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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 4
Thursday, January 22,1981
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H*el
Wanda - The Winner
The first time Wanda wandered
into a liquor store she was nine. She
put the note and the twenty dollar
bill on the counter and waited.
“It was a cinch,” she remembers.
“The guy said, ‘What’s this bourbon
and vodka for?’ I told him my Mom
was having a party and couldn’t
come down herself. He knew I was
lying, but I got my bottles and right
then I really needed them.”
What did she need bourbon and
vodka for? “I
had been
drinking for
almost 12
months at that
time and I just
had to have
some everyday.
It all began
when I lived in
New York.
After school I
went down to
the beach area.
All the kids were drinking booze, so I
began. I really liked it. Soon I had to
have it.”
“It was easy to get at home. Then
when I couldn’t get enough, I took
tens and twenties from my Mom’s
purse. If she missed it, she never, ever
mentioned it.”
“The kids at the beach told me
about other parties where stuff was
smoked. So soon I was doing joints.
By the time I was eleven, I was on
heavier stuff, pills and really getting
into heavy drugs.”
But didn’t her parents ask
questions about her condition, her
late nights, the parties?
“No. They didn’t care. I would
tell them I had babysitting jobs.
They went to bed at 11. I got in at
maybe 6 a.m. I told them I was in at
midnight. I sometimes offered to give
them numbers where they could
reach me. But mostly they were
never interested. They made me get
up for Mass on Sundays and go with
them. I never kicked up, but that was
a drag.”
“When I was twelve, we moved to
Chicago and I was into this guy for
real money for the habit. He told me
there were three things I could do to
pay for the stuff. I could deal, steal
or hook. I decided to hook. On the
streets. And he showed me how.”
“It was big money. Baby
prostitution, you know. And the
guys paid well. Sometimes three and
four hundred dollars. But I needed it.
I was into all the hard stuff, cocaine,
barbituates, LSD, you name it. I
would do anything for my stuff. I
had to have it. I knew it was killing
me. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter.”
“My parents took me to a
psychiatrist when we got to Atlanta.
He said I was a manic depressive.
They put me into an institution, a
looney bin, and you know what?
First thing they did was put me on
drugs. I figured I was home, really in
heaven.Nobody figured me to be on
booze and drugs. Little kids are not
supposed to be addicts.”
“My Mom just wanted me to be
the nicest little girl in town. As long
as I looked the part, she didn’t care
what I was or what I did. When I
stopped looking the nice little good
girl part she threw me out of the
house. So I was fourteen, hooked on
drugs, dying inside and on the
streets. I knew I was going to end up
in the morgue.”
But she didn’t. Wanda met a
bunch of kids like herself who beat
the odds by bunching together in
rag-tag therapy groups called
Narcotics Anonymous. It’s just a
support fellowship that says there is
a better way, and a Higher Power to
help.
“I’m having my first birthday this
week. How about that. Clean for one
year. I can’t go home. I’m not in
school. I’ve only got a bit of a job.
But I’m a winner. I’m not doing
drugs.”
Wanda, the winner, with a lifetime
of the gutter behind her, just turned
17.
El Salvador Aid
Includes Weapons
REMEMBRANCE - Mrs. Magdalena Hammer of Potomac, Md„
receives the U.S. flag from an honor guard during graveside services
at Arlington National Cemetery for her husband, Michael who was
killed by gunmen in El Salvador.
HOSTAGE DRAMA
Bishop Praises
Peaceful Release
BY LIZ SCHEVTCHUK
WASHINGTON (NC) - Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and
Oblate Father Darrell Rupiper of Omaha, Neb., both of whom visited the
American hostages in Iran, expressed joy at news of agreement on release of
the hostages Jan. 19.
Editorial, Page 4
Both also suggested a congressional or other official review of American
activities in Iran before and during the Iranian revolution that led to the
overthrow of the late shah’s government.
“I certainly am elated at the fact this thing is finally ending,” Bishop
Gumbleton said. He said he was pleased for the families of the hostages as well.
(Continued on page 6)
WASHINGTON (NC) - Amid
protests from church groups in the
United States, the Carter
administration has resumed military
aid to El Salvador, including new
“lethal” supplies such as automatic
rifles, ammunition and grenade
launchers.
