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AFTER VIETNAM CEASE FIRE
PAGE 3—February 1,1973
Religious Leaders Hopeful But Questioning
BY JERRY FILTEAU
(NC News Service)
United States religious leaders looked
mainly to the future at home after
President Nixon’s announcement of a
peace agreement and ceasefire in
Vietnam. But leaders of the peace
movement expressed a sense of “too
little too late” frustration at the
long-awaited cessation of open
hostilities.
Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia,
president of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops (NCCB), called the
ceasefire “most heartening and a tribute
to the courageous and persevering
leadership which has achieved this
result.”
“As we offer thanks to God for the
return of peace,” he said, “we must
look to the future in order to achieve
the reconciliation and reconstruction of
which both Southeast Asia and our own
country stand in need.”
The Rev. W. Sterling Carey, president
of the National Council of Churches,
echoed the Cardinal Krol’s domestic
concern when he said:
“Let us hope that the end of the war
will represent a shift in American
priorities. The chief question facing our
nation is whether we will now reflect
the same degree of commitment to
solving domestic needs and problems.”
Domestic progress was also the focus
of concern for the executive vice
president of the American Jewish
Committee, Bertram H. Gold.
“The agonizing conflict that has
divided our people is at an end, and we
can turn to binding up the wounds of
war,” said Gold. “Above all, we need
now to concentrate with compassion
and vigor on our domestic problems
that at times during the past decade
have seemed almost overwhelming.”
Cardinal Krol spelled out some
postwar problems for special attention.
He urged “programs designed to help
returning veterans” and “special
consideration .. .to the wounded and
maimed and to the families of the dead
and missing in action.”
“Those who continue to serve in the
military should also have our moral and
material support,” the NCCB president
said.
Cardinal Krol reiterated the U.S.
bishops’ concern for “those young men
who have suffered for their refusal to
participate in the war because of sincere
conscientious belief.”
“The Catholic bishops have urged
that the civil authorities grant ‘generous
pardon of convictions incurred under
the Selective Service Act, with the
understanding that sincere conscientious
objectors should remain open in
principle to some form of service to the
community,” he siad.
The cardinal turned his attention to
the situation in Southeast Asia, calling
on Americans to “be generous in
extending moral, material and technical
aid to the peoples . . .who have suffered
so grievously.”
“This offers perhaps the best hope,”
he added, “that the present ceasefire
will provide the basis for a genuine
peace with justice in that war-tom
corner of the world.”
Peace movement leaders, however,
greeted the ceasefire announced with
mixed feelings.
A spokesman for Clergy and Laity
Concerned (CLC), one of the first
religious groups formed in opposition to
the Vietnam War, said that the CLC was
in the process of realigning its priorities
in the wake of the ceasefire.
“There are several issues we are still
facing: the continuing violence in
Southeast Asia, the problem of political
prisoners in Vietnam, and the questions
of amnesty and the militarization of
U.S. society,” the CLC spokesman said.
Bishop Carroll T. Dozier of Memphis,
Tenn., whose Easter, 1971, pastoral
letter on peace made national headlines,
questioned whether the ceasefire now
achieved could not have been achieved
earlier, with fewer lives lost.
“I don’t want to sound tendentious,”
he said, “but the rhetoric leaves me a bit
uneasy. What does ‘peace with honor’
mean. Basically, we’ve gotten a ceasefire
and truce with American withdrawal. I
don’t see how that could not have been
done much earlier.”
Bishop Dozier said he was dissatisfied
with President Nixon’s failure to address
the issue of amnesty. “We should
address ourselves to the fact that many
who left for Canada did so for reasons
of conscience - at a time when it was
impossible under our laws to be a
selective conscientious objector,” he
said.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J.
Gumbleton of Detroit, another
articulate peace advocate in recent
years, said that he, too, was upset over
particulars of the President’s ceasefire
announcement.
“He made such a point about the
heroism of our soldiers,” he said. “I
don’t deny that, but there are other
heroes as well -- some that I know are in
jail now.
“He also ignored the efforts of the
peace movement, which I think played a
major role in bringing us to the ceasefire
that we finally have.”
Bishop Gumbleton said he was
“happy that the American involvement
is over.”
“But,” he added, “I feel a great
distress that so much destruction has
taken place in the meantime. I don’t see
a thing (in the ceasefire) that couldn’t
have been accomplished four years
ago.”
Bishop Gumbleton said he was also
disturbed over President Nixon’s
discussion of reconstruction in his
ceasefire announcement. “When he
spoke of it, he related it to an implied
threat - ‘If there is no reciprocity .. .’ ”
“As a nation we have a strong
obligation not to let Vietnam slip from
our consciousness,” said Bishop
Gumbleton. “The American bishops’
statements in the past two years have
reflected our obligation to repair and
rebuild both North and South Vietnam.
“Just as certainly as we felt a
responsibility, in the Marshall Plan, to
all of Europe without distinction
between ally or enemy, so here we have
the same, or even more responsibility.”
Another response to the ceasefire
came from James R. Jennings, associate
director Of the U.S. Catholic
Conference’s division of justice and
peace, which has been an opponent of
the Vietnam War.
Jennings expressed an “initial
reaction .. .of great relief.”
“It means, hopefully, the end of the
killing in Indochina,” he said. “It also
means that we can now go about the
serious task of healing and reconciling,
both between nations and without our
own nation.
Yet Jennings raised what he called
“disturbing questions about our
involvement in Vietnam.”
“Have we learned that the use of
American military power, no matter
how technologically advanced, is
inadequate to resolve complex internal
political conflicts in Third World (of
developing) nations?” he asked.
Jennings also asked, “Have we
realized that some evils existing in the
world . . .cannot be corrected by the use
of American military force?
