U.S. ATTORNEY Press Release -- DOUGLAS PERLITZ SENTENCED TO 235 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON

U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney District of Connecticut www.justice.gov/usao/ct FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 21, 2010 CONTACT: Tom Carson Public Information Office (203) 821-3722 (203) 996-1393 (cell)                           DOUGLAS PERLITZ SENTENCED TO 235 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON         David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Bruce M. Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations office in Boston, announced that DOUGLAS PERLITZ, 40, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 235 months of imprisonment, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for sexually abusing at least eight minor victims over the course of a decade in Haiti.  On August 18, PERLITZ pleaded guilty to one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.         "We're pleased with lengthy prison term imposed today, as it will protect the public from a serial child predator for years to come," stated U.S. Attorney Fein.  "This defendant's crimes were particularly heinous, as he not only victimized children, but did so by using his position of power to take advantage of vulnerable boys who likely would be out on the street if they didn't comply with his sexual demands.  I want to commend the extraordinary strength and courage of the minor victims in this case who came forward and spoke out about the abuse that they suffered – several of whom were present in the court room today  – so that it would stop and to protect others from harm.  I also want to acknowledge the truly extraordinary efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. State Department, which have devoted significant resources to this investigation and many others that involve American citizens who travel abroad to sexually abuse minors.  This result would not have occurred but for their unceasing commitment to the victims in this case and the cause of justice."         "Today's sentencing of Douglas Perlitz demonstrates the resolve and commitment of ICE HSI to bring to justice American citizens who believe they can victimize children outside the United States," said Bruce M. Foucart, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Boston.  "I would like to commend the hard-working men and women of ICE HSI, the Department of State, the Haitian National Police and prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office here in Connecticut who worked tirelessly to bring a child predator to justice."         According to court documents and statements made in court, in approximately 1997, PERLITZ obtained funding to found Project Pierre Toussaint ("PPT"), a school for boys in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.  Initially, PPT began as an intake center referred to as the 13th Street Intake Program.  PPT provided services to children of all ages, most of whom were street children.  The services provided for the children included meals, sports activities, basic classroom instruction, and access to running water for baths.  PPT continued to expand and, in approximately 1999, a residential facility, Village Pierre Toussaint (referred to as the "Village"), was added.  The Village was staffed primarily by Haitians, but PERLITZ was directly involved with the Village.         In approximately 1999, The Haiti Fund, Inc. was incorporated as a charitable, religious and educational organization in Connecticut, and operated as the fund-raising arm of PPT.  The Haiti Fund raised large sums of money through fund-raising efforts in Connecticut.  All of the expenses associated with PPT were paid for by monies raised on behalf of PPT by the Haiti Fund.         In pleading guilty, PERLITZ admitted that, at various times between 2001 and 2008, he traveled from airports in the U.S. to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors and did, in fact, engage in sexual conduct with minor boys who attended school at PPT.  PERLITZ abused his position of authority to entice and persuade the minors to comply with the sex acts by providing the promise of food and shelter and other benefits, including cash, cell phones, electronics, shoes, clothes, and other items.         The Government has alleged that, between 1998 and 2008, PERLITZ victimized at least 18 minor boys.  Six victims traveled from Haiti to offer testimony at today's sentencing.           Judge Arterton has scheduled a hearing for March 7, 2010, to determine the amount of restitution PERLITZ will be ordered to pay.         PERLITZ has been detained since his arrest in Colorado on September 16, 2009.         This matter has been investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations in New Haven, with the assistance of ICE HSI in Grand Junction, Colorado; ICE International Affairs in Washington, D.C. and the Caribbean Attaché, the U.S. Department of State, Regional Security Office at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti; and private individuals in the United States and Haiti, whose assistance has been critical to the successful prosecution of this case.         U.S. Attorney Fein also acknowledged the critical assistance provided by the Haitian National Police Department's Brigade of Protection of Minors.         This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Krishna R. Patel, Stephen B. Reynolds and Richard J. Schechter.  The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York has provided support and assistance to the prosecution of this matter. ### ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

Doug Perlitz Sentenced For 19 Years and 7 Months

Doug Perlitz Sentenced For 19 Years and 7 Months December 21, 2010 By: Dan Leitão Tags: Doug Perlitz, Haiti, perlitz, university Perlitz Fairfield University alumnus Douglas Perlitz was sentenced to 19 years 7 months today by a New Haven federal judge for sexually abusing of minors in Haiti.  The 235 months Perlitz will serve in prison is the maximum desired by the prosecution, and will include 10 years of probation. Perlitz, an honorary commencement speaker, had been facing anywhere from eight to nineteen years in prison after pleading guilty on August 18, 2010 for one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct to Haiti. What started as a story of the embodiment of Jesuit ideals and Christian charity ended in catastrophe today with the sentencing of Perlitz.  Perlitz, who founded Project Pierre Touissant (PPT) in 1997, ran the project until the Haitian Fund board of directors removed him after allegations of sexual assault surfaced in 2008. PPT took children from the street of Haiti and provided them with meals, sports activity, basic classroom instruction and access to running water for bathing.  The Haiti Fund was formed to aid in fundraising and overseeing the operations of PPT in 1999. Initiated by Rev. Paul Carrier, S.J., Fairfield employees and Fairfield and Westchester County residents, the Haiti Fund began actively fundraising in the community as well as on the Fairfield University campus. Last week the defense released a document, which explained a "dark" relationship that Perlitz had with a Fairfield University priest. The relationship started at his time as a Fairfield student and continued past graduation. The defense explained this document was not to excuse Perlitz's actions but to shed light on his abusive past. The sentencing hearing involved the personal stories of five Haitian boys, who Perlitz had abused, and two former employees of PPT.  The New Haven federal courthouse was filled with about 130 people including Perlitz's victims, community members, Haitian reporters and lawyers and abuse advocates. The boys gave detailed accounts of the abuse in Creole, the native language of Haiti, which was translated in the courtroom. They recounted personal accounts of forced oral sex and sodomy, at Perlitz's personal residents called Bel Air, in which Doug Perlitz gave them cash and threatened if they told anyone that he would kick them out of PPT. The closing arguments of both the defense and prosecution lead to dramatic crowd reactions. The defense attorney William F. Dow III argument's that Perlitz had contributed positively to society was met with scoffs when he stated, "The worst you can say about him is that for twelve years he took people who were, as your honor said, lower than dirt and lifted them up." The lead prosecutor then vigorously attacked the defense's claims of good deeds by Perlitz arguing, "there can be no leniency and no sympathy for a man who has hidden behind the community he exploited…The fact that he is a narcissist and the fact that he liked under age boys," received forbidden applause from the back rows of the courtroom. Prior to his sentencing Perlitz made personal remarks and apologized in Creole to the Haitian boys and members of the community.  As he spoke, some in the crowd cried out, "How many boys did you rape?" Perlitz paused and then continued with his prewritten apology asking for forgiveness, but saying that he understands if the boys do not accept his apologies. United States District Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled that the prosecution had met the requirements for an upward departure, which meant that Perlitz would be looking at 188 to 235 months in prison. Judge Arterton explained that the defense arguments that Perlitz had provided positively to society was akin to digging a well to provide water for people who need water, then poisoning the well and still expecting to be praised for digging the well. She continued that, "the intentions are offset by the fact that he became a predator." She then reminded Perlitz of a letter he wrote to a friend in which he had said, "be careful what you promise a child cause you have to keep it," as she then pronounced the full sentence of 19 years and 7 months. When he completes his prison sentence he will face a 10 year period of supervised parole, register as a sex offender, be forbidden to be in areas largely populated by children under the age of 18 and have monitored computer usage. Similar Posts: Perlitz Defense Denied Delay in Sentencing Defense Claims Fairfield Priest Abused Perlitz Perlitz: New Documents To Be Produced Perlitz Faces Nine Additional Charges Perlitz Victims Receive Aid With Alum Visit ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

