Newspaper Page Text
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)