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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1990)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 28 No. 10 Thursday. March 8. 1990 $15.00 Per Year Archbishop’s • Annual • Appeal Ethiopians Near Starvation BY LIZ SCHEVTCHUK WASHINGTON (CNS) - As U.S. Chris tians received gritty Ash Wednesday reminders of their eventual mortality, millions of Ethiopians faced the prospect of suffering — perhaps dying — by Easter. According to grim statistics revealed at a hearing in Congress on Ash Wednesday Feb. 28, 4 million to 5 million Ethiopians face starvation unless warring factions there negotiate for peace and allow relief operations to resume. “If plans for moving- food ... are not ar ranged immediately, people will begin moving into camps in (neighboring) Sudan, and Eritrea and Tigre, and widespread death will be inevitable,” ac cording to a report by the House Select Committee on Hunger. Ethiopia’s Marxist government has waged a bloody civil war with two large rebel forces — the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, in the Eritrea region, and the Tigre People’s Liberation Front, in the Tigre region. Recent intensification of fighting follows a drought in some areas of the nation, located on the coast of north east Africa. The fighting has severely hindered aid programs. "There are people committing suicide right now because of the lack of food,” David Holdridge, Catholic Relief Services senior director for the African region, told a joint hearing of the House Select Com mittee on Hunger and House Foreign Af fairs Subcommittee on Africa. “We call for a long-term, peaceful solution to the war, on all fronts, but we cannot wait.” Ethiopia suffers under what relief workers consider their “two worst nightmares: famine and civil war. Together they are catastrophic,” said An drew S. Natsios, director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance at the federal Agency for International Develop ment. “The lives of millions are at stake. We estimate we have three to four weeks left before we see mass starvation,” Natsios told the congressional hearing. But a top State Department official ex pressed skepticism that the combatants (Continued on page 13) INSIDE Hibernians Operation Rescue plan March 17 page 3 fined $450,000 by federal judge .. page 11 Third Age Youths the challenge get letter from for the Church page 5 Texas bishop page 14 Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ Our Response To AIDS In Called To Unconditional Love, Arch bishop Marino writes of the response of the Church in North Georgia to the tragic reality of AIDS. This is his second pastoral letter since his installation in 1988. The first, issued Jan. 4, 1990, was on the gifts and challenge of the Hispanic community. The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ commands us to love one another selfless ly as Jesus loved us. Because it is at the economic, juridical, and structural nature, not only on individual families and in neighborhood communities, but also on na tions and on the entire community of peoples.” (Pope John Paul II) Alerted by the concern expressed by Pope John Paul II, and compelled by the growing evidence of the effects of this in sidious disease in our local community, I address this urgent appeal to all members COMFORT — Father Alan Dillmann embraces a man with AIDS at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Photo by Michael A. Schwarz, Atlanta Journal and Constitution. heart of the Church’s mission in the world, this commandment is universal, admitting of no exception. We who constitute the Church of North Georgia are challenged each day in many ways to translate this call from Jesus into generous and compas sionate service. With full confidence in your desire to re spond wholeheartedly to the great com mand of the Lord, I write to focus attention on a grim and troubling human reality that requires an immediate and comprehen sive response from the Church, and from all men and women of good will. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and its acquired syndrome (AIDS) con tinues to spread throughout the world. By far it is the most dramatic of diseases to beset the human community in modern history. Compared with other infectious ill nesses, HIV/AIDS “has by far many more profound repercussions of a moral, social, of the local Catholic community, and to all people of good will. The time for specific instruction and decisive action is upon us. Persons with HIV/AIDS cry out for relief and the right to personal dignity. Also, their families, friends, health care profes sionals and the community at large are seeking guidance, support, and reassurance for their efforts. Let us first consider our responsibility to those not yet touched by this disease for which there is presently no cure. We must continue, and indeed increase our efforts to educate persons of all ages especially our young people on the nature of this disease, how it is contracted, and the ap propriate means for its prevention. For those who are not married, chastity has always been and remains the Church’s norm. For married persons, sexual activi ty is governed by the promises made at the (Continued on page 6)
