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CHARITIES DRIVE HELPS
Resettlement:
The “Boat People” Begin Anew
BY LYNNE ANDERSON
From refugee camps in Malaysia,
Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia
they come. Their trip has been a bit
more arduous than the yearly trip to
the beach with the car packed full of
screaming youngsters. Often, a
15-foot fishing boat is packed with
over 60 “boat people”; half that
number might drown before reaching
one of the refugee camps.
Storms and starvation claim lives,
too, as the shoddy boats, overstuffed
with human cargo, make their way to
refugee camps. The closest refugee
camp for fleeing Vietnamese is in
Thailand, 500 miles away. Many
times the “boat people” must travel
further, maybe to Australia, more
than 3,000 miles from their native
land.
Whatever the distance, the
voyage’s perils are unending. It is
nothing unusual for a parent to
watch the sea claim children and
loved ones.
Once land is sighted, there is no
guarantee the journey is over. The
packed boats remain at sea many
times, hoping that someone will take
them in. The sea, once their only
hope, their way out, becomes again a
greedy thief as the refugees wait for a
chance to land somewhere. Many
boats capsize. More lives are lost as
water supplies dwindle.
Those refugees who do land at a
refugee camp face another abysmal
wait. There is still no certainty they
will have a place to go from the
refugee camp.
There are over one-half million
refugees in these camps in Malaysia,
Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong
Kong, the Phillipines, Korea, and
Japan. The United States, Canada,
France, West Germany, and Australia
are accepting the homeless survivors,
but there are restrictions; only some
find new homes.
The United States accepts 14,000
refugees each month. The United
States Catholic Conference helps to
settle half of these. These 7,000
refugees are sent to one of four ports
of entry - Seattle, San Francisco,
New York, and Atlanta. From each
port of entry, a number is sent to a
particular diocese depending upon
the job market, housing, and most
crucial, the availability of sponsors
for the refugees.
More than 600 boat people will
come to the Archdiocese of Atlanta
this year, says Mr. Tam Van Bui,
Resettlement Coordinator for the
Archdiocese.
“The Resettlement Office helps
with housing, jobs, schooling,
medical needs, transportation, and
really everything involved for a
family to come in and begin a new
life,” Tam says. A division of
Catholic Social Services, the
Resettlement Services Office is
funded by the Archdiocese and the
Archdiocesan Charities Drive. “We
are very grateful to the people of the
(Continued on page 3)
WITH NOWHERE TO GO, Southeast Asians refugee camp. Their search for a new home is a
begin a search for a new life aboard fishing boats tale of terror and death,
which they hope will be allowed to land at a
Canadian Valentine
Think about it. And be honest.
Canada has been a sort of step-child
in our supercillious eyes. It’s a
massive semi-nation- somewhere
north of Detroit famous for its
policemen on horses, eskimos living
in houses of ice and havens of rest
for secretive unpatriotic
draft-dodgers.
Maybe we have lived with
Canadian resentment because of its
size. It’s bigger than us. Can anything
be bigger and
better than the
United States?
From the snowy
blanket territ
ory called the
Yukon in the
Northwest to
the little
unknown
Capitol called
Ottowa in the
S outheast,
Canada is
bigger.
Or maybe its because of Vietnam
and the sixties. Those who said no to
the jungles, those who saw no sense
in warring with a nation not yet out
of the stone age, those who would
not fight this police action, went to
Canada. And to our bitter begrudging
disappointment, they were
welcomed.
Maybe it’s because of the pert,
pretty and warmly successful Anne
Murray. This fabulous nightingale
who hails from that land of the
Maple is a credit to her profession
and a distinct example of fine family
life in a business, hardly ever
knowing it.
But all that’s over and done
forever.
Throwing caution and fear of oil
shortage to the wind, Canada offered
shelter to citizens south of the
border. This time, draft dodging
never entered the picture. The
Canadian shelter saved a fleeing six
destined to suffer the fate of the
fifty held hostage in Teheran.
So we owe our northern cousins.
Readily they took the risks, in cloak
and dagger style. Six diplomats were
led to safety as a watching world
witnessed an unusual act of political
courage. In our happiness, we are
deeply in debt.
