Telling My Side: “Limited Access” as a “Fishing” Device

“Telling my side” is a way of seeking information without going on record with an explicit request. The practice involves a speaker’s reporting recognizably limited access to, and knowledge of, a situation in which the recipient was an actor. A limited-access formulation may be likened to an outsider’s or observer’s version of a situation. This practice is used when there are negative sanctions for directly seeking the type of information being sought. Its success relies on participants’ orienting to a sequence of actions: the limited-access report sets up the relevance of the recipient’s providing information. The recipient needs to infer that the speaker seeks further information; furthermore, the recipient must be willing to provide it

La formazione spirituale ignaziana al sacerdozio. Dal Collegio Romano all’Istituto di Spiritualità della Pontificia Università Gregoriana di Roma

"The Ignatian Spiritual Formation in The Priesthood. From the Roman College to the Institute of Spirituality of The Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome. The present study aims to analyze the importance of the spiritual formation of Seminarians and Priests in the present times. Assuming that the most delicate part of the formation concerns the work of the divine grace, the exhortations of the Pontiffs, from Leo XIII to Francis insist that the good dispositions of the Seminarians help them to find in their Formators the spirit, better understanding and all the help to reach the state of perfection, called priestly holiness. As one of the forms of the celebrations of the 60° anniversary of the Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical Gregorian University, this paper also has the purpose of some genuine expressions of gratitude for the contributions of Fathers Herbert Alphonso and Maurizio Costa, two Jesuits who have been called to the Father’s House. Together with Father Franco Imoda, they were sensible toward the needs of the Church with great courage. As an answer to these expectations and on the explicit request from Congregation for the Catholic Education of the Holy See, Father Joseph Pittau S.I., the then Magnificent Rector of Pontifical Gregorian University, founded, the Interdisciplinary Center for the Formation of the Formators in Seminaries (CIFS = Centro Interdisciplinare per la Formazione dei Formatori nei Seminari) in May 1996. Our conclusions synthesize the results of the research, and place in prominence the mission of the Institute of Spirituality as an expression of its fidelity to the inheritance of the Roman College. Keywords: priestly spirituality, priestly and spiritual formation, formation of the formators, Ignatian pedagogy, prayer, theology, Roman College, the Ignatian vision of man, pastoral charity."

Calling in the Heavyweights: Why the World Bank Established the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, and What It Might Achieve

The initial key international climate policy and carbon market hub was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Over time several international organizations and networks have been added to the “international carbon market web,” such as several World Bank (WB) initiatives. As to the latter, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) was launched in 2015. A key question then becomes: considering an increasingly dense international environment, why was the Coalition formed? Our analysis shows the importance of taking into account institutional pathways in the Bank itself and the character of previous WB-internal initiatives. However, it is particularly important to note interaction with a strong external pull, stemming both from more “systemic” developments such as the collapse of the Clean Development Mechanism system and the explicit request for new initiatives from key actors, such as UN General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon. We suggest seeing entrepreneurship from the bureaucracies of international organizations as conditional on member-state behavior or a conducive institutional environment (or both). We also discuss main prospects ahead, both for the Coalition and the more general organizational set-up in this issue-area. Here we draw attention to the role of the WB as an international “heavyweight” and CPLC and Bank meetings held back to back.

Good decision vs. good results: Outcome bias in the evaluation of financial agents

We document outcome bias in situations where an agent makes risky financial decisions for a principal. In three experiments, we show that the principal’s evaluations and financial rewards for the agent are strongly affected by the random outcome of the risky investment. This happens despite her exact knowledge of the investment strategy, which can, therefore, be assessed independently of the outcome. The principal thus judges the same decision by the agent differently, depending on factors that the agent has no influence on. The effect of outcomes persists in a setting where principals communicate a preferred investment level. Principals are more satisfied with the agent after a random success when the agent did not follow the requested investment level, than after a failed investment that followed their explicit request.

Medical assistance in dying and older persons in Belgium: trends, emerging issues and challenges

In 2002, the Belgian Act on euthanasia came into effect, regulating the intentional ending of life by a physician at the patient’s explicit request. Subsequently, the number of reported euthanasia deaths increased every year. Specifically, the proportion of euthanasia deaths in older persons has risen significantly in the last few years. Since the conception of the Euthanasia Act, Belgian physicians have been confronted with challenges concerning euthanasia requests in older persons with polypathology, tiredness of life or dementia. By exploring these issues, this commentary highlights the importance of a meticulous and team-based assessment of the (i) seriousness of the underlying condition, (ii) voluntariness of the request and (iii) decisional capacity of the older person requesting euthanasia.

