in her a deep skepticism about claims of orthodoxy . She approached the world of religion as an anthropologist , not as a pilgrim . Only in adulthood , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was Obama baptized in the United Church of Christ , one of the most socially engaged and arguably the most liberal mainstream Protestant church . If Obama 's interest in religion ended with the Social Gospel , it would not be as interesting , but he delves deeper . He recounts visiting the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham , Ala. , where four children were murdered in a bombing carried out by white supremacists in 1963 . Obama writes : Friends and strangers alike would have assured their parents that their daughters had not died in vain-that they had awakened the conscience of a nation and helped liberate a people ; that the bomb had burst a dam to let justice roll down like water and righteous-ness like a mighty stream . And yet would even that knowledge be enough to console your grief , to keep you from madness and eternal rage-unless you also knew that your child had gone on to a better place ? This is the insight of faith , the insight that perceives the limits of " grief counseling " or pious niceties in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human nature that our culture most seeks to deny , except in a voyeuristic way-tragedy . In its way , the insight also demonstrates the limits of certain varieties of liberation theology and of the Social Gospel movement before it , both of which thought that sociopolitical redemption was enough . It is n't . The church must always concern itself with eternity . Obama relates his feelings about his own mother 's death , especially her fears : " More than the fear of pain or fear of the unknown , it was the sheer loneliness of death that frightened her , I think . " I once listened , at a memorial Mass in the chapel at Theological College in Washington , D.C. , to the theologian Msgr . Lorenzo Albacete speak of the " abysmal loneliness of death . " The phrase and the brutal honesty behind it have stayed with me ever since . When I read its echo in Obama 's book , I thought to myself , " He gets it . " Anyone who perceives the reality of death with such brutal candor can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why do you seek the living among the dead ? He is not here " ( Luke 24 : 5-6 ) . In other ways , Obama 's sense of faith reveals the Reformation roots of mainstream Protestantism . He draws a facile distinction between faith and reason : " Almost by definition , faith and reason operate in different domains and involve different paths to discerning truth . " No Veritatis Splendor there . And if Pope Benedict XVI is correct , the separation of faith and reason lies at the root of the cultural identity crisis of contemporary civilization . It is remarkable that a mind as subtle and interesting as Obama 's shies away from making the simple claim that faith is reasonable . The shadow of Luther 's warning to " beware the whore reason for she will go with any man " is long indeed . Obama 's position on abortion will not satisfy some voters . He may not be willing to dismiss all pro-life advocates as right-wing demagogues , but neither is he willing to overturn Roe v. Wade . Still , one can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ middle ground on the issue , focusing on preventing the number of unwanted pregnancies and helping women in dire financial and social circumstances who find themselves faced with an unexpected pregnancy but wish to carry their child to term to get the help they really need . Faith Talk and Swing Voters At the moment , Obama is not running against anyone with equal facility with religious language . If ever there was a time to invoke religious themes passionately , it was the funeral of Coretta Scott King . Senator Hillary Clinton followed her husband to the pulpit ; the comparison was not flattering . U.S. News reported , " Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is getting generally tepid reviews from all sides . Her comments did n't match her husband 's in eloquence or power-a dynamic that could be a growing problem if she runs for president in 2008 . " That judgment is generous . Clinton 's remarks were wooden and sounded canned , yet they were of a piece with her valedictory speech at Wellesley College back in 1969 . Therein , she did not mention God or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offered that " part of the problem with empathy with professed goals is that empathy does n't do us anything . " It still does n't , evidently . At the pulpit in Atlanta for King 's funeral , as on other occasions , Hillary Clinton 's lack of empathy is transparent . No one is questioning Senator Clinton 's belief . She says her faith is important to her , and no one has warrant to doubt that . But she lacks the ability to discuss comfortably her faith and how it has informed her political persona . Senator John Edwards , another Democratic candidate for president , evokes a more folksy Southern charm , but his speeches about poverty are filled with sloganeering , not genuine pathos . If President Bush 's political success rests on his oft-repeated statement that " you may not always agree with me , but you know where I stand , " one has the suspicion that Edwards will stand wherever his pollster tells him to . He lacks genuineness . A trial lawyer , he is accustomed to playing to the jury , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2006 midterm elections showed anything , it is that religious voters , and especially Catholic voters , remain the swing voters in most elections . According to exit polls , the Democrats won the Catholic vote 55 percent to 44 percent in 2006 , a 6 point swing from the 52-to-47 vote Catholics gave to Bush over Kerry in 2004 . In swing states like Missouri , New Mexico , Arizona and Colorado , Catholics were decisive . In perennial battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania , Catholic voters helped throw out incumbent Republican senators . One of the legacies of Karl Rove 's " divide the electorate " strategy has been the mistaken perception that the " middle " of the American electorate is essentially 3 percent of the whole . The 2006 elections disproved that claim . The swing vote is more like 20 percent to 30 percent of the electorate . Like most Americans , many of the swing voters are more concerned with the life of their local church than with their party affiliation . And to win among religiously motivated voters , Democrats need to nominate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with ease . How does this play out in the hurly-burly of an election ? A recent article in The Washington Post wondered what political opponents would make of the confessions contained in Obama 's earlier memoir ( Dreams From My Father : A Story of Race and Inheritance ) , in which he describes in detail a troubled youth that included experimental drug use . An attack fueled by such admissions would be aimed at swaying a religiously conservative voter . Yet Obama could answer : " One of my favorite passages in Scripture is from First Corinthians : " For I am the least of the apostles , not fit to be called an apostle , because I persecuted the church of God . But by the grace of God , I am what I am , and his grace to me has not been ineffective . ' ' " That , too , might sway the religiously motivated voter . Beyond the charisma and the hype , Obama 's facility with the language of faith is one reason to think he can achieve the one thing Democrats want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sidebar Obama 's facility with the language of faith is one reason to think he can win . Author Affiliation MICHAEL SEAN WINTERS has written about politics and Catholicism for The New Republic , Slate.com , The New York Times Magazine , The Washington Post and other publications . His book , Left at the Altar : How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats , will be published by Basic Books this summer . // <p> 
