Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—The Georgia Bulletin, April 24,1980
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V
Can War Be Just?
BY DARREL TURNER
(Religious News Service)
INTERNATIONAL
tensions have raised anew
a question with which
theologians have
grappled for centuries: Is
there such a thing as a
“just war”?
Besides debating this
question, religious
leaders are also
examining situations of
oppression around the
world, particularly in
South Africa, and are
asking whether it is
possible to define a “just
rebellion.”
generally
warfare and
Christian
have also
that it is
simply to
While
opposing
violence
acrivists
acknowledged
not sufficient
take a negative stand on
these issues. Even within
the so-called “peace
churches,” leaders are
promoting the concept
of peaceful alternatives
to conflict.
“It is simply not
enough to be
conscientious objectors
to participation in war,”
says Fr. H. Lamar
Gibble, a peace
consultant for the
Church of the Brethren.
‘‘We must be
conscientious advocates
of the things that make
for peace.”
***
POPE JOHN PAUL
has repeatedly expressed
strong opposition to the
use of violence as a
means of solving
problems. In a sermon at
Drogheda, Ireland, last
September, he declared
that “violence destroys
what it claims to defend:
the dignity, the life, the
freedom of human
beings. Violence is a
crime against humanity,
for it destroys the very
fabric of society.”
At the same time, the
pontiff has called for
concerted action to root
out and eliminate the
social causes of violence
and warfare.
In his United Nations
address last fall, he said
that warfare must be
made impossible by
“constant reflection and
activity aimed at
discovering the very
roots of hatred,
discrimination and
contempt - the roots of
everything that produces
the temptation to war.”
***
THE U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC) has
taken a position on the
draft that is designed
within the framework of
both a pacifist and
just-war ethic.
Fr. J. Bryan Hehir,
USCC associate secretary
for international justice
and peace, recently told
a U.S. Senate
subcommittee that a
Catholic faced with the
draft “will be offered
both the pacifist position
and the just-war ethic as
legitimate options.”
***
AT BOTH AN
international and
ecumenical level, the
W orld Council of
Churches (WCC) has
been embroiled in
controversies involving
the use of violence as a
means to achieve justice.
In 1978, the organizat-
ion’s Executive
Committee said in a
letter to member
churches that “violence
is in many cases inherent
in the maintenance of
the status quo.”
While stressing that
the WCC “does not and
cannot identify itself
completely with any
political movement,” the
message added that it
does not “pass judgment
on those victims of
racism who are driven to
violence as the only way
left to them to redress
grievances and so open
the way for a new and
more just social order.”
Although that
document indicated that
the WCC does not take
an absolute pacifist
position toward violence,
some leaders of the
organization urged that it
go beyond that stand.
In a study document
on South Africa, issued
earlier that year, Dr.
Baldwin Sjollema of the
WCC’s Program to
Combat Racism asked,
“Can we claim to stand
in solidarity with those
who rebel for a just cause
if we simply refuse to
pass judgment on them?”
He suggested that the
churches consider
defining a “just
rebellion” as many have
supported the concept of
a “just war.”
The study document
rl » « f L n ii iY L I f n 1
U 1 C VV l 11 U U g 11 L 1 U 1
reactions from several
sources. The Internatio
nal Fellowship of
Reconciliation, a pacifist
group based in Holland,
commented that
“counter-violence from
the South African black
majority and its allies is,
in a profoundly human
sense, quite ‘justified.’”
But, it added, “One
cannot help but
sympathize with those
whom violence has
driven to violence - but
do such sympathies
require religious
endorsement of civil
war?”
Dr. O. Jager, professor
at the Theological
Academy of Kampen,
Netherlands, asserted
that “an ivory-tower
theology rejecting violent
revolutions is as
dan gerous as the
opposite,” while Dr.
Wolfgang Schweitzer,
professor of systematic
theology at the
Theological Seminary at
Bethel, West Germany,
called for more reflection
on the “justification and
limits of the use of
violence by govern
ments.”
***
WCC GENERAL
Secretary Philip Potter
has pointed out that St.
Thomas Aquinas
advocated rebellion
“where a government
becomes tyrannical and
it is impossible to do
much about it.” Citing a
secular document, he
also noted that the
American Declaration of
Independence established
the legitimacy of
rebellion against
“improper government
that takes a mean
advantage of people.”
