Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 21 No. 28
Thursday, August 18,1983
$10.00 Per Year
At Lourdes
Pope Cites State Limits
On Religious Freedom
BY NANCY FRAZIER
LOURDES, France
(NC) -- Illuminated by the
flames of thousands of
candles, Pope John Paul II
called Aug. 14 for an end
to religious persecution
throughout the world.
The pope closed the
first day of his 30-hour
visit to Lourdes and
Tarbes, France, by joining
in the traditional nightly
candlelight procession at
Lourdes, one of the
world’s most famous
Marian shrines.
In an address to
200,000 people after the
procession, he also
pointedly criticized the
government of French
President Francois
Mitterand, with whom he
had met earlier in the day.
As examples of those
suffering from religious
persecution in the form of
“permanent restriction of
personal freedom or social
discrimination,” Pope
John Paul listed “parents
who are refused the
possibility of securing for
their children an education
built on their faith.”
The French church and
the pope have strongly
criticized a plan by the
country’s Socialist
government to nationalize
Catholic schools.
“Today, to prisons,
concentration camps, hard
labor, expulsion from
one’s own country, have
been added other forms of
punishment, less remarked
upon but more subtle: not
a bloody death, but a sort
of civil death; not only
segregation in a prison or
in a camp, but permanent
restriction of personal
freedom or social
discrimination,” Pope
John Paul said.
“There are hundreds
and hundreds of thousands
of witnesses to faith, very
often ignored or forgotten
by public opinion,” he
added.
“They are believers
forced to meet secretly
because their religious
community is not
authorized,” the pope
said. “They are parents
who are refused the
possibility of securing for
their children an education
built on their faith.”
The Vatican gave no
details about Pope John
Paul’s hour-long private
meeting with Mitterand.
The topic of Catholic
schools in France was
believed to have been a
key theme.
Asked about his talks
with the pope on Catholic
schools, Mitterrand said,
“the affairs of the state in
France are the affairs of
the state and each one
understands it very well.”
He said he and the pope
discussed “international
affairs: peace and
freedom, the problems
which have come up since
our first meeting in Rome
(Feb. 27, 1982), those
which have become worse
and the rare ones which
(Continued on page 8)
Pope John Paul II prays before a statue of Mary in the grotto at Lourdes
Headquarters In Atlanta
Network Mobilizes Against Klan
BY CHRIS VALLEY
The white robes and
pointed hoods are
familiar. You have seen
them in history books
when you were a high
school student. But this
isn’t a picture in a
history book. This is
College Park, Georgia.
And this is 1983.
“Klan activity in
Georgia between 1981
and August 1982
increased 300%,” says
Evelyn Newman, office
manager for the
National Anti-Klan
Network which is
headquartered in
Atlanta.
The National
Anti-Klan Network is a
national clearinghouse
for information on
Klan activity.
Organized in 1979, the
Network is a loose
group of organizations
which have come
together because of
common concern about
the increase in KKK
activity. It provides an
avenue through which
affiliated organizations
can know of activities
to counter the KKK,
and can participate in
coalitions to combat
the KKK in particular
local situations.
“The Klan cannot be
ignored,” maintains
Lyn Wells, director of
the Network. “They
exploit local issues and
polarize whites and
blacks, non-foreigners
and foreign-bom. They
are highly organized
and skillful.”
Forty-one counties
in Georgia have active
KKK groups. The
majority are in North
Georgia. All three of
the major Klan factions
are represented in
Georgia: the Invisible
Empire-Knights of the
(Continued on page 9)
Prejudice In Small Town, Page 8
COLLEGE PARK - About 100 robed members of the Invisible Empire,
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan marched and rallied here May 28th. They
were led by their national leader, Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson (3rd from
left). (Photo courtesy of the National Anti-Klan Network)
