Newspaper Page Text
THE BULLETIN, February 6, 1960—PAGE 3
CATHOLICS FACING SERIOUS
DIFFICULTIES IN TUNISIA
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
TUNIS, Tunisia — Although
there is no systematic persecu
tion of Catholics in ,this newly
independent north African na
tion, relations between Church
and State here have seriously
worsened in recent months.
The government of Tunis,
which is officially Moslem, has
seized Church buildings and
oilier property, bringing pro
tests from Archbishop Maurice
Perrin of Carthage, whose See
embraces the entire country.
A major cause of the deteri
oration of Church-State rela
tions is the government’s effort
to remove aii traces of Tunisia’s
former colonial status. One re
sult of this “Tunisification” ef
fort has been the decline of the
Catholic population from 280,-
000 in 1954 — two years before
independence — to about 100,-
000 at present.
Until July, 1959, there was
no major break in the friendly
relations that had existed be
tween Church and State. Cor
dial relations dated from the
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period of the struggle for' in
dependence, when nationalist
leaders were grateful for state
ments issued by Church au
thorities on such matters as in
ternational morality.
After independence the gov
ernment took steps to stress the
Moslem character of the coun
try by suppressing Christian
feast days as public holidays,
it also removed a statue of
Cardinal Lavigerie — founder
of the White fathers and first
archbishop of the restored See
of Carthage — from one of tne
main squares of Tunis. Church
officials, aware that the statue
irritated some Moslems, did not
object to the government’s ac-
lion.
Last year Church authorities
here, with the approval of the
Holy See, placed a number of
churches and rectories at the
government’s disposal for use as
dispensaries, schools and ad
ministrative offices. They were
buildings no longer needed by
the Church because the depart
ure of many foreign Catholics
had depopulated certain parish
es.
The government welcomed
this gesture with gratitude, al
though in some cases it did
not use the buildings for the
purposes agreed on. One, for
example, was turned into a
movie house and another into
a recreation center.
At the end of August the
government asked Archbishop
Perrin to give up a church in
Kairouan City where religious
services were still being held
for several hundred Catholics
and a community of Sisters.
The Archbishop agreed to stu
dy the question of using a
smaller church.
On the pretense that the
Archbishop nad agreed to give
up the church, the governor of
Kairouan demanded that the
priests there give him the keys
to the church within 24 hours.
Archbishop Perrin immediate-
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ly sent a representative to Kai
rouan, but the governor insist
ed that the church had to be
turned over. The priests at the
church were then forced to
move to a hotel.
Archbishop Perrin protested
the seizure to the government.
At the end of October an in
cident took place in connec
tion with the hermitage of Sidi-
Saad. For about 30 years a
group of hermits, two priests
and four Sisters, had lived con
templative lives there, support
ing themselves by cultivating a
property called Ain-Blartha.
^ For several months they had
been negotiating with the Min
istry of Agriculture about ced
ing most of their property to
the government and keeping
only what was strictly neces
sary for their livelihood. On
October 25 the Official Tunisi
an Journal announced that
the entire property had been
taken over. A few days later
the priests and Sisters were no
tified of their expulsion.
Recently, a church in a Tunis
suburb — a locality where
there are scarcely any Catholics
any longer and from which a
group of priests had just de
parted — was placed under
guard by the government, and
Church authorities were forbid
den to enter it. There had been
no previous demand for the
church by the government.
Tunisia, ruled by Moslems for
nearly 13 centuries, was once
a thriving Christian communi
ty.
For five centuries Tunisia
was known to the world as Car
thage, a nation of traders and
warriors founded by the Phoe
nicians in the sixth century be
fore Christ. It rivaled Rome for
the supremacy of the Mediter
ranean world.
In 146 B. C. Romans destroy
ed the city of Carthage and
took control of its ports. Julius
Caesar, in 44 B. C., rebuilt the
city and made it the capital of
the African world.
Under Roman rule, the Church
came to Africa in the first cen
tury, and by 197 it was flou
rishing. About this year, Ter-
tullian wrote in his famous
“Apology”:
“If the Christians in a body
should desert the cities of Af
rica, the governing authorities
would be ‘horror stricken at the
solitude’ in which they would
find themselves, ‘at a silence so
all pervading,’ a stupor as of
a dead world.”
Around the year 210, Bishop
Agrippinus of Carthage called
a council of bishops for Africa
and 70 prelates attended the
meeting. The pope from 189 to
199 was an African, Pope Vic
tor.
In 429 the Vandals conquered
Carthage, and the Church be
came disorganized under a cen
tury of their rule. Justinian, the
Roman emperor, reconquered
the North African territory in
534 and stopped the Church’s
decline.
During the next two centu
ries Carthage was plagued with
heresies and dissension. When
the Arabs came in 698, the
once flourishing Church of Af
rica grew silent.
The Church came to Tunis
again in the 19th century fol
lowing the establishment of a
French protectorate over the
country in 1881. Three years
later the See of Carthage was
restored.
Today the country’s 100,000
faithful are served by 179
priests. The Church operates 37
schools with a total enrollment
of 12,000 students.
NEW MAGAZINE
GUIDE IS READY
NEW YORK (NC) — The Ca
tholic Press Association has
ready for distribution a revised
guide to Catholic magazine
market requirements for writers
and illustrators.
The 20-page booklet, entitled
“1960 Writers and Illustrators
Guide,” lists 87 leading Cath
olic periodicals, about 20 more
than the 1959 edition, the asso
ciation said in a statement.
Copies of the guide which
sells for a dollar, may be ob
tained from the association at
6 West 39th St. New York, N.Y.
JUHAN'S CLEANERS
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Right Of Religious Bodies To
Educate, Run Schools Upheld
By American Delegate At U. N.
