Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3 - July 24, 1969
SPECIAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
Nixon Urges Expanded
Birth Control Program
WASHINGTON (NC) -
An expanded program on
birth control and family
planning to be available
within five years to American
women of child bearing age in
low income categories was
recommended to Congress in
a special message by President
Nixon.
‘‘Clearly, in no
circumstances will the
activities associated with our
pursuit of this goal be
allowed to infringe upon the
religious convictions or
personal wishes and freedom
of any individual, nor will
they be allowed to impair the
absolute right of all
individuals to have such
matters of conscience
respected by public
authorities,” the President
stated (July 18).
He recommended that
Congress establish a
“Commission on Population
LONDONERRY
Growth and the American
Future” which would be
directed to make
recommendations in three
areas-probable trends of U.S.
population growth and
internal migration between
now and the year 2000;
resources required to deal
with anticipated population
growth, and ways in which
the population growth may
affect activities of federal,
state and local governments.
In his 5,000-word
document, the President said
in the United States alone the
population will increase
nearly 100 million to a total
of more than 300 million by
the year 2000. He pointed to
the potential impact of the
global population explosion if
governments, private agencies
and the United Nations fail to
begin dealing now with the
coming problems.
President Nixon said that
Bishop Hopeful
For N. I. Peace
LONDONDERRY,
Northern Ireland (NC) —
Bishop Neil Farren of Derry
said (July 15) he hopes that
every effort will be made to
restore peace to Northern
Ireland and to maintain it for
the sake of Christian chairty
and for the well-being of the
community.
Three days after the
bishop spoke (July 18) fire
broke out in the home of
former Home Affairs Minister
William Craig, who resigned
under pressure from the
cabinet of former Prime
Minister Terence O’Neill,
Aid Proposal
For Non-Public
Pupils Gains
LINCOLN, Nebr. (NC) -
The Nebraska electorate will
have an opportunity to vote
on a proposed amendment to
the state constitution which
would authorize state aid for
the benefit of nonpublic
school children.
The legislature gave final
approval to the measure
which would authorize it to
“make grants for the benefit
of students enrolled in
non-public schools as
reimbursement for the part of
their tuition that is allocable
to instruction in state
approved courses.”
NEED SEEN
because of Craig’s opposition
to reform.
Unofficial reports said the
blaze was caused by a
gasoline bomb.
The fire marked the
seventh in a series of days of
violence which began as
Protestants celebrating a
17th-century victory over
Catholic forces ran into
opposition from Catholics.
The only person who has
died during the violence,
70-year‘old Francis
McCloskey, a former member
of the outlawed Irish
Republican Army, was buried
in a coffin draped with the
flag of the Republic of
Ireland, the southern part of
the Irish island. Police said his
death was unrelated to the
fighting, but there were
rumors that he had been
clubbed to death.
Father George Doherty,
who officiated at the funeral,
warned Catholics not to use
McCloskey’s death as an
excuse for further violence.
More than 100 persons
have been injured in the
violence that police describe
as the worst since the series
of civil rights demonstrations
began last October.
Catholics have been
demonstrating for fairer
treatment in the areas of
voting, housing, employment
and education
Adult Education
Clearing House?
WASHINGTON (NC) -
The president of the adult
commission, National
Catholic Educational
Association, said adult
education programs under
Catholic auspices would be
more effective if a central
clearing house were
established to channel
information between them.
Dr. Frances G. Loring said
in a statement: “There is no
magic formula for success in
this field. But what is sorely
needed is a central clearing
house that would make
possible the sharing of
professional know-how,
comparison of techniques and
sponsoring of research.”
Dr. Loring, who has had
more than 15 years’
experience in adult
education, praised impetus
given Catholic adult
education following Vatican
Council II, and also “the
immense service rendered to
church-related programs in
continuing education by
secular associations of adult
educators.” “But they cannot
completely meet the
acknowledged needs,” she
added.
