Newspaper Page Text
PAGE G—The Georgia Bulletin, January 22,1981
VISIBLE SIGNS - Children in Lithuania walk
in procession before Mass. The Chronicle of the
Catholic Church in Lithuania, an underground
newspaper, reports that in spite of government
harrassment, more children are openly
participating in religious services than at any time
since the Communist takeover of the Eastern
European nation.
Hostage Release—
(Continued from page 1)
“I also feel grateful that President Carter has persisted
in ending it in a peaceful way,” Bishop Gumbleton said.
He cited what he termed the “courageous leadership the
president has given. We owe a great deal to that kind of
leadership.”
A member of the international peace group Pax Christi,
Bishop Gumbleton met with about 12 hostages at
Christmastime in 1979, several weeks after the Nov. 4
seizure of the American embassy in Teheran. He expressed
hopes that once the hostages are back in the United States
and have recovered from their long ordeal, he may meet
with them. He said he had kept in touch with them
through families and friends after his visit.
Father Rupiper, who in the past has been more critical
of the Carter administration’s role in Iranian events, also
expressed thanks. He met with imprisoned Americans in
February and April 1980.
He urged a congressional hearing to look into the
Carter administration’s handling of the crisis as well as
other American activities in regard to Iran. And he
suggested, as the Iranians have, that the United States was
at least partially responsible for inciting Iraq’s current war
with Iran. “I think there’s quite a bit of evidence,” he
said. One example he gave was reported contact between
an exiled general - who he said had been a favorite of the
late shah and was blamed for torturing people during the
shah’s regime - with Americans and Iraquis before the war
broke out. In addition, he said, the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) apparently broadcast reports into Iran from
Egypt urging Iranians to overthrow the Ayatollah
Khomeini.
Father Rupiper, a member of the Committee for
American-Iranian Crisis Resolution, said he doubted the
United States has learned anything from its experiences
with Iran. “I don’t see much evidence of it from what’s
going on in El Salvador,” he said. “I think one lesson we
probably haven’t learned is that you can’t support a
dictator and hope to have stability.”
But Bishop Gumbleton said he thinks perhaps the
United States has learned that violence isn’t necessary in
resolving a heated dispute between two nations.
Iran-Iraq Conflict
(Continued from page 1)
Some of the current
border disputes are rooted
in centuries-old
controversies.
Iraq insists that Iran
accept a revision of a 1975
lran-Iraq border agreement
and grant Iraq sovereignty
over the entire Shatt
al-Arab waterway, Iraq’s
only outlet to the Persian
Gulf. The treaty put the
border at midstream of the
waterway.
In December, Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein
said his country planned
an indefinite military
occupation of parts of
Iran, including territory
surrounding the waterway
and this would be the new
border until the war is
over.
Iran says it will not
consider a cease-fire
agreement until Iraqi
forces withdraw from Iran.
Although border
skirmishes have taken
place frequently in the
past few years, open
warfare did not begin until
last Sept. 22 when both
sides launched heavy air
and artillery attacks
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LITHUANIA
Smuggled Document Charts Church Growth
NEW YORK (NC) - The Catholic Church in Lithuania
has won small concessions from the communist
government during the past decade, according to the
Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania.
The 44th issue of the publication, smuggled out to the
West and disseminated by Lithuanian Catholic Religious
Aid in New York, said the number of seminarians has
increased, a catechism has been published and children are
receiving religious instruction.
The religious revival has made the Soviet government
uneasy, the report stated.
“Where an attitude of passivity and impotence reigned
among many priests due to the repressions under Stalin
and Krushchev .... in latter years that spirit is on the
wane,” according to the report. There are 706 priests -
most of them elderly - left in predominantly Catholic
Lithuania.
“Forces greatly influencing the turn for the better
among the priests in Lithuania have been the Russian
dissidents, with their great sacrifices and determination in
the struggle against falsehood and coercion for basic
human rights, and on the other hand, the clergy of
Poland, with Cardinal (Stefan) Wyszinski (of Warsaw and
Gniezno) at their head, energetically struggling for
complete religious freedom in their country,” the
Lithuanian reports continued.
“The priests and faithful of Lithuania long ago
understood the truth expressed so beautifully by Pope
John Paul II when he said that the faithful will have as
New Delegate: “I Love The U.S.
99
BY JOHN MAHER
WASHINGTON (NC) - Archbishop Pio Laghi, the
new apostolic delegate in the United States, said on
arrival Jan. 18, “I really feel at home here.”
The 58-year-old archbishop, who was secretary at
the apostolic delegation in Washington from 1954 to
1961, added, “being at home I have to say I love the
United States.”
In a brief ceremony in the TWA lounge at
Washington National Airport, Archbishop John R.
