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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, April 22, 1965
‘THE TWO FACES OF TITO’
Hampers Church Activity
But Boasts Of Freedom
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia—(NC)
Communist officials in Yugosla
via have a disarming habit of
pointing out to a visiting journa
list: “You see, of course, that
the churches are full.”
In fact, churches in Yugo
slavia are fuller morning or even
ing, weekday or Sunday than
churches in many a democratic
country.
This is a tribute to the faith
of Yugoslavia’s Catholics and to
the liberality of its communist
regime. But it also has another
explanation: there are not enough
churches.
The dearth of churches in Yu
goslavia might be attributed to a
lack of funds for building. It is
true that bishops and priests
are poor here. Though they wel
come their poverty as good for
their souls and for the Church
and for the respect of commu
nists and faithful alike, it means
that they often lack the where
withal to build churches where
they are badly needed.
But this is not the basic rea
son for the scarcity of churches.
In many parts of the country,
even when a bishop or priest
has the funds, the church does
not get built. There are too
many ways of stopping it.
The necessary permits fail
to arrive. The urban planning
commission finds it has no place
for a church in its minutely
drawn plans. Scarce building
materials are needed for con
struction in “the social sector,”
as official language terms it.
Sometimes the authorities de
mand to see the funds before
they will give permission for
construction of a church. If the
priest is able to produce them,
he may then be asked why these
funds did not appear on his tax
schedule. Some priests have been
put on trial as a result.
Whatever means the civic aut
horities use, the net effect is the
same; almost no churches can
be built.
Given the regime’s obstructive
policy on church construction, it
is hardly surprising that Catho
lics are suspicious even when
the government undertakes to re
construct a celebrated old
church. Government-sponsored
reconstruction of the old church
of the Pauline monks at Lepog-
lava in northern C roatia has been
going on for years, while Catho
lics are obliged to crowd into a
room of the rectory for Mass.
Many churches were destroyed
or badly damaged during the
war. For some of them, official
permission for restoration is
still withheld after years of pe
titioning.
Usually, however, abandoned
or ruined churches which are not
national monuments can be re
stored at the expense of the
faithful. Many of these once-
abandoned churches have pro
vided shelter for the celebra
tion of Mass in areas where the
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population has grown startlingly
since World War II. They also
serve as catechetical centers.
“They have been our salva
tion,” one priest remarked. But
they are still pitifully inadequate.
Some of them were little more
than wayside shrines, and on Sun
days the overflow of worshippers
can be seen outside, peering
through open doors and windows
to follow Mass.
There are few such old church
es in Yugoslavia’s “new towns,”
which have grown apace with
the country’s surging industriali
zation. More than 100 new towns
sprang up in the eight years
between 1953 and 1961, and they
constitute about one-quarter of
the towns and cities listed by
the government as “urban settle
ments.”
The official planners of these
new cities have left no room in
them for churches. In one new
town where a bishop had been
able to obtain land, the church
he wanted to build never went
up. The usual administrative ob
stacles accomplished their task
once more.
Church officials, faced by this
monolithic policy of obstruction,
have almost desperately sought
ways and means of bringing the
Mass and religious instruction to
Yugoslavia’s 1.4 million new city
dwellers. Where a city has grown
beyond its old confines, the bis
hop may buy a private dwelling
and knock down a wall or two
to create a makeshift chapel.
By law, this chapel can also
serve as a catechetical cen
ter.
So far, Yugoslav officialdom
has shown virtually no objection
to the conversion of private
houses into chapels and cateche
tical centers. The pastor of the
new chapel gives two weeks’ no
tice to the authorities, and then
public Mass can be celebrated
and the children can come for
catechism.
These chapels are incom-
spicuous, and that may explain
why the regime seems to look
upon them with a benign eye.
In some ways they are reminis
cent of the store-front churches
of Harlem. No cross arises from
the roof. The only thing that
distinguishes them from their
neighbors is a simple sign bear
ing the name o f the parish. But
for the present they offer the
best means of bringing the Mass,
the sacraments and Christian
doctrine to Yugoslavia’s rapidly
growing urban population.