“That’s one reason why
NCEA, as an association of
professional educators, is
attempting to identify its
own role in the area of
continuing education,” she
said. “As a service
organization, NCEA hopes to
untangle the strands of
activity in adult education
under Catholic sponsorship,
to identify the relationships
between various organizations
active in the field, and to
chart a practical course of
action for itself.”
In addition to her NCEA
duties, Dr. Loring serves as
chairman of the theology
department of Christian
Brothers College, Memphis,
Tenn.
in the United States now
there are nearly five million
women who “do not have
adequate access to family
planning assistance.”
The President quoted
statistics to “illustrate the
dramatically increasing rate
of population growth” on a
worldwide basis. He said that
in 1830 there were one
billion people on earth; in
1930 there were 2 billion,
and now there are 3.5 billion.
He said: “It is likely the earth
will contain over 7 billion
human beings by the end of
this century.”
Stressing the consequences
of the expected population
increase in this country, the
President said if this country
were to accommodate the
anticipated 100 million
persons by the year 2000 in
new communities “we would
have to build a new city of
250,000 persons each month
from now until the end of the
century.”
The President proposed
that the commission to
handle population growth
problems include two
members each of the House
and the Senate, plus an
unspecified number of
experts. He proposed that the
commission have two years to
prepare a final report, with an
interim report in one year. He
gave no estimates of increased
spending involved. He
emphasized that additional
research on birth control
methods of all types would
not have to await the
commission report.
President Nixon said on a
worldwide basis, the
population explosion has
lowered the standards of
living in many developing
nations. He said the United
States already is assisting
countries which have asked
help in reducing birth rates
and pledged such efforts will
continue.
He said the following
additional government
activities in dealing with the
population growth need not
wait for the commission
report:
“First, increased research
is essential. It is clear, for
example, that we need
additional research on birth
control methods of all types
and the sociology of
population growth:
“Second, we need more
trained people to work in
population and family
planning programs, both in
this country and abroad. I am
therefore asking the
Secretaries of State, Labor,
Health, Education and
Welfare, and Interior, along
with the Administrator of the
Agency for International
Development and the
Director of the Office of
Economic Opportunity to
participate in a comprehen
sive survey of our efforts to
attract people to such
programs and train them
properly.
“Third, the effects of
population growth on our
environment and on the
world’s food supply call for
careful attention and
immediate action.
“Fourth, it is clear that
the domestic family planning
services supported by the
Federal Government should
be expanded and better
integrated. Both the
Department of Health,
Education and Welfare and
the Office of Economic
Opportunity are now
involved in this important
work, yet their combined
efforts are not adequate to
provide information and
services for all who want
them.”
Underscoring the
importance of action now in
facing up to the problem,
President Nixon told
Congress.
“One of the most serious
challenges to human destiny
in the last third of this
century will be the growth of
population. Whether man’s
response to that challenge
will be a cause for pride or
for despair in the year 2000
will depend very much on
what we do today.”
USCC Official
On Message
‘A COURTESY VISIT’ — President Richard M. Nixon is shown with Archbishop Luigi Raimondi,
Aposotlic Delegate in the United States, as they talked in the President’s office at the White House.
After spending half an hour with the President, Archbishop Raimondi told newsmen his call was
“a courtesy visit.” (NC Photos)
•\ '
LINKED IQ EAR KllIJNGS
Bishop Defregger Asks
People For Forgiveness
MUNICH, Germany (NC)
— Auxiliary Bishop Matthias
Defregger of Munich has
asked the people of Filetto di
Cam a r da, Italy, for
‘‘understanding and
forgiveness” for his part in
the killing of 17 unarmed
Italians there during World
Warll.
Bishop Defregger,
identified by the state
prosecutor in Frankfurt early
in July as the man who, as a
World War II German Army
captain, handed on an order
for the reprisal shooting of
the unarmed Italian villagers,
made his first public
comment on the affair in
Filetto di Camarda in June,
1944, in an open letter to
Catholics of the Munich
archdiocese.
The letter was made public
by the bishop’s Munich
office. He is still in seclusion
at an unknown place.