Sentencing for Haiti sex abuser.

Former Connecticut man will spend almost 20 years Updated: Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 9:16 PM EST Published : Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 7:37 PM EST By: Darren Kramer New Haven, Conn (WTNH) - Today some of the boys told a judge their story, and heard from the man who molested them. In court today 40-year-old Douglas Perlitz faced a half dozen of the young homeless haitian boys he sexually assaulted for years. Each young man bravely telling their story in impact statements before Perlitz was sentenced. Among those in the courtroom was Cyrus Sibert, the Haitian journalist who broke the story. He says Perlitz had become a powerful man in a very poor area, and used his power on the most defenseless. "The person you are to protect, the person you have to defend, you exploit him, and you exploit him when he is in a very economic and social situation of weakness," Sibert said. In court Perlitz spoke to his victims in their native language Creole. He said he was responsible, that he betrayed their trust, and asked for their forgiveness. Sibert, he is one who broke the story, says right now there are more ugly stories in Haiti waiting to be told. "Perlitz is not the only one. We have many many people who are now taking advantage of the situation in haiti after the earthquake. To go there, because the state become weaker, and to try to exploit women and children," he said. "Let it be known that if there are other people, other Americans who choose to go outside the United States and prey on children, the vulnerable members of society, then we and ICE as well as the US attorney's office will be there to prosecute," said Bruce Foucart from the Department of Homeland Security. Police say at one point Perlitz threatened to kill a prosecutor. His lawyers say that statement was not serious and was made in anger. ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

US abuser of Haiti kids sentenced to 20 years.

US abuser of Haiti kids sentenced to 20 years Foreign 2010-12-22 09:58 NEW YORK, Wednesday 22 December 2010 (AFP) - A US man who sexually abused the Haitian children he was supposedly helping in the stricken Caribbean nation was sentenced Tuesday by a Connecticut court to nearly 20 years in prison. Douglas Perlitz, 40, was sentenced in New Haven to 235 months of prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for sexually abusing at least eight children during a decade in Haiti, the federal prosecutor's office in Connecticut said. Perlitz had pleaded guilty to one count of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He founded a school for boys called Project Pierre Toussaint in 1997 in the town of Cap-Haitien. Most of the pupils were street children and at the school they were fed, given classroom lessons, and provided with running water and sports activities -- a relatively high standard of living in one of the world's poorest countries. However Perlitz simultaneously "abused his position of authority to entice and persuade the minors to comply with the sex acts by providing the promise of food and shelter and other benefits, including cash, cell phones, electronics, shoes, clothes," the prosecutor's office said. David Fein, US attorney for Connecticut, said he was pleased with the long sentence. "It will protect the public from a serial child predator for years to come," he said in a statement. __________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

Doug Perlitz on CNN's AC360 tonight.

Envoyé par mon BlackBerry de Digicel

---

From: "Yi, Hannah" <Hannah.Yi@turner.com>

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:30:41 -0500

To: Yi, Hannah<Hannah.Yi@turner.com>

Subject: Doug Perlitz on CNN's AC360 tonight

Hello -

Wanted to let you know that the story on Doug Perlitz will air tonight, Monday, December 20 on CNN 11pm et.  It will air in the 11pm et hour of AC360.  Hope you watch.  Thanks for all your help in getting this piece to air.

 

Best,

Hannah

 

CNN

hannah.yi@turner.com

212-275-7726 (w)

862-902-9320 (c)

 

 

