The Record Newspaper 03 October 1991

Page 1

Reminder to readers and advertisers We have moved to No. 587 Newcastle Street. The new telephone number is 227 7080. Fax: 227 7087. The postal address: PO Box 50, Northbridge WA 6865.

j PERTH, WA: October 3, 1991

Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202

Number 2758

POST ADDRESS: PO Box 50, Northbridge, 6000 W.A. LOCATION: 587 Newcastle Street, Cnr Douglas St (near Loftus St) TELEPHONE: (09) 22 77 080

FAX (09) 22 77 087

PRICE 60C

Blood, pain But Croatians find faith

their national and reliThe Catholic Church in gious identity. Croatia is in a bad way In WA there are with over 200,000 disbetween 15,000 and placed persons to care 25,000 Catholics with for. Croatian links he The destruction, he estimates. says, makes no sense. "It Yugoslavia for many is is a very dirty war. now only a name on a "If they wanted to take church," he has been church and are saying piece of paper, he says. ion of the country possess telling his congregations "It was a prison and why are they destroying at North Fremantle and 'my place is here'. God has been patient with His thank God we are free of the buildings? They grab Balcatta. everything and then We shall build a new people but it had to stop," that prison. For the past church when peace says Father Cabraja of 70 years they have tried destroy because they comes but at the moment the 45 years of commu- to destroy us and our hate us and our culture. They are trying to divide it is vey important that nist brainwashing in culture." Father Cabraja denies Croatia in two and create we pray for peace," he which many people lost their faith. vigorously the media a greater Serbia." says. For his people in West"Through blood and claim that there is a civil Archbishop Hickey will ern Australia Father say Mass for peace in pain we now have a war in Croatia. "The war is between Cabraja has little with Croatia at 2pm on Sun- united Croatia." day October 20 in St Father Cabraja came in communism and demo- which to console them. :Mary's Cathedral. The 1979 from the diocese of cracy, between darkness "What can I say? I am in Mass will be in English Sarajevo and is the third and light between west the same difficulty as but prayers and songs chaplain to be sent to WA and east, between byzan- they when it comes to finding out what is going will be also in Croatian. by the Croatian bishops. tines and the rest." Fr Cabraja wants to see Although the missionary The local church is the on.Idare not tell you my thousands at the Mass chaplains came in 1971 first target of the Serbs, phone bill!" he says of his praying with the new "we came too late" he he says; then the school, many calls to his own relatives. says and many have lost then the hospital. archbishop.

The tragedy in Croatia Although more than 100 Croatian churches has brought a conversion have been destroyed, to many people Father local Croatian ,:haplain Cabraja said, taking a Father Nick Cabraja positive view. tells his flock not to "People who never fear. came to church are now "They can't destroy us praying for peace. New because we are the living faces are appearing in

Newspaper's version rejected Archbishop Hickey has rejected Tuesday's claim by The West Australian's journalist Robert Reid that the New Norcia closure is a "victory for expediency". In a statement to the newspaper on the same day, Archbishop Hickey pointed out: • that the Benedictines wrote off $400,000 of debt before the college was handed over to the archdiocese and Catholic Education Commission in

1985.

• that between 1986 and 1990 the archdiocese contributed $525,000 to the college's recurrent operation. • that further loans from the archdiocese total more than $1 million. • that many parents have been unable to keep up with fees and that fee arrears amount to $50,000. Archbishop Hickey says that the

decision he had to make shortly after his installation was "painful" but that it was "inevitable". "I am satisfied that every effort has been made to make it viable," he said, citing the upgrading of some tecaliing facilities and the introduction of overseas students. Consultants estimated that some $3.5 million more would have been required to make further necessary improvements to the college. Thanking the principal, Sr Marie Therese Fleming, for her strong and effective administration, and the sisters of the Good Samaritan Order for their dedication and effort, Archbishop Hickey said: "The principal had in place an innovative and attractive curriculum. A special mission of the college has been to serve the Aborignal community who

make up 20 per cent of student enrolments. "Other special groups sought included students who wished to pursue careers in agriculture and students from the city and from overseas who, for family or other considerations, needed to take advantage of boarding school facilities. "Despite all efforts, and an initial increase, numbers of boarders from the country areas of Western Australia had dropped to 15 and enrolments were further declining. "The rural recession and the increasing emphasis on keeping Aboriginal children in their own communities are among the factors putting pressure on enrolments. "I have had the opportunity to meet with a number of parents and I explained to them that while there was

a glimmer of hope that we could keep New Norcia going it would have been counter-productive to publish a litany of deficits. "Many of the parents themselves have been unable to keep up with normal fees, (arrears amount to $50,000) let alone participate in a massive fund raising exercise for the $5 million or so necessary to keep the College going at a level quite rightly expected by the parents themselves, and by professional teaching staff. "While the historic interest implicit in the New Norcia settlement gives some hope that the tourist industry will help keep the historic buildings in place, there is no justification for spending any more education dollars, from Government or other sources, on the preservation of the College."

esuits do not acce t claim

SAN SALVADOR: Jesuits will accept a verdict of

innocence over priests' slayings only if the identity of the real masterminds is revealed. Although a colonel and lieutenant have been found guilty, the local Jesuits claim the two and the six others released are not the onlymilitary personnel involved in 1989 the November murders.

Father Miguel Estrada, rector of the Central American University, said:

"If the accused tell us where the intellectual authors, the inciters, the planners of the murder are, we would be the first to request (an) amnesty and their freedom." But the Jesuit said he believed that to single out the "strategists" behind the murders would be "difficult

because all those who hold the key to solving the murders do not want to turn it over". Father Estrada said that a stiff prison term for the defendants is not necessarily "the solution to the problem". "It is not just a case of having to punish these poor defendants who are victims of the system and the deformation of the military profession," he said.

He said that Judge Zamora should consider an "adequate and medicinal punishment, so that such things do not occur again". The judge reportedly planned to leave El Salvador for a study program in Europe as soon as possible after the trial. The trial, was marked by attempts at intimidation by the Salvadoran armed forces — including a demonstration outside the court house led

by a colonel and the buzzing of the building by a military aircraft. Father Jose Maria Tojeira, provincial general of the Jesuits in Central America, said that, because the Salvadoran military had resented being forced to run over the defendants and provide evidence which weighed against them, a not guilty verdict for all the defendants would have created "a serimes institu-

tional problem" and represented a threat for the Cristiani government. Following the convictions, the Washington-based Jesuit Conference said while the outcome was hopeful, several questions about the murders remain unanswered. "Could Col. Benavides and U. Mendoza actually have actedindependently of their superior officers? We doubt it."

It also asked whether The officers will receive special treatment after sentencing. The case will begin reform of the Salvadoran judiciary. The proceedings were a "show trial for international consumption". The jurors and their families, who received death threats, are in such danger they will be forced to flee the country.


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