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PAGE 7—The Southern Cross, January 17,1974
Brazil Regime Muzzles Church Radio Station
BRASILIA, Brazil (NC) - The
president of the National Conference of
Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), protesting
the closing by the government of a
Church-owned radio station, said
Church-owned communications media
“have been set up to spread the Gospel,
not to destroy peace.”
CNBB president, Archbishop Aloisio
Lorscheider of Fortaleza, made the
protest during a press conference at the
end of a five-day meeting here of the
CNBB’s executive committee.
The archbishop said that “the Church
had made a point of using the mass
media with respect for the laws to help
in the growth of our country.”
Citing “national interests,” the
government on Oct. 30 closed the Sao
Paulo archdiocese’s Radio July 9, the
second largest Church-owned station in
Brazil. The minister of communications
said that the reasons for the closing
were “technical,” rather than political
as Sao Paulo archdiocesan officials had
implied. He said the station’s broadcasts
were “clandestine,” according to norms
for broadcasting approved in 1973.
A member of Arena, a political
organization supporting the Brazilian
military government, said the reasons
for the closing were “political” because
“Radio July 9 worried more about
criticizing the government than
spreading the Gospel.” The minister of
communications and the Arena
spokesman both said the closing could
not be considered persecution because
“the Church has about 20 percent of
Brazilian radio stations, some 180.”
Auxiliary Bishop Lucas Moreira
Neves of Sao Paulo called the
government spokesmen’s statements
“contradictory.” He said the Church
owns only 116 radio stations, most of
them short range and located in the
Amazon Basin.
The Sao Paulo archdiocese is trying
to regain the broadcasting concession
and is going to participate in public
bidding for four new radio stations
recently announced by the government.
The bishops’ executive committee
The bishop added that the
government must recognize that the
Church has been collaborating to bring
civilization to the Indians since 1500,
and that in four centuries of work it
could never be accused of “instilling an
anti-national attitude among the
Indians.”
President Emilio Garrastazu Medici
vetoed the provisions on the
missionaries.
“The participation of the missionaries
is accepted as collaboration, but will
always hinge on the government’s
benevolence toward the Church, and
this worries us,” Bishop Moreira Neves
said.
AGING FOR THE CAMERA - Makeup specialists
age actress Cicely Tyson for her role as a fictional
110-year-old former slave who challenges the
segregationist rules she had lived under for more than
a century in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane
Pittman,” a two hour special Jan. 31 on CBS. The
makeup took six hours and included application of
tinted foam rubber pieces to Miss Tyson’s face and
neck as well as the use of a “bald cap” and gray wig.
(NC Photo from CBS)
Bishop Moreira Neves said that the
presidential veto seems to reflect the
attitude of the officials of the
government’s National Foundation for
the Indians, which has said that
evangelization is not a desirable way of
bring civilization to them, because this
would destroy the Indian culture and
religious traditions.
also discussed the government’s Indian
statute with government authorities.
Bishop Moreira Neves said. The
Brazilian Church has been concerned
about the preservation of the Indian’s
rights in the face of the westward
movement by Brazilian settlers
penetrating the big Matto Grosso rain
forests.
The statute established the policies to
be applied to the 180,000 Indians of the
area and recognized the right of
missionaries to work in Indian hamlets.
Although the measure had been
approved by the Chamber of Deputies,
Catholic Columnist Scores Farah Boycott
HUNTINGTON, Ind. (NC) - Jesuit
Father Daniel Lyons, a Catholic
newspaper columnist, scored the
boycott of Farah slacks that has
received the support of several U.S.
bishops and a bishops’ committee of the
U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC).
,.;i '
Writing in the Jan. 6 issue of the
National Catholic Register, a national
Catholic weekly published here, Father
Lyons charged that the boycott is
unjust. The lengthy strike against the
Farah Manufacturing Co. in El Paso,
Tex., is primarily the fault of the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of
America union rather than that of the
company, Father Lyons argued.
“The boycott has the enthusiastic
backing of Bishop (Sidney) Metzger of
El Paso,” Father Lyons wrote. He
opposed Bishop Metzger’s involvement,
along with the endorsements of the
boycott by Archbishop Francis Furey
of San Antonio and his auxiliary,
Bishop Patrick Flores, Coadjutor
Archbishop Leo Byrne of St.
Paul-Minneapolis, and Bishop Joseph
Hogan of Rochester, N.Y.
Numerous Catholic and other
religious organizations have also
supported the boycott.
At their national meeting in
November the U.S. bishops applauded
Bishop Metzger after he explained his
position on the Farah strike. Shortly
after the meeting, the USCC Committee
on Social Development and World Peace
voted without dissent to support the
strike and the boycott.
“The workers do not want a union,”
said Father Lyons, quoting from a paid
advertisement he had published in a
Rochester newspaper recently. “Only
300 are on strike, out of 7,000 workers
- after the union has spent more than
$4 million in trying to unionize the
plant. The company has called for union
elections many times, but each time the
union prevents the workers from
voting.”
