American Catholic Social Teaching (Vol 1 CD, Vol 2 print), Thomas Massaro & Thomas Shannon (eds). Michael Glazier–Liturgical Press, 2002. isbn 0 8146 5105 4
We have in recent years seen the United States Bishops at their worst as court testimonies reveal the way in which some have dealt with sexual abuse within the church. In their attitude to the war on Iraq, we have seen them at their best, resisting their government’s predilection for violence.
The bishops’ criticism of an unjust war initiated by their own nation draws on a strong episcopal tradition of moral reflection on United States public life. The collection of articles edited by Massaro and Shannon, accompanied by a CD containing bishops’ statements on social issues, is a rich resource. The statements stretch over two centuries, and cover a broad range of topics. The printed articles offer reflection contemporaneous with the statements. They give some idea of the perplexities and passions which form the context for the writing of the documents. Among the articles, I was delighted to see such disparate treasures as John Ireland’s reflections on being American and Catholic, the manifesto of the Catholic Worker movement, and Elizabeth Johnson’s analysis of the strains imposed today on one who wishes to be both woman and Catholic.
Andrew Hamilton sj
War on Iraq: What Team Bush doesn’t want you to know, Scott Ritter (former UN Weapons Inspector) & William Pitt. Allen & Unwin, 2002. isbn 1 74114 063 3, rrp $9.95
September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives, Susan Hawthorne & Bronwyn Winter (eds). Spinifex Press, 2002. isbn 1 876756 27 6, rrp $32.95
Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Rohan Gunaratna. Scribe Publications, 2002. isbn 0 9080 1195 4, rrp $29.95
The debate about war with Iraq is difficult to make much of because its currency has been increasingly strident assertion rather than argument. It is more helpful to read about its various contexts than to spend much time on defences of war.
Scott Ritter offers some landmarks in the jungle of weapons of mass destruction. In a short and simply spoken interview, he proposes and discusses the central questions: whether under the present public scrutiny, Iraq could develop and produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons without detection; whether any chemical and biological weapons that were manufactured before the Gulf War could survive
undegraded; whether it is morally conceivable that the secularist Iraq would support Islamic terrorist movements; and whether a war on Iraq