Lewis Grizzard says we should
send a statue of Liberty or North
Dakota. Furman Bisher would send
the Braves. “Relocate Disneyworld in
Quebec “says Johnny Carson and
Governor Busbee might even let Six
Flags transplant to the land of the
Mounties.
The urge to do something is
overwhelming. This week gives us the
key opportunity. It’s Valentine.
Instead of sending excess tons of
calori swollen sweets sweets to your
sweetie, send a card to a Canadian.
Send an undiplomatic hug. Send a
warm neighborly great big ole smack
on the cheek. Send lots of love.
Valentine’s Day emotionally
means affection. The self-sacrificing
international moves of affection
made by our Canadian cousins was a
Valentine Americans will cherish
forever.
Let us return their wishes of love.
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 7 Thursday, February 14,1980 $6.00 Per Year
HELPING A PRISONER - An officer covers
an inmate with a blanket at the New Mexico State
Penitentiary after authorities regained control of
the prison. The riot, one of the worst in U.S.
prison history, left at least 32 inmates dead and
scores of others injured.
USCC Denies Trade-Off
Critical Eye Views
“Electronic Church”
WASHINGTON (NC) - Bishop
Thomas Kelly, general secretary of
the U.S. Catholic Conference, has
denied that the U.S. bishops took
their neutral position on a request by
the Census Bureau for church help in
counting illegal immigrants because
they were not guaranteed anything in
return.
Charles Keely of the Population
Council, author of two books on
U.S. immigration policy, had said
one of the reasons the bishops took
the neutral stand on the Census
Bureau request was that there was no
offer by the Carter administration of
amnesty or consistent enforcement
policies for the illegal aliens.
“I know it on good authority. I
was among the advisers,” Keely said
at a seminar on U.S. immigration
policies sponsored by the American
Friends Service Committee.
The bishops took their neutral
position at their meeting last
November after being asked for help
by the Census Bureau as part of
efforts to insure an accurate count.
The bishops were reluctant to offer
aid to the bureau out of concern that
information about illegal aliens might
lead to the aliens’ arrest and
deportation.
Some individual dioceses in
California and New York are lending
limited cooperation.
“The bishops for some time have
been after . . . some form of amnesty
and more consistent guidelines and
enforcement policies for the illegal
immigrants,” Keely said.
“It is not that the bishops had any
doubt about the integrity of the
census officials when promising that
they will not pass the information to
immigration authorities,” said
another seminar speaker, Loy
Bilderbock, a historian and migration
researcher from Fresno, Calif.
Bishop Kelly, USCC general
secretary', while saying that the
bishops long have wanted amnesty
for the illegal immigrants, said the
decision of neutrality on the Census
Bureau request was not related.
“It is not accurate to say that one
of the reasons the bishops of the
United States took a ‘neutral’ stand
regarding a request by the Census
Bureau to help in counting Hispanics
and others in the upcoming census
was that the administration offered
nothing in return for the risk of
confidentiality,” said Bishop Kelly.
“It is true that the USCC strongly
favors such a program (of amnesty),
but while the possibility of a
so-called trade-off with the Census
Bureau on this issue may have been
discussed informally by individual
spokesmen in the preliminary
conversations referred to by Mr.
Keely, this matter played no part in
the decision reached by the bishops,”
Bishop Kelly added.
He said the only point at issue
when the bishops discussed the
question at their November meeting
was whether or not the bishops could
“guarantee” census confidentiality to
illegal aliens.
Keely noted that counting all
persons is as important for
congressional redistricting, taxation
and revenue sharing of federal funds
as it is for schooling and welfare
programs, “all matters of interest for
church groups.”
In giving an overall view of
attitudes on immigration, Keely said
there is “ambivalence on the part of
most Americans: to welcome the
immigrant or refugee if economic
conditions require it, to fear his or
her competition if the job market is
tight.”
Bilderbock said he saw signs that
Americans are heading for “another
lapse of xenophobia, of
anti-foreigner hysteria.” He said that
the problem of illegals has many
people scared, “because they know it
is there, and it is big, but no one
knows how big, how many are
involved, and what the real impact is
on the rest of society.”
