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Atlantans To March For Human Rights BY THEA JARVIS In a spirit of concern for human rights and dismay over rising Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi activity, Atlanta church and civic leaders have set out to forge a new bond of solidarity within the community. At a press conference held Tuesday morning at Mayor Maynard Jackson’s office, representatives of “People Against Persecution” announced plans for a silent march of remembrance to honor those who have been persecuted for racial, religious, or ethnic reasons. The march will be held on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 3 p.m. It will begin just outside Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue and end at Central City Park, where speakers will address the gathering. Organizers of the march include among their concerns the missing and murdered children of the city of Atlanta. Father John Adamski, pastor of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Rabbi Beverly Lemer of The Temple, Lino Domingues of the Latin American Association, Reverend Timothy McDonald, assistant pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Earl Shinholster with NAACP, Reverend David Rankin, senior minister of the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, and Libby Davis, of Atlantans for International Education are among those actively involved in the planned march. Pamela O’Brien, parishioner of St. Anthony’s and 20-year veteran of the human rights movement, initiated the idea of the march. “We should do something now before it’s too late,” says Ms. O’Brien, citing stepped up Klan activity, neo-Nazi maneuverings, and statements by avowed racist J. B. Stoner and Baptist leader Bailey Smith as examples of increased effrontery in the human rights arena. Ms. O’Brien notes that such undercurrents operate from a base of fear, and that fear in both the black and white community is running high. “Fascism doesn’t come the way people think, with alot of goose-stepping and swastika-brandishing,” says Ms. O’Brien. “It comes very quietly, sneaking insidiously. It begins with people telling us how to live, how to worship, who is moral, and who is immoral.” Queried about the new religious-political movement, the Moral Majority, Ms. O’Brien replied, “I fear the Moral Majority very much.” As a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a 60-year-old international organization dedicated to world-wide peace and social justice, British-born Pamela O’Brien carries “an individual responsibility to do things around the world” to promote racial and religious harmony. She sees a clear parallel to present events in the infiltration of Nazism within South Africa during the thirties. “What happened in South Africa could happen here,” she claims. “We already have a bad economic situation, and inflation is plaguing us all. We look forward to food and water shortages in the future. These factors can combine to make fascism a possibility unless we do something now.” (Continued on page 6) forgia Vol. 18 No. 40 Thursday, November 13,1980 $8.00 per year «* *• SPF Tfttyi. “Hitl Enviable Courage Stefan Wyszynski is 80 years old. He paid a leisurely visit to an old compatriot in the Vatican last week and got the word. John Paul was most direct with this great old controversial warrior from Poland. His mission of leadership is not over. He may not retire. He will return to his duties in Warsaw and continue his defiant confrontations with the Communist regime which seeks to silence the extraordinary vitality of the Polish Church. Cardinal W yszynski will go. This glorious human chapter of modern day Poland knows the need. He also knows the danger. Polish prisons are no foreign fields to this patriarch. He has fought many battles with the Red oppressor. Some he has won, others have been lost. But his ever vigilant presence has been an important pillar of assurance to a persecuted Church daring to practice it’s beliefs. The old Cardinal misses his most famous collaborator. Before Karol Wojtyla left Poland to surprisingly occupy the vacant chair of Peter, he stood strongly at the side of the wily old Wyszynski. Together, patiently, with painstaking slowness, they sought new freedoms for the Church under a system unaccustomed to yielding any. They pounded on doors for simple permission to build churches. They argued for the necessity of a Catholic, teaching, free press. They fought conscription of their priests into the Red army and daily, risking personal freedoms, they publicly backed the growing demands of the Polish worker. The recent victories won by the unrelenting labor movement in Poland - victories that took down tyrannical leaders - were due to their outspoken, fearless leadership. And the world, terrified that awful threats might be fulfilled, stood in awe at this old man and his fearless cooperator, now leading the Church in Rome. Father Hans