The Register column was the latest in
a series of public attacks on the Farah
boycott by Father Lyons since he made
an investigative visit to the El Paso plant
recently.
Msgr. George Higgins, secretary of
research for the U.S. Catholic
Conference in Washington, D.C.,
declined to comment on Father Lyons’
latest column. But in response to an
earlier column Msgr. Higgins accused
Father Lyons of “shoddy reporting”
and suggested that he “ought to
consider the possibility that it is he, and
not Bishop Metzger, who is out of line
with Catholic social teaching.”
“(Father) Lyons made a great to-do
about the fact that he himself recently
spent a few days in El Paso making a
first-hand study of the Farah
controversy,” Msgr. Higgins wrote in his
Dec. 24 column syndicated by NC
Features. “By this he clearly means to
imply that he knows much more about
this controversy than Bishop Metzger
does. If he believes that, he is capable of
believing most anything.
Msgr. Higgins charged that everything
Father Lyons knows about the Farah
situation “he has learned from company
representatives and Dr. (Paul) Poling,” a
retired Presbyterian minister who has
written a pro-company pamphlet.
Father Lyons said in his visit to El
Paso he found a modern,
air-conditioned plant that is “50 years
ahead of many union plants in New
York.”
“The facts,” he said, “are these:
Farah Manufacturing Company in El
Paso pays higher than union wages. It
provides free transportation to and from
work for all its employees. It gives free
medical care, free life insurance, and a
pension plan paid for entirely by the
company. It also gives employees a
share in the profits.”
The USCC Committee on Social
Development and World Peace said it
supports the strike and boycott because
the Farah Company will not divulge the
average pay of its workers “reported to
be near the minimum permitted by
law,” because the company “will not
divulge how many, if any, retirees
benefit from its profit sharing
retirement plan,” because the company
has no grievance procedures and because
it “will not even discuss negotiations
with the union.”
The issue, according to the USCC
committee, is a “denial of human
dignity” by the company.
In his column Father Lyons
disagreed. “Farah is a good employer,”
he said. He urged his readers: “Before
other workers lose their jobs, buy Farah
slacks -- and tell the store officials why
you bought them.”
Planned Parenthood
Retracts Statement
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NC) - The
Planned Parenthood Association here
has apologized to Catholic citizens in
this area for stating that their
organization had once been put out of
business due to “criticism from the
Catholic community.”
The apology was made in a letter to
Stuart Hubbell, executive director of
the Catholic League for Civil and
Religious Rights, a group formed last
May to fight descriminatory practices
against Catholics and other minority
groups. The league had challenged the
Planned Parenthood statement on
behalf of area Catholics.
Meade Birchette, director of
Kalamazoo Planned Parenthood, said
that the statement was included in a
flyer giving the history of the
association. He said that while some
people in the area still feel that the
association’s closing in 1945 was due to
Catholic criticism, “there was no point
in bringing up an old issue which could
cause problems for some segments of
the community.”
The Catholic league’s original letter
to Planned Parenthood objected that
“literally thousands of recipients of this
(Planned Parenthood) flyer have gained
the impression from it that persons of
the Catholic faith somehow were
surpressing your agency.
“It is important that all of us do our
share to live together in peace and
harmony while respecting each other’s
beliefs,” the Catholic league letter
continued.
In response, attorneys for Planned
Parenthood assured the Catholic league
of the association’s “good intentions in
the matter” and hoped that the
retraction of the statement would help
“minimize discord.”
USCC Joins Defense
Of Lutheran Minister
ST. LOUIS (NC) - The U.S. Catholic
Conference has joined 10 other church
bodies in defense of a Lutheran minister
convicted of civil contempt of court for
refusing to answer questions asked of
him by a federal grand jury investigating
the occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D.,
by militant American Indians.
The Rev. Paul A. Boe, who was in
Wounded Knee during the occupation
last spring, said that answering some of
the questions asked of him by the grand
jury in Sioux Falls, S.D., would violate
the confidential relationship between a
clergyman and his client.
In convicting him of the charge of
civil contempt, the federal judge said
that Mr. Boe, who is the director of
social services of the American Lutheran
Church, does not serve as pastor;
therefore he cannot claim the right of
privileged communication.
Mr. Boe has been ordered to begin his
sentence on Jan. 16. It will run until the
grand jury is dismissed or until he
decides to testify.
The beginning of the sentence was
delayed so that he could appeal to the
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here.
A friend of the court brief was filed
with the appeals court by the USCC and
the other church bodies in defense of
Mr. Boe’s refusal to testify.
The brief claims that forcing him to
testify would violate common law and
the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, which says that Congress
cannot abridge the free exercise of
religion.
“I’m going on the assumption I’ll
have to be jailed,” Mr. Boe said, noting
that he had already been sentenced.
“That’s the reality I have to look at.”