The United States previously had
been supplying El Salvador with only
“non-lethal” supplies, such as
transportation and communication
equipment. That aid, temporarily
suspended following the murders in
early December of four American
Catholic women missionaries in El
Salvador, was resumed Jan. 14.
Three days later, the State
Department announced that the
United States also would begin
supplying “lethal” equipment to help
the Salvadoran government of Jose
Napoleon Duarte defend itself from a
leftist guerrilla offensive.
The decisions came only a few
days before the Carter administration
left office. The new Reagan
administration is expected to
continue military support for El
Salvador’s government.
There were quick and strong
denunciations from church groups
which have long fought to have the
aid permanently cut off.
“Our opposition to renewed
military aid is based on the
conviction that no real evidence
exists that the government of El
Salvador has brought (its) security
forces under control,” said
Archbishop John R. Roach of
Minneapolis-St. Paul, president of the
U.S. Catholic Conference.
“The restoration of military
assistance, in our view, enhances the
possibility of more violence from the
security forces and associates the
United States with acts of oppression
which can only alienate the majority
of people in El Salvador,” he added.
Church and human rights groups
in El Salvador had accused the
government security forces of being
involved in the murders of the four
missionaries - three of them nuns -
as well as other killings. The State
Department said “positive steps” had
been taken in the investigation of the
murders.
Archbishop Roach also called
provision of military aid a “costly
gamble” because of the possibility
that it might lead to more direct U.S.
involvement in El Salvador’s civil
war.
Archbishop James A. Hickey of
Washington also called the
resumption of military aid a great
disappointment.
“I believe it most unfortunate that
our government has chosen to give
military assistance to strengthen the
role of Mr. Duarte despite the lack of
solid proof that he can control the
very military forces we shall be
aiding,” said Archbishop Hickey,
former head of the Cleveland
Diocese, which sponsored the
mission in El Salvador for which the
four American women worked.
Archbishop Hickey and Bishop
Thomas Kelly, USCC general
secretary, met with Secretary of
State Edmund Muskie Dec. 17 and
with President Carter Dec. 22 pressing
their case that aid not be resumed.
The State Department, which
termed the military assistance
“modest,” said both forms of aid
were being supplied because of a
depletion of government arms and
ammunition and the “covert” supply
of arms by “Cuba and other
communist countries” to the
Salvadoran guerrillas, who are waging
a “final offensive” against the
U.S.-backed government.
The department said the loss of El
(Continued on page 6)
CENTRAL AMERICAN STUDY
Wider Violence Feared
WASHINGTON (NC) - A report on the findings of a 17-member mission
sent to Central America by the American Friends Service Committee said
“there is growing concern over a Vietnam-type policy” voiced by many of the
people they interviewed.
It added that local groups in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua show
“growing fear of a wider war in El Salvador and the possibility of U.S. troop
involvement is openly discussed.” The report also said that “some U.S.
diplomatic and military officials discounted” troop involvement.
The mission, which spent November and December in the area, held
interviews with government officials, U.S. military personnel in Panama, U.S.
diplomats in Central America, business leaders, peasants, workers, students,
professionals and church personnel.
The American Friends Service Committee, a branch of the Quakers,
sponsors social works in Central America.
During presentation of the report, Phillip Berryman, the Friends’
representative for Central America and a member of the mission, said that in El
Salvador and Guatemala “the military are out to eliminate the opposition.”
The report cited evidence of repression against civilians, including church
people, attributed to security forces. It mentioned the withdrawal in July of
priests, nuns and the bishop from Santa Cruz del Quiche, Guatemala, because
of threats against their lives.
“They left parishes in charge of laymen. In another district villagers destroy
their catechism diplomas, fear to gather for evening prayers, hide their Bible,
because all these things are considered subversive,” the report said. “Persons
who show leadership are being threatened or exiled. Greater numbers are
simply kidnapped, tortured, mutilated and killed, including Catholic and
Protestant church workers, lawyers, students, professors, journalists, workers
and peasants.”
