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PAGE 4—The Georgia Bulletin, August 23, 1984 STATEMENT A Chilling New Technique A psalm reading this week says of God, “It is I who deal death and give life.” But the newspaper this week tells us that it is we who deal death, dealing it in ever more sophisticated and 100 percent guaranteed ways that will not fail us. The new abortion method, digoxin induction, goes straight to the heart of the baby in the womb to still life. This was always the purpose of abortion, but the means have never been so direct and clear. Pro-life workers have always said that abortion kills a living unborn child. Perhaps a direct assault on the heart will speak to some of us who have found it difficult to believe that abortion is killing the living. Perhaps the profound human associations with the heart as the center and source not only of life, but of deep, transforming emotions like joy and sorrow and love and regret will help us to cry out: “Stop.” Perhaps the needle to the heart will help us to see the real choice involved: the choice between what is alive, human, vulnerable, weak, defenseless and needy in all of us and our fearful, death dealing and chilling response to our human failings. ~ GRK RESOUND Capital Punishment To the Editor: A recent editorial in the Bulletin condemned capital punishment. The implication of such a condemnation coming from a Catholic paper is that capital punishment is un-Christian and that Catholics can not support it in good conscience. I am also aware that this is the opinion of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. When I hear such statements I wonder who the bishops are speaking for and on what authority do they base their views. The answer in both instances is certainly not the Catholic Church for their stand has absolutely no justification in Catholic theological and philosophical tradition. St. Augustine states clearly on this matter: “Surely, it is not without purpose that we have the institution of the power of kings, the death penalty of the judge ... All those things have their methods, their causes, their reasons, their practical benefits. While these are feared, the wicked are kept within bounds and the good live more peacefully among the wicked ... it is not without advantage that human recklessness should be confined by fear of the law so that innocence may be safe among evil-doers, and the evil-doers themselves may be cured by calling on God when their freedom of action is held in check by fear of punishment.” Now unless the editor of the Bulletin or any of the U.S. Catholic bishops have acquired the revered status of ‘Doctor of the Church’, as St. Augustine has, I will defer to the one in this matter who speaks with authority as a ( •iiU'Ik \iiIkIhhwi4 (USPC) 574880 Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw Editor Gretchen R. Reiser Associate Editor Mary Beth Marino Contributing Editor Member of the Catholic Press Association Business Office U.S.A. $10.00 680 West Peachtree, N.W. Telephone 881-9732 Canada $10.50 Atlanta. Georgia 30308 Foreign SI 2.00 DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by MONDAY NOON for Thursday’s paper. Postmaster: Send POO Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN 601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830 Send all editorial correspondence to: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN 680 West Peachtree Street N.W. Atlanta. Georgia 30308 Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830 Published Weekly except the second and last weeks In June, July and August and the last week in December at 601 East Sixth St., Waynesboro. Ga. 30830 ‘Doctor’ and who has earned his respect through thought and deed, and not by title alone .. . Steven O’Reilly Atlanta (Editor’s Note: The U.S. Bishops’ 1980 statement on capital punishment acknowledged Catholic teaching that the state has the right to take the life of a person guilty of an extremely serious crime. They disagreed with the use of capital punishment as it is practiced in contemporary American society.) Exceptional Issue To the Editor: On account of the persistent number of Atlanta seminarians at the seminary, I read your diocesan newspaper carefully each week. May I commend you for the issue of August 2, 1984 which I found exceptionally good on many scores. I particularly enjoyed the article on Flannery O’Connor as well as the new program for catechist, the visit of the patriarch, and the Atlanta reflections on the in-vitro fertilization. Keep up the good work. Felipe J. Estevez President/Rector St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary Boynton Beach, Florida “We Liberals” To the Editor: Monsignor Burtenshaw’s open letter to Geraldine Ferraro made reference to “we liberals.” The grammar gets complicated, but my question is very straightforward: Who is (are) (was) we? Is it an editorial “we”? (meaning I); then I have no problem or surprise or quarrel with it. Is it an institutional “we”? (meaning everyone on the Bulletin staff); then I have no problem or surprise or quarrel with it. Is it an ecclesiastical “we”? (meaning us clergy); then I have no problem or quarrel with