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PDF versionGeorgetown welcomes Colombia's Uribe
by John Dear SJ on Sep. 07, 2010
"This will, literally, cause scandal. The U.S. Congress has held up passage of the trade agreement with Colombia because it is a place where the government, under Uribe, has consistently failed to defend labor unionists from death squads. Uribe is widely accused of having had direct links to the paramilitary groups who have massacred countless innocents. Whether or not those charges are true, he has irresponsibly and cruelly accused human rights activists in Colombia of collusion with 'Communist terrorists,' endangering their lives."
"I write to you with great concern regarding the fact that Georgetown, our Jesuit University, has hired the outgoing president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, as a professor. I am constantly receiving messages from individuals and groups who have suffered enormously during his term as president. They are protesting and questioning the mind-set of our Society, or its lack of ethical judgment in making a decision of this kind.
Last week some of us learned that Georgetown University has appointed the former president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, to a teaching post at its Walsh School of Foreign Service. Uribe, who is linked to paramilitaries that slaughtered thousands of innocents and who befriended drug traffickers -- bringing them into the political mainstream -- has been named Georgetown's "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership." He begins work tomorrow, Sept. 8.
Apparently neither the university president nor the faculty nor the Jesuits have been apprised that lawyers are working to bring charges against Uribe at The Hague for human rights violations. Georgetown might just as well have invited the Philippines' Marcos, Nicaragua's Somoza or Liberia's Charles Taylor to teach.
I shouldn't be surprised. Georgetown in particular has a long history of supporting U.S. war-making. It has taken millions from the Pentagon, trained thousands of young Catholics in its ROTC program, hired Henry Kissinger, welcomed the person who ordered the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, and supported war-makers from the Shah of Iran to Ronald Reagan.
Georgetown's students and faculty have for years joined the campaign to close the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga., which these days predominantly trains Colombia's military officers and soldiers under the guise of fighting terrorism. Many of those soldiers then go back to their country and participate with paramilitary death squads in killing and torturing innocent people. I would expect the president, faculty, and Jesuits of Georgetown to know better than to welcome Uribe to join their ranks.
"We are looking forward to having President Uribe join our university community," Georgetown President John DeGioia said recently in a statement. "Having such a distinguished world leader at Georgetown will further the important work of students and faculty engaging in important global issues."
Is this his idea of a world leader? With so many heroes of peace and nonviolence to invite -- from Archbishop Tutu to Mairead Maguire, or leaders here at home such as Kathy Kelly and Jim Wallis -- I'm stunned that he can look forward to the arrival of one of the world's most notorious mass murderers. Is this the kind of global leadership Georgetown teaches?
"President Uribe will bring a truly unique perspective to discussions of global affairs at Georgetown," said Carol Lancaster, dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service. "We are thrilled that he has identified Georgetown as a place where he will share his knowledge and interface with Washington, and I know that our students at the School of Foreign Service will benefit greatly from his presence."
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Friends and I have urged Georgetown's leaders to disinvite Uribe and have also begun a campaign to protest his presence. I personally asked Dean Lancaster on the phone to do everything she can to prevent Uribe's arrival. To my chagrin, most everyone I speak with at Georgetown seems to know little about Colombia or Uribe and refers to the State Department's respect for him.
I say this without hyperbole. That should have been their first warning.
We all need to learn about Uribe's eight-year tenure in Colombia, his corruption, the human-rights violations he sponsored, and the widespread impunity. In June 2009 Human Rights Watch issued an open letter to President Obama listing some of the human rights violations of the Uribe administration:
- More than 3 million Colombians (out of a population of about 40 million) have been forced to flee their homes, giving Colombia the second-largest population of internally displaced persons in the world after Sudan.
- More than 70 members of the Colombian Congress are under criminal investigation or have been convicted for allegedly collaborating with the paramilitaries. Nearly all these congresspersons are members of President Uribe's coalition in the Colombian Congress and the Uribe administration repeatedly undermined the investigations and discredited the Colombian Supreme Court justices who started them.
- Colombia has the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world.
- A clandestine gravesite of 2,000 non-identified bodies was recently discovered directly beside a military base in La Macarena in central Colombia. When the news became public, Uribe flew to the Macarena and said publicly that accusing the armed forces of human rights abuses was a tactic used by guerrillas. These comments put the lives of those victims who spoke at the event in grave danger.
- Starting in 2008 reports came out that the Colombian military was luring poor young men from their homes with promises of employment, then killing them and presenting them as combat casualties. The practice not only served to stack battle statistics, but also financially benefited the soldiers involved -- as Uribe's government had, since 2005, awarded monetary and vacation bonuses for each insurgent killed. Human rights groups cite 3,000 or more "false positives."