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THE OHLONE INDIAN BURIAL GROUND at Mission San Jose near Oakland,
Calif., has been turned over by the Diocese of Oakland to the American Indian
Historical Society. Bishop Floyd L. Begin of Oakland is shown on that occasion,
with Marlene Chibbity (left) and Adam Nordwall (right), chairman of the San
Francisco Bay Council of American Indians. Records dating from 1797 indicate
more than 4,000 Ohlone tribesmen are buried there. (NC Photos)
OF CONGO
Short Boat Ride Brings
Visitor To Gloomy Side
By. Floyd Anderson
BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of
the Congo (NC)—It is a short
ferry ride from Leopoldville to
Brazzaville--but the two parts
of the Congo are worlds apart.
You sense the change in atmos
phere, in tension, very quickly
when you arrive in Brazzaville.
It was brought home very
vividly to me as three of us
sat i n a car, waiting to be dri
ven to our hotels. We were “in
transit,” leaving from Brazza
ville for a destination not avail
able from Leopoldville, and hence
we were able to visit this com
munist-controlled city.
I remarked casually, “It is
warmer here than on the other
side, but perhaps that’s because
it’s later in the day.” Another
man, who had been in Brazza
ville before, said quickly: “Let’s
not talk about that, “meaning
“the other side.” We were a
silent car for a while, and then
he said, “They don’t like the
Americans.” The third passen
ger was British, and he asked,
“How about the British?” the
man said, “They like the Bri
tish better than the Americans.”
The innate gaiety and outward
expressions of joy, so manifest
among most Africans, seemed
almost completely lacking in
Brazzaville. There was no joking
among the waiters at the hotel.
That may have been because of
the large number of Chinese
there. I counted 12 of them in
a few hours.
They must have been important
members of the Chinese Com
munist party, too. A car from
the Red Chinese embassy, with
the ambassador’s flag flying,
came out in the middle of the
afternoon, and the distinguished
looking gentlemen in the car had
a long conference with about
eight of these Chinese men. Sig
nificantly, I think, they held the
meeting out in the middle of a
lawn, where no one was nearby
to overhear, and where no one
could come close to them un
expectedly. Some had sheaves of
papers; and they discussed these
with animation, checking certain
points in the documents. And
then they scattered in various di
rections by car.
There may have been no sig
nificance to the meeting; on the
other hand, the Chinese had many
conversations with the hotel desk
clerk, checking over papers that
looked much like the registration
slips we filled out—and there
were at least 12 Chinese, out of
a total hotel rooiA capacity of
about 60. This was quite a good
proportion.
One competent observer said
the Chinese have communist cells
in various quarters, like housing
blocks, in certain sections of the
city, and that they are getting to
the young people. The Chinese,
by the way, were well dressed,
intelligent looking, and compara
tively young—certainly very few
of them were over 40. They were
remarkably uncommunicative,
too: I saw two of them sit through
lunch without saying a word to
each other.
Brazzaville has a powerful
radio station; it is used to bom
bard Leopoldville, as well as
Brazzaville, with communist
propaganda. It also plays fine
music—and so listeners will want
to hear the music, but cannot
escape being hit by the commu
nistic progaganda.
Communist influence is visible
in many other ways too. Another
observer said the Chinese com
munism is worse than Russian
communism because it is cruelty
without pity. He felt that the Rus
sians were more humane than
the Chinese communists.
He related the torture applied
to a diocesan priest who is di
rector of Semaine Africain, a
Catholic paper of Brazzaville.
They strung him up by his feet
and applied electric current to
his sex organs. He was suf
fering so much he began bang
ing his head against the wall—
the tortures were just unbear
able.
This is not an african cruelty,
this observer said; An African
would never think of that.
There are two or three priests
reported to be in Brazzaville
prisons at the moment—at least
one French priest and one or
two African priests.
