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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1987)
PAGE 4 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 26,1987 STATEMENT No One Listened The Week ln Review As this edition of the newspaper is printed, a stalemate exists at the Atlanta federal peniten tiary between desperate Cuban detainees inside the walls and authorities attempting to negotiate an end to the three-day long siege. To seasoned people who have struggled with the complex difficulties of these Cubans, and who have done more than speak about it—who have gone inside the prison frequently to do what they can to encourage—the frustration and fear that erupted Monday is not a surprise. They are close enough to the detainees, and familiar enough with Cuba’s history, to grasp the utter hopelessness a detainee would experience upon being told he might be sent back to Cuba after years in an American prison. This desperation and hopelessness does not justify violence; the 90 or more people being held hostage inside, the guards, teachers, doctors, chaplains, and other staff, are victims also. But to those with a basic familiarity with the human drama of the Cuban detainees, the des perate act is not a surprise. Their plight has been written about before; it has been brought to government offices in Washington, D.C. by con- Sister With Baby Weade In Liberia. (. ailioln \ivWikHvso ot (USPS) 574880 Business Office U S A $12 00 680 West Peachtree. N.W. Canada $12 50 Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Foreign $ 14 00 Phone 888-7832 Published By The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Gretchen R. Keiser 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 all editorial correspondence to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN 680 West Peachtree Street N w Atlanta. Georgia 30308 Second Class Postage Paia 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 cemed people who took it upon themselves to protest the desperate straits of detainees who had no idea when, if ever, they would have freedom in this country. Their legal status has been debated for years in federal court in Atlan ta. For years immigration officials have protested that they were being unfairly criticized, that they were doing as much as they could with a difficult situation. However, it is impossible to look upon last week’s bald public announcement that thousands of detainees would be shipped back to Cuba as anything but grossly callous to the detainees and spoken by people who had no knowledge of them as people. How else can one explain the shock in Washington when these desperate men all over the country exploded in revolt? After five years, no one in authority has listened. A ray of hope emerged Tuesday night when people who know both hostages and detainees went down to pray outside the prison. A change, a calm was palpable, according to observers. For Catholics, whose brothers and sisters are so clearly on every side of this difficulty, it is critical to pray for the miraculous change of heart that will resolve this impasse and to be sorrowful for the blindness that led to this crisis occurring. --GRK RESOUND THANKSGIVING LETTER (The following letter came from a mission in Liberia where Sister M. Sponsa Beltran works and whose clinic is stocked and supplied through the help of people in the arch diocese of Atlanta. Sister Sponsa asked that the letter be printed in thanks for those many donations.) To the Editor: No it is not a doll...it is a real live three-month-old baby who thanks each and everyone of you good people in the Archdiocese of Atlanta who helped her survive her first three months. Weade and Sister Sponsa Beltran come to you at this great time of Thanksgiving to express our sincerest gratitude for all the little babies you have helped get a good start in life. Little Weade was born three months ago weighing all of two and a half pounds. The odds were against her from the start. The day after she was born her mother died from complications of childbirth. An aunt who never could have any children took charge of the infant. Living in the bush the aunt was not familiar with milk so essential in the diet of the infant so she fed Weade water and herb teas. Two weeks after the birth this diet took its toll and the aunt came to the clinic frantic. The baby was so weak and emaciated that she could barely cry. She weighed only one and a half pounds. The aunt’s pleading made us do something about the situation. For weeks on end we fed her with an eye drop per, then with a spoon and gradually a little glass. At first her weight gains were not admirable. We found out that the aunt watered down the milk so that it would last. When we convinced her that as long as Weade made weight gains we would supply the milk we saw a difference. In this picture Weade is five and a half pounds and very alert. Yesterday she was weighed in and weighed all of six and a half pounds. Yes, Weade had a second chance at life only because you all cared and shared so much. Without your loving gifts of milk we could never have helped this and the hundreds of other little babies that we have helped thus far. We are in debted to your wonderfully kind hearts and on this Thanksgiving Day come specially to say God