Newspaper Page Text
• •
The
Georgia^;
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 22, No. 28
Thursday, August 16,1984
$10.00 Per Year
Despite Bishops' Plea, Religion Is Heated Political Issue
BY LIZ S. ARMSTRONG
WASHINGTON (NC) - Although the leadership of the
U.S. Catholic bishops said that injecting religion into
political campaigns is “regrettable,” the church found
convictions should not influence their public policy
decisions.
Though the statement cited no politicians by name, the
statement was immediately perceived as a slap at Rep.
Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., the Democratic vice
Church Not Saying How To Vote, page 13
itself in early August becoming more deeply immersed in
the 1984 political debate.
An Aug. 9 statement by Bishop James W. Malone of
Youngstown, Ohio, president of the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops and U.S. Catholic Conference, warned
against use of religion in a partisan manner. But it also
criticized politicians who say their personal religious
presidential candidate, and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Both Catholic politicians say while they are personally
opposed to abortion they do not support steps to ban it.
“I am amazed at how times have changed,” said Ms.
Ferraro. “Twenty years ago people were afraid John
Kennedy would impose his religious beliefs on his
decisions in government. Now some people are afraid I
THRILL OF VICTORY -- Theresa Andrews of
Annapolis, Md., gold-medal winner in the
100-meter backstroke at the Los Angeles
Olympics, gave her medal to her brother, Dan,
Exchange Trip Participant:
who was paralyzed from the waist down after
being hit by a car last fall. See story page 7. (NC
photo by UPI)
Soviet Society Appears Controlled, Orderly
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Sister Kathleen Tomlin, C.S.J. returned from the Soviet
Union with vivid memories of war monuments dedicated
to 22 million people who died in the country in World
War n.
A former social studies teacher at St. Pius X High
School, she said she gained a new understanding of the
impact of the war upon the Soviet Union after seeing the
monuments and the continual reminders of the suffering
of that war.
“I could understand their paranoia,” she said. “I can
understand why they are so protective of their borders.”
Soviet relationships with Eastern European countries
and the war in Afghanistan become more understandable,
won’t.”
But Bishop Malone’s statement also cautioned that “it
would be regrettable if religion as such were injected into
a political campaign through appeals to candidates’
(Continued on page 14)
she said, since the location of these countries makes them
“a buffer zone of states” around the Soviet Union which
protects the country’s borders from direct attack.
Sister Tomlin visited the Soviet Union for two weeks in
June under an exchange sponsored by the National
Council of Churches, which also brought a Russian
religious delegation to the United States.
Upon returning to the United States, the American
delegation was criticized in the national press and accused
of not speaking out adequately on the subject of human
rights and religious rights while in the Soviet Union.
Sister Tomlin, who visited the cities of Moscow,
Leningrad, Kiev and Odessa, and the village of Ustinov
(Continued on page 16)
Italian Terrorists
Ask For Forgiveness
BY JOHN THAVIS
ROME (NC) -- A group of imprisoned Italian
terrorists, citing church teaching that salvation is for
everyone, has asked forgiveness from the victims of
terrorist violence and from society in general.
The statement was written and signed by several
inmates of Rome’s Rebibbia Prison, including
former Red Brigade member Valerio Morucci, who
met briefly with Pope John Paul II during the
pope’s visit to the prison in December. Morucci was
convicted of taking part in the abduction and
slaying of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in
1978.
“We first of all need to ask the forgiveness of the
victims of the violence - all the victims: those who
in the name of absurd ideologies were struck down,
those who died because they believed in those
ideologies, the friends, relatives and the human
community disrupted by the climate of animosity
and war,” the statement said.
The statement called for an end to hatred and
violence against terrorists who have cooperated with
authorities in exchange for reduced penalties.
Healing the wounds left by terrorism, the
statement said, requires more than a re-thinking of
political issues. “It is also necessary to place oneself
on an ethical or moral level, and to confront oneself
with the victims of terrorism,” the statement said.
This can be done, it added, “through the church,
the bringer of human values and sustainer of the
rehabilitation of every individual. ”
The statement was put together after three
months of discussion among the inmates, several of
whom are held responsible for some of the bloodiest
crimes in a wave of Italian terrorism in the 1970s.
The inmates described how, with the passage of
time, the ideological motives for violence
disintegrated. In place of a belief in a “liberating”
violence, they said, came intellectual confusion,
along with the prospects of long prison terms and
the accompanying moral and physical suffering.
When the pope visited Rebibbia Prison Dec. 27,
he individually greeted about 400 male inmates,
including several convicted terrorists. Morucci spoke
face-to-face with the pope for several minutes.
The Italian church has in recent years mediated
between terrorists and authorities. One of the
clearest examples of that role came in June when a
group of Northern Italian terrorists turned over
arms and ammunition to Cardinal Carlo Maria
Martini of Milan. The terrorists were encouraging
the church to act as a go-between in talks with
authorities.
Church leaders, including Cardinal Martini and a
group of Italian prison chaplains, have pressed for
belter prison conditions and the modification of
Italy’s preventive detention law. A new law that
limits preventive detention to a maximum of six
years was approved by the Italian Parliament in
July.
