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VISITING PRIEST SAYS, “CAN’T ACCEPT COALITION”
The Southern Cross, May 9. 1968—PAGE 3
Vietnamese Want No Artificial Peace
BY JOHN J. MAHER
WASHINGTON(NC)
The day before (May 2)
President Johnson’s
announcement that peace
talks will begin in Paris on
May 10, Father Cao
VanLuan, a close friend of
South Vietnamese President
Nguyen Van Thieu, said here:
“We want to live in peace,
but not in an arittificial peace
that is a hidden form of
surrender to the communists.
“Since we want to have a
just and lasting peace,” he
continued^ “we cannot
possibly accept a coalition
government. This would
mean suicide for the
nationalist cause.”
Father Luan, 53, founder
and president of Hue
University from 1957-64, is
now a professor of
philosophy at Saigon
University.
The prevalence in the
United States of what they
regard as misconceptions
concerning the war in
Vietnam has brought Father
Luan and two friends, also
Catholics, to this country to
speak to government officials,
members of the Catholic
hierarchy, the press and
private citizens.
Although the press
reported that Father Luan
had come to test U. S.
opinion prior to a visit by
President Thieu, who has
been invited to come here by
President Johnson, Father
Luan himself made the
connection more tenuous. He
said that, if he sees President
Thieu in Vietnam, he will give
him his opinion about
conditions in the United
States.
In fact, Father Luan and
his companions, Le Thanh
Minh Chau, chairman of the
English Department at the
University of Saigon, and Vu
Van Nghi, a pharmacist,
disclaimed any government
connections. They had
themselves, they said,
contacted friends at the
Vietnamese embassy here
prior to their visit, and these
friends had arranged the
group’s meetings with U. S.
officials. Father Luan said
that- he is traveling as a
private citizen at his own
expense.
Speaking to the press
before Father Luan’s press
conference in the Windsor
Park Hotel, a Vietnamese
embassy employe said the
Catholic group had come
because “the strongest doves
in this country happen to be
Catholic--(Sen. Robert F.)
Kennedy and (Sen. Eugene
J.) McCarthy--and the
Catholic press has voiced
opposition to the war.”
Father Luan said that he
would like to meet either
Kennedy or McCarthy but
that he realized that both
were busy campaigning. He
talked with Kennedy in 1963,
he said, when Kennedy was
attorney general.
Professor Chau said that
they were going to meet
Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle of
Washington the following
day. They had also requested
meetings with Archbishop
Terence J. Cooke of New
York and Richard Cardinal
Cushing of Boston, he said.
A meeting was scheduled
with Sen. Charles Percy
(R.-Ill.), he said, and they had
met several Congressmen.
At the press conference,
Father Luan, speaking in
Vietnamese, with Professor
Chau interpreting, discussed
the matter of coalition
governments.
He said that coalitions
with the communists are
possible in Europe, where
communism is perhaps more
evolved and more liberal, but
not in South Vietnam.
“Communism in South
Vietnam,” he went on, “has
not reached the stage where
communists can accept the
cooperation of other parties.
They consider those who are
not for them to be against
them. The proof of this is
that the communists
massacred 1,200 civilians in
Hue during the 25-day
occupation after the Tet
offensive. If they had a
chance to occupy all of South
Vietnam for the same length
of time, there would perhaps
be a million victims.”
Father Luan pointed out
that the first government in
Hanoi in 1945 under Ho Chi
Minh was a coalition
government in which there
were representatives of
non-communist nationalist
groups. “Within a short
time,’’ he said, “the
non-communists had to leave,
were imprisoned or were
killed. He said that the
government of Red China had
PRIORITIES DEBATED
Sparks Fly In Row Over
Importance Of Schools
By William Ryan
WASHINTON (NC)-An
article by the chief
spokesman for the nation’s
parochial schools calling for
new priorities in Catholic
education has rekindled a
perennial battle over the
importance of the schools.
The article--by Msgr.
James C. Donohue, director
of the Education
Department, U. S. Catholic
Conference-appeared in a
recent issue of America
magazine. It has drawn strong
criticism from a group of
Catholic school
superintendents and from the
president of Citizens for
Educational Freedom.