Témoignage sur les émeutes pro-Martelly. Par Cyrus Sibert

Témoignage sur les émeutes pro-Martelly. Par Cyrus Sibert, New Canaan, Connecticut, USA. Radio Souvenir FM, 106.1 : souvenirfm@yahoo. fr Le Ré.Cit. (Réseau Citadelle) : www.reseaucitadelle.blogspot.com «C'est une erreur de continuer à confier la gestion des crises à des irresponsables  comme René Préval et à une oligarchie incapable de comprendre la réalité et de s'adapter au changement.» Le hasard a voulu que les émeutes pro-Martelly nous tiennent prisonnier dans la capitale. En une semaine nous avons observé le mouvement, le comportement et la détermination des jeunes qui renforçaient les rangs au cri de « GRENADIER A L' ASSAUT / NOU PRAL FOUT YO YON LESON. » Ils étaient des milliers de jeunes qui traversaient la rue où nous étions pour aller renforcer la ligne de front. Un fait curieux, dans la foule, il y avait des amoureux, garçons et filles vêtus de Jeans, sacs à dos remplis de pierres ou de bouteilles, marchant main dans la main, chantant "Peyi a ap cho, li cho. Volè sa yo dwe respecte nou". Du haut d'où nous nous trouvions, nous nous demandions avec quel courage ces jeunes s'aventurent jusqu'au Champs de Mars loin de leur base? Pour un capois habitué à des mouvements de quartier, c'était impressionnant. Les émeutiers avaient un discours très politique: "Nèg sa yo volè vot nou", "Yo pap regle anyen pou nou, men yo bezwen pouvwa", "Tou tan se magouille ak vol", "Menm lajan pou viktim nan kan, nèg sa yo manje" "Nou pral fout yo on leson". Nous ne croyions pas nos yeux. La scène ressemblait tellement aux va-nu-pieds de la guerre de l'indépendance. Nous nous sommes sentis fiers de ces jeunes qui sont prêts à tout pour défendre leur avenir. Nous nous sommes dit que Toussaint avait raison "Les racines de la Liberté" existent dans ce pays. Et cette dernière vague est décidée. La nuit tombée, ils renforçaient les barricades pour mieux se protéger. Nous avions entendu l'un d'eux commenter : Mon cher, on fait tout ça  pour mettre Micky au pouvoir, s'il nous trahit? La réponse fut immédiate: C'est nous qui avons proclamé Préval. Aujourd'hui, on est contre lui. Toutefois," Si Micky nous trahit, nap fout boule peyi a. Fok bagay sa fini. Zafè nèg ap pran pouvwa epi bliye pèp la. Nap anpeche yo viv nan peyi sa tou. Quelques minutes plus tard, sur le petit écran, un jeune de La Saline criait: Aristide pa la nou pran Micky. Se nou ki guen dwa chwazi se pa Préval ak CEP. Fok peyi'm lan chanje tou. Konye a nou deside fè yo mache jan yo vle a. Nap fout boule peyi a, si yo pa respekte pèp la. Cela a renforcé notre conviction qu'il y a dans ce pays un vent de changement. Les jeunes sont devenus pragmatiques, ils veulent le changement et un avenir meilleur. Ils ne vont pas accepter le statu quo. La musique haïtienne « compas, racine et  Rap Kreyol » porte des revendications qu'on peut facilement découvrir dans les textes. Nos jeunes sont devenus des révoltés. Ils sont très violents. Immunisés par la misère, le tremblement de terre et le choléra, ils sont prêts à accepter la mort pour défendre leur revendication. Un camarade tombé n'effraie personne. Malgré les infos faisant état de fusillade au Champs de Mars, ils continuaient à renforcer le front à la recherche du respect. C'est cette réalité que les gouvernants trop occupés à compter leur argent ne comprennent pas. Ce n'est pas la personne de Michel Martelly qui compte pour les émeutiers. Ils étaient derrière Wyclef Jean, demain ils supporteront peut-être un autre leader, mais toujours dans le même objectif: fok peyi'm lan chanje tou. Et quand sur le web, nous lisons de textes d'intellectuels qui s'amusent à critiquer Martelly rappelant son comportement immoral de Ti Simone, nous nous disons, nous allons revivre la même expérience du début des années 90 quand Aristide et le mouvement Lavalas symbolisaient le changement aux yeux des jeunes. A savoir, une élite arrogante qui, refusant de satisfaire les revendications du peuple, se contente de critiquer son leader conjoncturel aux risques de provoquer des tensions sociales et des déchirures irréparables. Au Cap-Haïtien, nous avions vécu la même situation lors des émeutes de la semaine de 18 novembre 2010. Les jeunes faisaient de l'impossibilité des représentants de l'État d'aller à Vertières pour commémorer la dernière bataille de la guerre de l'indépendance, un point d'Honneur. Ils étaient prêts à mourir pour garder la ville bloquée avant le 19 novembre. Il y a un mouvement contestataire dans ce pays. Si l'Eglise en majorité prêche la résignation, la musique haïtienne a fait l'effet contraire. Elle prêche l'engagement. Après le communiqué du CEP en faveur du recomptage des procès-verbaux, nos voisins  émeutiers ont décidé de lever les barricades. Nous avons entendu l'un deux commenter en ces termes: « volè yo di yo pral korije erè yo a. 20 desanm se dat pou yo piblye dènye rezilta yo. Nap ba yo yon Break. Men si yo kite nou soti anko, nap fout boule tout bagay pou nou montre yo nou pap jwe. Ce mouvement social est le résultat de la mauvaise gouvernance. Des jeunes sans alternative sont prêts à aller jusqu'au bout dans leur recherche d'un avenir meilleur. Ils agissent parfois en dehors des principes relatifs au respect de la presse, des ambulances, des malades, des blessés, des cadavres et même des passants inoffensifs. Ils adoptent parfois un comportement suicidaire inquiétant. Haïti vit une situation explosive qui requiert savoir-faire, responsabilité et prudence. C'est une erreur de continuer à confier la gestion des crises à des irresponsables  comme René Préval et à une oligarchie incapable de comprendre la réalité et de s'adapter au changement. RÉSEAU CITADELLE (Ré.Cit.), le 20 Décembre 2010, 12 heures 12. ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

Haitian presidential candidate calls for entirely new vote, not runoff December 14, 2010|By Moni Basu, CNN Michel Martelly has called for Haiti's electoral council to be dumped. "We do not trust that process," he said. A popular presidential candidate whose supporters took to the streets of Haiti to protest what they deemed a fraudulent election proposed Tuesday that a fresh round of voting take place. Musician Michel Martelly, known affectionately as "Tet Kale," or bald head, rejected a runoff and said the election should be repeated with the entire slate of 17 candidates. He also said the troubled nation's electoral council should be dumped. "We do not trust that process," he said in an interview with CNN. "We do not believe in going back to the same judge who has already condemned us. I believe everything has been done to ensure that we lose again when we never lost from day one." A week ago, the Provisional Electoral Council put Martelly in third place behind former first lady Mirlande Manigat and Jude Celestin -- the candidate backed by Rene Preval, the unpopular outgoing president -- in results from the November 28 vote. No candidate won a majority, the council said, therefore forcing a runoff set for January 16. If the results stand, Martelly would not be in that runoff. But Martelly alleged fraud and said he believed he had won the election. The international community, including the United States and the United Nations, voiced serious concern over potential vote-rigging. The preliminary results sparked demonstrations, sometimes violent, on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Thousands of angry Haitians marched and the campaign headquarters of Celestin was set ablaze. Historian and radio commentator Michel Soukar agreed that the election council has to be disbanded in order for a free and fair election to take place. He said the electoral system was manipulated to keep Preval's party in power. "Even with Jesus Christ in the (electoral council), there would be fraud," Soukar said. "Preval has to leave. He is the problem." Martelly rejected the notion of a runoff that would include the top three candidates. He said since the vote was marred, every candidate deserved another chance to run again. But even Martelly conceded that it would be difficult to hold a whole new election that cost about $29 million. ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

Cyrus Sibert est disponible au 618-203-6242.

