Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 7—January 24,1980
Peace And The Invasion Of Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (NC) -■ Many religious groups have long wanted to translate
the concepts of peace and disarmament into components of U.S. policy. But-
the impact of those efforts has been blunted by the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan.
President Carter has said the Soviet military move is the greatest threat to
world peace since the Second World War. Most agree that it has revived the
Cold War and has put in doubt the future of the second Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty (SALT II).
Religious groups who had worked hard for approval of the SALT II treaty
say they’re not quite sure yet just exactly how they’ll respond to the renewed
Soviet-American tensions. They say that the Afghanistan issue has raised a
whole new set of questions they’ll have to address.
But some also contend, contrary to the conventional political wisdom these
days in Washington, that SALT II is not dead.
“The Soviet move into Afghanistan should not erode our will for peace and
slow our desire for nuclear disarmament,” said Franciscan Sister Dorothy
Kinsella, a member of the staff of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, and
a leader of the Religious Committee on SALT, a coalition of 27
denominations.
Sister Kinsella objected to the linkage that has been made between the
SALT treaty and the Afghanistan issue, saying the issues of nuclear armaments
and the Soviet invasion are not related.
She also said it is important now for SALT supporters to let their senators
know that they still want a SALT treaty.
“I don’t think that the SALT process is dead,” she said. “We can let it die,
though, if our voices are not heard.”
But as for the broader issues of world peace, Sister Kinsella said peace
advocates have to take the time to learn the facts about the Afganistan
situation and study its actual implications for the future of southern Asia and
for Soviet-American relations.
Another religious leader who objected to linking SALT with Afghanistan
was Rabbi David Saperstein, a co-chairman of the Religious Coalition on
SALT. Citing Soviet actions after World War II, he contended there has been
no connection in the past between Soviet expansionism and nuclear power, and
said there thus should be no link between the need for SALT II and the Afghan
crisis.
He also claimed President Carter made a “grievous blunder” by asking for a
delay in Senate consideration of SALT II. He noted that if and when the treaty
is brought up for consideration, there probably still will be Soviet troops in
Afghanistan, so many will wonder what was accomplished by the delay.
He also said advocates of peace and disarmament may have to rethink some
of their positions in light of the new tensions. But despite that he maintained
SALT II still would be in the best interests of the United States, Afghanistan or
no Afghanistan.
One group which plans to explore the new questions raised by the
Afganistan issue is Pax Christi USA, the American branch of the international
Catholic peace movement.
Notre Dame Sister Mary Evelyn Jegen of Chicago, national Pax Christi
coordinator, said the leadership of the peace group plans to discuss a response
to the new tensions created by Afghanistan and Iran at a meeting in late January
in New York.
Prior to the Afghanistan developments, Sister Jegen said, Pax Christi’s
immediate plans were to discuss the implications of Senate approval or
disapproval of the SALT pact. Pax Christi is opposed to SALT II because, it
says, the treaty would not result in a cutback or nuclear arms but would
merely make the arms race legitimate.
She also said the new international tensions might force peace groups to
raise again the concept of conscientious objection to serving in the military.
“I have a hunch there will be a strong move to bring back the draft,” she
said.
Whether the Cold War-style tensions will grow in the coming months
remains to be seen. But no matter what, church groups desiring international
peace will find themselves in the thick of a new battle.
El Salvador Bishop Is Mediator
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador
(NC) - Faced with increasing
factional conflict, Archbishop Oscar
Romero of San Salvador held
emergency meetings with the
political leadership of El Salvador
and took to the radio and the press
to exhort the rich and the poor to
conciliation and the common good.
“I speak to the government and
the armed forces, who hold the
power at this moment, to tell them
that they must effect a sincere return
to the (reform) objectives and
become a moral, unifying force for
the good of the people, their
freedom and political pluralism,” he
said in his Sunday homily which is
carried nationwide by the media.
At the same time the archbishop,
who has emerged as a key
peacemaker and defender of social
justice in the recent turbulent past of
this Central American nation,
chastized the certain members of
business and the armed forces for a
wave of repression, and the other
groups for their terrorism.