Georgetown's appointment of Uribe is "shameful," Jesuit theologian Fr. Jon Sobrino said last week in El Salvador. "Uribe is a symbol of the worst that has happened in the tragic conflict in Colombia. There is a great deal of blood involved here, a very great deal. "
"Does this appointment reflect the mission and the Catholic and Jesuit identity of Georgetown?" Fr. Dean Brackley, a Jesuit professor at the University of Central America in El Salvador, writes. He goes on:
A few years ago, I traveled to Colombia to see for myself. There I learned about the U.S.-backed war against the poor waged by Uribe under the guise of a "war on drugs." I learned how the repressive Colombian government, under the democratically elected but dictatorial President Uribe, killed some ten thousand people a year -- leaving 200,000 dead in the last twenty years. This war isn't about drugs but about expropriating Colombia's rich land and natural resources, from the indigenous people to the U.S. and multinational corporations.
In Bogota, Colombia, I met one of the world's leading voices for human rights: Fr. Javier Giraldo, a Jesuit priest whose Interchurch Commission for Justice and Peace has documented all the killings and massacres in Colombia. For his efforts he's suffered countless death threats, especially under the Uribe regime. Last week Giraldo wrote to me about the situation and I share his letter here so we can all learn about Colombia and the disgrace of Georgetown's hiring of Uribe:
It is possible that decision makers at Georgetown have received positive appraisals from Colombians in high political or economic positions, but it is difficult to ignore, at least, the intense moral disagreements aroused by his government and the investigations and sanctions imposed by international organizations that try to protect human dignity. The mere fact that, during his political career, while he was governor of Antioquia Province (1995-1997) he founded and protected so many paramilitary groups, known euphemistically as "Convivir" ("Live Together"), who murdered and "disappeared" thousands of people and displaced multitudes, committing many other atrocities, that alone would imply a need for moral censure before entrusting him with any responsibility in the future.
But not only did he continue to sponsor those paramilitary groups, but he defended them and he perfected them into a new pattern of legalized para-militarism, including networks of informants, networks of collaborators, and the new class of private security companies that involve some millions of civilians in military activities related to the internal armed conflict, while at the same time he was lying to the international community with a phony demobilization of the paramilitaries.
In addition, the scandalous practice of "false positives" took place during his administration. The practice consists in murdering civilians, usually farmers, and after killing them, dressing them as combatants in order to justify their deaths. That is the way he tried to demonstrate faked military victories over the rebels and also to eliminate the activists in social movements that work for justice.
The corruption during his administration was more than scandalous, not just because of the presence of drug traffickers in public positions but also because the Congress and many government offices were occupied by criminals. Today more than a hundred members of Congress are involved in criminal proceedings, all of them President Uribe's closest supporters.
The purchase of consciences in order to manipulate the judicial apparatus was disgraceful. It ended up destroying, at the deepest level, the moral conscience of the country. Another disgrace was the corrupt manner in which the Ministers closest to him manipulated agricultural policy in order to favor the very rich with public money, meanwhile impeding and stigmatizing social projects. The corruption of his sons, who enriched themselves by using the advantages of power, scandalized the whole country at one time.
In addition, he used the security agency that was directly under his control (the Department of Administrative Security) to spy on the courts, on opposition politicians, and on social and human rights movements, by means of clandestine telephone tapping. The corrupt machinations he used to obtain his re-election as President in 2006 were sordid in the extreme, with the result that ministers and close collaborators have gone to jail.
He manipulated the coordination between the Army and the paramilitary groups that resulted in 14,000 extrajudicial executions during his term of office. His strategies of impunity for those who, through the government or the "para-government," committed crimes against humanity will go down in history for their brazenness.
The decision by the Jesuits at Georgetown to offer a professorship to Álvaro Uribe is not only deeply offensive to those Colombians who still maintain moral principles, but also places at high risk the ethical development of the young people who attend our university in Washington. Where are the ethics of the Society of Jesus?"
Javier's closing question leaves me trembling.
I urge people everywhere to call or write Georgetown University's president and protest Uribe's presence on campus -- and to push Georgetown to cut its ties with dictators, warmakers and the Pentagon. For further information, visit the School of the Americas Web site at www.soaw.org and the Colombia Support Network at www.colombiasupport.net.