Within the Jewish
tradition, the
Commission on Social
Action of Reform
Judaism has published a
study on the subject. Its
author, Rabbi Richard G.
Hirseh of Jerusalem, says
that pacifism is “not in
the mainstream of Jewish
thought,” but there is
the injunction that no
war can be waged against
any nation “before peace
offers are made to it.”
Rabbi Hirseh relates
that the rulers of ancient
Israel could conduct
defensive wars without
seeking permission from
anyone, but they were
required to gain the
sanction of the
Sanhedrin, the court of
71 rabbis, for wars of
aggression.
Although many peace
activists have condemned
modern technology for
producing new forms of
warfare, the immediate
past Archbishop of
Canterbury has suggested
that modern technology
can also be used for
peacekeeping purposes.
Dr. Donald Coggan
has proposed that the
United Nations establish
a peacekeeping force to
serve as “a professional
police force” in helping
to cool off international
quarrels. He contends
that through the use of
“all the new techniques
of inspection which
science can provide”
such a force can help
make the UN “strong,
more respected, just like
a good police force.”
Father John A. O’Brien Dies
SOUTH BEND, Ind.
(NC) - Father John A.
O’Brien, author of 45
books and specialist in
convert work, died April
18 in South Bend after a
long illness. He was 87.
Father O’Brien, who
came to the University of
Notre Dame in 1940 to
teach apologetics and who
in later years was
author-in-residence at the
university, was an
advocate of Christian
unity, but believed that
the ecumenical apostolate
and convert-making should
go “hand in hand.”
Urging removal of the
church’s ban on
membership in the
Masons, he said the
fraternal organization in
the United States did not
have the atheistic and
anticlerical character it
had in some continental
European countries.
A supporter of family
planning, he recommended
keeping the birth control
issue out of legislation and
politics, but did call for
government funding of
research into natural
family planning.
In 1973, he became the
first priest to receive the
University of Notre
Dame’s highest honor, the
Laetare Medal.
“It is fitting that Father
O’Brien is the first priest
on whom we have
conferred the medal,” said
Holy Cross Father
Theodore N. Hesburgh,
university president, at
that time.
‘‘While he has
personally pioneered in
several apostolates --
Newman Club chaplaincy,
apologetics and the
convert ministry, the
ecumenical movement -
his pen has been just as
tireless in translating
important theological and
philosophical issues from
the language of the
specialists into a
vernacular grasped by the
mass of the faithful.”
During his years at
Notre Dame, Father
O’Brien spent his summer
vacations street preaching
and giving lectures in areas
of North Carolina where
there were few Catholics
or none.
He set up convert
programs in about 50 U.S.
dioceses and called for
involvement of the laity in
convert work.
In an interview in 1964,
he attributed a
“disturbing” decline in the
number of conversions to
M
The “Long Man” Speaks
DEKALB COUNTY students enjoy the
wonders of the Tumbling Waters Environmental
Education Program in Clayton, Georgia with
instructor John Harley and “Ruby,” the camp
dog.
SARTRE
Challenged Church
the Catholic Church to “a
let-up in convert-making
activity that came in the
wake of the announce
ment of the convening of
the Second Vatican
Council and the ensuing
discussion on achieving
Christian unity.
“This seems to have
created the impression,”
he said, “that convert-
-making is somewhat out
of style and might impair
the atmosphere necessary
for the ecumenical
movement.”
NC NEWS SERVICE
Jean-Paul Sartre, the
French existentialist
philosopher who died in
Paris April 15 at the age of
74, had a great impact on
contemporary philosphy
and on Catholic
philosophical thinking,
said James D. Collins,
professor of philosophy at
St. Louis University.
Sartre had such an
impact “partly because he
was able to translate the
more esoteric thinking of
German existentialists into
language that was more
accessible to people,”
Collins said, “and also
because of his great
literary range. He wrote
not only philosophical
essays, but plays, short
stories, novels that express
his ideas imaginatively.”
Sartre “brought certain
questions to an acute
point,” the St. Louis
University professor said,
“and in this respect he was
a challenge to
contemporary philosophy
and to Catholic thinkers.”
