Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—The Georgia Bulletin, March 8,1979
Atheistic Poland Profoundly Catholic
Guerrilla Priest Praised
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
The trip by Pope John Paul II
next June to his native
Poland focuses world
attention on a nation which,
despite its official atheism, is
profoundly Catholic.
The protracted
negotiations over the dates of
the pope’s trip highlighted
the delicate nature of
church-state relations in
Poland.
Originally, the pope
wanted to return home in
May, when Poles will
celebrate the 900th
anniversary of the death of
St. Stanislaus.
The saint - one of the first
bishops of the pope’s home
diocese of Cracow - is patron
of Poland. The pope as
archbishop of Cracow had
been involved for several
years in preparation for the
centenary.
Because St. Stanislaus was
killed for criticizing the rule
of a Polish king, he has
traditionally been a symbol
of church independence from
the state. Officials of Poland’s
Communist government
objected to centering the
papal trip on the centenary of
St. Stanislaus fearing it might
become a rallying point for
opponents of the
government. The Catholic
Church has been a powerful
critic of government policies,
especially restrictions of
religious liberty.
Communist officials
insisted on deleting a
reference to St. Stanislaus as
a symbol of national values
from a letter by the new pope
to the people of Cracow at
Christmas time. The editor of
the Cracow Catholic paper
refused to publish the letter
arather than submit to the
government’s censorship.
The pope has accepted the
view of some of the Polish
bishops that the government’s
position on the timing of the
trip should be accepted so
that the trip would not have
to be sacrificed.
The Polish church’s
criticisms of the government
have continued since the
election of history’s first
Polish pope last October.
After returning to Poland
from the pope’s inauguration,
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of
Warsaw complained that the
church lacked access to the
general communications
media.
“A unique exception up to
now was the direct
transmission by radio and
television of the ceremony
for the beginning of the
pontificate of John Paul II,”
said Cardinal Wyszynski.
The cardinal lamented also
restrictions on Catholic
newspapers and the ban
against the formation of
Catholic associations
perform social work.
to
In November, Cardinal
Wyszynski called for an end
of censorship and other
restrictions on the Catholic
press.
In the same month, 42
priests of the diocese of
Przemysl protested against
the drafting of seminarians.
The priests said the
government was violating an
agreement made in 1950 not
to require seminarians to do
military service until after
they completed seminary
studies. The priests
threatened to go on a hunger
strike to dramatize their
protest.
These protests are caused
by the continued efforts of
the government to dissuade
the population from
practicing Catholicism. So far
those efforts have failed.
Despite hardships inflicted on
professing Catholics at school
and on the job, 80 to 90
percent of them attend
Sunday Mass.
Authorities have tried
scheduling attractive outings
for students and factory
workers on Sundays to
discourage attendance at
Mass. In some occupations,
the government has made
Sunday a day of work.
But people still flock to
churches on Sundays or to
the flimsy shelters set up to
protect outdoor altars from
bad weather. Hundreds of
thousands of residents of the
drab new industrial suburbs
must attend Mass outdoors
even through cold and rainy
seasons because the
government will not permit
the building of a sufficient
number of churches.
Restrictions on the church
are numerous. Parochial
schools do not exist. Catholic
youth and lay organizations
are banned. The church is
almost entirely blacked out
from the news media and is
given no access to
state-controlled radio and
television for broadcasting
religious programs. Catholic
newspapers, books and
magazines are strictly limited
in what they can print and in
the quantity published.
Openly professing
Catholics rarely have a chance
to advance to important posts
in local or national
government. Executive posts
in most major industries and
professional fields are closed
to Catholics.
The government, however,
has not broken the firm links
between the bishops and the
laity. About 85 percent of
Polish youngsters attend
parish religious education
classes.
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Blocked from
communicating with the
faithful by television, radio or
a widely circulated Catholic
press, the bishops make the
most of pilgrimages, special
spiritual exercises and
retreats.
Communications between
members of the closely-knit
bishops conference are also
difficult. The bishops,
therefore, have six plenary
meetings a year. This is three
times the number held by
most national conferences. At
these meetings, they draft
pastoral letters which are read
from the pulpit of every
church in Poland.