##2040254 Headnote A Mexican police force crushed the people 's right to assemble and voice opinions . // LAST MAY IN OAXACA , one of Mexico 's poorest states , members of the national teachers ' union began a strike for higher salaries , which led to an encampment in the city 's central square . The Mexican government initiated a repression of the teachers ' struggle , which then expanded into a large coalition of more than 900 groups and organizations called the A.P.P.O. , which in Spanish stands for Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca ( pronounced wa-HA-ka ) . The A.P.P.O. demanded the resignation of the conservative governor , Uliss Ruiz . After months of protests , the tensions escalated and led to government-backed violence . On Nov. 25 , 2006 , on the pretext of controlling a peaceful demonstration organized by the A.P.P.O. , a Mexican federal police force executed a well-planned , highly coordinated attack designed to crush the people 's legal right to assemble and voice their opinions . Fully armed and armored , wearing gas masks , shields and helmets , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ initiated by infiltrators identified by professional journalists as non-uniformed , off-duty policemen . As the police stormed the area just north of Oaxaca 's Zcalo ( main square ) , they fired tear gas canisters at a fleeing crowd that included street vendors , workers , passersby , women and children . Testimony to a Human Rights Delegation A 50-year-old single mother of three , just leaving work , testified on Dec. 18 before the Rights Action emergency human rights delegation : " I could n't see , I was trying to find my son .... They the federal police grabbed me , shoved me against the pavement , handcuffed my hands behind my neck and hurled me onto a pile of other women . They kicked and beat us if we moved and kept us that way for almost two hours . " Along with 140 other men and women , she was charged with sedition , instigating a mutiny and destruction of public property-all federal offenses-and was taken by helicopter a day or so later to a prison in the state of Nayarit hundreds of miles away . All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the state of Taumalipas and Estado de Mexico had been handcuffed , beaten , stripped of most of their clothing and robbed of all their personal possessions . Yet according to testimony before the human rights delegation , more than 80 percent of them had no connection whatsoever with the A.P.P.O. Those incarcerated included a man who had come to the center of town to pick up his daughter from dance class , a man walking down a side street to a bus stop because his car was locked in a parking garage and a woman shopping for Christmas gifts who , in trying to flee the tear gas , broke the heel of one of her shoes and fell . Like the others she was handcuffed , beaten and thrown into the pile of detainees . The federal police made no attempts to identify any of those they detained . " The tear gas was so thick we were all crying and trying to run away . All of a sudden there were police in front of us as well as behind us . They 'd surrounded us . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " a 40-year-old housewife who had come to the Zcalo to meet her teenage son told the civil rights delegation . The police brutality did not end with the apprehensions . The armed P.F.P. continued to beat and kick those piled together outside the convent of Santo Domingo . As temperatures dropped to near freezing , the police stripped those they had apprehended of their sweaters , coats and shoes and hurled them face-down into the beds of trucks to haul them to the state prison in Tlacolula , near Oaxaca City . " They spit on us , kicked us , tortured us . They slammed our heads against the truck bed , they told us to say our prayers , we 'd never see our families again . I was covered with blood , " a tearful 19-year-old college student told the human rights delegation . Treatment in Prison In the prison , 40-some miles from the capital city of Oaxaca , the federal police and state prison guards photographed the detainees . Finally , nearly 24 hours after the apprehensions had begun , the police let their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ airplanes and helicopters to federal installations in the states of Nayarit , Taumalipas and Estado de Mexico . Several observers who managed to evade being arrested reported seeing at least three persons slain , but federal and state authorities denied that any deaths had occurred . Throughout the city of Oaxaca and neighboring communities , residents desperately sought information about those who had disappeared . A caravan of family members , friends and relatives drove or took buses to Tepic , where 91 of the people who had been arrested were locked up . Most of those arriving were not allowed to visit the prisoners because they lacked " proper identification , " nor were the prisoners allowed access to legal representation . Nayarit officials protested that the federal government had no right to " bring Oaxaca 's problem to Nayarit , " but families in Tepic opened their doors to the distraught visitors and fed and housed them . Before the alleged rioters were released under bond ( reportedly paid by Uliss Ruiz 's state government ) , they were forced to sign confessions that no longer included the crimes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destruction of public property . The signers included a widow who can neither read nor write and Pedro Valdez , a Mixtec Indian who not only can not read or write , but who neither speaks nor understands Spanish . Records Destroyed During the police attack several buildings were burned , including the government archives that houses financial and tax records . For reasons that neither the Oaxacan state nor the Mexican federal government has explained , all of the archives had been moved except those detailing the current and previous governors ' financial dealings , which were being audited because of allegations of multibillion dollar fraud . Spokespersons for Oaxaca 's Governor Uliss Ruiz told the Mexican press that the fire had been started by A.P.P.O. protesters hurling Molotov cocktails into the building . Physical investigation of the burned out facility , however , verified that even Joe Namath in his prime could not have thrown a Molotov cocktail far enough to start the conflagration , leading some to conclude that it had been set