Noting that Catholic
elementary and secondary
schools absorb at least half
the total expenditures for all
purposes by the nation’s 153
dioceses, Msgr. Donohue
declared: “The first and
possibly largest slice of the
education pie must (now) be
put into meeting the needs of
the ghetto.” He called for the
establishment of an “urban
educational foundation” in
each diocese which would
channel its resources to those
who need them.
The priest suggested that
the Church no longer use the
parish school as the primary
instrument of religious
education, and that this task
be taken over by an improved
and better funded CCD,
which would concentrate also
on adult education. Msgr.
Donohue said the Church’
should operate only
“excellent schools, devoted
to experimentation and
innovation . . . and serving
also as laboratories whose
successes can be
communicated to public
educators and to the Church’s
own educational efforts in
the ghetto.”
First to attack the article
was a group of Catholic
school superintendents,
meeting in San Francisco at
the annual convention of the
National Catholic
Educational Association. At a
special meeting called on the
convention’s closing day, 45
of 318 members of the
Association of Catholic
School Superintendents
approved a statement drafted
by Msgr. Eugene J. Molloy,
Brooklyn diocesan secretary
for education. “The
association . . . formally
disassociates itself from the
opinions and proposals of
Msgr. James C. Donohue’s
article,”, it said.
The statement applauded
Msgr. Donohue’s leadership in
directing attention to the
educational needs of the
urban poor, but warned
against attempting to meet
these needs by withdrawing
money and manpower from
schools in the suburbs.
The next public criticism
of the article came from Paul
Mecklenborg, president of
Citizens for Educational
Freedom, the organization
which in recent years has
become the chief lobbyist for
public aid to non-public
schools, many of which are
Catholic. Mecklenborg said
Msgr. Donohue’s article had
caused reactions among
parents ranging from
“disappointment and
disbelief to anguish and
anger.”
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also begun as a coalition
government formed under
pressure from the U.S.
government.
Father Luan said that
Assistant Secretary of State
William P. Bundy and
Bundy’s deputy, Philip C.
Habib, had told him the
previous day “that there
won’t be any coalition
government in South
Vietnam.” But the priest said
he was not sure whether
Bundy was speaking in his
official capacity or as a
private citizen. He added:
“We don’t know what kind of
concessions the U. S.
government will be willing to
make in order to achieve
peace in South Vietnam.”
Father Luan denied that
the war in Vietnam is unjust
or immoral. He presented it
as a war of self- defense.
“After the Geneva
Accords,” he continued,
“Vietnam was divided. North
Vietnam went to the
communists and South
Vietnam to a nationalist
government. People were
then free to move to the
North or South. A small
number went north. One
million went south.
“But communist ambition
aimed at the control of all
Vietnam and they have
chosen to do this by force.
The National Liberation
Front (the political arm of
the Viet Cong) came into
being as an arm of North
Vietnam. Besides North
Vietnam has been introducing
men and weapons into South
Vietnam for years. The South
Vietnamese had the right and
the duty to defend
themselves.”
In response to a question,
Father Luan said that the
majority of the people who
went to South Vietnam after
the Geneva Accords were
Catholic, but that there were
also several hundred thousand
non-Catholics. All of these,
he said, moved freely and
spontaneously. No pressure,
he stated, was exerted by the
Catholic hierarchy or clergy.
He added that the U. S.,
France and South Vietnam
provided assistance to he
people who moved south.
In a private interview later
in the day, Father Luan
commented on he appeals of
Pope Paul VI for peace in
Vietnam. “From a
humanitarian point of view,
the Pope’s appeal is justified.
We welcome and support his
appeal. But the Pope
emphasizes that peace should
be just and honorable.”
With regard to a statement
in January by the Bishops’
Conference of Vietnam in
which they spoke of
corruption in the Vietnamese
government as an obstacle to
peace, Father Luan said that
President Thieu is making
efforts to eradicate
corruption and has removed
several corrupt province
chiefs since he took office.
Asked about Truong Dinh
Dzu, the peace candidate in
last year’s presidential
election, who was arrested
the previous day in Saigon,
Father Luan said that he did
not know why the action had
been taken. The New York
Times reported that the arrest
had been made on charges
that Dzu had urged a
coalition government as a
step toward peace.
