I agree with the professor's stand on principle. A Catholic institution should not be honoring openly pro-abortion politicians, and they should not be honoring leaders such as Secretary Rice, who has pretty clearly lied and led our Nation into many immoral actions. America's foreign policy needs to be reviewed and reformed, better that a Catholic institution had chosen someone who has stood up for justice AND peace, and not war and violence. Perhaps the Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the highest ranking Catholic in the Holy Land, should have been chosen.

It is certainly true that American Catholics need to be educated about the truth of what has been happening in our name in the Holy Land. The Patriarch has offered his advice many times, and called out to brother and sister Catholics in the United States, and we have failed him and his people, our people. I'm afraid that most Catholics in the US seem to be Americans first, before they are Catholic disciples of Jesus Christ. They have placed the virtue of patriotism above greater virtues- like the Israelites who missed seeing Jesus in their midst because they wanted their Messiah to be a militant-King- too many so-called Catholics today are falling into the same trap. They do not seem to care about true justice, only what works for their nation or themselves. This shortsightedness will lead to a fall, maybe many small slips, which should serve as wake-up calls, but do not seem to be working.

For instead of seeing 9-11, the 2nd Intifada, the explosion of emigration to the US, as indications of possible US policy blowback. Americans seem more thirsty for violent revenge, unquestioning nationalism, and uncaring acceptance of global economic forces like the World Bank/IMF, and Free Trade Agencies like GATT. All of this cannot end well- my concern is for my children, and the innocent children of the world- I cannot look at what has been happening in Iraq and Palestine, and not think about the children caught up in the tragedy of war and occupation.

Enough of this madness. If everyone would just start picturing their children living in all of these countries we have involvements in, and then ask themselves, what would you wish the US government and business interests do? If your children's lives and well-being was on the line, in a third or fourth world purgatory, what would you want the world's superpower to say and do? This is my personal criteria- as such I would not use bombs to liberate, only would I apply force to situations of genocide and obvious self-defense. I would establish a strict criteria of universal human rights, and use the bully pulpit and the leverage of shame and humane sanction, all very aggressively and forthrightly, without hypocrisy or double-standards for friends or allies. That is how we should be using America's power. This is how we must use America's power- as a Christian this is not negotiable.