from inside . Although the federal police force is under the jurisdiction of Mexico 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has made any effort to investigate the violent apprehension and assault of innocent civilians . Various officials from President Caldern 's Partido Accin Nacional , including Senator Felipe Gonzlez , applauded the federal police actions , citing the need to show " a firm hand " against lawbreakers like the coalition protesters . The A.P.P.O. was formed after Oaxaca municipal police raided a sit-in organized by Section 22 of the statewide teachers ' union . The coalition includes participants from a variety of nongovernmental and indigenous organizations . Since its formation , police and paramilitaries allegedly acting on behalf of the state government have assassinated at least 20 persons , including the American photographer Brad Will . At least 100 other persons have disappeared and are presumed to be either imprisoned or dead . Teachers have been dragged out of their classrooms , handcuffed and arrested ; and persons associated with the Popular Assembly have been detained and beaten . A government-sponsored radio station openly encourages Oaxacans to burn buildings associated with the Popular Assembly and to attack assembly members in their homes . Propaganda issued by both state and federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that the state is now safe for tourists-for tourists perhaps , but not for Oaxacans . The arrests , the beatings and the disappearances continue . So does the resistance . " I never was part of the blockades ; I never took part in the marches , " the 50-year-old widow quoted above told the human rights emergency delegation . " But now I 'll be in the marches , " she said , " I 'll support A.P.P.O. Innocent people suffered terribly . I do n't want things like that ever to happen in this state again ! " Author Affiliation ROBERT JOE STOUT was a member of the Rights Action emergency human rights delegation to Oaxaca in 2006 . His most recent book is The Blood of the Serpent : Mexican Lives ( 2003 ) . // <p> 
##2040255 Headnote A parent looks at the logic behind prenatal testing and stem cell research . // I KNOW SOMETHING about hope , enough at least to know what Senator Bill Frist meant when he said during a debate on funding embryonic stem cell research : " If your daughter has diabetes , if your father has Parkinson 's , if your sister has a spinal cord injury , your views will be swayed more powerfully than you can imagine by the hope that a cure will be found in those magnificent cells , recently discovered , that today originate only in an embryo . " That kind of hope is a powerful force , which can be brought to bear on many other kinds of situations and decisions , too . I felt the power myself while lying on a table in a doctor 's office five months pregnant with my son , and the level two ultrasound that had just been performed did not conclusively establish whether my son had Down Syndrome . It was probably the hope that he did not have it that persuaded me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its own , and like love , hope takes risks . I discussed with the doctor all the scientific factors that decreased the risk of miscarriage sometimes associated with the procedure ( the advanced stage of my pregnancy , the position of my baby , the easy access to a large pool of amniotic fluid and the doctor 's skill and experience ) . Yet it was probably that futile hope that tipped me over the edge . My son , it turns out , has Down Syndrome and , we later learned , Autism Spectrum Disorder-not anything that stem cell research promises to cure . Still , both my experience of hope and the decision to act on behalf of my son give me empathy with others , like those whose loved ones might find their illness alleviated by the findings of embryonic stem cell research . When pregnant again five years later , I underwent the preliminary prenatal testing up through the level two ultrasound , but did not opt for amniocentesis . That time , the benefit of knowledge , I judged , did not outweigh the risk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that having a child with a disability was not an unmitigated tragedy . Hope no longer exerted so powerful a pull . Now I harbor another hope , hope for a " cure " for autism . It causes me to identify with the people Senator Frist described . I ask myself , hypothetically , What if embryonic stem cell research could cure what ails my son ? Drawing Critical Distinctions Alongside experience and empathy , Catholic tradition also helps me navigate the dangerous waters of medical decision-making . Is there much difference , I have wondered , between my decision to have amniocentesis and a scientist 's decision to engage in embryonic stem cell research ? Both involve balancing the risk to innocent lives against the benefit of increased knowledge . The church draws a sharp distinction between the two situations , however , one that I have found helpful . With respect to prenatal diagnostic tests , Pope John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae : When they do not involve disproportionate risks for the child and the mother , and are meant to make possible early therapy or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ child not yet born , these techniques are morally licit . But since the possibilities of prenatal therapy are today still limited , it not infrequently happens that these techniques are used with a eugenic intention which accepts selective abortion in order to prevent the birth of children affected by various types of anomalies . Such an attitude is shameful and utterly reprehensible , since it presumes to measure the value of a human life only within the parameters of " normality " and physical wellbeing , thus opening the way to legitimizing infanticide and euthanasia as well . In undergoing amniocentesis I had not incurred " disproportionate risks " for my son or myself , and I had wanted to facilitate a " serene and informed acceptance " of his diagnosis . As a Catholic , I never considered abortion an option . Even so , the day I heard my son 's diagnosis and the weeks afterward were among the darkest times of my life . It is hard to remember why that was , now that I have lived through 11 years of a richer , sweeter life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I recall being utterly devastated at the time . I am glad I was able to get through those dark days while my son was still safe in my womb , rather than right after his birth when he was in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital . Our church appreciates the potential benefits of knowledge in such a situation . Yet it recognizes that the knowledge is not beneficial if sought with a eugenic intention . Most prenatal testing in the United States is offered , accepted and undergone with a eugenic intention-that is , to see if the test finds anything abnormal . Hearing a diagnosis of a condition like Down Syndrome , most women terminate their pregnancy . One can refuse to terminate it , of course , but to do so is countercultural . For that reason especially , it is supportive and comforting that the church does not condemn the desire of a family to know the probabilities , while it