Je suis à New Canaan, Connecticut. Demain mardi 21 décembre 2010, à 10 heures du matin, le juge Janet Bond Arterton du District de New Haven prononcera la sentence contre Douglas Perlitz pour abus sexuel sur des enfants de rue de la ville du Cap-Haïtien qui prenaient part au Projet Pierre Toussaint. On peut m'appeler au 618-203-6242. Cyrus Sibert ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)

Santa Clara University, Religious Studies Professor, Dr. Connie Lasher, "blackballed" Jesuit educated advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse.

IGNATIUS Group_____ Why won't Professor Connie Lasher of Santa Clara University answer a simple question? Why does she need a lawyer? What is she afraid of? Dr. Lasher has been asked to explain the reasons why she "blackballed" a fellow Catholic when she discovered that he is an outspoken advocate for the protection of children and the pursuit of justice for victims of clergy sexual abuse. Instead of just answering the question, Dr. Lasher has retained the services of a Portland, Maine attorney and is threatening "legal remedies" against Paul Kendrick, a long-time, Jesuit educated advocate for clergy sex abuse victims, if Kendrick doesn't shut up and stop confronting Dr. Lasher about her past actions. The situation at hand is not complicated.  Several years ago, Kendrick and Lasher exchanged several friendly emails and a couple of phone calls regarding Kendrick's request to join the Communio Study Circle at St. Joseph's College in Maine.   Dr. Lasher served as the Communio   coordinator for Maine.  Then it happened. One morning Kendrick forwarded to Dr. Lasher that day's copy of his letter to the editor of the Portland Press Herald. In the letter, Kendrick called upon Bishop Richard Malone to immediately release all documents relevant to clergy sex abuse, to stop employing hardball legal tactics against abuse victims, and to begin treating victims and their families with compassion and understanding. Lasher's past and current retaliation against Kendrick defies the essence of a Jesuit education.  "If the professors choose viewpoints incompatible with the justice of the Gospel and consider researching, teaching, and learning to be separable from moral responsibility for their social repercussions, they are sending a message to their students. They are telling them that they can pursue their careers and self-interest without reference to anyone other than themselves." Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Santa Clara University, October 2006 Victims of clergy child sex abuse are among the most vulnerable members of our society. Sadly, the record shows that millions of Catholics have failed to demand redress for the crimes committed against children by priests and Church workers and instead have chosen to reject, ostracize and often despise those who have come forward to report their abuse.  In an October 6, 2000 speech delivered at Santa Clara University entitled, "The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Education," Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, stated that "in order to make sure that the real concerns of the poor find their place in research, faculty members need an organic collaboration with those in the Church and in society who work among and for the poor and actively seek justice." Here are other excerpts from Kolvenbach's speech (complete text below): "Solidarity is learned through "contact" rather than through "concepts," as the Holy Father said recently at an Italian university conference.24 When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity, which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection." "With a passion both inspiring and disconcerting, the General Congregation coined the formula, "the service of faith and the promotion of justice," and used it adroitly to push every Jesuit work and every individual Jesuit to make a choice, providing little leeway for the fainthearted. Many inside and outside the Society were outraged by the "promotionof justice." As Father Arrupe rightly perceived, his Jesuits were collectively entering upon a more severe way of the cross, which would surely entail misunderstandings and even opposition on the part of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, many good friends, and some of our own members. Today, twenty-five years later, this option has become integral to our Jesuit identity, to the awareness of our mission, and to our public image in both Church and society." "Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering, and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose, and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed." "Even before GC 32, Father Arrupe had already fleshed out the meaning of diakonia fidei for educational ministries when he told the 1973 International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe: "Today our prime educational objective must be to form men for others; men who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ—for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for men is a farce." "All professors, in spite of the cliché of the ivory tower, are in contact with the world. But no point of view is ever neutral or value-free. By preference, by option, our Jesuit point of view is that of the poor. So our professors' commitment to faith and justice entails a most significant shift in viewpoint and choice of values. Adopting the point of view of those who suffer injustice, our professors seek the truth and share their search and its results with our students. A legitimate question, even if it does not sound academic, is for each professor to ask, "When researching and teaching, where and with whom is my heart?" To expect our professors to make such an explicit option and speak about it is obviously not easy; it entails risks. But I do believe that this is what Jesuit educators have publicly stated, in Church and in society, to be our defining commitment." ________________________________ THE SERVICE OF FAITH AND THE PROMOTION OF JUSTICE IN AMERICAN JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. Superior General of the Society of Jesus Santa Clara University, October 6, 2000 This conference on téhe commitment to justice in American Jesuit higher education comes at an important moment in the rich history of the twenty-eight colleges and universities represented here this evening. We also join Santa Clara University in celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding. Just as significant as this moment in history, is our location. Santa Clara Valley, named after the mission at the heart of this campus, is known worldwide as "Silicon Valley," the home of the microchip. Surely when Father Nobili, the founder of this university, saw the dilapidated church and compound of the former Franciscan mission, he could never have imagined this valley as the center of a global technological revolution. This juxtaposition of mission and microchip is emblematic of all the Jesuit schools. Originally founded to serve the educational and religious needs of poor immigrant populations, they have become highly sophisticated institutions of learning in the midst of global wealth, power, and culture. The turn of the millennium finds them in all their diversity: they are larger, better equipped, more complex and professional than ever before, and also more concerned about their Catholic, Jesuit identity. In the history of American Jesuit higher education, there is much to be grateful for, first to God and the Church, and surely to the many faculty, students, administrators, and benefactors who have made it what it is today. But this conference brings us together from across the United States with guests from Jesuit universities elsewhere, not to congratulate one another, but for a strategic purpose. On behalf of the complex, professional and pluralistic institutions you represent, you are here to face a question as difficult as it is central: How can the Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States express faith-filled concern for justice in their existence as Christian academies of higher learning, in what their faculty do, and in what their students become? As a contribution to your response, I would like to reflect with you on what faith and justice has meant for Jesuits since 1975, consider some concrete circumstances of today, suggest what justice rooted in faith could mean in American Jesuit higher education, and conclude with an agenda for the first decade of the years 2000. 