He said that some sectors see gains
in the cheap labor provided by the
immigrants, particularly those who
entered illegally, and pointed to the
“dilemma of some labor leaders
among Hispanics who resent the
mistreatment of their kin, but see
also a threat to their own unionizing
efforts.”
Both speakers coincided in
lamenting the lack of a solid
immigration policy and of a coherent
action by the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
NEW YORK (NC) - A different
type of spotlight shone on Pat
Robertson, Oral Roberts, Rex
Humbard, Robert Schuller and other
stars of religious television
broadcasting when they came under
critical focus during a two-day
conference on the growing
phenomenon of the “electronic
church.”
Some 200 Protestants and
Catholics from across the United
States and some foreign countries
gathered for a concentrated look at
the trend in religious broadcasting
which those famous television
evangelists represent. But not
everyone agreed on exactly what
“electronic church” meant.
For some, it was simply all
religious broadcasting on radio and
television. But conference sponsors
like the Rev. William Fore, director
of the National Council of Church’s
Communication Commission,
defined it as “those programs that
present a preacher and a religious
service . . . aimed at creating a strong,
loyal group of followers to that
preacher and service.”
The NCC commission organized
the event, which was jointly
sponsored by the Department of
Communication of the U.S. Catholic
Conference, the North American
Region of the World Association of
Christian Communication, Unda
USA (the Catholic broadcasting
association) and New York
University.
Participants indicated that they
were critical or at least uneasy about
the electronic church. The
conference occurred shortly after
President Carter had visited the
annual meeting of the National
Religious Broadcasters (NRB) in
Washington, and later invited several
of its key personalities to breakfast
at the White House. “Carter knows
where the power is,” commented
Bishop Norbert F. Gaughan,
auxiliary of Greensburg, Pa., at one
conference session.
Bishop Gaughan. chairman of the
USCC Department of
Communication, moderated the
session addressed by the Rev. Pat
Robertson, founder of Christian
Broadcasting Network (CBN) in
Virginia Beach, Va., and host of its
daily talk show, The 700 Club.
In response to one question, Mr.
Robertson said he had no “political
agenda” for 1980, except to ask
people to pray for the nation as it
might face a possible economic
depression and a war in the Middle
East. Many conference participants
said they felt uneasy about the
growing audiences - and financial
support - of television personalities
like the Rev. Jerry Falwell of
Lynchburg, Va., who heads the Old
Time Gospel Hour radio broadcast
(Continued on page 3)
Lenten Radio Spots
“Just a Minute for Lent.” That’s what the 60 second messages are
called. One for each day of the Lenten season, from Ash Wednesday
to Easter Sunday, has been produced by the Department of
Communications in Atlanta.
The Lenten spots will be heard three or four times each day on
WGST All News Radio 92 AM in Atlanta.
“We did some for Advent,” says Monsignor Noel Burtenshaw “and
the station liked them. As Lent came along we discussed the idea with
WGST and agreed to produce one message for each day.”
The spots are also under consideration in the cities of Rome,
Gainesville, Athens, and LaGrange. “If those stations accept them,”
says Monsignor Burtenshaw,” they would just about cover every
corner of our Archdiocese. We’ll know next week.”
The “Just a Minute” idea is an expansion of the work of
Communications in Atlanta.'A Television Mass can be seen on WSB
Channel 2, WTBS Channel 17 and a weekly Radio Program is
produced on WGST called Religion-Wise. The radio program on
religious news can be heard at 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Sundays.
“The opportunities are there,” said Monsignor Burtenshaw, also
Editor of the GEORGIA BULLETIN “Good religious programming is
a goal of many of our radio and television stations. I really hope the
Lenten Minutes are helpful to a good celebration of this Holy Season,
for our Catholic people and also for the radio audiences.”
The texts for the one minute spots were written by Monsignor
Burtenshaw. Along with his associate, Lynne Anderson, the Atlanta
priest produces the messages at WGST. Copies of the text may be
obtained from Catholic Communications at 756 W. Peachtree St., N.
W., Atlanta, Ga. 30308.'