Newspaper Page Text
PAGE *>
ary 5, 1970
CICOP
Meeting To Stress
‘Conscientization’
BRAZIL POLITICAL PRISONERS
Vatican Commission Head
Heeds Torture Protests
CICOP SPEAKERS - Paulo Freire (left), Brazilian educator and leader in the “conscientization”
drive through Latin America to make the masses aware of their dignity and power for social
progress, will address the Seventh Annual National Catholic Inter-American Cooperation Program
(CICOP) conference, meeting in Washington during the first week of February. Dr. John D. DeWitt
(right), from the Human Relations Center at Boston University, will present the U.S. point of view
on educational issues at the same meeting. (NC Photo)
IN SPEECH TO ROMAN ROTA
Pope Defends Church’s
Power To Judge, Punish
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
In answer to 70 European
intellectuals who had
protested against alleged
tortures of political prisoners
in Brazil, the president of the
Pontifical Commission for
Justice and Peace said that
“we cannot remain deaf to
appeals of Christian
consciences reacting justly
against the attacks and
violations in many countries
against the rights of the
human person.”
The commission president,
Maurice Cardinal Roy of
Quebec, added in his letter
that the commission abstains
from making political
judgments, but at the same
time it tries to keep the entire
Church alert to its duties
toward the world.
Worship
(Continued from Page 5)
food. The materials for the
Eucharist, therefore, should
both be and look like bread
and wine.
The second chapter of the
GENERAL INSTRUCTION
to the Roman Missal treats of
“Requisites for Celebrating
Mass.” Number 283 gives on
this subject some interesting
principles which contain
quite practical implications.
“The nature of the sign
demands that the material for
the eucharistic celebration
appear as actual food. The
eucharistic bread, even
though unleavened, should
therefore be made in such a
way that the priest can break
it and distribute the parts to
at least some of the faithful.
When the number of
communicants is larger or
other pastoral needs require
it, small hosts may be used.
The gesture of the ‘breaking
of the bread,’ as the Eucharist
was called in apostolic times,
will more clearly show the
Eucharist as a sign of unity
and charity, since the one
bread is being distributed
among the members of one
family.”
One wonders if the
paper-thin, tasteless,
necessarily white hosts
commonly employed today
fulfill those requirements.
What seen* needed are larger,
more substantia! altar breads
capable of division into
perhaps two dozen particles
for distribution to all the
community at a weekday
Mass or a celebration of
similar circumstances.
Obviously, smaller ones
prepared in advance would
still be a necessity for Sunday
services and occasions when
large numbers gather to
worship. Large or small,
however, these hosts should
possess more substance to
them and demand a real
eating on the part of the
communicating person.
Father James D.
Shaughnessy of the Peoria
diocese thinks so. A monthly
He addressed his reply to
Mrs. Marcella Glisenti,
secretary of the Italian
committee of an organization
called “Europe-Latin
America.”
Early in January Mrs.
Glisenti had presented to the
peace and justice commission
a dossier on police tortures ip
Brazil, and an appeal from
prominent persons, among
them Daniel Mayer, president
of the League of the Rights
of Man, the Rev. Charles
Westphal, president of the
French Protestant
Federation, and Father
Michel Riquet, S.J., noted
French preacher.
Reports on the tortures
involved 11 priests, one nun
and several leaders.
columnist for the clerical
journal, HOMILETIC AND
PASTORAL REVIEW, this
greying, intense, serious man
has studied and loved the
liturgy throughout his
quarter-of-a-century-pi us
years in the priesthood.
Besides lecturing on the
national level and serving as
elected temporary chairman
of the newly formed
Federation of Diocesan
Liturgical Commissions, he
shepherds the suburbanites
who make up Sacred Heart
parish in Creve Coeur,
Illinois.
Women of the parish
supply the altar breads at
Sacred Heart. They are four
or five inches in diameter, !4”
thick, v brown and soft and
easily broken. The ladies
obtain whole wheat flour
from a local health store and
bake, according to a formula
originally obtained from
some monastery, these hosts
which are flexible enough for
use with three or thirteen
We do not wish to turn
this column into a cook book
nor have we any desire to
push out of business convents
whose main source of
financial support comes from
the sale of altar breads.
(Actually I heard recently
that one community of sisters
plans to close its bakery
because the re-tooling cost
for production of these new
hosts appears prohibitive.) At
the same time for interested
priests and imaginative
parishioners I repeat the
recipe which a lady from
Creve Coeur uses in preparing
altar breads.