The USCC joined in the friend of the
court brief with the National Council of
Churches; American Lutheran Church;
Lutheran Church in America; Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod; United
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.;
Board of Church and Society of the
United Methodist Church; Center for
Social Action of the United Church of
Christ; Department of Church and
Society, Division of Homeland
Ministries of the Christian Churches
(Disciples of Christ); The Right Rev.
John E. Hines, presiding bishop of the
Episcopal Church; Msgr. John Egan,
executive director of the Catholic
Committee on Urban Ministry.
Mr. Boe was questioned by the same
federal grand jury which returned
indictments against American Indian
Movement (AIM) leaders Russell Means
and Dennis Banks for burglary, larceny,
auto theft, assaulting a federal officer
and unlawful possession of firearms.
The trial is now under way in U.S.
District CcJurt in St. Paul, Minn.
THE RAM WHAT AM NO RAM -- Fordham Rams’ mascot, Rameses
XIV, which accompanied football and basketball teams for the past two
years, has surprised university officials by giving birth to a lamb. Orestes
Lopez, student ram (now ewe and lamb) keeper said, “I thought he, or
she, seemed to be getting heavier the last few weeks, so I have been
cutting back on the food and taking it on longer walks.” Scott Sheridan, 2
of Yonkers, visits the mother and baby on a Connecticutt farm where
they have been resting. It is unclear whether Rameses will have a job at
the school or if officials will decide that “there will never be another
ewe.” (NC Photo)
Fire at Camp St. Mary
CAMP ST. MARY - Fire destroyed a
trailer used as the living quarters of
three Dominican Sisters here Jan. 10.
The sisters lost all their possessions in
the flames which swept through the
trailer within minutes after the fire was
discovered.
Other buildings on the grounds were
not damaged, although the nearby “big
house” used as the camp’s
administrative offices was evacuated.
Unware of the fire, students in
instructional classes being held
elsewhere on the camp were not ih
danger.
Camp personnel tried to fight the
blaze and to keep it from spreading
before the arrival of the Bluffton
Volunteer Fire Dept.
Cause of the blaze has not been
determined.
The fire was discovered by Sister
Shirley Levesque, O.P. at 12:30 p.m.
She and a visiting nun from the Adrian
(Mich) Dominican Mother House had
left the trailer shortly before the out
break of the fire.
“We’re thankful that no one was
injured,” said Sister Ellen Robertson,
O.P., camp administrator. “Within a few
minutes the whole trailer was on fire.”
Sister Gearldine Magel, O.P., the thi :d
member of the community living at t
camp, was at work in nearby Ridgeland.
The camp is used for diocesan
activities and as a human development
center for Beaufort and Jasper Counties.
Programs planned for the camp will not
be effected because of the fire.
DO
SOMETHING
MEANINGFUL
WHILE
YOU’RE
STILL
ALIVE
This column's happiest readers are the men,
women and children who know they’re needed.
The days we're busiest helping others are the
happiest days of our lives. . . . Who needs you
most? Surprisingly, God needs you — for in*
stance, to help an abandoned orphan become
a God-loving, responsible adult. Lepers need
you (there are still 15-million lepers in the
world), blind children need you, and so do we.
... Here in New York we are your agents, telling
you where the Holy Father says your help is
needed, and channeling your help promptly and
safely to the people in need. . . . Want to feel
good right now? Do without something you want
but do not need, and send the money instead
for one of the needs below. You’ll feel good,
especially if your gift is big enough to mean
a sacrifice to you; This is your chance to do
something meaningful for the world — it's God's
world — while you’re still alive.
LEPERS
□ Only $8.50 gives our priests and Sisters in
Shertallay, south India, enough Dapsone ‘mir-
acle’ tablets for 43 lepers for a year!
□ For only $14 a month ($168 a year) you can
make sure that an abandoned baby has food,
BABIES clothing, a blanket and love. We’ll send you a
NEED photo of the baby you ‘adopt’, tell you some*
YOU thing about him (or her), and ask the Sister*
in-charge to keep you informed.
MEET □ Your stringless gifts in any amount ($5,000,
MISSION $1,000, $500, $100, $50, $25, $10, $5, $2)
EMERGENCIES will help the neediest wherever they are — in
India and the Holy Land, for instance.
THINK
OF
YOURSELF,
TOO
□ Only you can make your will—and do it this
week to be sure the poor will have your help
even after you’re gone: Our legal title: Catholic
Near East Welfare Association. Also, our priests
will offer promptly the Masses you provide for.
G AX
Dear enclosed please find $. .
Monsignor Nolan:
FOR — .
Please name
return coupon
with your street ——»
offering
CITY STATE ZIP CODE .
the catholic near east welfare ASSOCIATION
NEAR EAST
MISSIONS
TERENCE CARDINAL COOKE, President
MSGR. JOHN G. NOLAN, National Secretary
Write: Catholic Near East Welfare Assoc.
lOll First Avenue • New York, N.Y. 10022