During the war in Vietnam our son-in-law refused to report for induction into the U.S. Army. Now he serves in the Israeli Army. In the next war he will carry an antitank gun outside a tank to protect it from enemy fire. Our son-in-law is brave, but not exceptionally so. He is just doing what Israelis do.

For several years our children had lived at Hamra, a settlement in the occupied territories, east of Nablus overlooking Jordan. At Hamra they lived behind a floodlit, patrolled, barbed wire barricade. Each morning a convoy went out to work the fields behind an army minesweeper, to detonate antipersonnel mines planted during the night. We were therefore much relieved when our children moved to Alonei Abba, a settlement in the most peaceful and fertile part of Israel, the Jezreel Valley.

The hopes for a diminution of the “Italian factor” in the Vatican's concerns seem destined to founder. Despite new attitudes that emerged at the time of the Vatican Council, older patterns persist and impose themselves.

When the Socialists entered into a coalition with the (Catholic) Christian Democrats in 1962, it looked as if the Vatican would gradually reduce its links with Italian politics. This prospect would have been consistent with the encouragement the Vatican Council, just under way in 1962, gave to Catholics to collaborate with others in the building of the terrestrial city. Consistent also with Pope John's alleged remark: “Italy should be no more important to the Vatican than the Philippines.”

If I were to pick one word that characterizes today's world and will increasingly characterize the world just ahead, I would use the word "'imbalance." There is raw material scarcity in many areas, raw material surplus in others. There is enormousper capita consumption in some countries, very little in others. There is an abundance of technological capacity in a few countries, a virtual absence in most others. There is great wealth in some countries, gross poverty in others. There is capital accumulation in some countries, capital shortage in others.

The mix of this imbalance is also significant. We can no longer easily refer to "have" and "have not" nations. The USA has food, large but insufficient amounts of capital, highly advanced technology, but little or no tin, nickel, chrome, platinum, zinc (not to mention less than the oil it wishes).