Will this be remembered, filed, and put to work as "The Jewish Issue" of the Bulletin? While the articles focus on Judaism and its connection with medical ethics and the interpretation of health and illness, we editors did not think of it as an exclusive, something over which the the in "The Jewish Issue" was to dominate.

Only 2.3% of the American people tell poll-takers that they prefer Judaism or identify their religion as Jewish, but the influence of what some call the Hebrew Scriptures, of what Christians conventionally call the Old Testament, of the rabbinic traditions, of Jewish ethical thought, touches so many dimensions of American life when not described as merely secular, that the non-Jewish majority should and must and does pay attention to it.

Despite this focus, we don't think of this as a hermetically sealed "Jewish Issue," that draws upon one religious tradition only so that we can move on to others. From the first day of the prehistoric phase of the Park Ridge Center through all its history, Judaism has been a key element in its "international, intercultural, interdisciplinary, interfaith" expression.

So when we concentrate on Jewish sources and interpretations, we are neither paying respects to the American tradition of equal time for the faiths, nor letting Judaism take its turn in isolation. We are confident that all readers, no matter their secular, or religious, or religiosecular outlooks, will profit from the articles.

Look at the range here. It goes from Byron L. Sherwin, who writes of stewardship of the body; to the neighbor (key to Jewish ethical thought, also in respect to medical ethics) as Philip Cohen makes clear; to technology (in this case through the item about Internet search engines); to tradition, as Dena Davis and Laurie Zoloth describe the bioethical sensibility they find in any number of Jewish emphases in ethics; to association, as Dorothy Gardner discusses the heritage and legacy of a medical center rooted in the Jewish philanthropic heritage; to practical ethics, as Phyllis Mitzen wrestles with Judaism's wrestling over the issue of autopsy; and to devotion, exemplified in the prayer attributed to Maimonides.

Now let me add a postscript to Laurence O'Connell's note recalling the late Father Richard McCormick. As one who was, in the words of a Spanish king and an American secretary of state "present at the creation" of this Center, I would like to testify to the founding and shaping contributions of Dick McCormick, who was not only present but was a creator of it.

One contribution he made came in the form of a question I will paraphrase from one of his writings for this Center. Aware that there were 600-plus hospitals that claimed the name "Catholic," he wanted the leadership of each to hear the question: "If you were indicted for being a Catholic hospital, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" It was his way of asking institutions and their participants to deal with the basic issues of what I keep calling here "traditions."

McCormick represented the Catholic tradition at its best and thus helped make this Center a more catholic place, a place where the focused ideas of the faith communities would reach into the "whole" (kata + holos) of existence, as perceived in the enterprises connected with what we code-named "Health, Faith, and Ethics."

Richard McCormick used to say good-bye to us after annual observances with an "ad multos annos," hoping we would have more, and good years. Now we reach back into the Latin in which he was grounded, with our thanks and the hope: "Requiescat in pace."