I grieve that our struggle to end war and injustice is so often stymied by the church itself and, in this case, my own religious order. But I'm heartened by the reaction of so many people and the organizing that has sprung up around this scandal. I hope someday Georgetown University and every Jesuit and Catholic institution will become a school of justice, nonviolence, and human rights.
******
A week from today, on Sept. 14, thirteen friends and I will stand trial at the Nevada State Courthouse along the Las Vegas strip. Our infraction? Daring to walk on to Creech Air Force Base, headquartered in the Nevada desert, last year on Holy Thursday. We entered the premises to call prayerfully for an end to the U.S. drone bombers.
Alas, our call was rejected and -- after a tense stand-off with soldiers at the gate -- the police arrived and arrested, handcuffed, chained, booked and held us in the Las Vegas jail for the night. In March the government pressed charges against us, hoping to set an example of us and to stop others from protesting our "drones." So the struggle goes on.
To follow the trial of the Creech 14, visit Voices for Creative Nonviolence, at www.vcnv.org
******
John Dear's latest book, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings (Orbis), along with other recent books, A Persistent Peace and Put Down Your Sword, as well as Patricia Normile's John Dear On Peace, are available from www.amazon.com. To contribute to Catholic Relief Services' "Fr. John Dear Haiti Fund," go to: http://donate.crs.org/goto/fatherjohn. For further information, or to schedule a lecture or retreat on Gospel Nonviolence, go to www.johndear.org.
Yikes! What should we do?
Yikes! What should we do?
Join the Adios Uribe
Join the Adios Uribe Coalition! www.uribe-georgetown.org
no-uribe-georgetown+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Hard to believe!!!
Hard to believe!!!
Support Colombians by
Support Colombians by supporting former president Uribe, named by 80% of Colombians their best president ever!! Good hearted Colombians are shocked to find this kind of blog that obviously ignores the opinion of 80% of Colombians who still support their former president. Please help Colombians and not terrorist. Terrrorist (named FARC guerrilla) have killed and kidnaped (including three americans)thousands of Colombians. Uribe has fought them and and drug dealears and paramilitary armed forces. Their leaders are now in the middle of the jungle, dead or hiding in Venezuela.
High approval and good will
High approval and good will are not directly related. Pinochet had also high aprroval and Hitler too, citizens of their nations also believed to them.
I am one of millions of colombians that that guy deceive for a long while, one day I open my eyes and started to undestand the true. Now I admire the amazing ability of this man to say lies and making the people believing what he says is true. I can tell you important lies he told the colombians.
Defending Uribe you will not
Defending Uribe you will not defend Colombia only you will be defending Uribe. There are better ways to defend Colombia. It is not true that all opposers to Uribe are guerillas, in fact many paramilitars defend Uribe regime but it doesn't mean that all Uribe's defender are paramilitars. Many good will citizens rejects Uribe's regime
support your percentages,
support your percentages, charly, with your source so we might all judge your reliability and validity. As it is you read like something from Rumsfeld's Office of Public Diplomacy and its un-normed statistics twisted to support unjust and erroneous and immoral policies.
FARC is one horrible thing
FARC is one horrible thing that harms Colombia deeply. But the people who is supposed to defend Colombians is killing them. Not to mention how corrupted was his Government... I'm a good hearted Colombian, i don't defend guerrilla, but it doesn't mean i support an assassin as Uribe is.
Thank you, Father John Dear,
Thank you, Father John Dear, for this excellent and correct analysis.
Georgetown's action is indeed shocking, especially in light of his final and unjustifiable warmongering, and in light of his War Minister succeeding him, supported by a corrupt and mercenary US military.
If this is now called global leadership, we are indeed on the brink of the apocalypse.
Rather, let us pray and work for peace always.
Giving such a prominent
Giving such a prominent position to a dog like Uribe is something the Roman Catholic community at Georgetown will regret for years to come and those making this decision will someday stand before the throne of Judgement and try to justify this 'CRIME'.
With all due respect, it
With all due respect, it sounds like you need to devise better strategies for engaging your adversary. Maybe Georgetown's faculty understands that by giving Uribe a platform, they also give everyone in D.C. the opportunity to question him and his administration -- something not easily accomplished by getting oneself arrested now and then.
Chris. This is the DC which
Chris. This is the DC which put him in place and supported him financially and military for years.
To think that ANYONE in DC would now question him morally and ethically is grasping at straws. It is a sadly idealistic delusion. Uribe is us, like Somoza and Pinochet.
This professorship is a pay off to get him out of the way. Wait til the murderous Calderon gets his.
Meanwhile Georgetown truly now needs the exorcist.