“I warned before that the crisis
was due to the oligarchy and the
armed forces,” he said in his homily.
“Our people seek a dialogue, away
from the extreme right and far left
which only foster violence and
madness. The people well know who
offers true redemption and who false
liberation.”
“No genuine Christian can
despair. We all have the obligation to
unite and seek new avenues to save
the process of liberation of our
people, who already have shed so
much blood for it,” Archbishop
Romero added.
That he was succeeding to some
extent was shown Jan. 9 in the
return of moderates to the ruling
junta, after close to 40 leaders
resigned key government posts in
protest for the rightists blockade of
reforms aimed at helping the poor.
The moderates who joined the
two remaining members of the junta
— Colonels Arnoldo Majano and
Jaime Abdul Gutierrez — are
Christian Democrats Hector Dada
and Antonio Morales, and Jose
Ramon Avalos, an independent
community leader. The junta was
established in October after young
officers deposed Gen. Carlos
Humberto Romero to avoid civil war.
It pledged to end repression and
effect social and economic reforms.
Claiming that little has been done,
leftists have maintained their
guerrilla offensive.
Before the moderates moved in,
the Council of the Armed Forces
yielded to their demands that
Defense Minister Jose G. Garcia and
businessman Mario Andino resign
from the junta.
Archbishop Romero met for four
hours at his office with the remaining
members of the junta, with those
who had resigned and with other
moderates, in his words “to find a
solution to the serious crisis the
country undergoes.” He added that
the crisis was provoked by the true
power being exercised by the armed
forces above the junta and against
the October promises.
In obvious reference to the
repression of organized workers and
peasants, the churchman defended
the people’s right to free association.
He stated:
“People must get organized if
they are to put pressure toward
government decisions that otherwise
remain without implementation.”
Two prominent Catholics in the
junta, Guillermo Ungo and Roman
Mayorga, said they resigned because
rightists in the armed forces along
with minority interests were blocking
the democratization process and the
“profound structural changes” the
country needed to bring about
justice and peace.
They and some 37 officials
resigned Jan. 3 after the Council of
the Armed Forces rejected their
demands to end interference.
The Christian Democratic Party
twice claimed it was fradulently
deprived by the military of victory in
presidential elections. Its head, Jose
Napoleon Duarte, said now that civil
war could only be avoided with
strong participation from his people
and other populist organizations.
DURING JULY
Brazil Expects Papal Visit
BRASILIA, Brazil (NC) - Several
bishops are making suggestions for a
papal visit to Brazil at the request of
Pope John Paul II, church sources
announced. They said the pope is
studying Portuguese to better
communicate with Brazilians.
Papal nuncio to Brazil,
Archbishop Carmine Rocco, said that
n
LITTLE DIPPER - A
youngster makes a lot out of a
little water at the Nong Khai
refugee camp near the
Cambodian border. CARE, the
international relief agency, has
been feeding thousands of
Cambodian refugees daily in the
Thailand camps. (NC Photo)
the pope’s schedule for 1980
includes a visit to Brazil.
The visit is expected to take place
in July.
(No Vatican announcement of a
papal visit to Brazil has been made
yet.)
The Brazilian Bishops’ Conference
has contracted transportation within
the country for the pope with Sao
Paulo Airlines. Conference
spokesmen said the itinerary includes
the capital city of Brasilia, Fortaleza,
Recife, Salvador, Manaus, Rio de
Janeiro, Aparecida, Sao Paulo and
Porto Alegre. This would amount to
traveling across most of Latin
America’s largest nation. Brazil is
approximately the size of the
continental United States.
“We are trying to enable Pope
John Paul to complete his tour in
eight days,” a conference official
said.
Fortaleza, in northeast Brazil, will
be the host city for the National
Eucharistic Congress over which the
pope is expected to preside. Manaus
is in the heartland of the huge
Amazon River basin and is still
considered mission territory.
Rio de Janeiro, the former capital,
was the site 25 years ago of the
establishment of the Latin American
Bishops’ Council (CELAM). Its
officials said Pope John Paul plans to
join the anniversary celebrations.