Roach Of St. Paul-Minneapolis, presidept of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, officially
welcomed Archbishop Laghi, who was apostolic nuncio
to Argentina for the past six years.
Alluding to Archbishop Laghi’s sendee as a priest 20
years ago at the apostolic delegation in Washington,
Archbishop Roach said: “The church in the United
States is delighted that you are back with us and we
look forward eagerly to working with you in building
up the body of Christ in this country. We are very
much a church in pilgrimage and a church committed
to renewal and evangelization.
“We are also a church which feels keenly its
responsibility to proclaim the values of the Gospel to
the whole of American society.
“We are a church in some pain at times,”
Archbishop Roach said, “and we’ll share that with you,
too.”
Concluding, he said: “We believe we are a healthy
and a strong church and your presence among us will
make us stronger.”
In his response, Archbishop Laghi recalled that
when he arrived in Argentina as apostolic nuncio, he
was advised: “Send not so many circular letters, but
circulate yourself.”
He added: “I hope to follow the example of my
predecessor,” Archbishop Jean Jadot, who was
apostolic delegate in the United States for the last
seven years and who traveled widely around the
country.
Archbishop Laghi said he planned to visit
Archbishop Roach in Minnesota soon and to visit
Baltimore, the first diocese established in the United
States.
much religious freedom as they win for themselves.”
“The quota of students allowed by the government in
the seminary has been increased four-fold from five
candidates to 20 annually; this year the faithful, after 40
years of Soviet rule, have seen the first publication of a
catechism; regardless of prohibitions by the government,
in almost all parishes children are receiving religious
instruction openly, school-children participate in
processions, serve at Mass, etc.
“To everyone in Lithuania it is obvious that the Soviet
government has retreated at least temporarily here and
there, not because of ‘diplomatic steps’ by
clergy-government collaborators, but because the believing
laity and priests are constantly demanding their rights,
and more than one has been willing to make a sacrifice for
freedom . ..
“It is possible to get something from the Soviet
government only when it begins to fear the people who
are believers; when the faithful are passive and uniformed,
the most fertile field develops for the tyranny of state
atheism to wax strong,” the Chronicle stated.
For example, the report said, the church in neighboring
Latvia has almost no young people left, and for the last
three years the seminary has been allowed to accept only
those with non-Latvian surnames.
“The religious revival in Lithuania has long been a
source of uneasiness in the highest echelons ... This year
they have begun to discredit especially active priests,”
according to the report.
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(Continued from page 1)
also those who could
assist with clerical work,
is extreme, McCarthy said.
Poised against the
awesome task of those
inside the prison are some
of the individual stories
that are gradually
emerging:
An 18-year-old youth
interviewed by one of the
team members last Friday
who says that he has been
in Cuban correctional
facilities since he was nine
years old.
A man in his
mid-thirties whose
criminal record in Cuba
was a six-year sentence for
stealing a $47 radio. He
had served six months in
Cuba and now is
indefinitely incarcerated in
against each other. An
Iraqi land invasion
followed and Iraqi troops
have continued to hold
Iranian territory.
The common religion
shared by the two
countries - the majority
population in both is
Shiite Moslem - has not
been a uniting force.
Besides the border
controversies, both nations
are split by the traditional
rivalries between Arab
(Iraqi) and Persian
(Iranian) cultures.
Since the war began,
other Islamic countries
have been unable to
mediate the dispute and
the fighting has caused
deep splits among Moslem
nations.
a maximum security U.S.
penitentiary.
A man whose criminal
record was a rape charge.
His interview disclosed
that he had been charged
with statutory rape by his
future father-in-law. The
then 14-year-old girl is
now his wife and mother
of his two children. The
age of legal consent to
marriage in Cuba is twelve,
McCarthy said.
There are also some in
the group who were
imprisoned in Cuba for
violent crimes or who have
been accused of violence
in incidents in refugee
camps in the United
States, McCarthy said.
The process that goes
on has two phases. First,
the Cubans are considered
detainees until they have
been granted a hearing
before a federal judge to
determine whether they
are eligible for political
asylum. Of 500 such
hearings already held, only
about 20 have been
granted asylum, cases
judged to involve Cuban
political prisoners.
The U.S.C.C. and the
immigration service now
face the remaining
majority, housed in the
cellblocks of the Atlanta
Penitentiary . Barring
some arrangement to
return some of the people
to Cuba, the only route
out of the penitentiary is
as parolees.
Both the U.S.C.C. staff,
which reviews people by-
interview and psychologi
cal screening, and the
immigration service, which
is concerned primarily
with any possible threat
individuals may pose to
society, have to agree that
V olunteers
Needed
Volunteers,
particularly billingual
volunteers, are needed
to assist the U.S.