“Three cups of whole
wheat flour. Add enough hot
water to make it easy to
handle. Pat out the flour on a
board which you have
sprinkled. Cut out with a
large glass or cutter, prick any
design you wish with a fork,
then bake at 350 degrees for
about 25 minutes. Turn these
breads occasionally so they
will not stick to the
ungreased sheet.”
(Late in January,
Archbishop Helder Camara of
Olinda and Recife in Brazil
was received by Pope Paul VI,
but the archbishop said only
that they had discussed
violence in the world and that
he hopes Brazilian authorities
will heed the statement of
Cardinal Roy.)
Meanwhile, Church
authorities in Rio de Janeiro
have denied reports published
abroad that the Brazilian
Bishops’ Conference (BBC)
has issued a documented
report on he torture of
political prisoners.
Last year, however, the
BBC protested the increase of
violence in the country
between rightists and leftists
and the resulting
imprisonments and tortures
by police. But efforts to
confirm the existence of an
official BBC document
indicate only this:
--The Brazilian
Commission of Justice and
Peace has been gathering
some evidence of cases of
torture, and it gave names
and circumstances to the
group of European
intellectuals who recently
appealed to the Vatican peace
and justice commission. The
Brazilian commission,
however, refused to release
any information to the local
press, saying it has been
classified as “secret.”
-The apostolic nunciature,
the archdiocesan chancery
office in Rio de Janeiro and
the headquarters of the BBC
deny the existence of an
official BBC document on the
tortures. “Nobody knows
about any official report,”
one of these sources told the
NC News Service.
-Government spokesmen
have said that no documented
evidence on tortures has been
presented by Church sources.
“We would like to see it,” a
military commander in Rio
stated.
There have been
confirmed cases of tortures
by security forces denounced
by priests and at least one
bishop-Arch bishop Cesar da
Cunha Vasconcellos, O.F.M.,
of Ribeirao Preto-but several
observers are inclined to
believe that tortures are
localized in those cities more
threatened by urban guerrilla
activities, and that the
tortures are not a nationwide
pattern.
However, even
conservative sources-in-
cluding the daily Journal do
Brasil in Rio de Janeiro- have
condemned the regime for
unwarranted imprisonment
and tortures, the suspension
of civil rights and of press
freedom.
Meanwhile, foreign
correspondents in Brazil have
reported that the military
government there has
suppressed Cardinal Roy’s
comments on the dossier.
They also claimed that news
of the statements by the head
of the Vatican commission
did reach press and radio
news rooms in Brazil shortly
after they were made in
Rome, but were not reported.
In Brussels, Belgian Father
Hon ore Talpe, a former
professor at the Sao Paulo
state university who was
expelled in August, said that
he and other priests had been
tortured by police while in
detention.
Last November, at the
time of arrests of persons
suspected of aiding slain
communist leader Carlos
Marighela, Archbishop
Vasconcellos of Ribeirao
Preto excommunicated two
police officers on grounds
that they had mistreated
priests and tortured a nun,
Sister Maurina Borges da
Silveira, while she was in jail.
In his answer to Mrs.
Glisenti, Cardinal Roy
attached several statements
from Church authorities,
including a letter from
Eugenio Cardinal de Araujo
Sales of Sao Salvador da
Bahia, who denounced
terrorism, tortures and
summary executions in some
parts of the country.
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Pope Paul VI has defended
the Church’s power to judge
and to punish.
Referring to warnings and
excommunications, he said
that the Church’s power to
coerce “is also founded in the
experience of the primitive
Church.”
He referred to St. Paul’s
judgment on the incestuous
man in the First Letter to the
Corinthians.
The Pope was speaking
(Jan. 29) to members of the
Sacred Roman Rota, the
Church’s court of appeals, at
their yearly audience.
His theme was liberty and
authority, and his thesis was
that they are not
contradictory.
“Liberty and authority are
not conflicting terms but
mutually integrating values,”
he asserted.
“Recalling the principle of
authority and the need for
juridical structure does not
detract from the value of
liberty ... or from the
esteem in which it should be
held. Rather it brings into
relief the exigencies of a sure
and effective safeguard for
the common goods, among
them the fundamental one of
the exercise of liberty itself.
This can be guaranteed
adequately only by a
well-ordered living-together.
