Newspaper Page Text
French Church-State
Relations Are Tense
By Aime Savard
PARIS (NC) — Relations
^between the French
^government and the Catholic
iChurch are strained.
The government blames the
i country’s bishops for not
[ trying to stop leftist Catholic
attacks on the establishment.
The bishops do not want to
brisk compromising the Church
fby too openly backing the
(conservative regime.
So far, government
..attempts to bypass the bishops
(ami persuade the Vatican to
*crack down on the leftists
directly have not been
successful.
President Georges
Pompidou himself has
reportedly expressed
annoyance at the bishops for
tolerating, if not encouraging,
Catholic leftists who have
been challenging the
establishment since the
anti-government riots by
students and workers in May,
1968.
Many Catholic laymen and
some priests are currently
active in leftist parties and
labor unions, as well as in
left-wing revolutionary
Jordan Expellees
eject Church Links
PARIS (NC) - Four
IFrench Religious recently
fpxpelled from Jordan for
alleged gunrunning said that
they have left the institutional
i Church because they claim it is
becoming increasingly “linked
to the rich.”
K f
Father Paul Gauthier,
* founder of a group call The
|*B rotherhood of the
Companions of Jesus the
Carpenter, and three other
Fmembers of the group-Father
Gerard Chappot, Sister
Bernadette Bouster and Sister
Marie Therese Lacaze-were
expelled from Jordan in
November after authorities
accused them of providing
arms to a Palestinian guerrilla
movement led by Marxist
NayefHawatmeh.
Interviewed here, the four
admitted their sympathy for
' the organization, but denied
^providing sums.
•They were living in the
Hushn refugee camp near Irbid
in northern Jordan, where
they had opened a weaving
workshop in which about 100
[persons were working. The
f workshop was financed by the
French leftist Catholic
magazine Temoignage
t Chretien (Christian Witness)
Land was linked to the
"Palestinian guerrilla
organization.
The organization is npt
'merely a nationalist
movement, but is also
revolutionary, seeking not
merely the replacement of an
Israeli government by a
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Palestinian one, but radical
changes in all Middle East
governments, sources here
said.
The movement has been
training and educating
Palestinian refugees so that
they will not be on relief
forever.
Father Gauthier, a former
professor in the Dijon major
seminary, said that in 1954 he
obtained permission from-the
bishop of Dijon “to live in
poverty amid the poor in order
to be in communion with
Jesus the carpenter.”
He then left for Israel to
share the life of the workers of
Nazareth. Some young people
from France came to join him
there and he founded with
them the Brotherhood and
Sisterhood of Jesus the
Carpenter. The foundations
were approved by then
Melkite-rite Archbishop
Georges Hakim of Akka in
Galilee, now Patriarch
Maximos V of Antioch.
At that time, Father
Gauthier was a supporter of
the state of Israel, then six
years old, whose social system
he praised. He modeled his
communities on the
kibbutzim, Israel’s collective
farms and settlements.
During the 1960’s,
however, he was more and
more shocked by the
discrimination he said Arabs
are subject to in Israel.
He had also founded
communities in Jordan and
was one of the few persons
authorized to cross the
frontier between the two
countries to visit the
communities.
He sought to promote the
cause of peace through the
commu nities, he said.
The six-day war of 1967, he
said, was followed with
repression in Israeli-occupied
Arab territories, including the
dynamiting of houses,
expulsions, and
imprisonments. This, he said,
led he and his associates to
break with Israel and to move
all their communities to
Jordan. Some other members
of the societies of Jesus the
Carpenter have established
themselves in Latin America.
Father Gauthier said that
he and his companions are
“totally liberated from the
religious world.” But he
affirmed that he is a believing
Christian.
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groups. More and more priests
and even bishops have been
making public statements in
which, in the name of the
Gospel, they side with striking
workers and oppose repressive
measures taken against
workers and students. Some
likewise oppose arms sales by
the government to developing
nations.
Such st^ids by churchmen
irritate the Pompidou
administration. Government
and other establishment
backers said they were
particularly shocked that in
some places parish priests
refused authorities’ requests
to celebrate “official” Masses
in memory of the late Gen.
Charles de Gaulle. The priests
said such ceremonies would
have too political a character.
The pro-government
Gaullist newspaper La Nation
attacked the Catholic daily La
Croix ' for publishing an
interview with communist
leader Georges Marchais.
Sources close to the French
bishops do not deny that
Church-state relations are
uneasy. But, as one spokesman
put it, they do not want to
“dramatize” the situation.
The bishops, these sources
say, cannot ignore the
government, because it plays a
major role in the lives of the
people to whom the Church
has to preach the Gospel. But,
they add, this does not mean
that the Church should be
involved in government
affairs, nor even have close
relations with the government.
Such relations, they say,
would leave the Church open
to charges that it supports the
authorities out of self-interest.
A desire to avoid being
compromised by the
govemme nt, these sources say,
is the reason why Cardinal
Francois Marty of Paris has
never personally attended
official govemmentreceptions
but always sent a
representative!.
Government officials,
especially those who; like to
have it known that they are
Catholics, do not always
understand this anxiety to
distinguish between the
temp oral and spiritual.
Pompidou’s associates
reportedly want a direct
dialogue with the Holy See to
discuss Church-state relations
over thy heads of the French
bishops. It is said that
Pompidou would like to sign
an agreement with the Vatican
on Church-state relations,
although he apparently does
not want a full-fledged
concordat that would end
Church-state separation in
France.