Actually, John Dear states in
Actually, John Dear states in this article that student and faculty members from Georgetown (and other DC schools) protest the School of the Americas and other rights issues on a regular basis. So there are many people in DC who are already questioning him morally and ethically, and the only delusion is that a major Jesuit university hasn't thought this appointment through. Sometimes it pays to read the article.
chris writes: "Sometimes it
chris writes: "Sometimes it pays to read the article."
I await my paycheck eagerly . . .
to distribute to the poor people of Ciudad Juarez
I think your hope is
I think your hope is misplaced and your reasoning misses the point. Perhaps inviting a person to speak at Georgetown University ~ say, at a conference or a workshop and opening it up for questions ~ would be a good fit with your response.
But to confer a teaching position with such honor on a person whose lived choices have been the antithesis of Jesus and the Body of Christ ~ love, humility, forgiveness, laying down one's life for the other (not taking others' lives for one's own agenda) is just plain immoral. Should he have repented and taken a definitive and observable change towards the values of love and life and mercy ~ that would be another case altogether.
I am also a bit taken aback by your dismissive attitude towards non violent protests against such violent actions such as the drones. Perhaps it does not matter to you living in the US as it does not appear to have moved your heart. But, I am in daily contact with some Afghanistan women who live in Pakistan via email who take great consolation when I send them news of actions such as the John Dear.
If your criteria for teaching
If your criteria for teaching positions were right, there would be very few people teaching at our universities. And I wouldn't automatically buy John Dear's version of Uribe who, for all his faults, managed to keep Colombia from coming apart at the seams when all around him clamored for civil war. What John doesn't know about the real world is a lot.
You really have a point there
You really have a point there about faculty positions and the requirements for teaching! It makes me smile and I give you one point!
However, a person of such blatant violent acts against his own citizens also becomes a symbol of his/her actions. We are a symbolic people.
Like any issue, more sides and different perspectives surely abound. And, if one's point of reference is a viable nation state, which usually means a government with an army as failed states are governments without armies under their control, then I am sure John is missing the point.
But, if one comes from a perspective of a committed follower of Jesus, albeit extremely counter cultural and counter intuitive in our current society (and probably all others since Jesus ~ his put him to death), then I think John is right on the mark here.
please source this, Chris:
please source this, Chris: "managed to keep Colombia from coming apart at the seams when all around him clamored for civil war."
and please tell me, how did invading, slandering and attacking neighboring nations with whom he was not at war, knowing the US military was backing him up, corruptly with collusion in the drug trade, constitute global leadership?
Mmmm...well, in the US ~ the
Mmmm...well, in the US ~ the US concerns are THE global concerns, the US interests are THE global interests...
I guess underneath the collars, the Jesuits are US patriots through and through.
So much for C/catholicism
To think I nearly went to
To think I nearly went to Georgetown. Boy, did I dodge a bullet.
This is unacceptable. It is
This is unacceptable. It is lucky that I am too poor to support my "alma mater" (what a joke, given this news). What is the Georgetown administration thinking? I am drafting my letter to the GU president now, although I have grave doubts that it will do any good since I am not a wealthy donor. This sickens me.
Where are all those
Where are all those pro-life/right-to-life groups and bishops and clergy that protested at Notre Dame when President Obama gave his address. Surely they of all people know how much more serious this decision of Georgetown's is in comparison.....like a 1000 times more serious!?
Uribe must be anti-abortion.
Uribe must be anti-abortion. That's all that counts, right?
In the readings a few weeks
In the readings a few weeks ago, from The Book of Revelations, we read of the dragon astride the woman in labor, awaiting patiently the birth of her child to rip that baby apart.
I guess these bishops call such an apocalyptic dragon pro-life as well, so patiently awaiting the full term natural birth, before the horror?
analogous to anyone giving
analogous to anyone giving that genocidal maniac Henry Kissinger any professorship.
Yet, remember Gary Trudeau . . .
Just out of curiosity, who
Just out of curiosity, who did Henry Kissinger murder? What race did he exterminate? What genocide did he participate in or sanction? Indeed, when President Nixon of happy memory was ready to use nuclear weapons on China during the height of the Vietnam War, it was Kissinger who dissuaded him from doing so.
Be that as it may, Kissinger understood something that peace activists either have forgotten or never learned. He understood that there are real enemies in the world and sometimes one has no choice but to fight them; he also understood that sometimes one has to support the lesser of two evils. Communism was, perhaps, the greatest threat to face mankind since the Battle of Lepanto, a political and economic system that murdered innocent people, sought to eradicate religion, denied people the right to be creative, to free enterprise and private ownership of property, and worked diligently to deny that which makes the individual unique - his soul. Communism had to be fought and eradicated, even if that means that one had to side with somewhat dubious allies. Kissinger understood this, being the consumate realist.