Semaine Africain is still being
published; but it never takes a
position—it just cannot take a
position against the communist
regime. The Catholic schools
continue—but the Church is being
very systematically persecuted
in Brazzaville. Life is being
made unbearable for the Catholic
press.
Another man, however, said he
felt it was too soon for the pre
sent regime to move more vi
gorously against the Church.
“The Chinese have a lot of pa
tience,” he said. In parts of the
Congo, he said that the rebellion
started “Killing the priests a
little too soon”— and the para
troopers came in. The Chinese
in Brazzaville have profited by
the example.
This particular observer feels
there is no doubt but that the
government is under the control
of the Chinese communists—but
he feels that the regime will fall
with the death of the present
president. Other aspects work
ing in the country, he said, are
the ethnic tribes. The president
killed three very high people, one
in the information and two in
^the justice departments. “The
African way of life is that the
immediate clans of those families
want revenge—and they will get
him some day. If he fells, the
regime falls; because here in
Africa, every regime is per
sonal.”
This observer talked about
Abbe Fulbert Youlou, the de
frocked priest who had been pre
sident, and was put in prison by
the present head of the govern
ment, President Masamba Debat.
The story was given out that
Abbe Youlou escaped from prison
with five or six of his comrades,
to form a new government in
exile in Elisabethville.
FOLLOWING CHRIST’S EXAMPLE, Pope Paul VI
kisses the foot of a disabled young man in Holy Thurs
day ceremonies (April 15) in the Basilica of St. John
Lateran, the Pope’s own cathedral. The Pontiff wash
ed, dried and kissed the feet of 12 disabled youths at
the Mass, using the words that Our Lord spoke to His
disciples at the Last Supper: “If I your Lord and Mas
ter have washed your feet, so ought you to wash the
feet of one another.” (NC Photos)
ABOLISHED
Vatican Jail
Nonexistent
VATICAN CITY (NC)—Despite
the publicity it recently got, the
jail of Vatican City is nonexis
tent these days.
The old jail, which really did
exist, has been abolished because
of a lack of prisoners. To take
over its functions a carpenter
shop in another part of Vatican
C ity has been remodeled into two
small security rooms which will
if necessary, hold disturbers of
the peace just long enough for
the Italian police to come and
get them and take them to one
of Rome’s jails.
The change of location brought
o n a rash of news stories about
the Vatican’s “jail.” The feet
is that almost everyone agrees
that the old jail was much nicer
than the new security rooms.
These rooms are located in the
Vatican City gendarmes’ bar
racks, are equipped with toilets
nearby and have an undis
tinguished view of a courtyard.
They deserve the name “secu
rity” only in that it takes two
keys to open them.
The old jail was much more
attractive. The rooms were very
pleasant with a view of the Vati
can gardens and were located in
a building which had once been
the Vatican mint. Today they
serve as the apartment of a pre
late of the papal household who
finds them very confortable.
The old jail was set up when
Vatican City was created in 1929.
In the past 25 years, however,
it has had few guests. One was a
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Scandinavian woman who^up
found wandering armed thn^k*
the Vatican gardens* in a homi
cidal frenzy. Others were small
time thieves and occasionally a
person who insulted or threatened
violence to the Vatican City *
police.
These persons are almost
legendary because, probably
through carelessness, none of
their names were registered in
the archives of the gendarmes.
One name remains on the “blot
ter” of the Vatican police.
He is a certain “De Paolis”
whose first name has been for
gotten. He was arrested and sen
tenced by the civil court of Vati
can City for stealing alms In
St. Peter’s. He was arrested
during World War II and quickly
became a favorite of Vatican
C ity’s children who brought him
food and slipped it through the ’
small outer window of the jail.
His parole brought some sad
ness; the children lost a friend
and a pastime; the gendarmes
lost the only prisoner they prac
tically ever had and “De Paolis”
lost the comfort of safe lodgings
and three meals a day.
In recent years the policy of
Vatican City’s police is to take
into custody law-braakers, us
ually pickpockets or small time
thieves, and then to turn them
over to Italian police assigned *
to keep order in the area where
the boundaries of Italy and Vati
can City meet.
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