In answer to those who
appeal to the Gospel against
authority he said:
“But the Gospel does not
abolish authority. Indeed it
institutes it, establishes it.
Yes, it places it at the service
of the good of others, but not
as if it were derived from the
community or because it is
derived from the community,
almost as though it were its
servant, but because it is
derived from above to govern
and judge, and has its origin
in a positive act of the Lord’s
will.”
He turned to objections
that freedom is violated by
“antiquated, arbitrary or
overly severe” exercise of the
Church’s judicial powers.
“For instance,” he said,
“everything referring to
warnings, to condemnations,
to excommunications, leads
today’s touchy mentality to
think in terms of rejection, as
if faced with the remnants of
an absolute and obsolete
power.
“Yet it should not be
forgotten that coercive power
is also founded in the
experience of the primitive
Church, and St. Paul used it
in the Christian community
of Corinth.”
Here, without quoting it,
Pope Paul referred to the
fifth chapter of the First
Letter to the Corinthians, and
St. Paul’s severe
condemnation of the
incestuous man. The Pope
did, however, quote St. Paul’s
plea that he was acting for
the good of the culprit
himself, “that his spirit may
be saved.”
WASHINGTON (NC) -
“Conscientization,” a
watchword for the liberation
of the poor in Latin America,
is literally invading U.S.
groups involved in the
partnership for development.
The beachhead is the
Catholic Inter-American
Cooperation Program
(CICOP), whose seventh
conference here (Feb. 5-8)
provides a forum for the
Brazilian who coined the
watchword: Paulo Freire.
“To better understand
‘conscientization,’ along with
many new initiatives in the
Latin American Church, the
1970 CICOP is involving its
participants in this new
educational technique,” says
its working paper.
The theme is “New
Dimensions in Hemispheric
Realities.”
“Latin America is
undergoing a crisis of
structures, but it is also
awakening to its social
challenge,” says another
leader, Luis Alberto Gomez
de Souza.
“Conscientization” is a
watchword for peaceful
revolution as is shown in the
wide use of the method by
trade union leaders, farmers,
the slum dwellers and the
students in the vanguard of
social change. By the same
token, it has met the hostile
response of strong
governments and power
groups.
Dr. Freire, an educator
now working with the World
Council of Churches, says
“conscientization” is a
learning process that makes
the person aware of his own
value, of his potential
contribution to the family,
the community, the nation
and the world. “By becoming
aware of his social role, each
man participates in the
creation of his own future as
a person endowed with
human dignity,” he adds.
The Latin American
bishops strongly endorsed the
method at their general
assembly in Medellin,
Colombia, over a year ago; it
became the motivation of the
Medellin Guidelines.
“The current thrust of the
post-Medellin Church in Latin
America is one of collective
conscience for the desperate
needs of the peoples of the
area,” the CICOP paper
states. “It was the leaders of
the Latin American Bishops’
Council (CELAM) who asked
CICOP to develop a
conference around human
rights.”
Michael J. Lenaghan,
program director of the Latin
America Bureau, U.S.
Catholic Conference, and one
of the architects of this
meeting, says it seeks “to
provide a forum for voicing
the aspirations and
frustrations of Latin
Americans, and to relate
these expressions to people in
decision-making positions in
the Church and the secular
society of the United States.”
“Today the burden of
implementing human rights
must be shared by all within
the hemisphere, beyond and
yet including the churches,”
Lenaghan said.
The voice of CICOP
should be a coherent one,
since Latin Americans and
U.S. leaders worked together
closely for six months in
defining the issues,
formulating an efficient
approach and providing an
opportunity for the expected
500 participants to become
truly involved in those issues
during the four-day meeting.
A look at the program
which the organizers call
“conference design,” at first
gives the impression of a
giant-size IBM card with
boxed numbers, connecting
dotted lines and repeating
symbols. But after a second
look, it makes traditional
sense.
The conference has a
prologue, on how CELAM is
implementing the Medellin
guidelines. Bishop Samuel
Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal
in Chiapas, Mexico, will make
this report.
Bishop Eduardo Pironio,
secretary general of CELAM,
who was originally scheduled
to deliver this talk, is
reported to be on an
extended visit to Cuba in
connection with the Cuban
Bishops’ Conference
programs.
Dr. Gomez de Souza is
then to explain the
“aspirations and frustrations”
of Latin America as a leading
sector in the Third World.