1. The new Jesuit commitment to faith and justice in 1975 I begin by recalling another anniversary, which this conference commemorates. Twenty- five years ago, ten years after the closing of the Second Vatican Council, Jesuit delegates from around the world gathered at the 32nd General Congregation (GC), to consider how the Society of Jesus was responding to the deep transformation of all Church life that was called for and launched by Vatican II.After much prayer and deliberation, the Congregation slowly realized that the entire Society of Jesus in all its many works was being invited by the Spirit of God to set out on a new direction. The overriding purpose of the Society of Jesus, namely "the service of faith," must also include "the promotion of justice." This new direction was not confined to those already working with the poor and marginalized in what was called "the social apostolate." Rather, this commitment was to be "a concern of our whole life and a dimension of all our apostolic endeavors."1 So central to the mission of the entire Society was this union of faith and justice that it was to become the "integrating factor" of all the Society's works,2 and in this light "great attention" was to be paid in evaluating every work, including educational institutions.3 I myself attended GC 32, representing the Province of the Near East where, for centuries, the apostolic activity of the Jesuits has concentrated on education in a famous university and some outstanding high schools. Of course some Jesuits worked in very poor villages, refugee camps or prisons, and some fought for the rights of workers, immigrants, and foreigners, but this was not always considered authentic, mainstream Jesuit work. In Beirut we were well aware that our medical school, staffed by very holy Jesuits, was producing, at least at that time, some of the most corrupt citizens in the city, but this was taken for granted. The social mood of the explosive Near East did not favor a struggle against sinful, unjust structures. The liberation of Pale stine was the most important social issue. The Christian churches had committed themselves to many works of charity, but involvement in the promotion of justice would have tainted them by association with leftist movements and political turmoil. The situation I describe in the Near East was not exceptional in the worldwide Society at that time. I was not the only delegate who was ignorant of matters pertaining to justice and injustice. The 1971 Synod of Bishops had prophetically declared, "Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, of the church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation,"4 but few of us knew what this meant in our concrete circumstances. Earlier, in 1966, Father Arrupe had pointed out to the Latin American Provincials how the socio-economic situation throughout the continent contradicted the Gospel, and "from thissituation rises the moral obligation of the Society to rethink all its ministries and every form of its apostolates to see if they really offer a response to the urgent priorities which justice and social equity call for."5 Many of us failedto see the relevance of his message to our situation. But please note that Father Arrupe did not ask for the suppression of the apostolate of education in favor of social activity. On the contrary, he affirmed that "even an apostolate like education—at all levels—which is so sincerely wanted by the Society and whose importance is clear to the entire world, in its concrete forms today must be the object of reflection in the light of the demands of the social problem."6 Perhaps the incomprehension or reluctance of some of us delegates was one reason why GC 32 finally took a radical stand. With a passion both inspiring and disconcerting, the General Congregation coined the formula, "the service of faith and the promotion of justice," and used it adroitly to push every Jesuit work and every individual Jesuit to make a choice, providing little leeway for the fainthearted. Many inside and outside the Society were outraged by the "promotion  of justice." As Father Arrupe rightly perceived, his Jesuits were collectively entering upon a more severe way of the cross, which would surely entail misunderstandings and even opposition on the part of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, many good friends, and some of our own members. Today, twenty-five years later, this option has become integral to our Jesuit identity, to the awareness of our mission, and to our public image in both Church and society. 7 The summary expression "the service of faith and the promotion of justice" has all the characteristics of a world-conquer ing slogan using a minimum of words to inspire a maximum of dynamic vision, but at the risk of ambiguity. Let us examine first the service of faith, then the promotion of justice. A. The service of faith From our origins in 1540 the Society has been officially and solemnly charged with "the defense and the propagation of the faith." In 1975, the Congregation reaffirmed that, for us Jesuits, the defense and propagation of the faith is a matter of "to be or not to be," even if the words themselves can change. Faithful to the Vatican Council, the Congregation wanted our preaching and teaching not to proselytize, not to impose our religion on others, but rather to propose Jesus and his message of God's Kingdom in a spirit of love to everyone. Just as the Vatican had abandoned the name Propaganda Fidei, GC 32 passed from propagation to service of faith. In Decree 4, the Congregation did use the expression "the proclamation of faith," which I prefer.8 In the context of centuries of Jesuit spirituality, however, "the service of faith" cannot mean anything other than to bring the counter- cultural gift of Christ to our world.9 But why "the service of faith"? The Congregation itself answers this question by using the Greek expression diakonia fidei,10 It refers to Christ the suffering Servant carrying out his diakonia in total service of his Father by laying down his life for the salvation of all. Thus, for a Jesuit, "not just any response to the needs of the men and women of today will do. The initiative must come from the Lord laboring in events and people here and now. God invites us to follow Christ in his labors, on his terms and in his way."11- I do not think we delegates at the 32nd Congregation were aware of the theological and ethical dimensions of Christ's mission of service. Greater attention to thediakonia fidei may have prevented some of the misunderstandings provoked by the phrase "the promotion of justice." B. The promotion of justice This expression is difficult to translate in many languages. We delegates were familiar with sales promotions in a department store or the promotion of friends or enemies to a higher rank or position; we were not familiar with the promotion of justice. To be fair, let us remember that a General Congregation is not a scientific academy equipped to distinguish and to define, to clarify, and to classify. In the face of radically new apostolic needs, it chose to inspire, to teach, and even to prophesy. In its desire to be more incisive in the promotion of justice, the Congrega tion avoided traditional words like charity, mercy, or love, unfashionable words in 1975. Neither philanthropy nor even development would do. The Congregation instead used the word "promotion" with its connotation of a well-planned strategy to make the wor ld just. Since Saint Ignatius wanted love to be expressed not only in words but also in deeds, the Congregation committed the Society to the promotion of justice as a concrete, radical but proportionate response to an unjustly suffering world. Fostering the virtue of justice in people was not enough. Only a substantive justice can bring about the kinds of structural and attitudinal changes that are needed to uproot those sinful oppressive injustices that are a scandal against humanity and God. This sort of justice requires an action-oriented commitment to the poor with a courageous personal option. In some ears the relatively mild expression "promotion of justice" echoed revolutionary, subversive, and even violent language. For example, the American State Department recently accused some Colombian Jesuits of being Marxist-inspired founders of a guerilla organization. When challenged, the U.S. government apologized for this mistake, which shows that some message did get through. Just as in diakonia fidei the term faith is not specified, so in the "promotion of justice," the term justice also remains ambiguous. The 32nd Congregation would not have voted for Decree 4 if, on the one hand, socio-economic justice had been excluded, or if, on the other hand, the justice of the Gospel had not been included. A stand in favor of social justice that was almost ideological, and simultaneously a strong option for "that justice of the Gospel which embodies God's love and saving mercy" 1 2 were both indispensable. Refusing to clarify the relationship between the two, GC 32 maintained its radicality by simply juxtaposing diakonia fidei and "promotion of justice." In other decrees of the same Congregation, when the two dimensions of