At the beginning of
November, the French
secretary * of state for
education, Pierre Billecocq,
went secretly to Rome to open
negotiations regarding the
renewal of the law regulating
government aid to French
Catholic schools. Billecocq
was to use these negotiations
as a pretext for discussing
Church-state relations on a
broader scale.
The secrecy the French
government wanted for
Billecocq’s visit was lost
because of leaks at the
Vatican. ,
Billecocq was not received
as he had requested by Pope
Paul VI, but was received
instead by the Papal Secretary
of State, Cardinal Jean Villot,
and Cardinal Gabriel Garrone,
prefect of the Congregation
for Catholic Education. Bjth
cardinals are Frenchmen.
They told Billecocq that the
matters he wanted to discuss
are within the jurisdiction of
the French Bishops’
Conference, not that of the
Holy See.
PAGE 7 — The Georgia Bulletin, December 24, 1970
LETTERS
i
Pr
Tells
CHICAGO (NC) - :
Mexican-American priests are'
so few in the United States
because Catholic missionaries
have utterly failed to
•encourage vocations from that
ethnic group, the nation’s first
Mexican-American bishop said
in a magazine published here.
“Many missionaries who
came to us seemed to have the-
attitude that we’re not
worthy, not fit and simply
wouldn’t be able to do the
job,” said Auxiliary Bishop
Patrick F. Flores of San
Antonio, Tex., as he listed
reasons for the lack of
Mexican-American vocations.
“I don’t even remember
being asked by a priest to enter
a seminary,” the bishop said,
citing his personal
experiences. He added that
while attending a seminary, he
did not receive encouragement
from priests working in the
Mexican-American
community, and that “never
once did I receive a visit or
even so much as a card from
my pastor.”
“The lack of a native clergy
gave us a subconscious idea
that priests must come from a
foreign land,” he said. “Our
parents and friends my own
age couldn’t conceive the idea
that we ourselves could be
priests.”
Bishop Flores’ views
appeared in the Christmas
edition of Serran, a
publication of Serra
International, a Catholic
laymen’s organization which
promo tes vocations.
Bishop Flores also blamed
low salaries for priests and
celibacy as other reasons for
the vocation lag.
“We should be able to learn
some ideas in the matter of
Vocation Lag
I
minority vocations from our
Protestants friends/’
suggested the bishop.
Noting that 85 percent of
the Mexican-American
population in Texas is
Catholic, he said that
Mexican-American priests in
the state number 53,’
compared to 500 ordained
Protestant ministers from the
same ethnic group.
“The average salary of
Catholic priests in Texas is
only $150 a month, while the
salary of Mexican-American
(Protestant) ministers is more
than twice that figure -
$350,” Bishop Flores pointed
out.
A Protestant minister, he
said, usually has a wife and
children to support. He added,
however, that “the
Mexican-American priest
almost always has family
financial responsibilities, such
as aged parents and other
relatives.”,
As for the question of
celibacy, the bishop said it is
“substantial” for prospective
Mexican-American vocations.
He added, I honestly believe
Serrans Urge
Encouragement
CHICAGO (NC) - More
encouragement and financial
assistance should be given to
increase the number of
Mexican-American priests, a
Serra International committee
urged here after polling
Mexican-American priests.
The committee suggested
that:
--Scholarships be made
available to “qualified,
under-privileged
Mexican-Americans to attend
high schools and colleges.”
—“Special resources be
provided for Mexican-Americ
an semiilarians who need
clothes, incidental expenses,
summer jobs and most
important, encouragement
ana prayer.
--Serrans recruit additional
Mexican-Americans for their
clubs.
Writer Criticizes
‘Art’ News Usage
Editor:
The Dec. 10, 1970 issue of
the Georgia Bulletin coverage,
in two separate articles, of
Benjamin Mendoza’s
attempted knife attack on
Pope Paul, quotes Louis
Ruocco of the Kay Gallery
“ .. .1 think he (Mendoza) was
motivated 90 percent by
publicity. If he really wanted
to kill the Pope he could have
shot him. ”
I am sure that Mr. Mendoza
and Mrs. Ligoa Duncan, owner
Schools Section
Liked By Reader
Editor:
Really enjoyed the Dec. 10
supplement, “Our Schools,”
especially Fr. O’Connor’s
brilliant, comprehensive
report “Will Catholic Become
Private?”
We in this Archdiocese are
blessed, indeed, to have a man
of Fr. O’Connor’s caliber as
our secretary of education.
Mrs. Lorraine Free,
Smyrna
of a Madison Avenue art
Gallery, who owns fifteen of
Mendota’s paintings/
profusely thank the Georgia
Bulletin for the 37 % column
inches of freejjublicity which
this issue of the Georgia
Bulletin gives to Mendoza and
his “art”.
Incidentally, this issue of
the Bulletin could not find
even one column inch of
newsworthy follow-up
information, which dealt
directly with the significance
of Pope Paul’s historic trip.
VictorP. Tabaka,
Atlanta
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Mexican American Bishop
that the inability to have a
wife and family is definitely a
determining factor in the life
of those considering the
Roman Catholic priesthood.”
Bishop Flores, whose
parents were migrant farm
workers, suggested that
scholarships be made available
for poor Mexican-American
students to go to the seminary,
and that the seminary
curriculum should be tailored
to meet the cultural needs of
the Spanish-speaking.
He said that seminary life
has always been a difficult
hurdle for Mexican-American
youths who usually come out
from ghetto schools, both
physically and academically
poor.
Bishop Flores said
Mexican-Americans should be
ordained to work with the
Spanish-speaking, the U.S.
Catholic Church’s second
largest minority, because, “we
know the need, the misery, the
poverty of our own people.
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