cautions against the temptation to destroy life that such " knowing " might present . On stem cell research , the church uses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on stem cells obtained from living adults or from umbilical cords , but condemns research on embryonic stem cells , which can not be obtained without destroying human embryos . Last September , addressing the participants at an international conference on stem cell research , Pope Benedict XVI said : Adult stem-cell research ... deserves approval and encouragement when it felicitously combines scientific knowledge , the most advanced technology in the biological field and ethics that postulate respect for the human being at every stage of his or her existence . The prospects opened by this new chapter in research are fascinating in themselves , for they give a glimpse of the possible cure of degenerative tissue diseases that subsequently threaten those affected with disability and death . The pope also explicitly condemned " diose forms of research that provide for die planned suppression of human beings who already exist , even if they have not yet been born . Research , in such cases , irrespective of efficacious therapeutic results is not truly at the service of humanity . " Recognizing the potential danger of society 's pressing hard against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life , " the church warns us not even to venture down that path . Pope John Paul II had explained in Evangelium Vitae , " What is at stake is so important that , from the standpoint of moral obligation , the mere probability that a human person is involved would suffice to justify an absolutely clear prohibition of any intervention aimed at killing a human embryo . " Life on the Line How does Catholic teaching answer the question , How is deciding for amniocentesis different from deciding for embryonic stem cell research ? Just as some people could legitimately disagree with my personal assessment of the relative risks and benefits of amniocentesis , do n't some people legitimately disagree with the church 's assessment of the relative risks and benefits in embryonic stem cell research ? I understand the crucial distinction in this way : embryonic stem cell research does not pose a " possible " or " probable " risk to the embryos involved . Rather , it destroys the embryo . ( The claim last summer-that scientists had developed a way to cultivate stem cells from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be fraudulent . ) That is the essential difference . If a technology could be developed to extract embryonic stem cells with just a " potential " risk to the embryo , then the risk analysis would , I think , not be meaningfully different from the analysis that permits a woman to undergo amniocentesis . ( Scientists claim this to be the case now with pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos created through in vitro fertilization . ) Yet it is difficult to imagine a scenario under which the extraction technique , even if perfected , could be implemented on a large enough scale to provide the number of stem cells needed for research without leading to the cultivation of embryos for the express purpose of destroying them . There is the eugenic intention . Unless scientists can guarantee a womb for each embryo from whom single cells are safely extracted ( which is not currently done in the context of preimplantation genetic testing ) , then the protection against deliberate destruction of life afforded by this proposed technique is illusory . New techniques for obtaining embryonic stem cells that do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they can be developed , the church may endorse them , as it endorses adult stem cell research . But until then I am willing to accept a bright-line limit on how far I will let my empathy and hope for a medical cure take me-I will not accept the deliberate destruction of embryos . My experience as a parent and as a Catholic bears on my willingness to accept such a limit . As I see it , the image and likeness of God reflected in every life , including embryonic life , includes conditions like Down Syndrome , autism and Parldnson 's disease . To look for cures that deny the sacredness of all human life is to reject the aspect of God 's image reflected in conditions society deems disabling . The theologian Nancy Eiesland reminds us that the Jesus we worship in our churches is not only the triumphant Christ of the Ascension , but the broken Jesus on the cross , the disabled Jesus . Sidebar A Thai doctor performs an experimental stem cell procedure on a patient in Bangkok in 2005 . Author Affiliation ELIZABETH @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis , Minn. // <p> 
##2040256 Headnote An Interview With Dennis Leder // WHAT DREW YOU to Guatemala ? It happened in a roundabout way . In the early 1980 's , I went to Central America with the first short-term delegation of Witness for Peace . They had begun a presence on the border between Nicaragua and Honduras during the Contra offensive against Nicaragua . That visit was only for two weeks , but the political and religious atmosphere caught my attention . Six months later I made a longer trip to Central America with Daniel Berrigan , SJ. , and a mutual friend and became convinced that I should spend a year or two in such a charged area . Soon after , I heard that Jesuit Refugee Service had begun operations in Central America . I asked permission to work there and was assigned to a large Salvadoran refugee camp in Honduras , very close to die war zone . I had never seen a refugee camp before , but soon I was living in one , the only priest among 8,000 families who had fled the violence in El Salvador @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves handled the day-to-day needs , like communal cooking and classes for the children , as well as making clothing , shoes and household items in workshops sponsored by Catholic Charities of Europe ( Caritas ) . Did you have any time in the camp to work on your art ? Living in the camp did n't allow much space for personal art work , but I did eventually organize some painting and drawing classes . During my first year , I received an invitation to the opening of the 20th-century wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City , which had acquired a small sculpture of mine . But the invitation arrived the very day of the event , and of course I could n't attend . That moment consequently remains with me as a symbol of the creative tension that has accompanied my life as a priest and an artist . Some graces come once in a lifetime , and my time there in the camp in Colomoncagua was one such grace . I was to be with J.R.S. for two years , but the longer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to imagine leaving them behind . So I ended up staying over four years , until the camp closed early in 1990 , and I continue to feel a great love for the Salvadoran refugees from Morazn Province . The memories are still fresh . Did your presence as a foreigner in the camp make a difference ? The refugees were always aware of their precarious situation , so they asked for the presence of international volunteers as a form of protection . Being only three kilometers from the