READ YOUR CATHOLIC PRESS
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y. —
The right of a religious denom
ination to operate schools and
educate children was stressed
by the U. S. delegate and a Ca
nadian priest during a United
Nations discussion on religious
freedom.
The discussion also dealt
with whether the right to free
dom of religious worship in
cludes meetings of atheists, or
the ceremonies of groups which
adhere to a system of beliefs
but which are not generally rec
ognized as religious, such as
the Freemasons.
Philip Halpern of the U. S.
spoke before the U. N. Sub
commission on the Prevention
of Discrimination and the Pro
tection of Minorities. The sub
commission was discussing the
report on discrimination in re
ligious rights and practices pre
pared by one of its members,
Arcot Krishnaswami of India.
Mr. Kishnaswami’s report
called for U. N. enrollment of
16 rules to guide governments
in dealing with religious bod
ies. The rules are intended to
ensure the free exercise of re
ligious rights and practices.
Mr. Halpern said he regret
ted that the report had not cov
ered the fundamental right of
religious teaching guaranteed
by the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
He recalled that the right to
receive a religious education
was covered in a previous set
of recommendations made by
the subcommission when it con
sidered discrimination in the
field of education. Its report on
that subject was reviewed in
1957.
In addition to this right, Mr.
Halpern maintained, religious
bodies have a fundamental
right to run schools. The right
ot a religious body to teach, he
said, involves not only the right
of parents and the clergy, but
also the right io teach through
religious institutions.
He pointed out that there are
countries where the teaching of
religion in the home to children
under the age of 18 is prohibit
ed by law.
A religious group’s right to
.an schools should be made ex
plicit in the rules recommended
in Mr. Krishnaswami’s report,
Father Jules Gagnon, O.F.M.,
Cap., of Quebec told the sub
commission. He spoke for the
International Catholic Child
Bureau.
The first of these rules sets
forth the “prior right” of par
ents to decide on the “religion
or belief” in which their chil
dren should be brought up, the
Capuchin priest noted.
“As any real reflection will
make clear,” he declared, “the
parents’ choice necessitates a
whole process of religious edu
cation. If this be denied to the
parents one of the essential el
ements of religious freedom is
also denied.”
If a religious body's right to
educate is not protected. Father
Gagnon continued, the right to
maintain one's religion is not
completely secured and there
fore the continued existence of
religion itself is endangered.
The International Catholic
Child Bureau, he said, suggests
an addition to the rules “which
woum assure the right of relig
ious teaching by parents them
selves, by their church, by
their schools, by religious per
sonnel or by special institutions
and organizations. This is es
sential to the maintenance of
religion.”
During the discussion Mr.
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Halpern called attention to the
importance of a point that had
been made earlier by Father
Eugene Burke, C.S.P. The Paul-
ist priest had spoken to the sub
commission as a representative
of Pax Romana, international
Catholic movement of students
and intellectuals.
Father Burke had pointed out
the confusion that results when
religion and belief, including
atheism, are lumped together.
Mr. Halpern asked Mr. Krish
naswami to include in his re
port a special category of
“Church-State relations” deal
ing with countries which, be
cause of a governmental policy
opposed to all religion, are in
the position of officially pro
moting atheism. The report al
ready deals with Church-State
relations in nations where there
is an established church.
The U. S. member of the sub
commission declared lhat mili
tant atheism is one of the most
serious threats to the freedom
of religion in this century. He
quoted from a 1933 publication
ot the Soviet government Office
of Antireligious Propaganda io
the effect that the development
of the communist system leads
to the final death of religion.
This state-established “belief
of atheism,” Mr. Halpern as
serted ,is discrimination against
all religion and must be so re
garded unless the government
can maintain that there is
equality in all facilities for be
lievers and nonbelievers. This
burden of proof is especially
heavy, he pointed out, where
all the media of education and
communication are under gov
ernment control. This is not a
position of neutrality, Mr. Hal
pern continued, but one of mili
tant support of one belief.
The U.S.S.R. member of the
subcommission, Mrs. Z. Miron
ova, denied that atheism is an
officially established state be
lief in the Soviet Union. The
government, she said, does not
conduct antireligious propa
ganda; this is left to the Com
munist party. She denied that
there is an official state organ
for this purpose, but declared
that there is an official commit
tee for religious cults.
Opposing views were ex
pressed by two Latin American
members of the subcommission
regarding the inclusion of athe
ists’ meetings and other cere
monies under the right to free
dom of religious worship.
The discussion on this point
arose when the subcommission’s
Polish member, Wojciech Ket-
rzynski, proposed the inclusion
of an explicit reference to the
right to manifest “secular be
lief” in the report’s rule deal
ing with freedom of worship.
The draft text of the rule un
der consideration was: “Every
one should be free to worship
in accordance with the pre
scriptions of his religion or
belief, either alone or in com
munity with others, and in pub
lic or in private.”
Examples of manifesting one’s
“secular belief,” according to
Mr. Ketrzynski, are meetings
and the “exchange of ideas.”
The Chilean member, Jacobo
Schaulsohn, who describes him
self as a rationalist believing in
a Supreme Being declared lhat
(Continued on Page 5)
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Peter A. Sharkey, advertising manager of The Monitor,
newspaper of the Diocese of Trenton, N. J., holds a copy of
this year’s Catholic Press Month poster, which he designed.
The poster, bearing a likeness of His Holiness, Pope John
XXIXX, and quoting him: “weapons of truth . . . weapons of
love,” will appear throughout the country during February,
Catholic Press Month.. It is the official poster of the Catholic
Press Association. (NC Photos)
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