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• • 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.