Salvadoran border , the camp was continuously surrounded by hostile military patrols of the Honduran army . The Honduran authorities assumed the camp was being used as a resting place for guerrillas from El Salvador who wanted to visit their families , and as far as the military was concerned , the volunteers in the camp were guerrillas too . The eventual repatriation of the refugees was to have begun on Nov. 16 , 1989 , but that was the very day when four Jesuits and the two laywomen were killed on the campus of the University of Central America in San @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one of those Jesuits , Segundo Montes , visited the camp to help the refugees plan for their return . By then I was under some pressure to return to the New York Province of the Jesuits , but Segundo suggested that I contact the Central American superior to ask that I be allowed to stay . The permission was granted . The death of Segundo was another motivation for my wanting to remain-ministering first to the repatriated Salvadoran refugees and then eventually being assigned to Guatemala . What did your work in Guatemala initially involve ? My work in Guatemala began in an indigenous parish in the high plains . But I became increasingly aware that if I kept on with a full-time pastoral schedule , I might never reconnect with the artist in me . I remember dreaming of paint brushes locked in glass cases and waking up with a feeling that that part of my life could just disappear . So another grace intervened when the rector of a historic church in Guatemala City invited me to move there and take part in the restoration of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an earthquake years before . Soon I also became involved with the Religious Conference of Guatemala , teaching spirituality courses in an inter-congregational formation program . After eight years , I was again blending pastoral work with art issues , and happily so . I 've now been doing that for a decade , working with novicesmostly women-from all over Latin America . Women , in my opinion , are the ones who largely hold the church together there , serving as vital forces in church activities , both lay and religious . Sisters in various religious congregations often live in poor neighborhoods and minister in nonclerical ways as a visible presence of solidarity and concern . Later , I was invited to live in the Jesuit community at the Rafael Landvar University . For several years I worked in the theology department , but recently I was named director of an arts program the university has begun . The project deals with dance , music , theater , cinema and the plastic arts , and is part of an effort to add a humanistic element to the students ' curriculum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and art as an important part of what students should know , so the arts program is part of an effort to reintroduce what Jesuit education has always been about . How do you combine your two vocations as priest and as artist ? I 've come to realize that my vocation as priest would never be completely integrated with my vocation as an artist . For me , they run on parallel and complementary tracks . They both contribute to " a life consecrated to the search for truth , " as Matisse said when commenting on his famous chapel in Vence , in southern France . For an artist , the truth is usually found through metaphor , and hoth artist and priest carry on their search in the presence of mystery . Being both an artist and a priest is really nothing new to church history or to the Society of Jesus . But now , at a time when religious imagery is not a dominant concern of artists , the presence of an artist-priest is something of an anomaly . Although I began studying art 30 years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on nonrepresentational sculpture , making architectural constructions in cardboard as models . An ironworker in Guatemala City , an older man who has become a dear friend , then fabricates the actual sculptures from the models I leave with him . Overall , I see my work as an investigation of opposites . I 'm intrigued by contrasts and by the underlying order in apparent chaos . In visual terms , it 's something like an attempt to square the circle . Is there a spiritual element in your art ? Any type of expression that puts us in touch with what it means to create something is deeply spiritual . It 's also an expression of hope , because without hope one would surely not be interested in creating . I 'd say that art frees an energy in us that 's difficult to experience in other areas of life . And with hope comes celebration , which has been part of art from the beginning . The artists who were called upon to design the great churches in Rome and Latin America during the Renaissance created magnificent celebratory spaces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issues of space . I also see my work as linked to dance in the sense that movement , rhythms and the body are all involved . And dance was one of the earliest forms of human ritual . So art , which is another form of language , adds an important spiritual dimension to life as it investigates the mystery of being human and dares to celebrate humanity in the midst of personal and global disorder . How has your art been affected by the political situation in Central and South America over the past decades ? About half my time in Central America has been spent in the midst of war . I 've been close to it at times , especially at the refugee camp , and the precariousness of war and the aftermath of war inevitably affect me . I feel a deep concern for our world that suffers because of injustice , and as an artist I look for a way to make my concerns visual without necessarily describing them . The themes in my art-precariousness , order and chaos , along with rhythms that are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in which I have lived . But there 's also a desire to celebrate humanity in the midst of it all and to create a type of unconventional beauty . That 's where I find a meeting between my vocations as a priest and as an artist . The only way I can proceed is to try to be authentic in terms of what interests me visually and hope that some people might see elements in my work that connect them to social and political issues . Creating art is one of many voices necessary in the world today . It need n't be overtly political , but it arises out of a consciousness of the world . It would be encouraging if art issues could be freed from the prejudice of being seen as a leisure activity and could be regarded instead as a complementary voice in the world . As both priest and artist , how do you pray ? Curiously , when I 'm working in my studio at the university , the experience is very much akin to prayer . It 's contemplative in its solitariness and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frequently a sense of wonder and gratitude . I would say that my prayer has many of the same elements : I am content to be present and listening , rather than speaking a great deal . The sense of gratitude in both my art activity and my prayer comes from the privilege of being present to a mystery . I suspect also that I am something of a hermit , although my various