Development of the laity’s
role in the church has been
hampered somewhat by
government restrictions on
lay organizations. The church
is still heavily dominated by
clerics.
Polish seminaries are full.
Vocations to orders of
women Religious are
numerous. Unlike other
European churches, the
Polish church continues to
send abroad hundreds of
missionaries. In some cases,
the government turns a blind
eye when a bishop exceeds
the number of seminarians
allotted by the state to his
diocese.
The Polish church is often
criticized as monolithic, but
the nation’s bishops say they
have no choice but to form
an iron-clad unity against the
Communist government.
Under Pope Paul VI, the
Polish bishops received
certain broad freedoms to
make their own decisions and
plan their own strategy
against the hostile
government.
Well-informed Vatican
sources say Cardinal
Wyszynski, not Paul VI,
appointed Poland’s bishops.
Because many Polish
bishops were skeptical of
Vatican dialogue with
Communists, Pope Paul was
forced to restrict Vatican
diplomats.
In recent years, the chief
Vatican negotiator in Poland,
Archbishop Luigi Poggi, spent
most of his time during visits
to Poland with the country’s
bishops rather than with
Communist officials.
In 1977 Cardinal
Wyszynski began a series of
unprecedented private talks
with Communist Party leader
Edward Gierek. The talks
broke down, however, and
the church is still struggling
to have the government
recognize it as a legal
institution.
What effect the visit of a
Polish pope to his native land
will have on church-state
relations remains to be seen.
The visit is certain to stir wild
enthusiasm among the Polish
people.
CRACOW, POLAND which Pope John Paul will visit in June.
Abortion Clash Seen Soon
SEATTLE (NC) - “One of
these days, Catholic medical
schools in the United States
are going to have a
confrontation with the
government over their pro-life
policies. In view of the
Supreme Court attitude
today, I’m surprised that it
has not yet happened,” an
official of the Creighton
University Medical School
told an alumni gathering in
Seattle Feb. 20.
Dr. Joseph M. Holthaus,
dean of the Jesuit-run
Omaha, Neb., school, said the
four Catholic medical schools
at Georgetown, Loyola, St.
Louis and Creighton - have
been able to “stick to their
guns,” keeping abortion and
sterilization off the curricula.
He predicted, however,
that “one of these days, some
student will challenge that
policy, and either the Internal
Revenue Service or the
Department of Health,
Education and Welfare will
step in.”
“The four schools, all
Jesuit, have made it clear that
their instruction line is
pro-life. If the government
mandates our changing that
policy at the risk of losing
federal grants, then we will
abandon the federal grants,”
he said.
Dr. Holthaus said the loss
of federal funds would not be
“a catastrophe.” In 1978,
Creighton’s medical school
budget was $18 million. Of
that sum, only $440,000
came from the federal
government.
Much of the high cost of
health care, the doctor said,
can be blamed on the public’s
demands for the best
treatment available, which, he
said, force the medical
profession to buy expensive
equipment. Unnecessary visits
to physicians also add to
increased costs, he said.
Medical students’ goals
have changed, Dr. Holthaus
said. In the past 10 years, the
trend toward specialization
has given way to more
students choosing family
practice.
Dr. Holthaus predicted a
cancer breakthrough in the
next 10 years. His school is
currently conducting research
into “familial cancer” with
research subjects throughout
the world, he said.
One faculty member “is
currently working on the
hereditary factor, and we
have been able to
predict. . . which members of
a family are going to develop
cancer and which are not,”
Dr. Holthaus said.
M. E. Team Named
MRS. DOUGLAS
GLOVER, President, Our
Lady of Perpetual Help
Home Auxiliary presents
check to Sister Mary
deParres, O.P. Superior
and acting Administrator
of the Home. The check,
in the amount of
S54,000 represents the
work of the auxiliary for
the vear.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (NC) - A
Norristown, Pa., couple and a
Columbus, Ohio, monsignor
have been named to
three-year terms as the
national executive team of
the National Marriage
Encounter.
