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Pope John Paul
II To Visit Malta
VATICAN ENVOY — Archbishop Francesco Colasuonno (left),
Vatican envoy to the Soviet Union, meets with Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev (right) May 14 in Moscow at the start of the archbishop’s
diplomatic mission there. (CNS photo from UPI-Reuters)
VISIT TO CZECHOSLOVAKIA — Mother Teresa greets children in
Nitra, Czechoslovakia, during a May 13 visit to open the first house for
her order in that country. (CNS photo from UPI-Reuters)
NCCB President Defends
Public Relations Effort
MILWAUKEE (CNS) - Hiring a public
relations firm was necessary for U.S.
bishops to effectively deliver the church’s
teaching against abortion, said the presi
dent of the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
“I happen to think that move was a good
idea,” Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of
Cincinnati said May 20 of the plan an
nounced in April for a three to five year
campaign by the Hill & Knowlton firm.
“We can preach every Sunday on abor
tion,” Archbishop Pilarczyk said in an in
terview with the Catholic Herald,
newspaper of the Milwaukee Archdiocese,
“and we’ll be preaching to people who
already accept the church’s teaching.”
But he said the church wanted to reach
“a lot of people out there who have not yet
heard a dispassioned and reasoned ac
count of what the church teaches.”
Cardinal John J. O’Connor, chairman of
the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life
Activities, announced the public relations
campaign that had been approved in
March by the bishops’ Administrative
Committee.
“It’s not the pro-life people who are com
plaining” about the campaign, Archbishop
Pilarczyk said. “But those who are ‘pro-
choice’ are saying, in effect, ‘Get out of our
forum.’
“To me, that says all the more that we
should be in that forum,” the archbishop
said.
Archbishop Pilarczyk discounted
criticism about Hill & Knowlton’s clients
including the manufacturers of oral and in
trauterine contraceptives and condoms,
cigarettes, Playboy Enterprises and the
League of Women Voters, which supports
abortion.
“My perception is that these (public
relations) firms are for hire,” he said.
“If I go into a grocery store and buy
something, the fact that someone whose
beliefs I don’t agree with also uses that
grocery store doesn’t affect my opinion,
I’m going to use the best grocery store for
the money I can find,” he said.
If some of Hill & Knowlton’s “other ac
counts aren’t in accordance with what we
believe, I don’t think that’s a relevant
issue,” Archbishop Pilarczyk said.
church’s right to own property, said Msgr.
Giuseppe Lazzarotto of the Vatican’s
Secretariat of State.
The socialist government, which was in
power from 1971 to 1987, first froze private
school tuition, then cut government sub
sidies. In 1984 it outlawed charging tuition.
While tuition is still not charged at the
island-nation’s 100 Catholic schools, since
1987 church-state agreements have led the
government to pay 50 percent of the
schools’ operating costs. The church has
made up the difference through funds from
property sales and a special collection.
The church cannot afford to continue
educating almost 17,700 students without
charging tuition, Msgr. Lazzarotto said.
“A permanent and definitive plan is
needed,” he said.
In 1983, the socialist government at
tempted to nationalize some church prop
erty. The Catholic Church took the issue
to court, and the law was declared un
constitutional, but the decision was ap
pealed by the government.
When the Nationalist Party was elected,
it dropped the appeal, but a permanent
agreement on church property rights has
yet to be signed, Msgr. Lazzarotto said.
Pope John Paul is scheduled to give six
speeches during his 52-hour visit. He will
address clergy and religious, government
representatives and diplomats, workers,
(Continued on page 9)
and early 1980s.
With the 1987 election victory of the Na
tionalist Party, aligned with European
Christian Democrats, some anti-Catholic
laws were overturned and negotiations
began to mitigate the effects of other laws.
The pope was scheduled to visit Malta,
60 miles off the coast of Sicily, May 25-27.
The tiny country with three inhabited
islands has a population of 350,000.
Church-state negotiations, assisted by
the Vatican, continue in two main areas:
the funding of church-run schools and the
BY CINDY WOODEN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope John
Paul IPs visit to Malta will be a celebra
tion of improved church-state relations
there, but it is likely to include mention of
areas still needing attention.
Although Malta’s population is more
than 98 percent Catholic, stringent anti-
Catholic laws were passed in the late 1970s
48th Papal Trip j
Malta
May 25-27
The Southern Cross
Newspaper Of The Diocese Of Savannah
Vol. 70 No. 21
Thursday, May 24, 1990
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