Dzu’s strong showing as a
runner-up in the elections did
not indicate widespread
support for a coalition
government, Father Luan
said, because Dzu had not
advocated such a government
at the time of the election
FIELD DAY TROPHIES — Monsignor Daniel J. Bourke, Pastor of St. Mary’s on the Hill Church, is
shown presenting trophies to “Wish” Markwalter and Patti Crosby top scorers at the Annual Field
Day at Augusta’s St. Mary’s on the Hill School. Meet was held on April 27th.
TO PROTEST AMENDENTS
Mother’s Day Chosen For
Welfare Rights March
BY JOHN R. SULLIVAN
WASHINGTON (NC) —
The nation’s capital will get
its first taste of massive,
organized protest on Mother’s
Day, May 12, when
thousands of welfare
recipients demonstrate
against welfare amendments
which go into effect in July.
The reaction of official
Washington could well
determine the kind of
summer the city will
experience when the Poor
People’s Campaign, organized
by the late Dr. Martin Luther
King’s Southern Christian
Leadership Conference,
comes to stay.
The welfare recipients will
come to protest amendments
passed late in 1967 which
would-if allowed to take
effect on July 1 as
planned--curtail federal
contributions to Aid to
Families of Dependent
Children, the major source of
income for families whose
parents cannot work.
The occasion is the
Mother’s Day March, a
nationwide protest which will
focus on Washington and
become part of the Poor
People’s Campaign, which
opened March 29. The same
day protests will be held in
40 to 50 other U. S. cities.
The Mother’s Day
demonstration is sponsored
by the National Welfare
Rights Organization. It will
start with a march through
Washington’s ghetto to
Cardozo High School, where
Mrs. Coretta King, the widow
of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and welfare rights leader
George Wylie will speak.
The following week main
elements of the Poor People’s
Campaign are scheduled to
enter the city and to set up
their “New City of Hope”
somewhere in the city.
The campaign head, Rev.
Ralph Abernathy, expects to
bring in about 3,000
poor-white, Negro, Indian,
Mexican- American and
Puerto Riean--for non-violent
demonstrations.
But the Mother’s Day rally
promises to top even that
figure. The National Welfare
Rights Organization has
upwards of 6,000 dues-paying
members around the
country-about half of them
in the New York area alone.
And there are-to say the
least-many thousands more
welfare recipients in
sympathy with the goals of
the organization. Rally
organizers here don’t pretend
that all will appear for
Mother’s Day; in fact, they
don’t pretend to know how
many people will show up.
But reports from New York
and other cities indicate that
5,000- including Washington
ghetto residents-would not
be too high a guess.
The march-although it
will be held on a Sunday, a
day on which Washington is
normally bereft of all human
life but the tourists-will
provide the first test of
Washington’s official attitude
toward peaceful protestors.
Unlike the Poor People’s
Campaign itself, no civil
disobedience is planned by
the welfare organizers, no
“disruption,” no impromptu
visits to Congressmen.
The occasions for a
confrontation with police or
other officials are minimal
and the march and rally
should go smoothly.
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Questioned about
alternatives to a coalition
government or total military
victory, Father Luan said that
the Viet Cong could enter the
political life of South
Vietnam as individuals with
full political rights. “We do
not conceive,” he said, “of
the extermination of all
communists.” He said that
after acting politically as
individuals for a time they
could form political groups
which might have a
communist orientation. At
the present time, acting as a
Front, they represent North
Vietnam, he said.
The suffering caused by
the war grieves them, Father
Luan and his companions
said, but “we cannot measure
the good and evil to see
whether one outweighs the
other.
the communists deliberately
killed 1,200 civilians.
With regard to reports by
Sen. Edward Kennedy that
civilian casualties are
neglected, Father Luan said
that he feels that there is no
deliberate discrimination
between civilians and the
military and that the
Vietnamese government is
doing its best to cope with
the situation.
He admitted the truth of
reports of the decline of
morality in Vietnam due to
the presence of large numbers
of troops, but pointed out
that the situation was similar
in France when the Allies
were in the process of driving
back the Germans in World
War II. “One cannot expect
soldiers to be saints,” he said.
“We are not sure,” they
added, “whether the activities
of the U. S. or those of the
Viet Cong cause more civilian
casualties, whether such
casualties are caused more by
bombing or ground
operations.”
They said that, during the
Tet offensive, much of Hue
was destroyed by bombs, but
they stressed that they did
not think many people were
killed by the bombing, while
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