Catholic Conference’s
work with Cubans
housed at the
penitentiary. Help is
needed in interviewing,
and translating for staff
members and Legal Aid
lawyers, typing, phone
work attempting to
locate relatives, and
simply answering letters
from the prison.
Volunteers should call
457-7511.
someone is a candidate for
resettlement.
Before that stage is
reached, the interview
must take place, and a
psychologist has to
recommend that the
person is a good candidate
for resettlement. The
immigration service then
reviews the history and
behavior in prison and
refugee camps and must
agree with the
recommendation. Then a
person to sponsor the
Cuban must be found,
evaluated and accepted by
the diocesan agencies on
the outside.
The alternative is
indefinite incarceration in
one of the highest security
prisons in the country.
“Any prison is a
horrible place. This prison
is particularly oppressive
(in structure),” McCarthy
noted.
Because of the language
difficulties and the
arbitrary way people were
separated at Key West and
in camps, there are people
in the penitentiary who
shouldn’t be in a
maximum security prison,
he said. He characterized
his job as “trying to
separate the sheep from
the wolves.”
“Some people feel
because they’re not all
sheep, we should forget
about it,” he said. “You
can’t do that. There are
some very fine people in
here. It’s a crime that
they’re here.”
One of the local
volunteers, Martha
Antona, said, having come
once to the prison to try
and help, she and her
husband have been unable
to turn their backs on the
plight of those inside.
“They feel some relief
after they talk to the
Catholic Conference
because they have some
hope,” she said.
“I know many Cubans
are very scared Of the ones
here,” said Mrs. Antona,
who came to the United
States with her husband
during the first Cuban
exodus 20 years ago.
“But I know, if you
come once and talk to
some of them, you have to
come back. At least I
know that is the way it
happened to my husband
and myself.”
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FROSTY RIDE - An Amish horse and carriage
pass under an ice-covered tree along State
Highway 33 just east of Cashton, Wis. Several
carriages were observed in town indicating that
the Amish were stocking up on provisions for the
long cold winter.
El Salvador Aid—
(Continued from page 1) right and left.
Salvador’s last transport
helicopter made the
country’s need for military
assistance “greater and
more urgent.’’ The
“non-lethal” equipment
includes the loan of six
helicopters.
U.S. church officials for
more than a year have
been echoing the pleas of
the bishops of El Salvador
that no more military aid
be given to what the
United States considers a
centrist government which
is attempting to ward off
attacks from both the
Shortly before his
assassination last March,
Archbishop Oscar Romero
of San Salvador wrote
President Carter urging a
halt in U.S. military aid.
He said despite the
October 1979 replacement
of the right-wing
government with a more
centrist coalition, power in
the country had fallen into
the hands of the
“unscrupulous military
who only know how to
repress the people and
promote the interests of
the Salvadoran oligarchy.”
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Central American Study—
(Continued from page 1)
attendants at one of the
morgues in Guatemala
City receive daily about 30
bodies, “two thirds of
them mutilated and with
signs of torture.”
Most of the victims are
workers and peasants, “a
community accepting
death with the simplicity
of Christ,” the priest said
in the report.
Regarding violence in
El Salvador, the Friends’
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Sister Miriam
St. Mary’s School
405 E. Seventh St.
Rome, Ga. 30161
Bishop Arturo Rivera
Damas of Santiago de
Maria is apostolic
administrator of San
Salvador. After the killing
in December of four U.S.
missionaries he said that
the governing civilian-mili-
tary junta, which is
responsible for
commanding the armed
forces, was responsible for
this and other violations of
human rights.
“Yet the U.S. official
position is to support the
armed forces as an
institution, as the only
alternative to the left,”
Berryman said.
The reasons could be
found in U.S. support for
the security forces in these
countries, said John A.
Sullivan, who travelled
with the Friends’ mission.
He said interviews with
officers of the Southern
Command of the U.S.
Armed Forces in Panama
indicated they felt their
mission “is not only to
protect the (Panama)
Canal but to lend strategic
aid to Latin American
governments, and that the
local armed forces should
engage in nation building
in areas other than
defense, like education,
roads, disaster relief.”
Under U.S. security
assistance programs, the
Southern Command trains
military and police officers
for 26 countries in the
Western Hemisphere.
‘‘The officers
interviewed felt it was
important to have allies in
the face of terrorism and
insurgency, Soviet and
Cuban infiltration, and for
the United States to regain
world leadership and
presence,” said Sullivan.
Other interviews
reflected fears of further
escalation of repression
and “the end of human
rights” in Central America,
Sullivan said. “There is
need for (incoming)
President Reagan to make a
statement reaffirming his
support for human rights.”
Regardless of what
Washington might do, “the
deeply rooted people’s
movements for liberation
will continue,” added
Sullivan.