“American influence, if it has any
justifiable place in the affairs of Third
World countries, must be directed
toward overcoming the injustices, rather
than counteracting those whose
ideologies differ from ours,” he said.
ANNIVERSARY IN NEW ORLEANS -- Archbishop Gerard Frey of Lafayette, La., as they concelebrated a
Philip M. Hannan of New Orleans is joined at the altar Mass marking the 50th anniversary of Notre Dame
by Bishops Warren Boudreaux of Beaumont, Tex., and Seminary. (NC Photo by Louis Aguirre)
NAMES NEW BLACK BISHOP
The Church in
Rhodesia Makes a Bold Move
BY TADZIMIRWA SHAMBARE
SALISBURY, Rhodesia (NC) - The
consecration of Msgr. Patrick Chakaipa
as the first black bishop of the Catholic
Church in Rhodesia has corrected a
dangerous and almost scandalous
situation.
There had been widespread hope for
the Africanization of top Church posts.
Previously the Church in Rhodesia had
reserved top positons of leadership to an
all-white episcopate.
Until Bishop Chakaipa’s consecration
Jan. 14 as auxiliary of Salisbury,
Rhodesia was the only country in the
whole of Africa with an impressively
high number of black Catholics that was
still without a black bishop.
Criticism was both rife and valid that
the Catholic Church in Rhodesia --
otherwise so outspoken in matters of
interracial justice -- remained
white-ruled and, for that matter,
white-orientated.
The consecration of the first Catholic
black bishop in Rhodesia must also be
seen in another context.
The Catholic Church has a notable
history of pronouncments condemning
racial prejudice and discrimination.
External legislative controls and
WCC MEETS IN BANGKOK - Candid photos show
the variety of delegates to the “Salvation Today”
conference of the World Council of Churches in
Bangkok, Thailand. Although many of the sessions
were small group discussions, general meetings were
also held. WCC President Dr. Philip Potter (lower left
photo) spoke to one of these gatherings.In all, 326
persons from 69 countries attended. (NC/CIRIC
Photos)
social conventions in Rhodesia,
however, restrict the pastoral freedom
of the Church. But the Church could
not blame the state or society for not
breaking out of racialism or
apartheid (or at least the semblance of
this) within itself.
Rhodesia, although it is about 95
percent black, has advanced a policy of
white supremacy for the country both
before and after its unilateral
declaration of independence from
Britain in November 1965.
The government has been battling
with the Rhodesian bishops for some
time over the use of Catholic schools
and hospitals by blacks.
Bishop Donal R. Lamont of Umtali
recently said that the possibility of any
substantial agreement between the
government and the Catholic Church “is
more remote than ever” because the
regime of Premier Ian Smith has not
renounced its apartheid policy of strict
racial segregation and the Church has
not changed its attitude in regard to
that policy.
In the past, the sheer wordiness of
the Church on racism was often suspect
and at times a hinderance to effective
Christian action.
But now, a significant change has
taken place. The Church had adjusted
an imbalance and, although late, this is
seen by black Catholics in Rhodesia as a
bold and decisive action.
More than 20,000 people thronged
into the Rufaro Stadium in Salisbury on
Jan. 14 to witness the consecration of
their first black bishop.
As he walked .slowly toward the dais
set up at the center of the stadium,
there was a thunderous roar of applause
from the crowd.
Drums beat time to the hearty singing
of African hymns by blacks, who
bathed the stadium in a multitude of
colors.
Chanting women welcomed the
procession of- bishops as they entered
the stadium.
The principal consecrator was
Archbishop Francis Markall of
Salisbury. He was assisted by other
bishops of Rhodesia and by bishops
from Zambia, Malawi and South Africa.
The Apostolic delegate for Southern
Africa, Archbishop Alfredo Poledrini,
was present.
Also present was an elderly tribal
chief Michael Chivero, who, many years
ago, helped to Open the mission school
where the new bishop was educated as a
boy.
IN VIETNAM
Last American to be Healing
PHILADELPHIA (NC) - The last
American in Vietnam will not be
dropping bombs but healing wounds.
That is the view of Father J.
McVeigh, the Philadelphia-born priest
who heads Catholic Relief Services in
Vietnam.
“Reconstruction, relocation and
rehabilitation” are the three tasks which
Father McVeigh said he and his
associates will be tackling when the
fighting stops -- although another “R”,
for relief, has been the agency’s
continuing task in Southeast Asia and
throughout the world for more than 25
years.
In Vietnam, Father McVeigh
supervises the distribution of food,
clothing and medical supplies to
325,000 persons a month, most of them
in institutions, leprosaria and
orphanages. Catholics and Buddhists are
the recipients of this aid, Father
McVeigh noted, and no indication of
religious preference in the distribution
of aid is tolerated.
development projects are sponsored,
with the aid being distributed through
CRS auspices after grants are obtained
from foundations and relief
organizations throughout the world.
Among the self-help projects are
vocational and nursing training,
irrigation projects and special
agricultural equipment programs.
Assistance in funding such programs is
both international and ecumenical.
To help the Vietnamese to help
themselves, special socio-economic
Father McVeigh noted, with specific
grants coming from such widely diverse
sources as Danish Church Aid and the
American Raskob Foundation.
One of the largest CRS programs in
Vietnam, however, continues to be
refugee relief.Father McVeigh said. The
latest fighting in Vietnam produced
more than 1.2 million refugees, many of
whom have been forced from their
homes for the second or third time.
CRS is working in nine of the 14
dioceses of South Vietnam to
supplement government refugee relief
efforts. Among the items provided for
the refugees by CRS are dried fish, soy
sauce, vegetables and soap. In refugee
centers near DaNang, special plastic kits
with food and clothing are given to each
person who has fled to the overcrowded
refugee camps.