The Task of the Hebrew Translation

The first translation of Shakespeare’s Othello into Hebrew, Ithiel ha-Kushi mi-Vinez.ya, was published in 1874. The translation, by the Jewish convert to Christianity Isaac Edward Salkinson, was made following an explicit request by one of the most prominent figures of the late Hebrew Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), Peretz Smolenskin. I will examine how the two negotiated one of the most controversial cruxes in Shakespeare’s oeuvre. The crux, found in Othello’s final speech (5.2), reads in the First Quarto (1622) as ‘the base Indian’ who ‘threw a pearl away, / Richer than all his Tribe’, while in the First Folio (1623) it reads as ‘the base Iudean’. I will meditate on the Indian-Iudean crux, and offer a critical reading of Salkinson’s ‘solution’ and his ‘mistranslation’ of ‘pearl’ to ‘sapphire’ on the same line, in light of Smolenskin’s critique of Hebrew literature. In so doing, I will offer an understanding of the role of the Hebrew translator in their era and of translation in general.

The Task of the Hebrew Translation

The first translation of Shakespeare’s Othello into Hebrew, Ithiel ha-Kushimi-Vinezya, was published in 1874. The translation, by the Jewish convert to Christianity Isaac Edward Salkinson, was made following an explicit request by one of the most prominent figures of the late Hebrew Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), Peretz Smolenskin. I will examine how the two negotiated one of the most controversial cruxes in Shakespeare’s oeuvre. The crux, found in Othello’s final speech (5.2), reads in the First Quarto (1622) as ‘the base Indian’ who ‘threw a pearl away, / Richer than all his Tribe’, while in the First Folio (1623) it reads as ‘the base ludean’. I will meditate on the Indian-Iudean crux, and offer a critical reading of Salkinson’s ‘solution’ and his ‘mistranslation’ of ‘pearl’ to ‘sapphire’ on the same line, in light of Smolenskin’s critique of Hebrew literature. In so doing, I will offer an understanding of the role of the Hebrew translator in their era and of translation in general.

On the personal utility of Alzheimer’s disease-related biomarker testing in the research context

Many healthy volunteers choose to take part in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention studies because they want to know whether they will develop dementia—and what they can do to reduce their risk—and are therefore interested in learning the results of AD biomarker tests. Proponents of AD biomarker disclosure often refer to the personal utility of AD biomarkers, claiming that research participants will be able to use AD biomarker information for personal purposes, such as planning ahead or making important life decisions. In this paper, the claim that AD biomarkers have personal utility for asymptomatic individuals is critically assessed. It demonstrates that in the absence of clinical validity, AD biomarkers cannot have personal utility and do not serve research participants’ autonomy. Over the next few years, many research groups will be confronted with participants’ preferences to learn the results of AD biomarker tests. When researchers choose to make results available upon explicit request, they should ensure adequate information provision and education, notably on the uncertain clinical significance of AD biomarker information. Routine disclosure of AD biomarkers to cognitively unimpaired individuals in research settings cannot be justified with an appeal to the personal utility of AD biomarker information.

Raphael, the Virgin Mary, and Holy Matrimony: Recontextualizing Franz Liszt's Sposalizio

Sposalizio, the piece opening the “Italian year” of Franz Liszt's Années de pèlerinage (first published in 1858), is one of the most analyzed and interpreted compositions in this piano cycle. Much attention has been paid to its connection with the painting of the same title by Raphael, which was printed as an internal title page for the piece's first edition at the explicit request of the composer. This connection has inspired many studies on the relationship between image and music, reinforcing the notion of Sposalizio as a musical realization of Raphael's painting as seen by Liszt for the first time in February 1838 at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Adopting a critical view of the hermeneutical tradition, which has an impact on the interpretation of the piece still today, and assuming that its composition began in Weimar only around 1848, the article proposes an alternative reading of the piece. By connecting pictorial and musical elements, Sposalizio seems to evoke several cultural discourses and practices fundamental to Liszt's artistic and biographical background, such as Raphael's image as a genius, the revival of Marian devotion, and marriage as a sacrament of the Catholic Church.