Catholic schools in big merger PERTH, WA: June 8, 1989
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Number 2639
• Pages 2 and 3
Magnet of the Church
• Page 4
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Yes! The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Australian Council of Churches have decided to explore the possibility of moving towards an expanded national ecumenical body. The Roman Catholic Church has had observer status in the ACC since 1965. On a provincial level, some Catholic dioceses are members of state ecumenical bodies in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. A Sydney-based working party comprising five representatives from each body is to think through issues raised by a resolution of last year's ACC General Meeting. That resolution invited non-member churches "to explore appropriate relationships either within the existing ACC structure or within a new one." Co-convenors of the working party are Bishop Bede Heather (Catholic) and Bishop Richard Appleby (Anglican). In April, Lutheran and ACC representatives met in Adelaide to start talks on the same question.
Ch'nese Blood bath in the country sparks a big protest by A sian Catholics
Catholics from Taiwan to the Philippines have protested the bloody suppression of prodemocracy demonstrations in Beijing by Chinese army units. But several bishops of China's governmentapproved Catholic Church said they had heard nothing about the crackdown. In Taiwan, retired Archbishop Stanislaus Lokuang of Taipei planned to preside at a Mass June 11, commemorating the victims of the military attack on the civilian demonstrators. About 500 students at Fu Jen Catholic University, whose president is Archbishop Lokuang, joined a rally in Taipei protesting the crackdown. The June 3-4 incident in China's capital, which was reported to have resulted in the death and injury of thousands of civilians in Tiananmen Square, was a clampdown on the peaceful seven-week pro-democracy movement led by university students. The Chinese government called the demonstrators "counter revolutionary" and the "dregs of society".
Official Chinese media mentioned no civilian deaths, but said hundreds of soldiers were killed. Other reports told of fighting between army units opposed to the bloody crackdown and those adhering to the government's policy. Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui condemned the violence as an "act of madness". In the Philippines, Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila said he was "greatly dismayed to receive the news that the Chinese government has started to apply military force on the students clamouring for democratic reforms. Violence cannot be the solution to the problem". In Hong Kong, Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung issued a statement noting the bloodshed at Tiananmen Square "with regrets and deep grief". Saying China has come to an extremely critical moment, he called for prayers for the Chinese people and for peace.
cauldron • See page 12.
Shocked bishops make a plea Australian T he Catholic Bishops' Committee for Justice, and Development Peace, has sent a message of concern to the Chinese authorities through the Ambassador in Canberra.
of their hope "that the problems of your country, for which we have the highest regard, will henceforth be solved justly and peacefully." Archbishop Foley also asks Australian Catholics to remember the people of China in their prayers.
Archbishop William Foley of Perth, Chairman of the BCIDP, told the Ambassador by letter that the bishops were shocked at the loss of life and the injuries, and were appalled at the way in which the human rights of unarmed civilians, including many young people, had been violated. "It is our hope that all acts of violence will cease immediately," Archbishop Foley said. The Bishops' Committee also told the Ambassador
"In a special way, we sympathise with Chinese residents of Australia, including students and visitors as well as those who have made their permanent homes here," he said. "It must be a very distressing time for them, as they think of their friends and family at home. I assure them of our sympathy and our solidarity with all who struggle for greater freedom, especially when they face violence and injustice."