the one mission of the Society were placed together, some delegates sought to achieve a more integrated expression by proposing amendments such as the service of faith through or in the promotion of justice. Such expressions might better render the 1971 Synod's identification of "action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world [as] a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel."13 But one can understand the Congregation's fear that too neat or integrated an approach might weaken the prophetic appeal and water down the radical change in our mission. In retrospect, this simple juxtaposition sometimes led to an "incomplete, slanted, and unbalanced reading" of Decree 4,14 unilaterally emphasizing "one aspect of this mission to the detriment of the other,"15 treating faith and justice as alternative or even rival tracks of ministry. "Dogmatism or ideology sometimes led us to treat each other more as adversaries than as companions. The promotion of justice has sometimes been separated from its wellspring of faith."16 On the one side, the faith dimension was too often presumed and left implicit, as if our identity as Jesuits were enough. Some rushed headlong towards the promotion of justice without much analysis or reflection and with only occasional reference to the justice of the Gospel. They seemed to consign the service of faith to a dying past. Those on the other side clung to a certain style of faith and Church. They gave the impression that God's grace had to do only with the next life, and that divine reconc iliation entailed no practical obligation to set things right here on earth. In this frank assessment I have used, not so much my own words but rather those of subsequent Congregations, so as to share with you the whole Society's remorse for whatever distortions or excesses occurred, and to demonstrate how, over the last twenty- five years, the Lord has patiently been teaching us to serve the faith that does justice in a more integral way. C. The ministry of education In the midst of radical statements and unilateral interpretations associated with Decree 4, many raised doubts about our maintaining large educational institutions. They insinuated, if they did not insist, that direct social work among the poor and involvement with their movements should take priority. Today, however, the value of the educational apostolate is generally recognized, being the sector occupying the greatest Jesuit manpower and resources, but only on condition that it transform its goals, contents, and methods. Even before GC 32, Father Arrupe had already fleshed out the meaning of diakonia fidei for educational ministries when he told the 1973 International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe: "Today our prime educational objective must be to form men for others; men who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ—for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for men is a farce."17 My predecessor's address was not well received by many alumni at the Valencia meeting, but the expression "men and women for others" really helped the educational institutions of the Society to ask serious questions that led to their transformation.18 Father Ignacio Ellacuría, in his 1982 convocation address here at Santa Clara University, eloquently expressed his conviction in favor of the promotion of justice in the educational apostolate: "A Christian university must take into account the Gospel preference for the poor. This does not mean that only the poor study at the university; it does not mean that the university should abdicate its mission of academic excellence—excellence needed in order to solve complex social problems. It does mean that the university should be present intellectually where it is needed: to provide science for those who have no science; to provide skills for the unskilled; to be a voice for those who do not possess the academic qualifications to promote and legitimate their rights."19 In these two statements, we discover the same concern to go beyond a disincarnate spiritualism or a secular social activism, so as to renew the educational apostolate in word and in action at the service of the Church in a world of unbelief and of injustice. We should be very grateful for all that has been achieved in this apostolate, both faithful to the characteristics of 400 years of Ignatian education and open to the changing signs of the times. Today, one or two generations after Decree 4, we face a world that has an even greater need for the faith that does justice. II. A composition of our time and place The twenty-five year history we lived through, and have briefly surveyed, brings us to the present. Ignatius of Loyola begins many meditations in his Spiritual Exercises with "a composition of place," an exercise of the imagination to situate prayerful contemplation in concrete human circumstances. Since this world is the arena of God's presence and activity, Ignatius believes that we can find God if we approach the world with generous faith and a discerning spirit. Meeting in Silicon Valley brings to mind not only the intersection of the mission and the microchip, but also the dynamism and even dominance that are characteristics of the United States at this time. Enormous talent and unprecedented prosperity are concentrated in this country. This is the headquarters of the new economy that reaches around the globe and is transforming the basic fabric of business, work, and communications. Thousands of immigrants arrive from everywhere: entrepreneurs from Europe, high-tech professionals from South Asia who staff the service industries as well as workers from Latin America and Southeast Asia who do the physical labor—thus, a remarkable ethnic, cultural and class diversity. At the same time the United States struggles with new social divisions aggravated by "the digital divide" between those with access to the world of technology and those left out. This rift, with its causes in class, racial, and economic differences, has its root cause in chronic discrepancies in the quality of education. Here in Silicon Valley, for example, some of the world's premier research universities flourish alongside struggling public schools where African-American and immigrant students drop out in droves. Nationwide, one child in every six is condemned to ignorance and poverty. This valley, this nation, and the whole world look very different from the way they looked twenty-five years ago. With the collapse of Communism and the end of the Cold War, national and even international politics have been eclipsed by a resurgent capitalism that faces no ideological rival. The European Union slowly pulls the continent's age -old rivals together into a community but also a fortress. The former "Second World" struggles to repair the human and environmental damage left behind by so-called socialist regimes. Industries are relocating to poorer nations, not to distribute wealth and opportunity, but to exploit the relative advantage of low wages and lax environmental regulations. Many countries become yet poorer, especially where corruption and exploitation prevail over civil society and where violent conflict keeps erupting. This composition of our time and place embraces six billion people with their faces young and old, some being born and others dying, some white and many brown and yellow and black. 20 Each one a unique individual, they all aspire to live life, to use their talents, to support their families and care for their children and elders, to enjoy peace and security, and to make tomorrow better. Thanks to science and technology, human society is able to solve problems such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, or developing more just conditions of life, but remains stubbornly unwilling to accomplish this. How can a booming economy, the most prosperous and global ever, still leave over half of humanity in poverty? GC 32 makes its own sober analysis and moral assessment: "We can no longer pretend that the inequalities and injustices of our world must be borne as part of the inevitable order of things. It is now quite apparent that they are the result of what man himself, man in his selfishness, has done ... Despite the opportunities offered by an ever more serviceable technology, we are simply not willing to pay the price of a more just and more humane society." 