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SIXTEEN
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
AUGUST 21, 1954.
Says Catholics In Colombia
/Are Provoked By Aggressive
lets, Undignified Propaganda
The following is the last of
ih ree articles by a distinguished
scholar on the status of religious
minorities in countries where there
is a predominant religious major
ity. Dr. Pattee is one of the
worlds leading authorities on La
tin America. A brilliant linguist,
he has lived and worked for many
years in Latin America and is well
known to leaders in all the coun
tries there. He has singled out con
ditions in Colombia for special
treatment in view of the wide
spread publicity given to that coun
try in recent years.
* * *
By D.r, Richard Paliea
■ (Written for N. C. W. C. News
Service)
The situation in Colombia has
merited considerable attention of
late and in this brief series re
garding religious minorities and
their status, it seems wise to de
vote an article to the attitude of
the Colombian authorities and
especially the Catholic Church to
ward the Protestant minority.
The Colombian situation has
been vastly complicated by the
fact that there has been consid
erable political turmoil in that
country over the past few years.
V/ith the triumph of the Con
servative Party, and its retention
Pf power, relations with the
Church have been closer than in
the past. The national constitution
guarantees religious liberty to
sects as long as their activities
fire not contrary to morals or
public order. Protestant churches
can be maintained and schools
opened, not only for Protestant
children but for such Catholics as
may choose to attend them. The
law provides that for certain di
plomas, Catholic students must
take an examination in their re
ligion; a law that has never been
respected, incidentally, by Protes
tants in their own institutions in
which Catholics may be matricu
lated.
Catholicism is the religion of
Colombia as proclaimed in the
Constitution. The authorities, in
commenting on certain incidents
of recent date, have made the
clear distinction between the
freedom of worship, and The un
limited freedom for all forms of
propaganda, no matter how of
fensive to the sentiments of the
vast majority of the citizens of
the country.
Father Eduardo Ospina, in a
recent brochure treating of this
Question calls attention to a point
which is equally valid in the case
of Spain, namely, that within the
past ten or fifteen years, the na
ture of Protestant propaganda in
Colombia (and the same applies
elsewhere, I daresay) has changed
fundamentally. The older, mod
erate denominations have never
engaged in what could be called
“offensive propaganda” and have
limited their activities largely to
their own groups. More recently,
a number of evangelical organiza
tions have invaded the country
with a propaganda that is based
very largely on an intense antago
nism to the Catholic church and
the vilest attacks on its beliefs
and dogmas. We, get an impres
sion of this attitude in the forma
tion of the “evangelical Confed
eration of Columbia,” which is
sued a bulletin in which it spoke
of the need for a “united front”
and an aggressive spirit of mil
itancy against the only possible
force that could constitute the ob
jective of a campaign: the Cath
olic Church.
I have before me a pamphlet
published by the Missionary and
Evangelical Union entitled, Rome
and the Popes, which is fairly il
lustrative of the procedure of a
great deal of this propaganda.
Here we have the usual nonsense
that has been repeated ad nau-
seum these many years: the pa
pacy is the invention of Satan;
the Popes are Anti-Christ; Col
ombia has suffered four centuries
of deliberate obscurantism and
semi-paganism, thanks to the ig
norant and negligent clergy and
the whole thing is topped off with
an account of the alleged woman
Pope Joan.
The Baptist Herald, published
in Colombia, finds nothing better
to do than denounce the Catholic
Church “as the very antithesis of
Christianity.”
The nature of the propaganda
carried on most vigorously is ab
solutely fundamental to the un
derstanding of certain frictions
and even incidents which have
occurred. It would be very strange
indeed if in the face of deliberate
provocation, there were no re
action at all.
When it was suggested to the
evangelical college in Barranquil-
la, that the la w must be respected
and a Catholic chaplain provided
for Catholic students—and only
Catholic students—the director,
replied (August, 1953) that he
would prefer to close up shop be
fore complying with this condi
tion. The Protestants have in Col
ombia two seminaries, 12 secon
dary schools and some 300 other
teaching institutions of one kind
or another and none of them has
been closed because of the hostili
ty of the government or of the
populace in spite of their refusal
in many instances to observe the
requirements of the law. Certain
ly it is no more persecution in
Colombia to insist on Catholic in
struction for Catholic pupils in a
Protestant school than it is in Fin
land to have Lutheran instruction
in a Catholic institution for Lu
theran students.
