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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 NOTICE! Fire and Regular Alarm Systems Installed 24-HOUR SERVICE 580 14ih Street, N. W. TR. 5-1658 — Atlanta, Ga. 4 % Insured to $10,000 by FSLIC We Pay Postage On Mail Accounts Current Rale on Savings Standard Federal Savings & Loan Assn. 48 Broad St. HW, Atlanta 3 Ga. MU. 8-6619 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- A. J. BOHN COMPANY Brick, Building Tile, Specira Glaze Concrete Blocks CEdar 7-6461. Atlanta, Ga.. 3229 Cains Hill Place, N. W. CHAMBLEE CHAPEL Mrs. Geo. W. Marchman, Licensed Catholic Funeral Directress George W. Marchman, Jr., Catholic Funeral Director GL. 7-3101 North Peachtree Rd. Chamblee, Ga. BBOOKHAte SHOE STORE “CORRECT FIT AND SATISFACTION ASSURED” Next io Woolworih's "Home of Red Goose Shoes" Shoe Headquarters in Brookhaven mum Alcoholism HOSPITAL Nervous-Disorders 907 Edgewood Avenue Atlanta, Georgia PHONE JA. 4-9392 fOUf lUMP Savings * © * fe tJWK year aocuMaiatod eaab funds with this specialised Savings Association where your money o-msistentiy earns feigher-thaa-averag* earnings -.. without worry, wait, cr risk on ycnir past. Every six mmntha, yawn Bsoesv® a. check for the extra dollars your savings hav® earned. Open your account tktto mmM Mutual Federal Savings Lean Association JACKSON 3-8282 205 AUBURN AVENUE, N. E. ATLANTA, GA. (Liberal Dividend Rate — Insured by F. D. I. C.) Each Account Insured Up To $10,000.00 SAVE BY MAIL 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 Expert-Personalized Service Given To Every Garment Coming Into Our Plant 112 N. Maint St. PO. 1-4104 College Park, Ga. 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. PHONE JA. 2-6500 589 FORREST RD., N. E. ATLANTA, 12, GA. 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) Furniture Discount Store JEROME'S INC. QUALITY FURNITURE AT DISCOUNT PRICES Cash or Bank Financing 3093 Peachtree Road, N.E. CE. 7-3248 Napoli Restaurant Italian Owned and Operated Specializing in Homemade Lasagna, Spaghetti, Pizza, Chicken Cacciatora, Veal Parmigiana, Marsala, Veal Pizzaiola 2833 Peachtree Rd., N. E. CE. 3-9276 Atlanta, Ga. C. MALCOLM NEWELL Photography Studio Weddings — Portraits Restorations — Identification Parties 2292 Cascade Road, S.W. Atlanta, Ga. 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