Aparecida is the seat of the
National Marian Shrine, which
officials hope will be inaugurated by
the pope. Salvador, an Atlantic
coastal city in the northeast, is the
historic center of Afro-Brazilian
culture. It was the main settlement
of African slaves in colonial times.
“For sometime now Pope John
Paul has been asking Brazilian
bishops to submit suggestions for his
program in Brazil, saying that he
wants to visit the various regions of
the country within the time limits of
the visit,” a conference official said.
Preparations for the 10th National
Eucharistic Congress, July 16-20,
include a year of special devotions
begun in all dioceses in December, a
Migrants Day in June, a special
collection to defray expenses, and a
Brotherhood Campaign to raise funds
for church social action projects.
Central themes of the congress
will be migrants and family life.
The previous eucharistic congress,
held in 1975 at Manaus, was devoted
to the condition of the Indians.
Critics said it was used to attack
government policies.
A booklet on the forthcoming
congress published by Auxiliary
Bishop Manuel Edmilson da Cruz of
Fortaleza to explain the 1980 theme
has been attacked by some critics as
“subversive.” It says unjust
conditions affect family life and
prompt many rural families to
migrate into crowded city slums. It
calls for corrective measures,
including land reform, by
government and private leaders.
The controversy escalated when
Carlos Prestes, leader of the
Communist Party, said upon
returning from exile that “today the
Catholic Church is our best ally.”
The booklet, wrote Correio do
Ceara, a newspaper in Fortaleza,
“makes Prestes dance for joy.”
MIND OVER MATTER - In the classroom at
the Notre Dame Educational Center in Cbardon,
Ohio, Notre Dame Sister Mary Claudette talks
with her kindergarteners on the effects of gravity.
In 1953 Sister Claudette battled her way from
near death with multiple sclerosis and back into
teaching. (NC Photo by Sigmund J. Mikolajczyk)
/ v
4 Cruel Question ’ Helped Beat MS
\ -j
CLEVELAND (NC) - It took a
lot of “mind over matter” and a
seemingly cruel question asked by
another nun to get Notre Dame
Sister Mary Claudette Amrhein out
of her sick bed and back into
teaching despite the crippling effects
of multiple sclerosis.
What began as a normal teaching
career for the nun, who entered the
convent in 1940, turned in 1953 to a
virtual life-and-death struggle.
Her directress, Sister Mary Elise
Krantz, shocked her back into the
real world.
Lying in an infirmary bed, totally
immobilized from MS, Sister
Amrhein had resigned herself to
thinking that “if God willed it,” she
would probably die very soon. She
said that one day to Sister Krantz.
“Are you really fighting this thing
to get better?” Sister Krantz asked,
and walked out the room.
Sister Amrhein said she began to
cry. “How could my best friend ask
such a cruel question?” Gradually,
shock and hurt was displaced by a
sense of retaliation, not against her
friend but against the disease that
threatened to rob her of her career.
“I owe everything today to God,
and Sister Elise, because if she hadn’t
asked me if I was going to fight. . .
well, I probably wouldn’t be alive
today,” she said.
A paraplegic now, she can stand,
but can’t walk, and must use a
wheelchair. Though her hands are
numb, she has trained herself to
write as clearly as before the disease.
Though she was feeling sorry for
herself during the five years she was
in the infirmary unable to move,
Sister Amrhein says there have been
just too many people willing to help
her since she decided to fight the MS.
When she returned to the
classroom in 1958, to Gesu School in
University Heights outside Cleveland,
she trained children to copy her
notes on the blackboard. Some of
her students came to school early to
shovel snow so her wheelchair could
glide smoothly on the walkway to
school. Other students would dry off
the chair.
“Neurosurgeions hardly ever use
the word ‘amazing,’” she said. “But
one used that word when he told me
he couldn’t believe how I had
progressed. He said I didn’t get better
because of a remission of MS. It was
all in my attitude.”
The 56-year-old nun now teaches
kindergarten classes in Notre Dame
Educational Center, Chardon, Ohio.