Idealism is fine, I suppose, but it seems that it should be tempered with a dose of reality. As Ayn Rand said, "Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears". Kissinger understood this, as did the finest leaders in American history.
East Timor for one. And maybe
East Timor for one.
And maybe you heard of a little place called Vietnam?
for starters . . .
hey, but it certainly profited Dow Chemical and Monsanto, right?
Wall Street laughed all the way to the bank
the killing of Salvador
the killing of Salvador Allende and total destruction of Chilean culture and society September eleventh for another
The East Timor situation was
The East Timor situation was one of stopping a nation's slide into socialism/Communism. It may not have ended exactly as Kissinger and President Ford intended, but sometimes one has to make the difficult choices. They did so. They chose to ally themselves with a lesser evil in order to stop a greater evil. As the old adage goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Also, Vietnam was not Kissinger, nor Nixon. Vietnam belongs totally to our good friends Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. President Nixon inherited the war and desired to bring it to a close. He intended to do so, however, by winning it. Unlike President Obama, it was not good enough for Nixon that the US would simply withdraw its troops, he had to end the war in American victory, because American victory meant defeat of Communism. Sadly, his own paranoia got the best of him before he could bring America victory and President Ford, the conciliator, was only interested in bringing the war to a close.
The question of who profits from war is an old red herring designed to make people believe that war is fought only for financial ends. War is fought for many reasons, financial reasons among them. But primarily, the Vietnam conflict and the East Timor incident were about the preservation of freedom over tyranny. Unfortunately, things rarely work out exactly as one plans...
"Someone has to make the
"Someone has to make the difficult choices" --??
Who gets to make the "difficult choices" to kill other people? What an incredible thing to say. That rather leaves me breathless. Of all the comments I've seen on this board, that would take the prize for the most morally bereft.
We too conveniently forget
We too conveniently forget September 11th marks first and foremost the anniversary of Nixon/Kissinger's brutal overthrow of a freely and democratically elected government in Chile with the establishment of a torturing, kidnapping, extortionist, censoring, homicidal right wing military dictatorship under Pinochet's long reign of terror, which extends even now with a Pinochet follower in power, and which did what Calderon is doing now in Mexico since stealing the elections from the legitimiate winner: those he cannot kill he drives into exile.
Has Georgetown heard of
Has Georgetown heard of background checks?
The American bishops spoke
The American bishops spoke out against President Obama's invitation to speak at Notre Dame's graduation referring to his stance on issues that disagree with the Catholic church. I will watch to see how they react to this.
Thanks, Fr. Dear, for
Thanks, Fr. Dear, for bringing this to our attention.
What is wrong with the Jesuits of Georgetown?
The institutional church seems to be going to hell in a hand basket...
beginning with the pope on down.
When are we going to wake up and listen to prophets like John Dear? This man has spend his entire ministry in the cause of justice and peace and never seems to get discouraged. Thank God for people like him.
What practical things can we do to support him?
Hmm...and abortion is a crime
Hmm...and abortion is a crime punishable by excommunication. And yet, being linked to paramilitaries that slaughtered thousands of innocents, befriending drug traffickers, and committing human rights violations makes one a leader in they eyes of the Georgetown administration and the Papal hierarchy. Sorry, the Catholic Church lost its credibility years ago. Very sad, very sad indeed.
I have not heard, as yet, the
I have not heard, as yet, the protesting voices of our bishops, especially our Washington bishops. They should have invited the president to their mid-year graduation ceremonies. That seems to work! Jesuits, wash your hands!
Thanks for moblizing us to
Thanks for moblizing us to action on this disgraceful appointment by Georgetown University. I'll encourage strong letters from my spouse and my brother - both Georgetown graduates.
With all due respect, giving
With all due respect, giving a dictator with the record Uribe a position of dignity and respect, with
all the privileges, honor and protections that usually goes with such academic appointments, anoints
him with the holy oils of academia. His exposure to the public will be limited, and the forum in
which he may or may not answer questions will likely be controlled for the sake of “academic
politeness”, and alleged “academic freedom” to hold whatever position or beliefs he has held
during his political career. If GU were truly interested in creating a stage for this man to be exposed
to the public scrutiny, they could have invited him to come to the campus in the position of “Retired
Politician of a Troubled South American Country”. No honors, no academic privileges and no
protections from embarrassing questions from the audience. My guess is this kind of invitation
would not have been accepted. So what is this university getting out of this, I have to wonder?