One such question,
Collins said, was “whether
an intelligible account of
man and his destiny could
be given without bringing
in God or while regarding
God as a hopeless
aspiration that could not
be realized.”
Sartre made Catholic
thinkers re-examine their
reasons for positing the
existence of God, he
added. “Gabriel Marcel,
among existentialists, was
the prime person who
took on this challenge.”
Sartre “was also
influential in raising the
question of compatibility
between individual
projects and individual
freedom and the structure
of society,” Collins said.
“In this respect, he was
also a challenge to
philosophy in general and
to Catholic philosophers
to re-examine the relation
between the person and
the community.”
Collins suggested that
the stress on the personal
and communitarian in
contemporary Catholic
thinking may be partly a
response to Sartre.
In an interview on
Vatican Radio, Paolo
Valori, professor of ethics
at the Pontifical Gregorian
University, said: “In
general one finds in Sartre
a violent criticism of
Christianity, at least of
Christianity as he
understood it, a
misunderstood
Christianity . . . When he
speaks with such
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admiration, such drama of
human anguish, of the
absurdity of life, of the
nihilism in which man
lives, it seems to me that
in some way he aspires to
something different, to a
more elevated hope, to a
deeper hope which is
found in the Christianity
which he unfortunately
did not understand, did
not have.”
The son of a Catholic
father and a Lutheran
mother, Sartre was born in
Paris on June 21, 1905.
After receiving his degree
in philosophy from the
Ecole Normale Superieure
in 1929, he taught
philosophy at various high
schools in Le Havre and
Paris.
In 1933, he went to
Germany for a year to
study the philosophy of
Edmund Husserl and
Martin Heidegger.
Returning to France, he
taught philosophy until
1939, when he was drafted
into the French army.
When France fell to the
invading German forces,
he became a prisoner of
war. After his release in
1941, he taught
philosophy and opposed
the German occupation
and Nazism in
underground publications.
In 1944. he gave up
teaching to devote himself
to writing.
The denial of God is a
basic theme in Sartre’s
philosophy. He said his
existentialism was nothing
else but an attempt to
draw the full conclusions
from a consistently
atheistic position.
In his view, the world
and the beings in it exist
without any reason.
Possessed of consciousness
and freedom, man alone
can give himself a reason
for existence by
consciously making
himself the kind of man he
has freely decided to be.
For him, there was no
objective morality’because
there is no God to
establish universal values,
and the world is absurd
because there is no reason
behind it.
Sartre also saw man as a
lonely being, terrified by
his freedom, without soul
or meaning unless he is
committed to a cause.
BY THEA JARVIS
It was a custom of the
Cherokee to bring their
children to the “Long
Man” of the waterfall.
There they learned the
wisdom that would sustain
them in their life ahead.
Perhaps it was in the
shadow of this old Indian
custom that we brought
our children to the
“Tumbling Waters” of
Rabun County in north
Georgia. High in the hills,
removed from all
distraction but the
movement of the waters
and the rustle of the wind,
the children came to
experience the deep
knowledge that only a
closeness to the earth can
yield.
Led by Jeanne Lakatos,
DeKalb County teacher
and parishioner of All
Saints Church, sixty-five
“Discovery” students
spent three days with the
“Long Man,” listening and
learning as his friends at
the Tumbling Waters
Environmental Education
Project shared their own
insights and experience of
the land.
Katherine Sale is the
director of the Tumbling
Waters Camp. She is a
large, ruddy faced woman
with a ready smile and an
obvious love for children
that she shares with her
co-director, Susan Rogers.
She and Susan, both
COSTA RICA
former schoolteachers, feel
deeply about the quality
of the children’s
experience: “We don’t
want this to be just one
more trip through the
waterworks - or another
tour to see how bread is
made. It’s too important.”
The staff of Tumbling
Waters is of one mind in
this. They come from all
different backgrounds,
represent a varity of
generations and lifestyles,
yet are united in their
devotion to the
preservation of the
precious resources of the
earth.
And so they share
themselves openly and
honestly with the
generation that needs most
to hear what they have to
say.
And the children
respond. They follow
Marie Mellinger, former
president of the Georgia
Botanical Society and
acknowledged “guru” of
the camp, as she leads
them on searches for sweet
birch branches and
“medicine trees.”
