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PAGE 4 - The Georgia Bulletin. May 21, 1987 The Week In Review STATEMENT Memorial Day Reflection This year's Memorial Day events will be dominated by the recent deaths of 37 American sailors, young men who were killed when an Iraqi-fired missne struck their ship in the Persian Gulf. Tneir tragic deaths will add their names to the list of others who have died while serving their country in different places and different times. But it is sobering and striking to see how very dif ferent the circumstances of their deaths are on Memorial Day 1987. in orevious wars soldiers and sailors would not have dreamed of the advanced weapons systems that are now a part of our national defense. With state-of-the-art equipment, however, the USS Stark and its crew was still vulnerable. While the details are still being pur sued, unraveling why defense systems did not detect missiles oncoming, and why they were not used, the technical answers will only point toward the human ambiguity of the Stark’s mis- FAYING TRIBUTE — A man makes a Memorial Day visit to a Minneapolis cemetery. The nation will pause May 25 to honor those who have given their lives in battle. (NC photo by Kurt Foss) (USPS) 574880 t ,viK4k \n IxIkk ov >>l Business Office U S A. $12 00 680 West Peachtree. N W Canada $ 12 50 Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Foreign $ 14 00 Phone 888-7832 Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher Gretchen R. Reiser Editor Rita Mclnerney Associate Editor DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by MONDAY NOON for Thursday's paper Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN 601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830 Send dll 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 *h second and last weeks In June, July and August and the last week in December at 601 East Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830 sion and posture in the Gulf and the complexity of the struggle. An Iraqi jet honing in on the ship with mechanistic precision and failing to respond to calls was not recognized as a certain attacker. In a 1987 strategic maneuver to protect oil supply lines in the Persian Gulf, who is the enemy and how is an attack recognized? And. for those on the U.S. ship, what will be the terrible conse quences of a mistake, if an American vessel wrongly reads the intent of the jet and fires first? The United States, in search of world security, continues to arm, as do the other nations, both developed and undeveloped. Yet the arms only point toward targets and we must choose the targets and the time when it is right. The clarity that once characterized battles has vanished. And the consequences of military actions have become humanly very high. The image of a powerful ship steaming into a “trouble spot” of the world to settle difficulties evokes another time. The vulnerability of the USS Stark and crew points to the risks taken and suffering of nations in an interdependent world, where the limitations of our arms systems are revealed and we must use every human means to bring peace. --GRK RESOUND Endangered Priest To the Editor: I want to congratulate you on sharing the news regarding “Mexican Drug Dealers Attack Priest" in the May 7th issue of The Georgia Bulletin. The article hit very close to home since I worked with this priest, Father Ted Pfeifer, for one and a half years, as a medical missionary with the O.M.I. in Quiechapa, Yantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. I was stunned to read the news about my friend’s danger, yet I know this man of God will not turn back and leave his brothers and sisters in their time of need. I hastily wrote Father Ted and thanked him for his com mitment and more so his love of all his brothers and sisters, us. He truly may lay down his life for love of us and what an example for us to try and follow While I love him dearly and with so much pain in my heart for him, I know his commitment may somehow, someday, keep drugs from entering the homes and hands of many of our children even right here in Lawrenceville. Please pray for Teddy’s safety and for all those priests who have given their life truly to serve all of us throughout the world. God bless the Oblates of Mary Immaculate work ing in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Olivia A. Huggins Lawrenceville Casey Funeral To the Editor: As a life-long Catholic, I am incensed that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rockville Centre, N Y. would take the occasion of former CIA Director William Casey’s funeral as a forum to express his left-wing, political position on Cen tral America. Bishop McGann’s performance was insensitive, shabby and by turning the last rites of a fellow Catholic into a political diatribe he exposed himself as an uncaring, narrow-minded, bitter person. While we all need to pray for the dead, William Casey in cluded, this Bishop is in far more need of same. Richard A. McDonald Atlanta NAMES AND PLACES — More than 150 priests in the archdiocese of Los Angeles