Keep in mind the US is currently building and/or expanding military bases in Columbia to further
engage the “war on Terror”, and by the way we’re sorry for the thousands of “collateral damages”
along the way. GU just added a touch of high respect to that program..
Utterly bewildering.
Utterly bewildering. "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership": There's not enough irony in the world to make this title anything but a reckless mockery of moral compass. Georgetown jettisons the very idea of what constitutes good.
This is very disturbing in
This is very disturbing in that either John Dear, who I know and love, is casting erroneous criticisms or we have a very serious problem within our Catholc Universities. I know that John has always spoken the truth from his veiwpoint, sometimes with valid or arguable counter arguments. How can we as Americans, Catholics and god fearing people know whether our country is truly harboring ex-presidents with such atrocious backgrounds, or the Fr. John is misled?
It would be great, although I doubt it will happen, that the "free" American press conduct a full, unaudited and unbiased assessmnet of Aribe's background and presidential hstory.
I know that John SJ always gets accused of taking an "extreme" viewpoint towards peace in our savior Jesus Christ, but I would love to see, read and fully understand a counter viewpoint on this subject.
I remain committed to the Truth and peace and if this is true, we are headed in the wrong and dangerous direction. Thank you John for opening our eyes and hopefully leading to a peaceful and legitimate discussion.
There is a counterviewpoint
There is a counterviewpoint on Commondreams.org in Sept. 7 listing of articles. I can't give it much credence, however. I also responded with information about the Interreligious Task Force on Central America.
P. Denny
Painesville, OH
A.M.D.G. Ain't that the
A.M.D.G. Ain't that the motto? "All for the greater honor and glory of God"?
Grat article on what
Grat article on what Geogretown is up to. We are call to be light to the word, salt, and people that bring to light the truth. John Deer, keep up your good Godly work.
This is a letter I am sending
This is a letter I am sending to the president of Georgetown University:
President John J. DeGioia
Office of the President
204 Healy Hall
37th & "O" Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057-1789
The Jesuits have some of the finest religious in the world and also some of the worst. Why not get peace activists, who follow Jesus Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes on your faculty. John Dear SJ, Daniel Berrigan SJ on your faculty.
As an 84 Vatican II John XXIII, Pax Christi, Catholic I abhor your selection of Uribe. Was this done through ignorance or malice? When hearing of this appointment, I felt he cold hand of evil.
The University of Georgetown would be well advised to base its teachings and curriculum on that of The University of Central America in El Salvador, a truly Christian University. How pleased God must be with this University and how saddened and angry He must be with Georgetown University.
May the God of Peace be with you.
In light of this disaster, a
In light of this disaster, a better motto would be OMG!
How awful. But looking at the
How awful. But looking at the past, Georgetown has been very cozy with the pentagon, the state department, etc. appears to be serving the government with the training of diplomats, but it appears that as a result Georgetown has lost it´s way. TRUTH should be the object of learning, real truth in reality, it appears that Georgetown´s leadership truly has lost it´s way. Training another generation to do the same.....AND THE GOSPEL?
Uribe did more for Colombia
Uribe did more for Colombia than any president in L.America in the past 100 years!!!! When he left office there was an unheard of 70% acceptance! Because of him Colombia has improved it's economy and the country is safer. I bet everyone in this blog also supports Chavez in Venezuela. If this is a Catholic website than I am ashamed of being a Catholic......warmonger, Samosa, Pinochet, dictator give me a break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
viva el proyecto
viva el proyecto bolivariano
samosa, what's that? something in the local Hindu restaurant?
What's "Proyecto
What's "Proyecto Bolivariano"? Poverty, violence, ignorance, censorship.....
"Poverty, violence,
"Poverty, violence, ignorance, censorship."
wait, that is precisely what we see in Colombia today . . .
as long as the US pipeline keeps flowing its polvo blanco under our military protection, with no more independent contractors . . .
Paper is able with all.
Paper is able with all. Uribe is not the saint you are trying to introduced. He has a great record of power abuse. Uribe's policies are very harmful for a nation that wants to get developped and leave it's population of misery.
People of different faiths
People of different faiths from all over the world will stop at noon and pray for peace for one minute - each in their own way on September 21st - the U.N. International Day of Peace.
Join us.
It's simple.
It's global.
http://www.amillionminutesforpeace.org/
Uribe is not a dictator, even
Uribe is not a dictator, even if he can be considered authoritarian. Learn the difference.
