Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 28 No. 40
Thursday, November 15, 1990
$15.00 Per Year
Bishops Urge U.S. To Avoid War With Iraq
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops Nov. 12
overwhelmingly supported a letter urging the United States
to avoid war with Iraq except as a last resort after all
possibilities of a peaceful resolution are exhausted.
They said the stringent conditions needed to overcome
the "clear presumption against war" must be considered in
any policy the country adopts regarding military action in
the Middle East
In response to requests by several bishops for an even
stronger statement on the Iraq crisis, the bishops also
decided to set. aside time during their Nov. 14 executive
session, closed to the press, to discuss the matter further.
The resolution on Iraq came in the form of adoption by
the U.S. bishops as their own statement a Nov. 7 letter
from Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles to U.S.
Secretary of State James A. Baker III. It outlined just war
principles and called attention to "the ethical dimensions"
of U.S. policy choices in the new Middle East crisis. (For
complete text see page 5.)
They voted 249-15 to make the letter their own during
their Nov. 12-15 general meeting in Washington.
The letter was sent to Baker by Archbishop Mahony,
chairman of the bishops’ International Policy Committee,
the day before President Bush announced a second major
military buildup in Saudi Arabia. The move was expected
to bring U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf up to around
400,000 by January.
In discussing the letter, several bishops called for another
way to make an even stronger statement. The text could
not be modified according to the procedure under which
the letter was brought up for a vote.
Bishop Michael H. Kenny of Juneau, Alaska, who
returned Nov. 5 from a more than two-week visit to Iraq,
said he was "appalled" that candidates in the November
elections "hardly mentioned that we are poised on the brink
of a catastrophic war."
He urged the bishops to make a statement going beyond
the moral principles spelled out in the letter and apply those
principles practically to the situation in Iraq.
The bishops "don’t hesitate" to say what people should
do about abortion or about condoms, and "this is not a time
to be hesitant or vague" about right and wrong in the
Middle East crisis, said Bishop Kenny.
Archbishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska, led
the move for additional discussion of Iraq by the bishops,
(Continued on page 12)
LOFTY CHORE - Dr. Timothy Wissler, organist at the Cathedral of
Christ the King, stands in front of the tall pipes of the 60-rank Ruffatti
organ there. Renovation of the organ will begin in January. (See article on
page 7.)
Father Joe Cavallo Dies,
Lived At ''Side Of Poor"
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Father Joseph Cavallo, a
former pastor and campus
minister in the archdio
cese, was remembered
Nov. 12 as a priest “of the
abandoned, the poor,” in a
funeral Mass at the Shrine
of the Immaculate Concep
tion in Atlanta.
The priest, who had
been ill for the past two
years, died Nov. 7 at the
Shrine, where he spent his
last years as a priest. He
was pastor of Our Lady of
Lourdes parish, Atlanta,
and for a number of years
Father Cavallo
campus minister to Catho
lic students at Emory
University and Atlanta
University. He was 46.
Bishop James P. Lyke,
OFM, was the principal
celebrant at the Mass,
which was concelebrated
by over 60 priests of the
Atlanta archdiocese. Father
Gerry Conroy, a Glenmary
priest working in areas of
social justice, gave the
homily.
Migrant workers, South
ern textile workers seeking
to form a union, and civil
rights leaders were among
those who “found Joe”
when they came to Catho-
(Continued on page 13)
Jesuit Friends Undaunted
One Year After 8 Slayings
BY MIKE TANGEMAN
MEXICO CITY (CNS) « Telephoned
death threats and bombings against Jesuits
at Central American University in San
Salvador have stopped in the year since
o six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her
k daughter were murdered on the campus.
Army officials recognize the murders as
the "greatest political error” committed by
their side in the country’s 11-year-old
civil war, said Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino,
a colleague of the slain men and women.
"The political cost of the assassinations
has been very great for the government,
and as a result it now has no intention of
aggravating the situation with the Jesuits,"
Father Sobrino said. "That’s not to say that
they like the work we do, but ... that’s
another question."
The Jesuits at the university remain
undaunted in their commitment to
"analyzing and telling the truth" about the
roots of the violence in war-tom El
Salvador, said Father Sobrino.
In Father Sobrino’s case, that commit
ment almost surely would have cost him
his life had he not been attending a
conference abroad at the time of the
murders.
One of Latin America’s premier
liberation theologians and director of the
Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Pastoral
(Continued on page 13)