Of her struggle, she says, “You have
to work it out for yourself, a whole
new way of life. No one else can do
it for you. I tell my children not to
feel sorry for me, because I don’t feel
sorry for myself.
“It takes an awful lot of will
power to succeed in life, whether
you’re in a wheelchair or not. I did
try, and it has made my life
worthwhile.”
Strong Support For Israel Urged As Response To Iran
WASHINGTON (NC) - American
Catholics should respond to the
Iranian crisis with solid support for
the state of Isreal, Msgr. George G.
Higgins told a distinguished audience
in Washington Jan. 9.
“The obscene and apparently
compulsive tendency on the part of
the Ayatollah Khomeini and his
followers to blame the present
Iranian crisis on Zionism and, in
effect, to call for the destruction of
Israel makes it all the more timely
for Catholics to recommit
themselves, without qualification, to
the defense of Israel,” Msgr. Higgins
said.
He spoke at what he termed his
“pre-retirement party” — a black-tie
dinner for 60 in the Israeli Room of
the Kennedy Center, hosted by
former Supreme Court Justice and
Mrs. Arthur J. Goldberg.
Among the guests from the fields
of government, religion and labor
were Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan
(D.-N.Y.); Secretary of Labor,Ray
Marshall; the United Farm Workers
president, Cezsar Chavez; the Israeli
ambassador to the United States,
Ephraim Evron; Rabbi Marc
Tanenbaum of the American Jewish
Committee, and Bishop Thomas
Kelly, general secretary of the U.S.
Catholic Conference.
Edward Sanders, senior adviser to
President Carter, read a personal
letter addressed to Msgr. Higgins in
which the president saluted the guest
of honor as a “friend, advocate and
protector of the poor and
oppressed.”
Msgr. Higgins plans to retire as
USCC secretary for special concerns
at the end of the year. After that, he
told the guests, he hopes to stay in
Washington “doing whatever I can to
promote the various causes
represented here this evening.”
Msgr. Higgins devoted the main
portion of his 15-minute talk to
Catholic-Jewish relations, one of the
fields in which he has specialized
during his 36 years with the bishops’
conference.
“It is our common call as Jews
and Christians to make known the
name of the one God among all
nations of the earth in every age and
jointly to serve the cause of peace
and justice among the peoples of the
earth,” he said.
Tracing the development of the
Second Vatican Council’s document
on Catholic-Jewish relations and its
application to present-day Israel,
Msgr. Higgins said Catholics must
acknowledge “the central role of
peoplehood” in Jewish religious
thought, and the consequent
religious character of the historic
attachment of the Jewish people to
the land of Israel.
“It also means,” he continued,
“that Catholics, without fear or
favor, must stand up and be counted,
in season and out of season, in
defense of Israel’s right to exist as a
sovereign and independent nation
within secure and stable boundaries.”
Msgr. Higgins expressed particular
gratitude for the presence of Chavez,
who flew from California expressly
to attend the dinner. “My
involvement in the farm labor
problem,” he said, “has given me
greater satisfaction than almost
anything else I have done during my
36 years at the conference.” The
United Farm Workers, he said, is
“one of the most important social
movements in the history of the
United States.”
As he has in other recent talks,
Msgr. Higgins thanked his superiors
in the conference for their support
over the years. He also paid tribute
to Justice and Mrs. Goldberg:
“Dorothy and Arthur are the best
friends I have had during my own 40
years in Washington.”
Most of those present spoke
briefly, many presenting personal
gifts. Sen. Moynihan said that despite
Msgr. Higgin’s impending retirement,
“he will always serve his God and his
nation.” Bishop Kelly told Msgr.
Higgins: “You have kept us up to the
mark over the years.”
There were religious gifts — a
menorah, a prayer book and a seder
plate — from the rabbis present:
Rabbi Henry,, Siegman, former
chaMri&n of the Synagogue Council
of America, and Rabbi Stanley
Rabinowitz, past president of the
Rabbinical Assembly, in addition to
Rabbi Tanenbaum.
,stf %,, •
“On every* major issue of human
welfare,” Rabbi Tanenbaum said,
“and on every major issue of
Catholic-Jewish concern George
Higgins was always there.” L