Kung has had many words for Pope John Paul as he continued his well publicized tour of the United States. Most of those words have been uncomplimentary in print, and while the press has danced most merrily to his tune, his bitter sensationalism has fooled no one. He was rightly censured for his impatient teachings, not just by Rome, but by his own German Bishops, not to mention his gallant, liberal, theological confreres. The Jesuit Father Rahner, long a student of liberal causes, would simply say that Kung obviously is no longer a Catholic. Cardinal Wyszynski now goes back to Poland. There will be no fanfare, just thoughts of dangerous challenges to be met, cunning, admitted enemies of the Church to be foiled and a godless system of injustice to be endured. The iron curtain Cardinal shames the outspoken inactivity of so many. W. GERMANY Controversy Frames Papal Trip ul s, NC News Service When Pope John Paul II arrives in West Germany Nov. 15 he will find the birthplace of Protestantism simmering with newly revived ecumenical tensions which may last well beyond the five-day visit. The papal trip is primarily designed to mark the seventh centenary of the death of St. Albert the Great, but the pope said in his Sunday Angelus talk Nov. 9 that he considers the visit “particularly important from the ecumenical point of view as well.” Many Germans, too, see the pope’s scheduled hour-long meeting with representatives of non-Catholic Christian churches Nov. 15 in Mainz as a key event of the visit. The length of the meeting has already caused a furor among some German ecumenists, who say the issues which need to be discussed cannot be adequately covered in that time. But time has always been at a premium during Pope John Paul’s previous visits to 14 countries, and the West Germany trip will be no exception. The schedule for the Nov. 15-19 trip includes seven Masses and 16 meetings in seven West German cities. The pre-trip ecumenical problems arose primarily from three booklets, published hurriedly because of the shortness of time between the announcement of the papal trip and the pope’s arrival. One of the books describes Martin (Continued on page 6) Quinn: Church Has Unique Agenda HOSTAGE ANNIVERSARY - Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York greets Louisa Kennedy, center, and Barbara Rosen, wives of United States hostages in Iran, Moorehead Kennedy Jr. and Barry Rosen. The wives and relatives of the hostages then participated in a prayer service (bottom) in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The service marked one year of captivity for the U.S. embassy officials in Iran. WASHINGTON (NC) - The church must at times take unpopular positions if it is to be true to its mission, Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Nov. 10. In a report to the U.S. bishops on the recently concluded world Synod of Bishops in Rome, which among other things affirmed church teaching on contraception and divorce, Archbishop Quinn said the church “must ultimately set its own agenda, and must do so, of course, ultimately out of the sources of faith.” ' He added, “And while this does indeed involve a process of discerning the signs of the times in light of, and on the basis of, the Gospel as handed on in the church, it can and not infrequently does require the church to be ‘against the world for the world,’ that is, to take positions and insist on truths which the spirit of the times finds unacceptable or incomprehensible.” Archbishop Quinn’s speech before about 250 bishops gathered for their annual meeting in Washington marked his last as bishops’ conference president. The bishops were scheduled to elect a new president later during the Nov. 10-13 meeting. Archbishop Quinn stressed that while most press accounts of the synod focused on the issues of contraception and divorce, “it is important to bring into relief the fact that 21 major topics were treated in the synod which resulted in the formulation of 43 major proposals or resolutions which were both doctrinal and pastoral.” He said the synod, which had the theme of “The Christian Family in the Modern World,” also dealt with issues such as the value of celibacy, (Continued on page 6) Election Buoys Pro-Life, Dismays Justice Groups WASHINGTON (NC) - Pollsters said that Catholics helped Ronald Reagan sweep to the presidency in an election which left church groups expecting big gains for their causes or fearing a move backward in social justice concerns. Pro-lifers and supporters of tuition tax credits were delighted that the party which supports their issues had scored such a major victory Nov. 4. But other Catholic groups concerned about such questions as disarmament, domestic social legislation and international affairs were left wondering whether their issues would«reeeive less attention. Reagan, 69, former Hollywood actor and two-term governor of California, was elected with 51 percent of the popular vote. President