PERTH, WA: September 27, 1990
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Brother X's battle against booze • Pages 6, 7
PRICE 600
THANKS TO POPE'S VISIT, PRISONERS GET A REPRIEVE
Gesture of mercy
RWANDA: A general amnesty for all prisoners marked the Papal visit to Rwanda, East Africa. Death penalties were commuted to life, other sentences were cut in half, and those serving sentences under 10 years were released outright. All women and minors were also released from prisons. A Vatican official said the pope appreciated the "gesture of mercy". Rwandan bishops have long complained about slowness and irregularity of the Rwandan justice system and urged an end to the death penalty.
The answer ... GITEGA, Burundi (CNS): Pope John Paul II, travelling deep into Burundi's crowded interior, said the answer to overpopulation was improved agriculture and sexual self-control among couples. A griculture he said, "must be developed so that your fields produce more and produce better, without exhausting the land". Tiny Burundi is the most crowded African country after Rwanda and is also one of the fastest-growing, with an annual population increase of 3.3 per cent.
Where's the fire of the early Church? • Page 3
What do you do when your kids stop going to Mass • Pages 10, 11
The pope challenged Catholic couples to take personal responsibility for overpopulation, through natural family planning methods promoted by the Church. Unlike contraception, which is banned by the Church, these methods rely on sexual abstinence during a woman's fertile periods. "Fertility control must remain profoundly human, as the Church teaches," the pope said. Couples should "welcome the children they desire and think they can raise", he said. This requires "selfcontrol of their intimate life" and mutual respect, he said.
The query ... RWANDA: When the Pope "saintly merit". met Rwandan intellectuals The pope, departing from and state employees, lay- his prepared text, answered man Dr Christophe Mfizi in a forceful voice that gave a speech questioning Western culture had "no whether the Church still monopoly" on sainthood or used a "monopoly of a single holiness. culture" in producing mod- He said he was sure there els of sainthood. were saints in Rwanda and He added that, in his that he hoped some day they opinion, the acceptance by would be recognised. But it Rwandan Catholics of pri- is also a question of a local estly celibacy was in itself a church's maturity, he said.
Call to fight atheism VATICAN CITY: The 450-year-old Jesuit order has been told by Pope John Paul to
strengthen its work against atheism, especially in "new situations where atheistic have ideologies collapsed". "I want to especially recall to you the mandate you received from my predecessor, Paul VI, to join together in a vigorous resistance to atheism, which is a tremendous danger that threatens humanity," he said in a letter marking the 450th anniversary of the society's foundation. This task was particimportant ularly given the "collapse of
atheistic ideologies" and the new situations it has provoked, he said. The Jesuits have recently begun strengthening their preparation courses for priests who will be sent to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The pope emphasised the order's traditional loyalty to the pontiff "in all its activity". He praised the Jesuits' social work and urged members to follow the spiritual practices of their founder, St Ignatius of Loyola, the 500th anniversary of whose birth occurs next year. The pope compli-
mented the Jesuits for their work in education, preaching, scientific research, missions, and the care of the poor and suffering. He praised the order for turning more attention to the "daily tragic problem" of refugees. This is part of the Jesuits' laudable effort to integrate faith with promotion of justice, he said. The pope recalled at length the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius, a Spaniard who pursued a religious vocation after being wounded in battle as a soldier. The saint's insistence on selfmortification and frequent examination of
conscience represents a "precious way of sanctification" which should not be neglected by Jesuits today, the pope said.
at lower levels. The situation is healthy and beautiful," Father Pittau said at a Rome press conference.
The pope reminded Jesuits that a promise of "loyal obedience" to the pope was contained in their charter of 1540.
Father Pittau said Jesuits were preparing a first-ever meeting of provincial heads this week in Loyola, Spain, to probe the state of the order. Among the issues to be discussed, he said, were how Jesuits can best promote justice in various parts of the world, how members in different countries can better co-operate, and the future of the order in places of change, such as Romania and Hong Kong.
In Rome last week Father Giuseppe Pittau, a Jesuit official who assisted the papal delegate between 1981-83, said those days of controversy had passed. "There are no tensions today between the society and the Vatican. There is a continual dialogue at the highest levels and