21 Injustice is rooted in a spiritual problem, and its solution requires a spiritual conversion of each one's heart and a cultural conversion of our global society so that humankind, with all the powerful means at its disposal, might exercise the will to change the sinful structures afflicting our world. The yearly Human Development Report of the United Nations is a ha unting challenge to look critically at basic conditions of life in the United States and the 175 other nations that share our one planet.22 Such is the world in all its complexity, with great global promises and countless tragic betrayals. Such is the world in which Jesuit institutions of higher education are called to serve faith and promote justice. III. American Jesuit Higher Education for faith and justice Within the complex time and place we are in, and in the light of the recent General Congregations, I want to spell out several ideal characteristics, as manifest in three complementary dimensions of Jesuit higher education: in who our students become, in what our faculty do, and in how our universities proceed. When I speak of ideals, some are easyto meet, others remain persistently challenging, but together they serve to orient our schools and, in the long run, to identify them. At the same time, the U.S. Provincials have recently established an important Higher Education Committee to propose criteria on the staffing, leadership and Jesuit sponsorship of our colleges and universities. 23 May these criteria help to implement the ideal characteristics we now meditate on together. A. Formation and learning Today's predominant ideology reduces the human world to a global jungle whose primordial law is the survival of the fittest. Students who subscribe to this view want to be equipped with well-honed professional and technical skills in order to compete in the market and secure one of the relatively scarce fulfilling and lucrative jobs available. This is the success that many students (and parents!) expect. All American universities, ours included, are under tremendous pressure to opt entirely for success in this sense. But what our students want—and deserve—includes but transcends this "worldly success" based on marketable skills. The real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become. For four hundred and fifty years, Jesuit education has sought to educate "the whole person" inte llectually and professionally, psychologically, morally and spiritually. But in the emerging global reality, with its great possibilities and deep contradictions, the whole person is different from the whole person of the Counter -Reformation, the Industria l Revolution, or the twentieth century. Tomorrow's "whole person" cannot be whole without an educated awareness of society and culture with which to contribute socially, generously, in the real world. Tomorrow's whole person must have, in brief, a well- educated solidarity. We must therefore raise our Jesuit educational standard to "educate the whole person of solidarity for the real world." Solidarity is learned through "contact" rather than through "concepts," as the Holy Father said recently at an Italian university conference.24 When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity, which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection. Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering, and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose, and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed. Campus ministry does much to foment such intelligent, responsible, and active compassion, compassion that deserves the name solidarity. Our universities also boast a splendid variety of in-service programs, outreach programs, insertion programs, off-campus contacts, and hands -on courses. These should not be too optional or peripheral, but at the core of every Jesuit university's program of studies. Our students are involved in every sort of social action—tutoring drop-outs, demonstrating in Seattle, serving in soup kitchens, promoting pro-life, protesting against the School of the Americas—and we are proud of them for it. But the measure of Jesuit universities is not what our students do but who they become and the adult Christian responsibility they will exercise in the future towards their neighbor and their world. For now, the activities they engage in, even with much good effect, are for their formation. This does not make the university a training camp for social activists. Rather, the students need close involvement with the poor and the marginal now, in order to learn about reality and become adults of solidarity in the future. B. Research and teaching If the measure and purpose of our universities lies in what the students become, then the faculty are at the heart of our universities. Their mission is tirelessly to seek the truth and to form each student into a whole person of solidarity who will take responsibility for the real world. What do they need in order to fulfil this essential vocation? The faculty's "research, which must be rationally rigorous, firmly rooted in faith and open to dialogue with all people of good will,"25 not only obeys the canons of each discipline, but ultimately embraces human reality in order to help make the world a more fitting place for six billion of us to inhabit. I want to affirm that university knowledge is valuable for its own sake, and at the same time knowledge must ask itself, "For whom? For what?" 26 Usually we speak of professors in the plural, but what is at stake is more than the sum of so many individual commitments and efforts. It is a sustained interdisciplinary dialogue of research and reflection, a continuous pooling of expertise. The purpose is to assimilate experiences and insights according to their different disciplines in "a vision of knowledge which, well aware of its limitations, is not satisfied with fragments but tries to integrate them into a true and wise synthesis"27 about the real world. Unfortunately many faculty still feel academically, humanly, and, I would say, spiritually unprepared for such an exchange. In some disciplines, such as the life sciences, the social sciences, law, business, or medicine, the connections with "our time and place" may seem more obvious. These professors apply their disciplinary specialties to issues of justice and injustice in their research and teaching about health care, legal aid, public policy, and international relations. But every field or branch of knowledge has values to defend, with repercussions on the ethical level. Every discipline, beyond its necessary specialization, must engage with human society, human life, and the environment in appropriate ways, cultivating moral concern about how people ought to live together. All professors, in spite of the cliché of the ivory tower, are in contact with the world. But no point of view is ever neutral or value-free. By preference, by option, our Jesuit point of view is that of the poor. So our professors' commitment to faith and justice entails a most significant shift in viewpoint and choice of values. Adopting the point of view of those who suffer injustice, our professors seek the truth and share their search and its results with our students. A legitimate question, even if it does not sound academic, is for each professor to ask, "When researching and teaching, where and with whom is my heart?" To expect our professors to make such an explicit option and speak about it is obviously not easy; it entails risks. But I do believe that this is what Jesuit educators have publicly stated, in Church and in society, to be our defining commitment. To make sure that the real concerns of the poor find their place in research, faculty members need an organic collaboration with those in the Church and in society who work among and for the poor and actively seek justice. They should be involved together in all aspects: presence among the poor, designing the research, gathering the data, thinking through problems, planning and action, doing evaluation and theological reflection. In each Jesuit Province where our universities are found, the faculty's privileged working relationships should be with projects of the Jesuit social apostolate— on issues such as poverty and exclusion, housing, AIDS, ecology, and Third World debt—and with the Jesuit Refugee Service helping refugees and forcibly displaced people. Just as the students need the poor in order to learn, so the professors need partnerships with the social apostolate in order to research and teach and form. Such partnerships do not turn Jesuit universities into branch plants of social ministries or agencies of social change, as certain rhetoric of the past may have led some to fear, but are a verifiable pledge of the faculty's option, and really help, as the colloquial expression goes, "to keep your feet to the fire!" If the professors choose viewpoints incompatible with the justice of the Gospel and consider researching, teaching, and learning to be separable from moral responsibility for their social repercussions, they are sending a message to their students. They are telling them that they can pursue their careers and self -interest without reference to anyone other than themselves. By contrast, when faculty do take up inter -disciplinary dialogue and socially -engaged research in partnership with social