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\orgia v Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 19 No. 4 Thursday, January 22,1981 $8.00 per year * 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.