activities could put that assertion to the test . But I 've learned from my life as an artist that if I do n't make space in my life , no one is going to encourage me to do so . Thirty years as an artist have taught me to value contemplative spaces and to find them in spite of other activities . So I just keep at it . Sidebar Dennis Leder , S.J. , . teaching at Rafael Landivar University , in Guatemala City . Sidebar Both artist and priest carry on their search in the presence of mystery . Author Affiliation DENNIS LEDER , a Jesuit priest who has lived and worked as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ director of an art project at the Jesuit-sponsored Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala City . His work has appeared in galleries and museums in Central America , Europe and the United States , including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York . Two of his sculptures were included in a recent exhibition titled " Artistic Habits : Priests , Religious and Their Art " at the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York City . During a visit to New York , he spoke with GEORGE M. ANDERSON , S.J. , an associate editor of America . // <p> 
##2040257 Headnote Is there any place for war and violence in the kingdom of God ? // AS WE ENTER THE FIFTH YEAR of war in Iraq , sincere voices protesting the violence attendant upon the campaign have become increasingly pronounced . The forbidding death toll of Americans in the armed forces-now exceeding 3,000-is reason enough for many to revisit the question of continued U.S. presence in the region . For others the inchoate nature of any substantive plan for Iraq on the part of the administration is equally troubling . In sympathy with these and other protests against the war , I would add that the grim violence of this war raises serious theological issues pertaining to justice . As a professor of New Testament at a Jesuit university , I have increasingly found myself , in conversations with students and colleagues , discussing the theme of nonviolence in Scripture . One question invariably recurs : What voice might Scripture bring to bear on the justice of contemporary war and violence ? The New Testament represents less a unified voice than an anthology of voices celebrating the significance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ single voice , that of the Gospel of Mark , admitting frankly that competing voices from the New Testament may say somediing different about contemporary war and violence . In all likelihood the earliest of the four canonical Gospels , composed sometime around the year 70 C.E. , Mark 's Gospel allows us a glimpse into the theological reflection of an early Christian author , as well as of the primitive Christian community for which the Gospel was likely written . Contemporary scholars like Elizabeth Struthers-Malbon and David Rhoads view the Gospel of Mark as an eminently artful narrative that summons the reader to transformation and response . As Rhoads has noted , the contemporary reader can see in Mark 's Gospel a countercultural value system informed by a theological vision of the in-breaking kingdom of God . Good News After his baptism by John and a period of testing in the wilderness , Jesus enters the public sphere of rural Galilee with a message : " The time is fulfilled , and the kingdom of God has corne near ; repent and believe in the good news " ( 1:15 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dimension of this proclamation . If the reign of God has drawn near , then by implication all other kingdoms-including the then regnant Roman Empire-recede into a provisional background . Much as the designation of the infant Jesus as savior in the Gospel of Luke ( Luke 2:11 ) likely functions to subvert imperial propaganda , Mark 's announcement of the advent of the kingdom exposes all other kingdoms as counterfeit . This reading is confirmed by the close connection Mark makes between Jesus ' announcement of the kingdom and the motif of good news or gospel . In secular Greco-Roman culture , " gospel " denoted matters of civic importance . An inscription from the city of Priene in ancient Asia Minor , for example , describes the birth of the Roman emperor Augustus as gospel , or good news , for the world . The Priene inscription expressed the conviction that Augustus , having successfully established peace and stability throughout his vast empire , merited association with good news . Indeed , in the eyes of at the least the local aristocratic elites who profited from their alliances with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ savior . Such Roman peace , however , issued from brutal military conquest and was frequently maintained through savage reprisal against any and all resistance . Reclaiming Creation Placed alongside the political status quo of imperial violence , the good news of the kingdom in Mark 's Gospel appears decidedly countercultural . Indeed , Mark takes care to present Jesus as establishing the kingdom not by violent conquest but by reclaiming creation for God . This emphasis is clear in the cycle of miracle stories in the opening section of the Gospel ( 1:21-3:6 ) . In each of these scenes-the healing in the Capernaum synagogue of the man possessed , the healing of Peter 's mother-in-law , the cleansing of the leper , the healing of a paralytic and the healing of a man with a withered hand-the kingdom appears as a liberating reality that reclaims people from forces inimical to human life . By banishing demons and all manner of disease and infirmity , Jesus restores wholeness to creation , a wholeness in keeping with God 's original intention ( 3:4 ) . It is important not to downplay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . In the early sections of Mark in particular , Jesus appears as the divine warrior agent of God , who vanquishes all manifestations of evil by his powerful deeds . The story of the exorcism of the man in the Capernaum synagogue ( 1:21-28 ) offers a good illustration . The scene bristles with struggle and violence : the unclean spirit perceives Jesus as a likely agent of destruction ( verse 24 ) , resists Jesus ' action and finally leaves the man only after first convulsing him ( verse 26 ) ; Jesus ' posture is equally confrontational , censuring the demon ( perhaps out of a sense that it was trying to gain control over him by uttering his name ) and thereby gaining the victory ( verse 25 ) . To be sure , martial imagery informs this presentation , but the primary valence of the imagery is not violence toward some human adversary but divine compassion for an alienated creation attacked by demonic possession . The same theme of compassion for creation is reflected in the story of the healing of the Gerasene man possessed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ picture of abject social and personal alienation . The man possessed by what Mark calls a " legion " ( verse 9 ) lives isolated in a cemetery and engages in strangely self-destructive behavior . As a consequence of Jesus ' action , however , the man is placed on the path toward physical and social integration . Indeed , through the man 's commitment to remain with Jesus ( verse 18 ) and his eventual proclamation of Jesus in the unclean Gentile region