ministries, they are exemplifying and modeling knowledge that is service, and the students learn by imitating them as "masters of life and of moral commitment,"28 as the Holy Father said. C. Our way of proceeding If the measure of our universities is who the students become, and if the faculty are the heart of it all, then what is there left to say? It is perhaps the third topic, the character of our universities—how they proceed internally and how they impact on society—that is the most difficult. We have already dwelt on the importance of formation and learning, of research and teaching. The social action that the students undertake, and the socially-relevant work that the professors do, are vitally important and necessary, but these do not add up to the full character of a Jesuit university; they neither exhaust its faith-justice commitment nor really fulfill its responsibilities to society. What, then, constitutes this ideal character, and what contributes to the public's perception of it? In the case of a Jesuit university, this character must surely be the mission, which is definedby GC 32 and reaffirmed by GC 34: the diakonia fidei and the promotion of justice, as the characteristic Jesuit university way of proceeding and of serving socially. In the words of GC 34, a Jesuit university must be faithful to both the noun "university" and to the adjective "Jesuit." To be a university requires dedication "to research, teaching and the various forms of service that correspond to its cultural mission." To be Jesuit "requires that the university act in harmony with the demands of the service of faith and promotion of justice found in Decree 4 of GC 32."29 The first way, historically, that our universities began living out their faith-justice commitment was through their admissions policies, affirmative action for minorities, and scholarships for disadvantaged students;30 and these continue to be effective means. An even more telling expression of the Jesuit university's nature is found in policies concerning hiring and tenure. As a university it is necessary to respect the established academic, professional, and labor norms, but as Jesuit it is essential to go beyond them and find ways of attracting, hiring, and promoting those who actively share the mission. We have made considerable and laudable Jesuit efforts to go deeper and further: we have brought our Ignatian spirituality, our reflective capacities, and some of our international resources to bear. Good results are evident, for example, in the Decree "Jesuits and University Life" of the last General Congregation and in this very Conf erence on "Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education"; and good results are hoped for from the Higher Education Committee working on Jesuit criteria. Paraphrasing Ignacio Ellacuría, it is the nature of every University to be a social force, and it is the calling of a Jesuit university to take conscious responsibility for being such a force for faith and justice. Every Jesuit academy of higher learning is called to live in a social reality and to live for that social reality, to shed university intelligence upon it and to use university influence to transform it.31 Thus Jesuit universities have stronger and different reasons, than many other academic and research institutions, for addressing the actual world as it unjustly exists and for helping to reshape it in the light of the Gospel. IV. In conclusion, an agenda The twenty-fifth anniversary of GC 32 is a motive for great thanksgiving. We give thanks for our Jesuit university awareness of the world in its entirety and in its ultimate depth, created yet abused, sinful yet redeemed, and we take up our Jesuit university responsibility for human society that is so scandalously unjust, so complex to understand, and so hard to change. With the help of others and especially the poor, we want to play our role as students, as teachers and researchers, and as Jesuit universities in society. As Jesuit higher education, we embrace new ways of learning and being formed in the pursuit of adult solidarity, new methods of researching and teaching in an academic community of dialogue, and a new university way of practicing faith-justice in society. As we assume our Jesuit university characteristics in the new century, we do so with seriousness and hope. For this very mission has produced martyrs who prove that "a n institution of higher learning and research can become an instrument of justice in the name of the Gospel."32 But implementing Decree 4 is not something a Jesuit university accomplishes once and for all. It is rather an ideal to keep taking up and working at, a cluster of characteristics to keep exploring and implementing, a conversion to keep praying for. In Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II charges Catholic universities with a challenging agenda for teaching, research, and service: "The dignity of human life, the promotion of justice for all, the quality of personal and family life, the protection of nature, the search for peace and political stability, a more just sharing in the world's resources, and a new economic and political order that will better serve the human community at a national and international level."33 These are both high ideals and concrete tasks. I encourage our Jesuit colleges and universities to take them up with critical understanding and deep conviction, with buoyant faith and much hope in the early years of the new century. The beautiful words of GC 32 show us a long path to follow: "The way to faith and the way to justice are inseparable ways. It is up this undivided road, this steep road, that the pilgrim Church" — the Socie ty of Jesus, the Jesuit College and University— "must travel and toil. Faith and justice are undivided in the Gospel which teaches that 'faith makes its power felt through love.'34 They cannot therefore be divided in our purpose, our action, our life."35 For the greater glory of God. 1 G.C. 32, D.4, n.47. 2 GC32, D.2, n.9. 3 See GC 32, D.2, n.9 and D.4, n.76. 4Synod of Bishops, "Justice in the World," 1971. 5 Pedro Arrupe, S.J., "On the Social Apostolate in Latin America," December 1966 (AR XIV, 791). 6 Ibid. 7 Cf. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., "On the Social Apostolate," January 2000, n.3. 8 "Since evangelization is proclamation of that faith which is made operative in love of others (see Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 4:15), the promotion of justice is indispensable to it," (GC 32, D.4, n.28). 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Cf. GC 34, D.26, n.5. For example, GC32, D.11, n.13. GC 34, D. 26, n.8. GC 33, D.1, n.32. Synod of Bishops, "Justice in the World," 1971. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Rooted and Grounded in Love , 67 (AR XVIII, 500). GC33, D.1, n.33. 16 GC34, D.3, n.2. 17 Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Address to the European Jesuit Alumni Congress, Valencia, August 1973, in Hombres para los demás (Barcelona: Diafora, 1983), 159. 18 Cf. The Characteristics of Jesuit Edu cation (Washington, D.C.: Jesuit Secondary Education Association, 1987). 19 Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., "The Task of a Christian University," Convocation address at the University of Santa Clara, June 12, 1982; "Una universidad para el pueblo," Diakonía 6:23 (1982), 41-57. 20 See Ignatius of Loyola, "Contemplation on the Incarnation," Spiritual Exercises , nos. 101- 109. 21 GC32, D.4, nn.27, 20. 22 United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report, 1990-present (annual). 23 In February 2000, the Jesuit Conference established a five-man Committee on Higher Education to prepare recommendations regarding 1) sponsorship by the Society of U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities; 2) assignment of personnel to these institutions; 3) selection of presidents (particularly non-Jesuit presidents) for these institutions. 24 John Paul II, Address to Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, May 5, 2000, n.9. 25 Ibid. n.7. 26 Cf. GC34, D.17, n.6. 27 John Paul II, op.cit., n.5. 28 John Paul II, Address to the Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 26 June 1984. 29 GC34, D.17, nn.6,7. 30 "For the poor [the universities] serve as major channels for social advancement" (GC34, D.17, n.2). 31 Ellacuría, op.cit. 32 Peter-Hans Kolvenbac h, S.J., Address to the Congregation of Provincials (September 20, 1990), AR 20 (1990), 452. 33 John Paul II, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, August 1990, n. 32. 34 Galatians 5:6. 35 GC 32, D.2, n.8. ____________________ "La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles? Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation  prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle. WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)