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PAGE 13 — The Georgia Bulletin, September 14, 1989 Vatican Orders Two Brazilian Seminaries To Close SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS) - The Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education has ordered the closing of two Brazilian 1 seminaries that taught liberation theology, despite a favorable report on the institutions by a Vatican- appointed investigator. The congregation called the seminaries inadequate n for the training of priests. MEXICO CITY (CNS) - Salvadoran Archbishop Ar- ,, turo Rivera Damas arrived in Mexico City Sept. 10 to observe preliminary peace talks between represen- ■, tatives of El Salvador’s government and the rebel Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. .> The archbishop’s par ticipation in the talks followed a last-minute change of position by * Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani. The president has agreed to a demand by guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) to allow Catholic Church of ficials to participate. Cristiani had originally rejected any church role in the talks. The archbishop was ac companied by Bishop Romeo Tovar Astorga of Zacatecoluca, El Salvador, ^ who also was to be an observer. Bishop Tovar is regarded as more conser vative than Archbishop > Rivera Damas and more likely to support govern ment positions. An FMLN spokesman in Mexico City said the rebels accepted observer status for the church in the first round of talks to begin Sept. 13, but said that they might hold out for formal church mediation of any • further negotiations. Ana Guadalupe Mar tinez, a member of the FMLN Political Diploma- „ tic Commission, noted the importance the guerrillas place on Archbishop Rivera Damas’ mediation The Theological, Institute of Recife and Northeast Regional Seminary No. 2 have been ordered closed by the end of the year. The seminaries were establish ed by retired Archbishop Helder Pessoa Camara of Olinda and Recife. According to the Brazil ian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, the congrega tion ordered the closing and said during a press conference that it “is a ne cessity, even an operative one" that the archbishop be present. “It is unexplainable that the government is thinking of beginning a dialogue without a moderator,’’ Lopez had said prior to Cristiani’s agreement to observer status for the church. The FMLN repre sentative told Catholic News Service that the re bels believe it is the right wing of Christiani’s Nation alist Republican Alliance party, or ARENA, which is pressuring him not to ac cept church mediation. “Our information is that it is (ex-Army Maj. Rober to) D'Aubuisson who is behind all this,” Lopez said during a telephone inter view. D'Aubuisson, leader of the ARENA bloc in the Salvadoran congress and a founder of the ultra-right party, has been singled out by church and human rights groups as having "In The Heart Of Buckhead" 365-8899 Also, Now In Sandy Springs against the recommenda tion of Coadjutor Arch bishop Vincente Joaquim Zico of Belem do Para, ap pointed by the Vatican to investigate and report on the seminaries. The Sept. 5 issue of Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Archbishop Zico told Father Humberto Plum mer, head of the Recife archdiocesan conference of links to right-wing death squads. He is also believed by the human rights groups to be the man responsible for the March 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero of San Salvador. Since his inauguration June 1, Cristiani has repeatedly said that his ad ministration wants direct talks with the FMLN and that church mediation is unnecessary. Archbishop Rivera Damas served as mediator in three unsuc cessful rounds of peace talks inside El Salvador in 1984 and 1985 between guer rilla leaders and former President Jose Napoleon Duarte. Religious, that he was sur prised by the Vatican deci sion. Father Plummer told the newspaper that Archbishop Zico “gave a highly favorable written opinion on the two entities and now is worried about all of this, since his positive impres sion has been transmitted to the bishops and fathers, including me." Five bishops from north eastern Brazil met in Campina Grande Sept. 5 to analyze the decision and decide what to do with the seminarians, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. A Sept. 2 United Press In ternational report from Rio de Janeiro said Archbishop Camara criticized the clos ings as a “very serious” er ror on the part of the Vatican. In the same report, a bishop from the state of Pernambuco who requested anonymity told UPI that “with the closing of these seminaries, we will no longer have anywhere to train progressive priests." The Portuguese-lan- guage letter ordering the seminaries closed was dated Aug. 12 and was sign ed by Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins, secretary of the education congrega tion, and Msgr. Ivan Peri, undersecretary of the con gregation. The letter was addressed to Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife. The letter said the visita tions to the seminaries were made Oct. 6-11, 1988, but did not name the person doing the visitations. “This congregation already had an opinion about both institutions, but, as your excellency and the other interested bishops are well aware, it suspend ed any decision in this mat ter until it possessed the results of the apostolic visitation,” the letter said. After studying the visita tion report and attached documents, the congrega tion concluded that North east Regional Seminary No. 2, where seminarians live with poor families rather than in a group house, “does not conform to the idea of a major seminary and does not of fer the minimal conditions for priestly formation.” The Theological Institute of Recife “does not offer an adequate intellectual for mation to future priests, whether diocesan or religious,” it said. The letter did not say what the visitation report recommended. “We have reached the firm decision that both in stitutions must be closed as quickly as possible and before the end of this year,” the letter said. Archbishop Cardoso So brinho was asked to exe cute the decision. The letter added that seminarians at the regional seminary “must undergo a new process of vocational discernment and, ascer taining their sincere accep tance of a priestly identity as proposed by the magisterium of the church and the discipline of a ma jor seminary, could perhaps be accepted, if your excellency is in agree- ment, in the major seminary of the Arch diocese of Olinda and Recife or another major seminary.” The letter said it was the responsibility of religious congregations to provide proper education and for mation for religious seminarians. According to the UPI report, Cardinal Eugenio de Araujo Sales of Rio de Janeiro lauded the Vatican decision, saying that “the direction that these seminaries had taken end ed up obliging the Holy See to adopt this measure.” 851-1791 Old South Remodeling | Decks • Major Repairs • Additions • Floor Repairs for Termite • Water I Damage Screen Porches - Free Estimates SOUTHERN CHARM with a ladies touch! 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