PERTH, WA: October 24, 1991
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Number 2761
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
We want end to war
PRICE 60C
Croatian national costumes added to the overflow congregation which packed the cathedral last Sunday.
ARCHBISHOP HICKEY CALLS FOR PRAYERS AT CATHEDRAL MASS The world's political and military leaders should understand how much the world wants peace and wants an end to war, Archbishop Hickey said last Sunday. He prayed that political leaders "who have the fate of millions of people in their hands, be inspired by the God of justice and love and not by the god of war". The archbishop was speaking to a crowd that overflowed St Mary's Cathedral for a Mass for peace in Croatia. He said it was not an occasion to comment on the past or present origins of the conflict. "I cannot possibly understand the complexities of this issue and this is not a political occasion. It is a time to pray for peace." Archbishop Hickey said he had seen tears
in people's eyes as they told him of what had happened to their families in Croatia. He said Pope John Paul had called on political and military leaders to find other ways to resolve the conflict. The pope had also told the Croatian bishops to tell the people to pray for justice to be done not through conflict but through other ways. The history of the human race, Archbishop Hickey said, had seen every generation experience an outbreak of war. In our own times millions upon millions had been killed because of hostility, of a lack of love and understanding. Wars are waged, he said, because of injustice that is suffered too long, because of the lust for power and control, to capture assets or gain trade advantages.
"Jesus came to bring us together as children of God and yet this has not happened and it may take many centuries before we reach that understanding. "The local Croatian people deserved compassion because of what had happened to their families. The Church is united with them in their sufferings and prayer." In any conflict or war it is always the innocent who suffered and the St Mary's Cathedral Mass, he said, was for those who had lost their lives.
It was also a prayer for a lasting peace, not just a truce, but a peace built on a just solution to the conflict. It was a prayer to the Holy Spirit for the wisdom for the leaders to come up with a resolution of age-long problems.
It's up to Catholics and Orthodox VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope John Paul II has told both Catholic and Orthodox churches they have a duty to co-operate and help stop the civil war raging in the country. "History will judge us for what we will have done or left undone in this moment to stop a fratricidal war and build the basis for a better future for the peoples of Yugoslavian lands," the pope said in a letter to Serbian Orthodox Patri-
arch Pavle. He appealed to the patriarch to promote ecumenical dialogue among Orthodox faithful, so that the political conflict does not become a religious one. To Croatian Cardinal Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb and all Yugoslavian bishops, the pope said Catholic leaders must be "untiring builders of forgiveness and reconciliation" with the Orthodox.
"Intensify, therefore, your collaboration with Orthodox pastors in helping the victims of the conflict and refugees. Your charity should know no bounds and should destroy among believers every trace of resentment and mistrust," he said. The pope has stressed that he wants religion to be a unifying factor — not a divisive one — in the rebuilding of Eastern Europe.
To Patriarch Pavle, the pope emphasised that his prayers and appeals for peace in Yugoslavia were not partisan. "I have always kept in mind that both the Croatian and the Serbian peoples are involved in the drama of war," he said. The pope expressed his "deep and intimate sharing in the pain of so many Serbian families of
the Orthodox faith", and said that suffering of any human being "wounds my heart". Most Serbians are Orthodox, while most Croatians are Catholic — a po'int called a "coincidence" by the pope in his letter to the Serbian patriarch. "We know well, however, that the reason for the war is not religious but political," the pope added.
1111111111P
Big 'thank you' for a Wee cure
• Page 7
Concern over new moves on prostitution • Page 3