Carter, who lost his bid for a second term, received 41 percent of the vote, and independent candidate John Anderson took 7 percent of the vote. But it was in the electoral vote totals that Reagan built a landslide victory. He won in 44 states with a total of 489 electoral votes while Carter won only six states plus the District of Columbia for a total of 49 electoral votes. Catholics, according to several election day polls, gave Reagan between 46 and 48 percent of their votes. Carter received about 43 percent of the Catholic vote, and 9 percent of the Catholics who went to Pope John Paul sent good wishes to President-Elect Reagan following the election. The first-person telegram marked a departure from the usual Vatican practice. In the past the Papal Secretary of State transmitted the message. Pope John Paul personnally signed this congratulatory message which was dated Nov. 5. the polls chose Anderson. “I am not frightened by what lies ahead and I don’t think the American people are frightened by what lies ahead,” said Reagan in a victory statement in Los Angeles on election night. “Together we are going to do what must be done - we are going to put America back to work,” he added. Among the congratulatory messages sent to Reagan were ones from Pope John Paul II and Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco, president of the U.S. Catholic Conference and National Conference of Catholic Bishops. “I pray that Almighty God will assist you in your role of leadership in your country and in striving to build the edifice of world peace on the solid foundations of truth and love, freedom and justice,” said a telegram from the pope. The first-person telegram marked a departure from usual Vatican practice. In past presidential elections, the papal secretary of state transmitted congratulations in the pope’s name to the new president-elect. Archbishop Quinn’s message to Reagan offered congratulations on the victory and cooperation in dealing with “the many critical problems, domestic and international, which our nation faces at this time.” (Continued on page 6) Flight From War To Drought NEW YORK (NC) - Somalia, in the northeast African region known as the Horn of Africa, has “the most significant and disastrous refugee problem in the world at this time,” said Kenneth F. Hackett, regional director for Sub-Sahara of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). “The refugees are fleeing from war to a country that’s in the midst of a drought,” said Hackett, who recently visited Somalia. The 1.5 million refugees in Somalia comprise more than 25 percent of the population of the country and they continue to arrive at an average rate of 1,000 a day. Somalia, generally considered the eighth poorest nation in the world, is a country of nomads, whose average per capita income is less than $150 a year. Unusually severe drought conditions affect about 50 percent of the 3.5 million permanent inhabitants of Somalia. CRS, the overseas aid and development agency of U.S. Catholics, has joined Church World Service, the international relief agency of the National Council of Churches, and Lutheran World Relief to form Inter-Church Response for the Horn of Africa (ICR-HA). Each of the three agencies in the assistance consortium has agreed to commit a minimum of $250,000 a year for three years. In the consortium, Church World Service will be responsible for water resource development and health care delivery, CRS for food and nutrition programs and Lutheran World Relief for agricultural development, solar energy and other technologies. Hackett said the consortium’s first priority will be to provide immediate material assistance, such as tarpaulins, soap, skin cream and water containers. There is enough food in Somalia, but there are difficulties in transporting it to the refugee camps, he said, and ICR-HA will work on solving this problem. ICR-HA’s longer range projects, Hackett said, include improving availability of fuel supplies so people do not have to walk 15 to 20 miles a day to collect firewood; helping the people to grow their own food; developing a reforestation plan; and improving sanitation and water systems to prevent the spread of parasitic diseases. Hackett said ICR-HA will provide assistance on the basis of need. “We’re not involved in conversion or proselytization,” he said. “In fact, that’s contrary to our mandate.” The consortium will aid both the refugees and the permanent residents, he said. “It is likely that the situation will continue for a number of years and, although it is not the policy of the Somali government or the intention of the refugees to stay in the camps, it will be some time before they can resume their traditional nomadic lifestyle. In the meantime, we’ll try to help the individuals work together as a community to become as self-sufficient as possible.” * WOMEN AT THE WELL -- In a refugee camp in Somalia, women come to draw water from a well.