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10 GEORGIA BULLETIN. THURSDAY; JANUARY 23,1969
Latin America
Church Becoming Force
For Change And Reforms
The Church in Latin America is casting its fate with the poor.
The second general assembly of the Latin American Bishops held
at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968 approved a crash program of pastoral
renewal geared to social justice.
One of its resolutions stated that “it is our mission to denounce
unflinchingly those facts of life which run counter to the spirit of the
Gospel.”
True to that mission, the
Church in Latin America is
turning from charity-giving to
demanding for men what is due
them as workers and citizens. The
bishops’ statement reflected the
urgency and anguish of countless
priests and lay leaders, who are
bent on pushing radical change in
lands where 70% of the
population live in dire poverty
and uncertainty.
In becoming more and more a
leading force for change and
social justice, the Church is
confronted with many areas of
violence and is itself threatened
by such situations, as for example
in Brazil.
Even the mere defining of
violence has proven to be a
dangerous process for Church
leaders, as can be seen from the
growing incidence of conflict and
persecution.
One example is what is
happening in the Dominican
Republic.
At La Vega, a fertile valley in
the central province of the
country, Bishop Juari Flores is
locked in a struggle with wealthy
landholders over the right of poor
farming families to stay on the
tracts they cultivate.
Throughout Latin America
In Holland
Pastoral Council Statement
Called 6 Dishonest 9 By Group
AMSTERDAM (NC)-A
traditionalist Dutch Catholic
group, in a cabled message to
Pope Paul VI (Jan. 15) charged
that the resolutions adopted at
the Dutch National Pastoral
Council did not represent the
opinions of Catholics of the-
Netherlands and “presented a
dishonest picture.”
The extremely conservative
group known as ‘Confrontation’
said.”
“The recent meeting of the
so-called council led by the
Dutch hierarchy was in no way a
real and honest representation of
the Dutch Catholics but
presented a dishonest picture.”
The group declared that the
composition of the meeting was
one-sided.
Meanwhile, a Dutch
conservative pastor, Father John
De Pouvere of St. Joseph’s parish
at Wassenaar, announced he will
emigrate to Canada because of
the conflicts between Dutch
Catholic conservatives and
progressives. He said he expects
the atmosphere among Canadian
Catholics to be quieter.
In another development,
Father Jos Arts, assistant of the
Dutch Catholic weekly, De
Nieuwe Linie (The New
Frontier), and Father A.
Dechesne, O.P., prior of the
Dominican convent Albertinum
at Nijmegen, announced that
they will leave the active
priesthood.
Archbishop Says:
Pressure For Change
Requires Participation
The pressure for change
throughout the world requires
responsible participation,
Coadjutor Archbishop Emillio
Benavent Escuin of Granada,
Spain, said in the first
Spanish-language edition of
L’Osservatore Romano, the
Vatican City daily.
The archbishop added that the
pressure is equally felt in
developed and underdeveloped
nations.
“In the more prosperous
nations, sensible and responsible
men try to end the scandal of
misery in their midst, and to
redirect war expenditures into
social progress....Their young
people demand vital and worthy
goals as they feel capable of
overcoming injustice and
pretense,” Archbishop Benavent
said.
“In other countries, the power
groups ean hardly contain the
pressure from the young and
from independent men who seek
greater freedom and justice.”
“They all want a fairer world
where men can fulfill the
supreme call of God,” he stated.
“But social peace demands hard
and faithful work, intelligence
and persererance.”
Negro Executive
Named To Prepare
Adoption Index
The appointment of a Negro
social worker to a key position in
the Adoption Unit of the
Division for Children and Youth
of the State Department of
Family and Children Services has
been announced by State Welfare
Director Bill Burson.
Miss Juanita Matthews, a career
social worker who has held
progressively-responsible
positions in the Fulton County
Department of Family and
Children Services since 1960 in
the Adoption Section of the
Child Welfare Program and in the
Public Assistance Programs, has
been named to the position of
Child Welfare Representative, he
said.
In a statement for the local
press, the bishop, one of the
more outspoken defenders of the
poor, admitted there is a hurdle
in “the confusin people’s minds
between mere norms of canon
law, which the Church can
readjust, and ultimate divine
laws, which no man can change.”
the big “latifundistas” keep large ■
areas out of production, gp;
depriving people of badly needed M
jobs.
NUN
“These tenant farmers testify
that Ramon Cordero, the
landholder, has set loose wild
cows on their crops and their
poor huts, bringing destruction
and endangering their children,”
the bishop told Dominicans in an
open letter to the press, after the
tenants had made futile attempts
for redress. Cordero had" evicted
several families, although
Dominican law says that those
cultivating unused lands for five
years have a claim to the tract.
Local officials connived against
the farmers.
The Dominican attorney
general, Manual Garcia, said that
although the government was
determined to defend the right of
private property, as defined by
the constitution, it will do so
only “within the limitations of its
social function.” But Cordero
and other landholders quickly
banded together “to force others
to respect the right to private
property at any price.”
The La Vega story may have a
happy ending of sorts. Evictions
have been stopped, and the
farmers are being given
government land. But one has
only to multiply the incident
there by hundreds to get an
inkling of the'turmoil the Church
faces in the continent..
Where the rich are strong and
unenlightened, and have the
connivance of the.
government —civilian or
military-reaction has often been
open conflict and reprisal.
THE HOLY FATHER'S MISSION AID TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCH
Have you ever wished your family had a nun?
Now you can have a ‘nun of your own'—and
share forever in all the good she does.... Who
is she? A healthy wholesome, penniless girl in
her teens or early twenties, she dreams of the
day she can bring God's love to lepers, or
phans, the aging. . . . Help her become a Sis
ter? To pay all her expenses this year and next
she needs only $12.50 a month ($150 a year,
$300 altogether). She’ll write you to express
her thanks, and she’ll pray for’you at daily
Mass. In just two years you’ll have a 'Sister of
your own'. . . . We’ll send you her name on
receipt of your first gift. As long as she lives
you’ll know you are helping the pitiable people
she cares for. . . . Please write us today so she
can begin her training. She prays someone will
help.
YOU
CAN’T
GO
YOURSELF,
SO TRAIN
A
SISTER
HOW
TO
HELP
THEM
HELP
THEMSELVES
“WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT INDIA?”
□ The parishioners gather the stones and do
the construction free-of-charge, under their par
ish priest’s direction. That’s how in India a
church, school, rectory and convent can be
built for only $10,000. . . . Name the parish
for your favorite'saint, we’ll erect a permanent
plaque asking prayers for your loved ones, if
you build a parish in '69 as your once-in-a-
lifetime mission gift. . . . Write Monsignor
Nolan for details.
□ Archbishop Mar Gregorios will write person
ally to say where he’ll locate it if you enable
him to buy ($975) two acres of land as a model
farm for a parish priest. Raising his own food,
the priest can teach his parishioners how to in
crease their crop production. (A hoe costs only
$1.25, a shovel $2.35.)
□ In the hands of a thrifty native Sister your
gift in any amount ($1,000, $750, $500, $250,
$100, $75. $50, $25, $15, $10. $5, $2) will
fill empty stomachs with milk, rice, fish and
vegetables. ... If you feel nobody needs you,
help feed these hungry boys and girls!
.. , „P* ar encloseo 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
MOST REV. TERENCE J. COOKE, President
MSGR. JOHN G. NOLAN, National Secretary
Write: Catholic Near East Welfare Assoc.
330 Madison Avenue-New York, N.Y. 10017
Telephone: 212/YUkon 6-5840
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BARBER SHOP AND GROOM ROOM
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