“Church leaders told the mission that rightist gunmen coordinate killings
with the military and police security forces. Western diplomats said
Guatemala’s government investigates killings by leftists, but not the far greater
number of killings by rightists,” the report added.
The report cited a priest who helps relatives of the victims as saying that
(Continued on page 6)
Pressure Grows To End Iran-Iraq War
BY AGOSTINO BONO
NC News Service
International pressure is building
for an end to the Iran-Iraq war. But
both sides are resisting efforts to
arrange a cease-fire and fierce
fighting continues between the
Persian Gulf states.
Among the world leaders pleading
for an end to the conflict is Pope
John Paul II.
Meanwhile, U.N. peace envoy,
Olof Palme, has been shuttling
between the two countries trying to
negotiate a cease-fire and the
42-member Islamic Conference
Organization is preparing for a
summit meeting Jan. 25 to tackle the
issue.
Iran and Iraq are both Moslem
states.
Economic concerns are a major
cause of worldwide anxiety over the
fighting. Both countries are major oil
producers and the war has greatly
reduced their production of the
already high-priced commodity.
During his Angelus talk at the
Vatican Jan. 18, Pope John Paul
prayed for “the gift of peace
between Iran and Iraq.”
“I hope that the authorities of
those countries may seek in dialogue
and negotiations the resolution of
their conflicts, and I make in
addition an appeal to the leaders of
international organizations that they
may spare no effort to restabilize the
accord between the nations and to
definitively avoid the terrible din of
arms, wherever it may be heard
again,” said the pope.
During the previous week, Pope
John Paul issued similar appeals.
Palme, former prime minister of
Sweden, has met with officials of
both countries several times since
being named U.N. peace envoy last
November. So far, however, he has
been unable to break the impasse
over rival territorial claims and the
presence of invading Iraqi troops in
Iran.
(Continued on page 6)
ATLANTA PENITENTIARY
U.S.C.C. In Case-By-Case Review
i
BY GRETCHEN REISER
For an estimated 1,700 Cubans, a
long and dangerous boat trip from
Mariel Harbor, Cuba to Key West,
Florida will bring them to the long
halls of the Atlanta Federal
Penitentiary.
Right now, 800 are being housed
at the penitentiary, but as the Fort
Chaffee, Ark. refugee camp closes, an
estimated 900 more will be moved to
the turn-of-the century, high security
facility.
On the top floor, a former prison
For I Was In Prison
Out of 130,000 who arrived in the
boatlift, these men were among those
separated at one point or another by
immigration officials. Some had
questions raised about their
background in Cuba because they
said they had prison records. Some
came off the boats with shaved heads
and wearing prison garb, but may
have used the device to get on a boat
leaving Cuba. Some were separated
after further questioning by
immigration officials at refugee
camps, and others ended up in
detention after disturbances in
refugee camps.
!•)
Second In A Series
library has been converted into
make-shift work quarters for
immigration officials, a small team
from the U.S. Catholic Conference
and local volunteers. This group is
doing the painstakingly slow work of
reviewing each person’s case, trying
to surmount language problems,
cultural barriers, and the tensions
and restriction of confinement to
determine who might be a candidate
for resettlement.
“There are 800 different needs
here,” said Robert McCarthy, a
lawyer for the U.S.C.C. who is in
charge of the team.
“Some need medical help. Some
need psychological help. Some need
to get out of here,” he said.
The Catholic Conference is the
only volunteer agency authorized to
do resettlement work inside the
prison. McCarthy, who has been in
Atlanta since the end of October,
says that the initial group of 800
includes some who are candidates for
resettlement, some who would need
a strong base of support services in
any community before they could be
resettled and some whose behavior or
records preclude resettlement.
But the process of determining
that in 800 cases proceeds will
excruciating slowness and caution, as
McCarthy, two U.S.C.C.
psychologists and two caseworkers,
work with staff loaned by
immigration services and a small
number of volunteers from the
Atlanta Cuban and Catholic
community.
The need for more volunteer help,
including bilingual volunteers, but
(Continued on page 6)
: ■
INSIDE the Atlanta Penitentiary before its conversion to a
detention center for Cuban refugees.