have volunteered to take part in pastoral referral services for persons suffering from AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The priests will help AIDS patients deal with spiritual and relational prob lems, according to Father Brad Dusak, director of the arch diocesan Office of Pastoral Ministry to Persons with AIDS and to the Lesbian and Gay Community. He said priests might help a person come to terms with the initial shock of a positive AIDS diagnosis or assist the patients and their families to adjust after a period of alienation. His com ments were published in The Tidings, the archdiocesan newspaper, in a May 4 four-page tabloid on local church response to persons stricken with AIDS. The newspaper reported that a survey of area Catholic hospitals showed they are caring for AIDS patients by coordinating medical, nursing and hospice care, as well as pastoral care, social work and research. Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony said the archdiocese and Catholic hospitals have under taken a joint venture to provide residential care for AIDS patients. * * * * * AROUND THE NATION — Filipino Cardinal Jaime Sir- said his country’s May 11 congressional elections were aim ed at rooting out political leftovers from the era of ousted President Ferdinand Marcos. The cardinal spoke in Chicago while he was in the area to receive an honorary degree from Lewis University in Romeoviile on May 12. “We need young blood in our leadership. The old politicians should go to the museum,” he said. “We were able to expel Ali Baba,” the cardinal said, referring to Marcos, “but the 40 thieves are still around.” Filipinos are trying to restore democracy after “Marcos destroyed everything that democracy means to ail of us," he said. Candidates hand picked by President Corazon Aquino won heavily over the opposition led by former defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile. The cardinal also said Catholic clergy should stay in the background of Philippines politics. “We should avoid the limelight and should not be so much involved in the af fairs of government," he said. Such involvement is a mistake which "boils down to anti-clericalism." BISHOP PIERRE DuMAINE of San Jose, Calif., has lifted the penalty of excommunication from the leaders of a group of Vietnamese Catholics seeking a personal parish. The leaders, Tran Cong Thien and Tran An Bai, met with the bishop and affirmed their loyalty to the church and to the bishop and joined with him in a statement of reconcilia tion and collaboration. They had been excommunicated last August for rejecting the mission status of a parish the bishop had erected for Vietnamese Catholics in the diocese. They also opposed the appointment of Father Paul Duong as a pastor. The dispute had divided the 4,000-member Viet namese community for more than two years. Thien and Bai led demonstrations against the bishop, disrupted liturgical services and demanded a personal parish. Bishop DuMaine and the two leaders agreed that they should work together to provide sacramental and pastoral services in the Viet namese language as well as priests and ministers able to provide such services. Some of the Vietnamese Catholics loyal to the bishop said they rejected any agreement reach ed with the dissident leaders. ***** INTERNATIONALLY — Haiti’s bishops have asked voters in November’s presidental election to vote for the candidates who will seek solutions for the island - nation’s environmental and economic problems. In a statement read in the churches May 10, the bishops said there seems to be no current concern, either among officials of the military - civilian provisional government or in the general public - about the deterioration of Haiti's environment. They blamed the destruction of the country’s forest cover on uncontrolled development of the charcoal industry. The small country's forests have been reduced to four percent of the land area from about 25 percent 65 years ago. The country’s ecological, economic and social condition are “national disasters,” the bishops' statement said. IN TORONTO, Canada, a veteran Catholic pro-life crusader said he plans to sell the health food store he has run for a decade and campaign fulltime to have Canada’s abortion law declared unconstitutional. “There is still one more step to go, and that’s the Supreme Court,” said Joe Borowski, 54, a Winnipeg, Manitoba, man who for nine years has sought to overturn the law permitting abortion. In Canada abortions are legal if an accredited therapeutic abortion committee rules that continuing a pregnancy would threaten the life or health of the mother. Borowski said the law violated the constitution’s Charter of Rights, which calls for equal protection “for everyone.” On April 30, the three-member Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled the Charter of Rights’ protection does not apply to unborn children. Borowski called the decision “absolutely shock ing.” A former cabinet minister in the Manitoba provincial government, Borowski first challenged Canada’s abortion law in 1978.