of the Decapolis ( verse 20 ) , Mark signals the depth of that reclamation . A Different Kind of King Clearly , then , the martial and the compassionate must be held in tension in order to do justice to the dynamic of Mark 's theological perspective . Reading Mark , I am sometimes reminded of the early stages of the Iraq war . So often in those early days , the administration of President George W. Bush employed religious language full of notions of liberation and implied that the essential moral justification for the war lay in the commitment to liberate a people from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of liberation in the Iraqi wilderness , stood the stunning might of the U.S. military , with the president in the role of Moses . Martial imagery , taken literally , can easily be used to justify violence against others . Such a perspective , however , neglects the pattern found in all four Gospels : Jesus endures the violence perpetrated by both the political and religious elite ; he never emulates it . While it is evident , then , that martial imagery informs Mark 's narrative , it is crucial to realize that Mark has profoundly transformed this imagery in light of his faith commitment to the countercultural kingdom inaugurated through the death and resurrection of Jesus . Mark highlights the kingdom 's countercultural dimension nowhere more evocatively than in the scene of the so-called triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem ( 11:1-10 ) . As Jesus enters Jerusalem to the enthusiastic response of the crowd , the narrative is thick with royal imagery . Jesus rides on a colt , an image derived from the prophet Zechariah : " Lo , your king comes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ riding on a donkey , on a colt , the foal of a donkey " ( Zech 9:9 ) ; he enters amid the shouts of the crowd celebrating the dawning kingdom of David , the ideal king of liberation envisaged in such texts as the Psalms of Solomon ( first century B.C.E ) . Yet Jesus does not take violent possession of Jerusalem . Indeed , Mark has taken care in the previous three chapters to prepare the readers to discern in Jesus a different kind of king , the suffering Sun of Man ( 8:31 , 9:31 , 10:33-34 ) . Instead of killing in the service of establishing God 's countercultural kingdom , Jesus will the in that service , the ironic divine warrior . When at the recognition of Jesus ' death the centurion declares Jesus to be the Son of God ( 15:39 ) , his confession functions as a final repudiation of the use of imperial violence . Grave Sin Church teaching must always remain a servant to Scripture as the revelatory medium of God 's word ( " Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think Mark 's countercultural vision of the kingdom inaugurated in Jesus ' ministry calls into question the use of violence , whether done in the name of liberation or in the interest of a " just war . " Mark probably wrote shortly after the disastrous Jewish war with Rome that concluded with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 C.E. , a war in which both sides had engaged in deadly violence . With the prospect of further violence still to come ( 13:7 ) , Mark nonetheless resists any accommodation to violence . He presents Jesus ' ministry as one of service on behalf of the kingdom , even to the point of meeting the violence of the world with service , rather than with the commonly accepted pattern of reciprocal violence . Likewise when the disciples James and John seek places of honor in the kingdom , Mark offers a prophetic judgment against the typical structures of power prevalent in the world . Jesus tells them ( 10:41-45 ) : You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . But it is not so among you ; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant , and whoever wishes to be first among you must be the slave of all . For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve , and to give his life as a ransom for many . In Mark 's account we have the narrative of the Son who lives out the countercultural values of the kingdom , including the value of nonviolence ( 14:46-50 ) . In the story of the empty tomb we encounter , along with the divine vindication of Jesus , the divine confirmation that the countercultural life lived by Jesus is the one God desires all to emulate . Knowing this , we must ask ourselves : When viewed against the countercultural character of the kingdom revealed in the ministry of Jesus and vindicated in the account of his empty tomb , can war and contemporary violence be described as anything other than grave sin ? Author Affiliation KEVIN B. McCRUDEN is an assistant professor of religious studies at Gonzaga University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##2040258 Headnote After a suicide , the liturgy of Christian burial brings healing and peace to mourners . // " WELL has been two years has since my brother-in-law 's voice over the phone ended a three-day vigil of what I can only call " hope against hope . " My handsome 34-year-old nephew Rich had hanged himself in a park 20 minutes from his parents ' home . Remembering his birthday each year on Nov. 13 brings the events back with waves of pain . Yet at this time in our church 's history , when many priests continue to suffer from the scandal of a few , I am filled with admiration and gratitude to a priest who , although he had not known our family , guided us through the day of Rich 's funeral Mass and burial . Rich was adopted . My sister and brother-in-law had opened their hearts to this engagingly beautiful baby boy when he was three months old . Ecstatic is not too strong a word to describe their joy as they welcomed him to join them and his three-year-old sister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " He was n't expected ; he was selected . " My brother-in-law gave him his own and his grandfather 's names , and the entire family thanked God for the gift of this child . Then to their surprise and delight , as often happens , one-and-a-half years later , Joan and Dick gave birth to their own biological son . Yet when my brother-in-law had both boys with him , passersby would comment on how much Rich looked like him . These parents loved all three children with complete acceptance and gratitude . AS THE YEARS WENT on , however , there were many indications that Rich was a troubled child , moody , rebellious and depressed . His parents had to take him often for professional help during his adolescence . They enrolled him sequentially in three different colleges , where they knew he could get help with his learning disability . He was not motivated and did not go to class . By sheer force of personality , he spent a decade getting jobs as a waiter , chef , caterer , butler , salesman and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ During these years Rich often escaped into drugs . His parents never knew when a phone call would come from him in another state saying he needed financial and legal help . Neither unconditional acceptance nor tough love enabled him to find himself . The fact that his birth parents had " given him away " continually gnawed at his peace , so that he never felt at home with himself . Rich was unsuccessful in keeping a job ; he lost his last one , managing a widow 's estate , when she remarried . Less than a year later Rich called his father to say that he could not go on without a job or money . My brother-inlaw mailed him a bus ticket , welcomed him home , and asked only that he find some kind of job in what was , unfortunately , an economically depressed area . For the next two months Rich appeared upbeat . With his artistic talent , he cheerfully helped his mother with some redecorating and treated his parents and their guests to his best culinary treats . But one Tuesday evening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former classmate and did not come home . On Thursday , I received two voicemail messages from Rich , but he left no number where I could return his call . On Friday , I received a letter from him ( as did each of his parents and his sister and brother ) , thanking me for always accepting him , for being there for him . To my terror he added , " Do n't think that there was anything you could have done to stop me . " Then he called again and left a message with a request for money and this time a return number . But the number turned out to be that of a nursing home , where no one knew him . I frantically called my brother-in-law , who called the nursing home , drove around the neighborhood and inquired for clues . We spent a night of praying and waiting . Early the next morning my sister and brother-in-law saw a car stop outside their home . The sheriff opened the back car door , and they expected to see Rich get out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of Rich 's identification on it , including a note to give to his parents . The sheriff asked them to come to the morgue to identify the body of a young man a jogger had discovered hanging from park bleachers . It was Rich . This is when they called me . A social worker in their parish came to see Rich 's parents that evening with an assurance bom of her experience . " Your son did what in his mental illness he thought was the most loving thing , lie made sure not to end his life in your home or even in your town . He also made sure that he would be identified immediately so as to lessen your waiting . These are signs that he wished to cushion the blow of what he felt was his last resort to be free of his " demons . ' ' " MY SISTER WAS DEVASTATED by their son 's death . Adding to their agony was the fact that they lived in a parish without a resident priest ; it was administered by a young lay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sunday . Later , friends and neighbors would drop by , send notes and flowers and bring food , but my brother-in-law arranged for a funeral Mass elsewhere . He called the parish where Rich 's grandmother had lived before she went into assisted living nearer her family . The pastor knew only the grandmother , but immediately offered to preside at the Mass . My sister could not bear a formal wake , but the night before the funeral she invited members of the immediate family-including me , my other sister and her husband , and my brother and his wife-to go in and see my nephew lying so uncharacteristically still in death . When I later commented to the mortician how relieved I was at Richard 's appearance , the man answered , " I consider my ability to make a dead person look at peace for his family a ministry and an art . Because of the high shirt collar and T-shirt , you see no sign of the rope burn on Rich 's neck . " THE NEXT DAY a few close family members and friends met @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . I was steeling myself for what might be a cold , detached ritual . The priest knew virtually nothing about my family except what my brother-in-law had told him on the phone . We went into the small foyer where the coffin waited . Suddenly the priest appeared like a very tall archangel , garbed in a white surplice , and introduced himself with quiet compassion to each one of the immediate family . I felt as if I were a participant in the Gospel account of the angel at Jesus ' tomb comforting the grieving women . My tears started when I saw my sister standing there at a loss , waiting . Then the priest took charge . " I invite Richard 's parents to cover his casket with the white pall that symbolizes his baptism , his dying and rising in Christ . " With amazing composure , after several days in shock , my sister and brother-in-law slowly and reverently did so , as they might years ago have drawn up a blanket over their sleeping child . The priest continued , " I 'm told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the Bible ? " Mimi and Stephen nodded and joined their parents at the coffin . " Then let 's begin , " Father said as he put on his white vestment , the organist-vocalist began to play and sing , and our small group processed into the empty church . I had chosen the hymns and readings except for the Panis Angelicus , which my sister selected because it had been sung at her first Communion . We took our places , and Rich 's siblings read the comforting words of Scripture and tried to fight hack tears . I had been to many funerals , hut I found none so difficult as this one . The priest 's homily was about God 's fatherly mercy and unconditional love for Rich , who was now at home with God . We received the Eucharist as Jesus ' uniting himself to us in our numbing grief . Finally , as the music began for the final farewell , we prayed that the angels would welcome Rich into paradise . The next moment surprised us all . Instead of doing it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and walk around the casket , incensing the body . She moved with grace in the cloud of fragrance . Then my brother-in-law , niece and nephew followed in a kind of healing choreography of prayer . Then Father said , " You offer the incense of our loving and prayers rising up to God and God sends down to you the assurance that Rich is with his heavenly father , lovingly returning his prayers for you . " " As I watched the incense of prayer rising around me , " Joan said later , " I experienced for the first time a closeness to Richard and a touch of peace . " WE ACCOMPANIED THE CASKET to a family burial plot , where the priest again prayed for Richard and for everyone laid to rest in that cemetery . Mimi brought up a bouquet of 12 white roses from her two little boys , who were Uncle Rich 's favorites , and asked that the flowers be buried with him . My sister asked , " Do you pray that way at each funeral ? " Father assured her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also for Richard . Instead of hurrying away , this man , who is in charge of three parishes , accepted the invitation to eat lunch with us at a nearby restaurant . He put everyone at ease and even had Richard 's parents smiling and talking as if they were old friends . Despite very difficult times adjusting to the loss of Richard since the first shocking news , one memory above all sustains me : that of the tall young monsignor sent like an archangel to bring good news and healing to my family in deep grief . He gave us an experience of resurrection . Author Affiliation MARIE THERESE RUTHMANN , V.H.M. , taught English literature for 46 years and now , in retirement , writes from the Monastery of the Visitation in St. Louis , Mo . // <p> 