Other than that, I love how you simplify numerous complex problems that predate him and pretend that all of the blame is exclusively his.
In any event, here's the kicker:
The United Nations itself has just debunked (in an official report published yesterday) your baseless claim about "2000" people being buried in the La Macarena cemetery and finds that it is not a "mass grave" either.
If you aren't even aware of this, I wonder how "accurate" the rest of your assumptions and presumptions are. Probably not much.
As for the so-called Colombia Support Network you promote so happily, they make me vomit given their blatant bias and inability to even criticize the Colombian guerrillas, as if they were not a major factor in the Colombian conflict. Instead of that, they get a completely free pass and are implicitly glorified by people like you.
In any event, here's the
In any event, here's the kicker:
The United Nations itself has just debunked (in an official report published yesterday) your baseless claim about "2000" people being buried in the La Macarena cemetery and finds that it is not a "mass grave" either.
Do tell. Please provide a link to your "kicker."
The report is in Spanish, but
The report is in Spanish, but nevertheless:
75. En el mismo sentido, la observación no ha encontrado evidencias de la existencia de cuerpos enterrados clandestinamente en el lugar, ni de enterramientos colectivos en fosas comunes. Tampoco ha sido posible hallar elementos de convicción que respalden la posible existencia de aproximadamente 2.000 personas no identificadas enterradas en el cementerio.
http://www.nacionesunidas.org.co/img_upload/29e3d3aa1b87e476b58e75187297...
I agree with many of the
I agree with many of the above comments. Where are the bishops now on this issue at another Catholic University? This man has a record of atrocities committed. Is abortion the only "life" issue the Bishops will address publicly? They give the elected President of our country less respect than they give a proven despot? Where is the balance to their integrity on ALL matters of moral issues surrounding life - from birth to death - the seamless garment? Shame on Georgetown and shame on our Bishops.
A quick question. What war
A quick question. What war did the late President Reagan start or engage in? Did he not, in fact, work all of his 8 years to prevent war with the Soviet Union? Was he not directly responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union, the most dangerous nation in the history of the planet?
President Ronald Reagan was a great man. He was a man who was guided by principle, yet understood the reality of the situation with which he was faced. Oh, I suppose he could have hosted sit-ins, scattered sunflower seeds at military bases, closed down the nuclear weapons factories, recalled all American troops overseas and joined hands with the aging hippies and skipped through the streets singing Kumbaya. I am sure that the Soviets would have been moved by these displays...moved to laughter.
President Reagan was the greatest President since FDR, and the sole reason FDR is worth remembering at all is because he fought World War II and, with the help of the Allies, defeated Nazi Germany. President Reagan, forming a holy alliance with Lady Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, and assisted by Helmut Kohl and other allies, brought down Communism in Eastern Europe and ended the Cold War. He was a great man and I will defend him against the attacks of aging hippies like Father John Dear and his allies, people who refuse to recognize reality for what it is, people who clearly do not believe in anything enough to fight for those beliefs.
i guess that whole
i guess that whole Iran-contra thing never hit clint.
I was in Nicaragua under the Reagan regime of terror, and lost good and holy women from my church in the central mountains to Reagan's dirty little claymore mines. I picked their teeth up in prayer fmor the side of one lane dirt roads in the mountains. Good people killed by Reagan's hundreds of millions, dwarfed by Cheney's billions.
Viva Ben Linder.
When I arrived we came in peace and for development, as in Pope Paul's Development of Peoples.
Reagan changed all of that, fast, before and after the free and fair elections of 1984, the first in Nicaragua's history.
Sorry, Clint, I could not read any more of your lies, but these first words you write.
the war Reagan should have
the war Reagan should have engaged in was the war on AIDS, then controllable, but he and his cronies smirked that hey they did not know anyone with AIDS.
anyway, the best weapon in that necessary war was condoms, which their "holy alliances" would not permit.
and so countless of us have suffered and died horribly.
Actually, the "best weapon in
Actually, the "best weapon in that necessary war" is to behave like rational human beings and engage in sexual relationships only within the boundaries of matrimony and barring that, abstain. The only sure and certain way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sex or to engage in sexual relationships with only one's spouse and not at all before marriage.
With very few notable exceptions such as the case of the late Ryan White, AIDS is transmitted via risky behavior. Curb those behaviors and one's risk of infection drops to nearly zero.
The left's answer to this issue was to hand out condoms (and still is their answer). Essentially, they are saying, "I know that you people are little better than animals, and you cannot control yourselves, so here, have a condom and do the stuff you're gonna do anyway more safely". It is insulting to the human person and denigrating to the sexual act, dragging it down to the level of uncontrollable animal lust rather than the beautiful gift of God that it truly is.