The German prosecutor,
Dietrich Rahn, said that,
during an investigation last
year, Bishop Defregger “never
denied he gave the order” for
the shooting but said he had
declined to carry it out
himself. The shootings were
Related Story
On Page 6
classified as manslaughter
rather than murder, the
prosecutor said, because the
villagers were ruled to have
been hostages and because
premeditation and brutality
on the officer’s part were not
proved.
Bishop Defregger, 54, who
was ordained a priest in 1946
and was consecrated as
auxiliary bishop of Munich in
September, 1968, said in his
letter: “I tried to save what
could be saved. It was not
possible for me totally to
prevent the terrible deaths.”
The bishop said that
although the prosecutor
found the wartime deaths not
subject to legal prosecution,
he did not wish to “defend
himself.
“I can only turn myself
over to God’s judgment,” he
said, and called on his fellow
Catholics to express
“solidarity with the victims”
and “to continue to stand by
my side.”
The bishop was the
captain in a German
antipartisan unit who
delegated to a lieutenant an
order for the killing of male
villagers in Filetto in
retaliation for the slaying by
Italian partisans of one or
more Germans.
Julius Cardinal Doepfner
of Munich had stressed (July
8) that Bishop Defregger did
everything in his power to
prevent the executions.
“Only when Defregger saw no
other possibilities to stop the
carrying out of the order did
he give it to a lieutenant, who
carried it out,” the cardinal
said.
The cardinal said he knew
of the bishop’s role in the
killings before his
appointment as auxiliary
bishop, but added that he
became convinced that,
according to international law
for warfare, “no culpable
deed was committed.”
“Human understanding,”
the cardinal said, “cannot be
refused for a man such as
Auxiliary Bishop Defregger,
who in a period of deep inner
conflict made a decision from
which he has always
suffered.”
The cardinal further said
that to ease the horrible
situation for the villagers
Bishop Defregger “let the
women and children be
removed to spare them the
terrible sight.”
Cardinal Doepfner’s office
said another statement would
be issued on the Defregger
affair.
Bishop Defregger said that
until now he had kept silent
about the killings because “I
believe that a public
description of those terrible
events and the entire dilemma
in which I was caught would
not have helped anybody.
“Now I feel called upon to
ask the inhabitants of Filetto
for their understanding and
forgiveness that I was of so
little help.”
“You should know,” he
said, “that what the whole
world now knows was a
heavy inner burden.”
An editor of the Munich
newspaper, Suddeutsche
Zeitung, Hannes Burger, went
to Filetto for an account of
the June, 1944, happenings
from residents of the village.
He reported that none of the
villagers could identify a
photo of the bishop but some
of them recalled a German
officer who kept dispatching
a courier back to the
commander, apparently in an
effort to get a stay of the
execution order.
Burger further reported
that the villagers were not
interested in seeing any
Germany officer for a
reparations visit and none of
the villagers appeared to
support the idea advanced by
Italian communists of seeking
an extradition of Bishop
Defregger for trial in Italy.
He said that the villagers
hoped that West Germany
will prosecute any guilty
parties but were divided on a
suitable reparations symbol.
The women, he said, wanted
a monument and the men
favored a factory for the poor
village.
The Italian Socialist party
and pro-Peking Proletariat
party are supporting a
petition calling for the
extradition of Bishop
Defregger.
BISHOP MATTHIAS
DEFREGGER, Auxiliary
Bishop to Julius Cardinal
Doepfner, Archbishop of
Munich and Freising. (NC
Photos)
Cardinal Doepfner’s
statement defending his
auxiliary bishop was
applauded by the Munich
archdiocesan branch of Pax
Christi, international Catholic
peace movement. It thanked
the cardinal for courage in
naming a man for public
responsibility burdened from
the last war.
The Pax Christi statement
added that understanding
among nations does not
demand sanctions against
Bishop Defregger. It
concluded by saying that
where there is no forgiving
there is also no morality, but
only “the terror of opinion.”
