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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 26 Thursday, July 17,1980 $8.00 per year Brazil: Pope Reflects Social Gospel * Tfaet S*vttut4&4U* The Fisherman’s Ring “Senora, how many people live here?” It was the white clad Pope of Rome who spoke. To the unbelievable horror of this slum dwelling squatter in a back lane of Rio de Janeiro, John Paul II was standing in the middle of her makeshift home. The one thought piercing her mind was the breakfast dishes still unwashed on the clothless table. “Twelve of us live here,” she replied wondering what she should call this vision. She saw the tears swell up in the astonished eyes of this mysterious, increasingly compassionate Polish Pontiff. “Come here, mother,” he said. And standing in that room with walls made from paper and mud, this Brazilian peasant found herself in his arms, ecstatically caught in the caress of his tear-soaked face. Brazil was different. Poland had been heart pounding delirium. Ireland had been a festival of music and song to dance in his childlike eyes. America had been a trail of ticker-tape parades on Broadway, off-Broadway and down the ghetto streets of Harlem. And the emerging nations of Africa with their Christian newness delighted his paternal pastoral ways with their inquisitive freshness. But Brazil was different. It was two weeks of face to face encounters with the living dead. The hopelessness of the maze of slums told him the stories. It told tales of why clerics became political activists. It logically explained the presence of his brother-Bishops parading on union picket lines. It warned the continent that the muted rumbles of the multitude were the sounds of volcanic destruction. And seeing it all, this glorious man of peace yelled out uncontrouably “reform” or risk the forces of violence. The contrasts of the upbeat city of Rio devastated this Pope. Standing underneath the glittering, gleaming, glass and concrete Sheraton Hotel he looked across the narrow street at the squatters gazing at him like an ocean of ants. His hands rose up, not in blessing but in desperate despair, as he again wept over the terrible, visible human disorder. He chose Vidigal for the gift. Home of 150,000 favelados - slum dwellers - it traded misery for carnival glee as the Pope they called “John of God” appeared among them. They had no gift but their dark delirious welcome. He embraced it and left his one and only possession - the Fisherman’s Ring - within the walls of their little church suitably named for the poor man of Assisi. That ring weds him to the peoples of every continent but only this one, this city, this slum enticed it from its position of honor on his papal finger. The message was clear. Ruling the Church from far away places, busy as Father of every place, the High Priest of all Christians everywhere, he would remain with them, the favelados, in Brazil, in Rio, in Vidigal in their slum parish as part of the struggling Church of the Poor. The gift of the Ring said it all. The message of the masses of Brazil would be told. POPE JOHN PAUL II presents a ring given to him by Pope Paul VI in 1967 to Father Italo Coelho at a hillside shantytown in Rio de Janeiro. Father Coelho is coordinator for slum associations in Rio. Beiow, children in a sium dwelling outside of Rio await the arrival of the pope above a sign which reads “Welcome John of God.” IHM PARISH -Refugees Made Welcome- BY MONSIGNOR NOEL C. BURTENSHAW It was in the month of May. Monsignor R. Donald Kiernan was watching the news as his cops and robbers show, Hawaii Five-O, ended. The 11 o’clock news commentator said it simply, but most pointedly. Thousands of Cuban refugees would be coming to the Atlanta area from their makeshift camps in Miami. It was enough. The Monsignor knew what he must do. Immaculate Heart of Mary in northeast Atlanta has become a parish heavily populated by His panics. A Spanish Mass is celebrated each Sunday. With that kind of support readily available to help, Monsignor Kiernan knew that his parish should act. And, in a spirit of outreach, act the parish did. Everyone immediately agreed that the parish should involve itself in the lives of some of the Cubans coming to Atlanta seeking a new life. Bob Becker and Dan Cashin from the finance board were ready. Joe Conboy and the tough St. Vincent de Paul folks were ready. Max Munox and Fernando Mecias from the Hispanic community were anxious. “In my 31 years as a priest” said the happy Monsignor, “I have never seen such an outpouring of spirit and enthusiasm. It was great.” A parish meeting was next. Representatives from 140 families of the parish showed up. “We got things rolling,” says the pastor” but I wanted to be sure that they wanted to get in feet first. So I asked them to return one week later and once again state they wanted to be involved. I felt that a week would cool some enthusiasts.” Police chaplains do not like to be wrong. Monsignor Kiernan, a long time chaplain of Police Departments, was. This time 160 family members were there. They were off and running to serve these new refugees. Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish formally extended the invitation and 15 Cuban refugees arrived. “Jack Bouska became the hard working leader,” says Monsignor Kiernan “as we made these grateful men welcome.” The parochial school children had gone for the summer so three classrooms were turned into dormitories, storage rooms and even a classroom to learn one subject - English. The adventure took shape. And this Atlanta parish rose up to the challenge. “Women arrived everyday to cook,” recalls Monsignor Kiernan with glee. “Men and women hunted jobs, teams came and taught them English and others went out and found apartments for them. The activity was marvelous aand the gifts of food and clothing was like an avalanche of goodness.” And these special guests responded to the generosity. There was no language barrier as the refugees from Castro attempted to repay the IHM parishioners for their Christian charity. The janitor found himself helped on the grounds, or with the painting jobs or simply cleaning up the church. The school kitchen was given a good shine job and the men from Cuba even serenaded the cafeteria at night, when the work and the learning was all over, with ballads and songs from their homeland. By the end of June the mission was really accomplished. Jobs, some very menial, were found for these anxious and willing residents of IHM. “They quickly showed that they wanted to set up homes of their own,” said Monsignor Kiernan proudly, “so apartments were found and groups of families in the parish agreed to pay the first month’s rent. It worked fine.” So with a little English to get them by, jobs on the first rung of the ladder to pay their way, furniture and clothing to start their home and true freedom to make it all worthwhile, the 15 men from Cuba were launched by their brothers and sisters who cared in Immaculate Heart of Mary. “One day, I know,” says Monsignor Kiernan, “they will bring their families to this country and that will be the biggest day of all for them.” There is some bad news for the pastor of IHM. They have cancelled Hawaii Five-0 in the upcoming season. But somehow you get the feeling that a bigger reward awaits Chaplain Kiernan and his faithful parishioners who grasped this golden opportunity to serve. McGarrett, Danno and all those other dare-devils of the Hawaii Police Department could not have done a better job. Ten-four. NC NEWS SERVICE Pope John Paul II’s whirlwind tour through Brazil turned out to be a traveling social encyclical. On his trip, covering 13 cities in 12 days, he warned that Latin America faces only two options: rapid, significant reform or tragic violence. He outlined Catholic principles of peace and justice at almost every level, including: - International peace and the government’s role in social justice at his first stop, in Brazil’s modem capital of Brasilia. - The rights of the poor in a district of slum shacks in Rio de Janeiro. - Workers’ rights at a meeting with workers in Sao Paulo. - Religious rights in Porto Alegre. - Ethnic, racial and immigrant rights in Curitiba. - Land and property rights in Recife. At a meeting with thousands of civic, political, cultural, intellectual and other social leaders in Salvador, Pope John Paul laid out a basic philosphy of Christian action for social justice in the world today. It was there that he warned all of Latin America that it is on the brink of violent revolution if it does not make sweeping reforms to guarantee human dignity and the basic necessities of life to the continent’s massive population living in misery and poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the pontiff repeated on several occasions during his trip. But each time he added that poorness m spirit -does not imply resignation to misery or the giving up of one’s rights and dignity. He said he was quoting Christ’s words to give “a constant warning” to the rich. Unlike the usual papal encyclical on social justice, Pope John Paul’s trip through Brazil did not appear in one large, somewhat impersonal written lump. Instead it developed daily, each portion of it taking on its own specific impact, set in a concrete context that illustrated the issues, and with the personal aspect of the pope’s physical presence. In its practical impact it lay between a teacher teaching in the classroom of the real world and a thinker transmitting his written thoughts from the solitude of a papal study. Because they were spread over nearly two weeks, his views were featured daily on world radio, television and the front pages of newspapers instead of the two or three days of hard coverage that might be given to a new papal encyclical. Nevertheless, the individual events on different themes, when taken together, were like the chapters of a complete social encyclical. He called the trip a religious pilgrimage, but the church’s social teachings were the main focus. He set the tone in Brasilia June 30 with his airport arrival speech. He urged Brazil to “construct an exemplary social context, overcoming imbalances and inequalities, in justice and concord, with lucidity and courage without shocks or ruptures.” In a Mass homily later the same day, he insisted that “the mission of the church cannot be reduced to the socio-political but consists in announcing what God has revealed about himself and the destiny of man.” But under the heading of church teaching about man’s God-given dignity and rights, the pontiff quickly began to draw out numerous socio-political principles implied by the Gospel. “To proclaim and defend such rights ... is a constant factor in the life of the church in virtue of the Gospel entrusted to it,” the pope told Brazilian President Joao Baptista Figueiredo. He proeerieri to list among rights the church must promote those of “life, security, work, a home, health, education, religious expression - private and public - participation.” Still in his first day in Brazil, he expanded that theme in a meeting with diplomats to express the church’s concern over international questions of justice and peace. The next day, at Belo Horizome, he urged youths to “fulfill your duty, practice justice.” He warned them that “social justice is true only when based on the rights of the individual.” As the trip went on, the specific issues varied, but the message remained the same. At two key points in the trip, the (Continued on page 6) MONSIGNOR KIERNAN examines some of the clothing and household goods donated by the parishioners for their refugee guests. The 15 Cuban men received enough donated gifts to furnish their new homes.