In the statistics published by
Protestant groups abroad regard
ing the persecution, there are very
grave discrepancies, both as to
number and as to specific details.
The New York Times of May 24,
1952 reported Henry L. McCorckle
as telling the Presbyterian Gen
eral Assembly that there were at
least 2,000 individual cases of
violence and persecution in Col
ombia from September, 1949 to
1952. Of this total number, 450
were up for investigation. At the
same time, the Secretaries of the
Evangelical Confederation of Col
ombia did not manage to come
up with more than 66 cases that
were subject to such investiga
tion: the discrepancy being quite
obvious. The Bishop of Santa Rosa
de Osos, who was accused in what
should have been responsible cir
cles of fomenting the persecution
of Protestants and demanding
their extermination, published a
protest in which he denounced
the vicious calumny contained in
this attack,
It has been established that in
the case of a certain number of
individual Protestants who have
suffered at the hands of others,
the religious motivation was en
tirely secondary to the political.
Let it be remembered that Colom
bia has been going through a most
trying time politically since 1948.
The struggle between the Con
servatives and Liberals has often
reached a point of very great in
tensity, especially after the events
of the Inter-American Conference
in Bogota and the murder of the
leader Jorge Gaitan.
It has been demonstrated be
yond any doubt that many Protes
tants have taken as a sign of re
ligious persecution what was in
fact the unfortunate consequences
of a highly explosive political sit
uation. Certain Colombian Protes
tants, most of whom are Liberals,
have chosen to assume the cloak'
of religious martyrdom when the
issue involved had nothing to do
with religion at all. A comparable
situation exists in Spain where it
can be established that in Barce-
lonia and Madrid individuals have
appeared as evangelical propa
gandists who were perfectly well
known before and during the civil
war as anarchists, communists or
extremists of one kind or another.
One suspects that their services to
the cause of evangelical Christi
anity are dubious in the extreme.
I have had occasion to examine
quite a number of the reports,
findings and other materials re
lating to the individual cases of
violence exerted in Colombia.
One very important general trend
seems to manifest itself in most
of them: the tendency to accept
personal reports from sources of
dubious value without the proper
investigation or any serious ef
fort of corroboration. Space, un
fortunately, does not allow for a
presentation of some of the more
illuminating of these incidents in
which the proof is so slim that
any court of law would throw the
case out instantly for lack of evi
dence.
There is no point in denying
that there have been cases of
violence and certainly some of
who have been the victims of
Catholics. Again, it would seem
fundamental to ascertain all tha
circumstances that surround these
incidents. I have seen myself in
Brazil and Bolivia attacks on in
dividuals who have attempted to
distribute tracts attacking the
Blessed Virgin on a feast day
when hundreds of the local peo
ple had gathered for Mass. Provo
cation, undignified propaganda,
aggressive conduct may easily
lead to outbreaks of this sort
which do not necessarily reflect
an official attitude or a determi
nation by either the Hierarchy or
the government to make life ut
terly intolerable for all Protes
tants or other religious minorities.
Michael L. Elikam
Dies At Savannah
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Funeral
services were held at the Chapel
of Our Lady at the Cathedral of
St. John the Baptist for Michael
L. Elkan.
Mr. Elkan is survived by . his
wife, Mrs. Mable Bradshaw El
kan; a brother, Harry S. Elkan,
St. Louis; three sisters, Mrs. J. H„
Kemp, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs.
Jack Alley, St. Louis, and Mrs.
E. W. Davis, St. Louis; one aunt
and an uncle, both of St. Louis.
them have been of Protestants I Kong.
The eighth and last volume of
the Old Testament in Chinese has
been completed. The difficult and
long awaited translation, which
has been nine years in prepara
tion, is in modern Chinese. It is
based on the original scriptural
texts and carries copious footnotes
and commentaries. Translation,
was done in the Studium Biblt-
cum, Franciscan house in Hong
wm&r^
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