The couple, Paul and
Margaret Tepper, have been
married 22 years and have
four children. They replace
Jerry and Marilyn Sexton of
South St. Paul, who served
along with Capuchin Father
Thomas Hill of St. Paul.
* REE CARE 4
Father Hill’s successor is
Msgr. Korby Thielen, who
teaches theology at the
Josephinum Pontifical School
of Theology, Worthington,
Ohio.
Msgr. Thielen has been
active in the movement since
1971. He is also involved with
other movements such as the
Cursillo, Teens Encounter
Christ, and the charismatic
movement.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua
(NC) - Father Gaspar Garcia
Laviana, killed as a guerrilla
in mid-December, remained a
priest of the Missionaries of
the Sacred Heart until his
death, said his religious
superior.
“I have a deep respect for
Gaspar as a priest and as a
brave man for living his
convictions to the utmost,
prompted by love of
neighbor,” said Father Jose
Maria Junay, head of the
Missionaries of the Sacred
Heart in Nicaragua.
Father Junay gave the
homily recently during a Mass
for the dead priest. The large
church was filled to
overflowing, a sign of the
popularity of the guerrilla
priest.
“We respect the options
taken by our members and I
was under instructions not to
take any sanctions against the
priest,” Father Junay added.
The orders came from his
superiors in the religious
order, said Father Junay.
Father Garcia Laviana was
also praised by an anonymous
priest writing in La Prensa,
Managua daily.
His stand against the
military government was
“Gospel-like,” said the priest.
He said government
repression was exasperating
the people and “soon the
indignation of the poor is
going to break loose and
there will not be enough
bazookas to stop it.”
For more than a year
political violence has claimed
many civilian lives and has
left a toll of destruction and
economic loss in Nicaragua.
The main issue has been the
resignation of Gen. Anastasio
Somoza as president. The
Somoza family has held the
reins of power for more than
40 years in the Central
American country.
Opposition leaders claim that
the long rule has led to
corruption and exploitation
of the people.
Armed opposition to
Somoza is led by the
guerrillas of the Sandinista
Liberation Front.
Father Garcia Laviana, a
Sandinista commander, was
killed during an encounter
with troops near the Costa
Rican border.
The priest was considered
by government officials a
renegade and a dangerous
example.
Those favoring his stand
compare him with a
Colombian priest, Father
Camilo Torres, killed as a
guerrilla in February 1966.
Alluding to Father Garcia
Laviano, Archbishop Miguel
Obando Bravo of Managua,
an outspoken defender of
human rights, said it was hard
for him and his countrymen
to continue singing the
national anthem.
The archbishop quoted
from the verse that says:
“Stop the roar of the cannon,
no longer must the tri-color
flag be marred by blood.”
The ending of bloodshed is
not near, said the archbishop.
“Everyday we hear the
roar of heavy firearms, and
the flag and the soil are red
with the blood of our
brothers. This is against
Christian tenets. There are
too many widows, too many
orphans. The best of our
youth is falling in the streets
and fields,” he said.
The archbishop called for
peace and reconciliation
between political opponents.
The violence has produced
strong support for the
Nicaraguan church from
prominent church leaders
throughout Latin America.
Currently a message of
solidarity from about 30
foreign bishops is being
circulated in parishes and has
been published in the
non-government press.
“The church in Nicaragua,
which is suffering martyrdom
along with others in the
continent, is strengthening
our faith,” said the message
addressed to the Nicaraguan
Bishops’ Conference.
The message was drafted
by the signers during the
recent general assembly of
the Latin American bishops
at Puebla, Mexico.
There was an effort at
Puebla to have the assembly
issue statements on specific
cases of persecution against
Catholics by governments and
special interest groups. But
the idea was defeated on
grounds that the official
documents should contain
guidelines and not specific
condemnations.
Several bishops then
drafted a Nicaragua statement
to be issued under their own
names.
Among the signers were
Bishop Ivo Lorscheiter.
secretary of the Brazilian
Bishops’ Conference, and
Archbishop Marcos G.
McGrath of Panama City.
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