Peace Activist to Offer Perspectives on Iraq at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – From 8 - 10 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30 Rev. G. Simon Harak, S.J., will give a lecture titled "Iraq: What We Don't Know; Why We Don't Know It" in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross.

Rev. G. Simon Harak, S. J., entered the Society of Jesus in 1970, and has served as a missionary in Jamaica and the Philippines. He has a bachelor of arts degree from Fairfield University, a master of divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and a master of arts degree from the University of Notre Dame. He finished his Ph.D. from Notre Dame in ethics on a national fellowship and began teaching ethics at Fairfield University in 1986. He was John Early Visiting Professor at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md. in 1992. In 1995, he was chosen "Teacher of the Year" by the Fairfield University students. In 1998, he gave the Staley Lecture for Distinguished Christian Scholars, at Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, Iowa, and attained the rank of full professor at Fairfield, having served five years as chair of the Academic Council.

Active in the Peace Movement, Fr. Harak helped found Voices in the Wilderness, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, 2002, and again in 2003. He has traveled to Iraq three times with Voices, where he openly and publicly violated U.S./U.N. sanctions to bring medicine and toys to Iraqi hospitals.

Author and editor of numerous books and articles, Fr. Harak has made over 1,500 presentations on Iraq on TV, radio and at different venues in the U.S. and abroad. In 1998, he resigned his full professorship at Fairfield University, to work full time with Voices in the Wilderness.

In 2000, he was one of the site coordinators of the "Remembering Omran Bus Tour," which spent a year "barnstorming" the country, informing campuses and peace groups about the nature of U.S./Iraq relations. In 2001, he was support person for "Breaking Ranks: A Fast to End the Siege of Iraq," a 40-day fast sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in New York City, to encourage nations to "break" with U.S. policies toward Iraq. Also in 2001, he was New York City coordinator for the speaking tour of Hans von Sponeck, former assistant secretary general of the U.N. He is presently coordinator for the "Mirror of Truth" Bus Tour, which gathers support against weapons of mass destruction and terror.