bless each and everyone of you a billion fold for your charity to us. All we can offer in return will be our continued daily prayers for all your intentions. Please pray for us too that we never tire doing His work for His sick poor. Sister M. Sponsa Beltran Catholic Missions Sacred Heart Clinic Box 25 Cape Palmas, Liberia, West Africa PEOPLE AND PLACES — Retired Bishop Eduardo Dalmau, former bishop of Cienfuegos, Cuba, died Nov. 19 in Miami after a long illness. The 94-year-old prelate had been in exile in south Florida since 1959, when he fled the Castro regime. Known as a scholar, Bishop Dalmau wrote several books on theology, social problems in Cuba, and a history of his native country. He was named bishop of Cienfuegos in 1935 by Pope Pius XI. An outspoken critic of the Castro regime, he was the first member of the hierarchy to leave Cuba when Castro came to power. After coming to Miami he was chaplain at St. Joseph’s Novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine in Jensen Beach. He also served as chaplain at the Pennsylvania Retirement Hotel of the Carmelite Sisters in West Palm Beach. He retired in 1965. Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy of Miami was principal celebrant of the funeral Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Miami on Nov. 23. A native of Havana he studied in Barcelona, Spain, before entering the Congregation of the Passion at age 15. He was ordained in 1915 in Rome and taught theology, canon law and Scripture before returning to Cuba in 1931. ***** NATIONALLY — Georgetown University need not of ficially recognize student homosexual organizations but must provide them with services equal to those given other student groups, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in a 5-2 decision Nov. 20. Jesuit Father Timothy S. Healy, university president,in a statement after the ruling, said that the appeals court had “directly addressed what the university always felt to be the principal issue in the case, its right to adhere to its religious heritage.” The court decision capped a seven-year District of Columbia court battle over university treatment of the student groups, the Gay People of Georgetown and the Gay Rights Coalition of the Georgetown University Law Center. Father Healy said the ruling had confirmed a 1983 lower court ruling “recognizing the university’s right to refuse to endorse moral positions not in accord with its traditions.” Accord ing to the latest ruling, the university must give the homosexual groups the “tangible benefits” — such as the right to apply for university funding — as any other student group. But the opinion also said the law does not demand that the university offer official recognition of the homosex ual groups because that would violate constitutional rights. Georgetown regards such recognition as a “’religiously guided ...‘endorsement’ ” which it cannot provide, the opin ion stated. ***** INTERNATIONALLY - The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have affirmed their “unanimous sup port” for British legislation which would make abortion il legal after 18 weeks of pregnancy. Currently, abortion in Britain is legal through the 28th week of pregnancy. The bishops describe the legislation as “a significant attempt to defend the life of the child in the womb.” They said they were not trying to impose Catholic teaching “by force of law,” but were calling for protection of the unborn, “at least from the time when all can surely recognize the presence of individual human life.” In a statement issued Nov. 19, the bishops also urged the British prime minister and government to be sure that the bill was given due con sideration in Parliament. It was introduced in October by David Alton, a Catholic member, and is scheduled for sec ond reading in January. “We recognize that our public support of the Alton bill imposes obligations on us as a church,” the bishops said. “We continue to pledge the resources we have, and we expect public authorities to do likewise, in support of expectant mothers under pressure and in providing for ‘unwanted’ or handicapped children.” Foes of the bill said that certain defects in the fetus can be detected only after 18 weeks of pregnancy. ***** HAITIAN BISHOPS have called for a “spiritual crusade” of prayers for the violence-ridden nation in the week preceding the country’s national elections. Their French- language statement dated Nov. 12 called for services to be held in a different diocese each day beginning Nov. 20, culminating in a national day of prayer Nov. 27. The state ment was published Nov. 22 in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. The Nov. 29 elections for the legislature and the presidency are the first since the over throw of Jean-Claude Duvalier in February, 1986. The bishops expressed concern over the “acts of violence in the country” in recent months. “The Haitian people live in in security,” they added. “Anxiety and uncertainty nearly paralyze” the nation. The bishops asked all Haitians to work to “exercise the threat of anarchy and bring back peace.” The week before the elections, they said, should be a time of adoration, penitence and prayer. They asked Catholics to fast, attend daily Mass, recite the Rosary, pray as a family and say the Angelus.
