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THE ANeHOR-Diocese of Fall River-Thurs., Apr: 5, 1973
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FINGERS DO THE TALKING: A volunteer working with the de~f prays the Our Father to those who cannot hear. NC Photo.
Wounded Knee Refuge'es Aided By Religious
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India na Bishops Endorse Boycott
Challenge Pro-Life Attorneys' I ' Mediocre State Courts' Decision Unscholarly, ,
WASHINGTON (NC)-If there WOUNDED KNEE (NC)-Representatives of religious organi- was reticence ampng pro-life zations have assisted refugees leaders to criticize the U. S. Sufrom Wounded Knee since they preme Court's Jan. 22 rulings on were 'ousted from the hamlet by abortion, that retJicence virtually disappeared when the court militant Indians Feb, 27. Jesuit priests, who run mis- nailed down its decision a month sions on the Pine Ridge Reserva- later. "Amateurish, mediocre, unNon where this historic town is located, have housed, fed and scholarly" were among some of clothed those driven from the more descriptive adjectives Wounded Knee by American In- ' used by pro-life leaders in the dian Movement (AIM) members legal field who saw their faint who seized the town to forcE) the hopes for court appeals snuffed federal government to improve out on Feb. 26. With appeals still pending in treatment of Indians. In addition, members of sev- Texas and Georgia, with other eral nuns' orders and representa- petitions pending, the pro-life tives of the National Council of leaders were still hoping for the Churches (NCC) have assisted legal door to be left at least the refugees during .the armed slightly ajar. But on Feb. 26 the high court occupatJion of their homes. refused to reconsider its earlier As persons driven from' the decision strilcing down the Texas town were aided, Indians holding and Geqrgia abortion laws. It Wounded Knee and U. 'S. gov- ' also returned other c'ases to lowernment forces surrounding t~e er tribunals in nine states, and. hamlet exchanged increasingly brutal gunfire that resulted in the serious wounding of the chief U. S. marshal for Nebraska, Lloyd Grimm. Federal government spokesOINCINNATI (NC) - Limited men, who maintained contact college training in logic and philwith the India,ns holding Wound- osophy for the U. S. Supreme ed Knee despite the hostmties, justices tinged their decisions on conceded more casualties could abortion, a former Catholic eduresult from the fighting unless cator has concluded. an agreement was concluded in "As I see it, this was a dethe near future. " cision that could not be based entirely on' legal principles," Hostilities Resumed wrote Msgr. Cary J., Ryan, reThe situation was complljcated tired superintendent of schools by the presence of Indians led for the Cincinnati archdiocese. by Oglala Sioux Tribal Council Msgr. Ryan was referring to Chairman Riehard Wilson. Wil- the Jan. 22 Supreme Court rulson, whom the militants hope to ing that the states could not remove from his post, and his -interfere with a ~oman's decisfollowers set 'up roadblocks ion to have an abortion during around Wounded Knee to com- the first six months of pregnanplement those of the U. S. gov- cy. ernment and forced National Writing in the Cincinnati archCouncil of Churches representa- diocesan weekly Catholic Teletives off the reservation because graph, Msgr.' Ryan said: "The they ostensibly felt the NCC personal philosophy of life of, people threatened to unseat Wil- each justice almost certainly son from his tribal post. was involved in making up his Early in March, the NCC had mind as to what his decision arranged a ceasefire based on would be!' several proposals for agreement Traditionally, wrote' Msgr. ~etween Indian and government Ryan, a student receives the representatives. However, the core of trlj.ining in logic and gituation deteriorated and hos-- philosophy during his undermities resumed. graduate college days. The just"This is an extremely difficult ices had poor training during situaNon," said Jesuit Father this phase of their education, Theodore F. Zuern, rector of the Msgr. Ryan maintained. He I,isted the nine justices Holy Rosary Mission at Pine Ridge, the home of 12,000 In- along with the colleges they atdians, about half of them Cath- tend~d as undergraduates: Burger, the University of Minneolics. "There is so much division sota; Blackmun, Harvard; Bren-' among the people on the reser- nan, the University of Pennsylvation. Our work for years will vania; Douglas, Whitman'·College; Marshal'l, Lincoln Univerbe healing divisions here."