it, although I am surprised. It is a Catholic “we”? ; then hold on for a minute. Who speaks for Catholics in regard to political candidates? It seems to me that Bishop Malone recently urged that candidates (and clergy) stay out of it except for issues of moral consequence. Is it an issue of moral consequence that we rejoice over the nomination of a liberal, nominal Catholic who espouses the permissiveness of abortion, while piously saying that she isn’t for it personally? What sort of contorted logic “allows for” a pro-abortion stance (albeit privately refuted), just because she is “Catholic”? Good grief; is this the best we can do from our Catholic heritage? A mincing weasel-worded apologist for the liberal vote, no matter the issue, but vote for me because I’m Catholic? Have we come this far from our “immigrant church” mentality to knee jerk whenever one of “ours” says something abominable, just because she is a Catholic? Maybe she’s one of “yours”, Monsignor; she’s certainly not one of mine. Therefore, “we” disagree. Paul Bornstein Sandy Springs Islamic Law Affects Catholic-Moslem Relations By John Thavis VATICAN CITY (NC) - A new emphasis on Islamic laws in some Moslem countries is threatening improved relations between Catholics and Moslems gained over 20 years of dialogue, said officials of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Christians. The threat is particularly serious in some Arab and African countries, they said. “Islam, especially in some Arab areas, has shown itself to be obstinate to the point of denying freedom of religion to Christians,” said Father Marcello Zago, secretary of the Vatican organization. Father Zago, who named Saudi Arabia among the “obstinate’Mslamic states, was quoted by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in the edition dated Aug. 15 marking the secretariat’s 20th anniversary. He said that in societies where religion and culture are identified “vociferous groups oppose dialogue as if it were a Trojan horse introduced into their stronghold of tradition.” “Christians in the Middle East who live in precarious conditions of survival look with wonder at the freedoms and facilities granted to Moslems emigrating to the West, and would like to see some reciprocity established,” he said. In the same edition of the newspaper, Father Edouard Sami Martin Sabanegh also said that Arab Islamic nations were rigid in imposing Islamic law. Father Sabanegh is secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Islam, a part of the Secretariat for Non-Christians. A variety of social, ethnic and political factors, particularly the Moslem view that religion and politics are inseparable, have sometimes been “serious obstacles to every form of dialogue” or peaceful coexistence, he said. The troubles of Lebanon show the “saddest proof” of inter-religious hostilities, Father Sabanegh said. Fighting between Christian and Moslem militias there has left thousands killed or homeless. But Lebanon is not the only example of tensions between members of the two faiths, he added. “In some countries the need for dialogue is ignored both by the small Christian communities, composed of temporary foreign immigrants, and by the Moslem majority,” Father Sabanegh said. In its “rigid interpretation of Islamic law,” the Moslem majority “reaches the point of not permitting the public expression of faiths other than Islam,” he said. Both priests said, however, that Catholic-Moslem relations are steadily improving in some Moslem countries, although they feared that progress could be threatened. The fundamental question is respect for religious minorities and recognition of basic human rights, including freedom of religion, Father Sabanegh said. Besides Lebanon, he mentioned Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq and Libya as places where relations between Christians and Moslems are “most painful.” In June, the Sudanese government publicly flogged, fined and imprisoned Italian missionary Brother Joseph Manara for possessing alcoholic beverages in defiance of Islamic law. He was the first foreigner to be convicted since Sudan imposed Islamic law in Sept., 1983. Sudan’s Catholic bishops have strongly protested application of the law to non-Moslems. The law has been called “discriminatory” by L’Osservatore Romano. In July, Bishop Roger M. Mahony of Stockton, Calif., returning from a three-week tour of African refugee areas with two other U.S. bishops, said the situation in Sudan was “a case of modem persecution.” When the American bishops visited Sudan, Bishop Mahony said he found the relations between Catholics and Moslems “very, very tense.” Sudanese government officials declined to meet the bishops, in contrast to the reception the Americans received in other countries they visited, he said. Fathers Zago and Sabanegh said Christian-Moslem relations had greatly improved in some countries. They named Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, much of sub-Saharan and eastern Africa, and East Asia. “All these efforts, however, risk being frustrated or obstructed by the establishment of Islamic law, which has been proposed in some of the countries with Moslem majorities,” Father Sabanegh said.