Mr. Green, I have been
Mr. Green, I have been praying for your family in regards to a particular health situation I believe you mentioned months ago. I hope all is well and at peace.
As for your comments here, I invite you out to visit the real world soon.
Hey, and how about the great Arthur Ashe, anyway?
while the so-called ex corde
while the so-called ex corde protocol prevents actual Roman Catholic Bishops like NCR's GUmbleton from addressing Catholic audiences in Catholic institutions of higher learning, Georgetown gives a professorship to Uribe.
Where is the consistency, favoring war mongers over peacemakers?
Blessed are the peacemakers.
What will wake them up? -
What will wake them up? - Perhaps a decrease in enrollment - I would imagine so.
I would love to see Kathy Kelly on any teaching staff.
Clint As a liberals, let me
Clint
As a liberals, let me tell you Reagan was a joke, while FDR was a great wartime President. FDR killed the enemy by the millions to bring the four freedoms to Eastern Europe, with our ally Stalin, that great and good man as he called him.
But Reagan, come on. All he did was use some second rate psycology. Didnt even fire a shot against Soviet Russia. He just let them give up. And then he wanted to build missles, for what? To kill other missles, not the enemy. An amiable dunce.
Again, it's all about the
Again, it's all about the money!! The Church is built on dollars!! It's all about the money!!
Chuck from Minneapolis
Well, if the Pope's staff did
Well, if the Pope's staff did not bother to Google the record of the SPXX bishops before lifting their excommunications, then why should anyone expect the Georgetown officials to bother with a simple background check of publicly available info on this guy???
But his powerful reputation as a US ally, touted by the conservative GOP, also in alliance with many of the US Hierarchy, will bring in big bucks in testimonial dinners... perhaps to pay off those sexual abuse complicity damages???
Another unbalanced screed by
Another unbalanced screed by Fr. Dear, full of unproven allegations, guilt by association, distorted history, over-the-top rhetoric, ferocious judgmentalism, and personal attacks. A man of peace Fr. Dear is not.
is to
is to
Dear Charles, I am sure Fr.
Dear Charles, I am sure Fr. Dear is well-intentioned. Perhaps he's a MLK Jr. and/or Ghandi wannabe. But you can search the record re Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. You won't find a single instance of either of them attacking and impugning individual persons, or trying to sabotage their careers, as Dear has done re President Uribe. Nor did they launch any nonviolent actions without having a real chance of success, and, in the end, both were successful. Fr. Dear, on the other hand, engages in utterly pointless protests which, though they may affirm his self-righteousness, have zero chance of success. President Uribe, no matter his faults, led a democratic nation in crisis, beseiged by fascists on the right, leftists like Chavez followers and sympathizers on the left, and murderous drug cartels and their corrupt payees of every stripe. But Fr. Dear, whose main claim to fame is getting arrested for uselessly pestering US military sites, feels so morally superior to President Uribe that he demands that Georgetown not hire Uribe. This is not the behaviour of a man of peace. It is the behavior of a self-righteous idealogue, one blinded by a rigid mental belief system. He is nowhere near the level of spiritual or intellecdtual development of such as Ghandi or MLK Jr.
is to whatever
is to
whatever "intellecdtual" might mean to you . . .
"utterly pointless protest?" . . .
"uselessly pestering?" . . .
one remedy:
take at bedtime the August-September edition of the Catholic Worker, now well read by all real and practicing anglo-American Roman Catholics, and read well as your lectio divina this evening the lead article, by the Reverend Father John Dear SJ, entitled Joseph Takami of Nagasaki and beginning with a citation of the Reverend Father Daniel Berrigan, SJ from his Sorrow Built a Bridge: "The way of Jesus and the way of the Bomb are absolutely, metaphysically incompatible."
I guess for you this is just being "blinded by a rigid mental belief system," not like Saint Paul by deep insight into Our Faith in Jesus.
By the way, as to the "development of such as Ghandi and MLK Jr." I also urge you read Search for the Beloved Community: The Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. by Kenneth L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp.
As for Mahatma Gandhi, well, the Reverend Father John Dear SJ graciously and wisely and heartfully wrote the book:
Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series)
see also:
Lightning East to West: Jesus, Gandhi, and the Nuclear Age
and
You Will Be My Witnesses: Saints, Prophets, And Martyrs
and join us in our utterly useless protest, and prayer, a prophetic sacrament of God's Love.
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