dismissed the appeal of a Fordham University, la\V professor who was challehging New York's liberalized Jbortion law. The court thus: cleared its docket of a backlog of abortion cases which had been held back pending its ruling I~st month in the Texas and Georgia cases. "I cannot say tha't the court's latest ruling came a~ a surprise," said Juan J. Ryan of New Providence, N. J., presiderit 'of the National Right to LifJ, Committee. "It is obvious that: they made up their minds weI1 in advanceof hearing the suits!" Veneer of Sch~larship Ryan said that the January decision made it a virthal certainty that the Supreme Court justices would rule 'against !the petition of Fordham's professor Robert Byrn. Byrn was' !asking the courts to recognize that the un. ' horn have legal fights. "As far as I know)" Byrn said, I
Asserts Su.preme Court Justices ,Lack Training in Philosophy sity; Powell, Washington and Lee; Rehnquist, Starlford; Stewart, Yale; and White,: the University of Colorado. ; Msgr. Ryan said some of the schools could be i considered among the best dn Ith~ nation. But he added that t~e education' the justices received at these schools "did not pr¢pare them adequately to deal with the aborI tion case!' Quotes Lippntann The former educatpr said the justices' decision was not "in accord with the religious tradition that has done $0 much to form the culture of Ithe American people!' , He said that if the j'ustices had the kind of collegel, education that America's founding fathers had, "there would have been quite a different deci~ion in the I abortion case!' Msgr. .Ryan quote~ liberally from a 1940 speech given by the journalist Walter Lippmann entitled· "Education Without Culture." Lippman said: "Th~ men who signed the Declarati?n of In-· dependence and later wrote the Constitution were pJ;'Oducts of an educational .system: which acknowledged and accepted the idea of the natural la~!' , Lippmann maintained that the doctrine of natural [law "has been rejected by m04ern, secular education" and that constitutional problems w6uld arise I as a result.
"this is the fiTst time in the history of this country that human lives have been condemned to death without a hearing. "I don't want to seem as though I am exaggera,tjng, but these decisions are much worse than even the most pessimistic pro-life people thought, they would be," Byrn told NC News. Jerome Frazel, NRLC vicepresident, described the Supreme Court justices who voted in the majority opinion as men who mistakenly think they have solved a moral problem. "The whole opinion has a veneer of scholarshi.p, but in fact it is horrible scholarship," Frazel said. "Their disClaimer in having any expertise as to when life begins is incongruous because they then proceed to make a ruHng based on'the premise that they know when life begins!' Only Recourse Left These pro-life attorneys were in unanimous agreement that the best legal action now is a nationwide effort for a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court's decision. "We need," said Byrn, "an amendment that mandates protection of human life regardless of age, imperfection of the contion of unwantedness. 'This would protect a human being at every stage of his life!' Michael Taylor, NRLC executive secretary, said the constitutional amendment route "is the only substantial recourse left to the citizens of this country to re-establish the rights .of the unborn." Taylor suggested that the prolife movement should initiate immediate action in Congress and in state legislatures "to protect the rights of individuals and insttitutions that will now be increasingly under attack!'
INDIANAPOLIS (NC) - The Cathol'ic bishops of Indiana have endorsed the lettuce boycott being conducted by the, United Farm Workers Union. The prelates, in a statement released through the Indiana Catholic Conference, said they supported the UFWU activities in the hope they would lead to a· resolut,ion of the dispute involving the UFWU, the Team.sters and the lettuce growers that sparked the boycott. The UFWU,' led by Cesar Chavez, is conducting a boycott against lettuce not marked' by the un~on's emblem, the black Aztec eagle, and has been urging support for their action across the country. The boycott resulted from a dispute in which the UFWU char,ged the Teamsters had been pe~itted_:by growers to. unionize farm workers without polling the workers to determine if they wanted Teamsters or UFWU representaNon. The bishops, asserting the boycott entails "a grass roots struggle by the w.orkers to gain a union of their choice," said without UFWU representation, the laborers plight "will remain desperate!' "In these circumstances, the Catholic bishops of Indiana strongly support the lettuce boy-, cott and urge the cittizens of Indiana. to purchase only 'iceberg' lettuce clearly marked with the official United Farm Workers' label. . . . "We further urge our diocesan personnel and institutions to support the boycott throughout the state. Our purpose in this is to bring about collective bargaining and a just settlement of the dispute!'
Realism To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge. -Lao-Tse
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