They listen to Don and
Audrey Cornelius tell of
their life along the
Tallulah River and what
living close to the land
means to them.
They share their own
insights on energy
conservation with Tom
Knight, builder of his own
solar home and continuing
researcher into solar
energy. They talk of
“forest magic” with
Rabun County resident
Harriet Miller and hunt for
animal prints with
full-time nurse and nature
lover Betty Murray.
They leam the easy
way - the natural way - by
experiencing the reality
that surrounds them.
Tumbling Waters is a
special place. Bobby
Jacoby, student at
McLendon Elementary
who attends St. Thomas
More Church in Decatur,
knows this. So does James
O’Donnell, his physical
education teacher at
McLendon whom he sees
at Mass. Livsey students
Eliesh O’Neil, Michael
Malloy and Ray and Chris
Jarvis from Holy Cross
know the magic of
Tumbling Waters, as does
Martha Heck from
Immaculate Heart of Mary
Church. Christy Petit,
McLendon student who
attends Holy Cross with
her grandparents can tell
you of the wisdom she
learned from the “Long
Man.” They were all there.
So is the loving
presence of God. For in
the constancy of the
water’s movement,
surrounding and giving life
to all who come to this
wilderness retreat, we
cannot but be reminded
that it is a caring, gifting
God who has blessed us
with such abundance.
Castro Angers Bishop
BY JAIME FONSECA
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica
(NC) - Suspending the
airlift of Cuban refugees
“seeking to live as human
beings” completes “the
picture of oppression” in
Cuba, said Auxiliary
Bishop Antonio Troyo of
San Jose.
“After the rescue of a
minority, almost the
totality of the refugees are
being retained in Havana,
their lives in relative
jeopardy by events that
betray respect for human
rights,” he added.
Bishop Troyo was
reacting to Cuba’s decision
April 18 to suspend flights
to San Jose of Cubans who
sought asylum in the
Peruvian embassy.
Initially, arrangements
between Costa Rica and
Cuba lead to the operation
of a clearance center in
San Jose for the 10,500
Cubans who rushed to the
Peruvian embassy Easter
week after Cuba removed
the embassy guards. Under
the plan the refugees
would be processed in San
Jose and then sent to
countries providing
permanent residence.
Several flights since
April 16 have brought
about 650 Cubans to San
Jose. But Cuba quickly
suspended the airlift,
saying the San Jose
stopover was unnecessary
and that it preferred to
send the refugees directly
to the countries granting
permanent residence. The
United States announced
it would take 3,500
Cubans. Other countries
accepting Cubans include
Peru, Spain, Brazil,
Venezuela, Canada and
West Germany.
Cuban officials also
were believed to have been
angered at the anti-Cuban
Service of the U.S.
Catholic Conference.
The intergovernmental
Committee for European
Migration is providing an
estimated $4 million to aid
in paying for the airlift
and the processing of
Cubans.
Upon arriving in San
Jose, many of the refugees
reported organized
harassment as they tried to
statements made by the leave Cuba. Many said
refugees upon arriving in
San Jose. Many refugees
said they were subjected
to beatings and harassment
because of their decision
to leave.
A fter the suspension,
Costa Rica offered asylum
to all the Cubans
remaining in the Peruvian
embassy, but Cuba did not
immediately accept the
offer.
The suspension “has
created a regretable,
critical situation, when the
operation was going well,”
said Bishop Troyo in an
NC News Service interview
April 20. “I pray a
solution will be found
through proper channels
according to international
law.”
The Cuban decision
also has hampered the
work of U.S. agencies
interviewing the refugees
in Costa Rica. Among the
agencies affected is the
Migration and Refugee
Cuban authorities stripped-
them of watches, jewelry
and religious medals.
“But the worst thing
was that they took my
notebook where I had the
address and phone of
relatives in Miami,” said
Geraldo Gomez, 28, a
construction worker.
Mariana Ruz, 21, a
teacher, said she was
“shocked when airport
guards took everything,
including a small religious
medal and my rosary, and
threw them into a
cardboard box for
disposal.”
Miss Ruz said she
managed to hide the
address of an aunt in New
Jersey by sewing it into
her skirt.
At the Havana airport,
refugees said they had to
pass through a gauntlet
composed of Communist
Youth members and
policemen in civilian
clothing.
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