U.S. Sen. Frank Church
(D-Idaho) is to speak of the
image his countrymen have of
that sector. Then CICOP
plunges into analyzing
particular aspects through the
constant exchange of views
between speakers and
participants, and between
Latin Americans and
representatives of the United
States.
“A Latin American states
a position on a given issue,
and an American gives his
perception of the problem,”
Lenaghan explained.
“Participants will come up at
least with two perspectives of
the situation in the
Americas-North, Central and
South-by exchanging views,
and will understand in which
points we are together, in
which we disagree, and in
which we can work for
human development.”
Joint teams are exploring
economic and social pressures
and obstacles affecting
development in the area, the
crisis of the old systems, the
mobilization of human
resources--particularly the
impoverished masses-in order
to create a new, more human
order, and the “conscientiza
tion” process as more
relevant than the traditional
schooling, to inspire people in
working for a better society.
Other speakers are dealing
with the role and
responsibility of the Church
in the process of certain
areas: the Church itself, those
responsible for in ter-Ameri
can relations, the local
leadership. One of the themes
on the agenda is “from
colonial Church to Medellin;”
another, “from neutrality to
commitment.”
Commitment is what
CICOP seems to be seeking.
Father Louis M. Colonnese,
director of the Latin America
Bureau, says “our aim is to
have the participants
‘conscientizied’ on the main
issues.”
“Much of Latin America is
under a state of sin, as the
rest of the Third World
is .. . The sin of injustices,
inequity. Who are the
sinners? Those who do not
recognize the rights of others
in the full dimension, and
those sinners are everywhere,
who fail to apply the Gospel
by the sin of omission and
the sin of commission.”
“When we talk of sin, we
are addressing our efforts at
the conscience of Americans.
Oh, yes, definitely, we have
great faith in that conscience.
But first you must make
them aware-conscientization
-- of the problems of the
Third World in their true
dimensions. Thus far, it seems
to me, the trouble is that the
issues have not been properly
defined and placed in the true
perspective in front of
Americans, that is why this
silent majority exists. Our
people have a conscience,
indeed, and they show a
desire and good will to help
once they are aware of
injustice,” he added.
“Our greater hope for
CICOP,” he summed up
later,” is ‘conscientization’ of
the Americans. We hope to
provide them with a method
of knowing and of helping, in
a response to the Medellin
guidelines.”
Lenaghan gave an idea of
the work ahead. “Once at one
of the organizing committee
meetings, its members were
shocked out of their sense of
expectation when confronted
with the man sent by an
American foundation: a
typical bureaucrat who had
no compassion nor flexible
views for the problems of
poverty. Then the organizers
became more realistic in the
approach to the CICOP
program and expectations.”
Viewpoints
On Theology
(Continued from Page 5)
This friend is a source of
strength, love, and
companionship.
The Second Vatican
Council, with its pastoral
intent, did not often speak
directly about God, but it did
speak of man as the revealer
of God. According to Vatican
II, it is up to the Christian, by
his life of love and faith, to
make manifest the reality of
God,
In the decree on the
Church Today, the Council
says that Christian believers
have much to do with the
birth of atheism. “To the
extent that they neglect their
own training in the faith or
teach erroneous doctrine, or
are deficient in their religious,
moral, or social life, they
must be said to conceal rather
than reveal the authentic face
of God and religion” (no.19).
Christ, the Son of God,
V
revealed to man most clearly
who God is. Men today who
are followers of Christ, must
reveal to others the love and
justice of God by their own
lives of love and service.
Since Vatican II we have
passed through and survived
the so-called “Death of God”.
Hopefully the movement has
served to clear away some
over-simple notions of who
and what God is. For todav.
we do find that religious
questions-questions about
God and man and their
relationship-are being studied
even by those who would not
call themselves religious or
Christian.
As the Protestant
theologian, Jurgen Moltmann
declared, God is dead is
written on one side of the
tombstone. But when you
turn it over, it reads
“everything is religion.”
BRONZE STAR - Father (Major) Joseph W. Kennedy, a priest of the Erie, Pa., diocese, received
the Bronze Star Medal recently for meritorious service during his year’s tour of duty in Vietnam.
Pinning the medal on Fr. Kennedy’s uniform is Col. James D. Naler of Wichita, Kan., commander
of the 37th Combat Support Group at Phu Cat airbase, where Fr. Kennedy is serving. (NC Photo)
4
i