A Catholic weekly Publik,
however, urged Bishop
Defregger to resign
temporarily as auxiliary
bishop and move for a
resumption of the inquiry on
Filetto. It called the
disclosure of the bishop’s part
in the killings a “shock for
German Catholicism.” It
added that those responsible
for the bishop’s church career
had not acted carelessly, but
in his appointment as bishop
it was not sufficiently
considered that “the Church
also is a social institution
obliged to speak in public and
with the public.”
It said the Church will not
refuse “human understand
ing” to the bishop but asked
if it were not possible that
that the Church authorities
played down the
incriminating circumstances
of Filetto.
WASHINGTON (NC) -
An official of the United
States Catholic Conference
has called President Nixon’s
message to congress on family
planning and population
growth “a positive and
constructive approach to the
problem.”
Father James T. McHugh,
director of the Family Life
Division, USCC, said the
President had taken a useful
initiative in placing
population questions in a
broader perspective than
birth control alone.
At the same time, Father
McHugh said, “basic to our
decisions on population
questions must be a strong
concern for the dignity of
man and the value of human
life.”
In his message to Congress
(July 18) the President called
for a substantial increase in
government support of family
planning programs in this
country and abroad.
H e also proposed
establishment of a
Commission on Population
Growth and the American
Future to consider the
implications of demographic
trends in the U.S. and to
make recommendations.
Father McHugh said
creation of such a
commission “can lead to a
new analysis of population
problems in a broadened and
more positive perspective.”
“The need for overall
planning, the recognition that
effective family planning is
not the only answer to social
problems, the awareness that
many of the easy assumptions
of the past require a new look
are encouraging signs,” the
priest said.
He also said that the
emphasis in the presidential
message on research
“correlates with the recent
decision of the American
bishops to establish a special
Foundation on Human Life
to encourage research in the
rhythm method of fertility
control.”
Asked whether his
generally favorable response
to the presidential message
was a departure from
previous stands taken by
official Catholic sources
opposing any government
role in this field, Father
McHugh said he did not
consider it to be such.
He stressed his belief that
Mr: Nixon had taken a new
approach by setting
population issues in a broader
perspective than family
planning alone.
In particular, he noted the
President’s proposal for the
Commission on Population
Growth and the American
Future which would deal
with a wide range of
demographic issues-housing,
education, environmental
resources and so on--and said
this represented a
constructive change from
previous emphasis on birth
control as the sole response
to population growth.
Father McHugh said he did
not agree with all points in
the President’s message-- “the
suggestion that our current
social problems are largely
attributable to population
growth, for example, or the
call for immediate new
programs.”
“But,” he added, “in its
recognition that simplistic
concentration on family
planning is not an adequate
response to the many-sided
issue of population growth,
the President’s message marks
progress and opens the door
to useful discussion.”
If the Church is to have a
meaningful role in this
discussion, Father McHugh
said, “it cannot afford simply
to respond negatively to Mr.
Nixon’s initiative. Rather, the
Church must look for what is
good in his proposals and
must seek ways to maximize
the good while minimizing
the possibilities for social and
individual disruption.”
Following is the text of
Father McHugh’s statement
on the presidential message:
“The statement of
President Nixon seems to be a
positive and constructive
response to the question of
population growth. His call
for a Commission on
Population Growth and the
American Future can lead to
a new analysis of population
problems in a broadened and
more positive perspective.
“The need for overall
planning, the recognition that
effective family planning is
not the only answer to social
problems, the awareness that
many of the easy assumptions
l of the past require a new look
are encouraging signs. At the
same time, in speaking of
present family planning
programs, the President
places greater emphasis on
safeguarding the rights of
individual couples to
determine their family size
and to freely choose the
means of family planning that
is most consonant with their
religious convictions.
“President Nixon’s
emphasis on broad-based
research correlates with the
recent decision of the
American bishops to establish
a special Foundation on
Human Life to encourage
research in the rhythm
method of fertility control.
“A detailed analysis of
many precise points in the
statement would require
more careful study, but in his
closing paragraphs President
Nixon voices concern that
future generations will judge
our present decisions well.
JAMES P. CUMMINS of Dublin, Ireland, is the newly elected
President of the Central Council of the Legion of Mary, one of
the largest lay organizations in the Church. (NC Photos)