t eanc 0 VOL. 35, NO. 29
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Friday, July 26, 1991
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European church faces a variety of problems, issues WASHINGTON (CNS) - Dramatic and changing events in Europe continue to involve the Catholic Church both at the international and local level. In Western Europe, the German bishops began working on plans for moving some offices. Some conference offices currently in Bonn will follow government offices to Berlin, once again the capital of a united Germany. And as the all-Europe bishops' synod, scheduled for November, approaches, a Belgian priest-sociologist urged planners to include the issue of migrant workers on the agenda. Without farsighted policies on Europe's part, he said, "enormous tensions" are inevitable. Meanwhile, the church in Eastern Europe continues to be troubled by issues ranging from the debate
over abortion legislation in Poland to the breakup of Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, church leaders inthe breakaw~y republics of Croatia and Slovenia are part of the chorus of criticism against the country's federal government. Back in Germany, the process of consolidating what was two countries for the past 45 years proceeds, and the Catholic church is part of the process. The milestone decision June 20 by the German parliament to move government and parliamentary offices from Bonn to Berlin has led to discussions within several church offices on whether to follow the government's lead. The most important central office of German Catholicism, the secretariat of the German'bishops' conference, intends to stay put, its
director, Msgr. Wilhelm Schaetzler, told reporters in late June. However, the Commissariat of the German bishops, also called the Catholic Office, will make the move since it functions primarily as the church's liaison office to the German federal government, said the agency's director, Msgr. Paul Bocklet. He estimated it will take the government at least four years to move. Officials of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the national agency which represents Germany's Catholic laity, said they would like to wait and see what develops. The Catholic Military Bishop's Office will move to the reunited Germany's once and future capital. While the German bishops are
pondering their moves, a Catholic sociologist is urging all the bishops of Western Eurqpe to take heed of the thousands of migrant workers. European and other, who might be heading for their territories. "If Europe is not prepared to invest heavily in Eastern Europe, including Russia. and in North Africa, many millions of people will invade...... Jesuit Father Jan Kerkhofs told a "Rerum Novarum" centenary conference organized by England's Catholic bishops. "Enormous tensions will be created," he added. "Indeed, we already see the beginning in France and Italy. where hundreds ofthousands of black workers are landing without passports." Father Kerkhofs said, "For many of these so-called 'invaders' work means survival." -
Poland's bishops were looking at the survival of another class of human beings - unborn infants. The country's centrist Democratic Union Party. reviving a national debate about abortion, said July 16 it had proposed new legislation after the country's parliament blocked church-backed proposals for abortion restrictions. The party proposes allowing abortion after rape or incest, to save a mother's life or in cases of material hardship. which would have to be certified by a special commission. The draft would allow only public service doctors to perform abortions and provide a three-year jail term for private physicians who do so. Turn to Page 11
There are a lot of 'us VATICAN CITY (CNS) There are more than 919 million Catholics, 17.5 percent of the world's population, according to the latest Vatican figures. The statistics show that the increase in Catholics has kept pace with the overall population growth through the 1980s. The figures were released July IS by the Vatican's Central Office for Church Statistics and are for 1989, the last year for which there are worldwide figures. They summarize data scheduled for publication in the 1989 Vatican Statistical Yearbook. The 1988 Catholic population was 906 million. Msgr. Pietro Silvi, head of the statistics office, said the Catholic population figure includes an estimate of 13 million Catholics in countries under communist rule in 1989 - such as in Eastern Europe, China, Cambodia and Laos where it was impossible to gather reliable data. Msgr. Silvi told Catholic News Service that political changes in
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union should result in reliable figures for 1990 from that region. The figures released showed 42.4 percent of the Catholic population in Latin America and 31 percent in Europe. Europe, however, is decreasing in percentage of Catholics, while Latin America is slowly increasing. The data did not include country-by-country breakdowns. The data compared 1989 figures with those from 1978, when Pope John Paul II was elected. The figures also show a steady decrease in the number of priests and a steady rise in the number of major seminarians and ordinations. There were 62,670 major seminarians in 1978 and 93,405 in 1989, a 49 percent increase. Ordinations rose from 5,765 to 7,686, a 33 percent increase. But the increases fell short of offsetting the drop in priests resulting from deaths and abandonment of the active ministry. The number of priests dropped 4 Turn to Page II
BISHOP DANIEL A. Cronin greets a small parishioner during a recent pastoral visit to Our Lady of Victory parish, Centerville. Pastor Father John A. Perry (center) and parochial vicar Father John J. Perry look on.
Archbishop urges easing of embargo against Iraq WASHINGTON (CNS) - The head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy has asked the U.S. government to see that the embargo against Iraq be "more narrowly targeted" so that there can be more "humanitarian relief to suffering Iraqis." In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, Archbishop John R. Roach of St. Paul-Minneapolis said Catholic aid organizations in Iraq report "a widespread and .growing incidence cif disease and malnutrition, especially among children, the sick and the elderly." "The embargo is directly and dramatically harming the civilian population, especially the most
vulnerable, in ways not originally foreseen," Archbishop Roach told Baker. "These changes in objectives and impact suggest the need to reassess the moral questions posed by the embargo."
sanitation and health care systems, Archbishop Roach said.
"The embargo, as now applied, unduly risks violating fundamental moral norms and prolonging human suffering," he said. "We The archbishop said the embargo must prevent [Saddam Hussein's] "should be maintained until Iraq regime from continuing to threaten complies fully with the cease-fire peace and security in the region, resolutions" ofthe United Nations, but the means we choose to achieve but should be combined with "an this legitimate end should reflect easing of the restrictions on Iraq's our abiding respect for human life ability to use its resources to meet - and not further jeopardize the lives the essential human needs of its and health of the most vulnerable population... Iraqis." The freed-up resources could In a letter to Abdul Amir Alallow Iraq to rebuild its decimated Anbari, Iraqi ambassador to the food distribution, water supply, United Nations, Archbishop Roach
urged Iraq "to comply immediately and fully with the cease-fire resolutions" and to "end its duplicity and evasion on the question of its nuclear capacity." Such actions will prove to the international community that Iraq "has adopted a new and unwavering commitment to respect the security of its neighbors and the fundamental rights of all its citizens," he added. The letters, dated July 16, were made public in Washington July 19. In a separate letter July 19, 'nine religious leaders from Northern California urged President Bush to "lift all non-military sanctions
in order to prevent further civilian deaths from disease and hunger." The group included Auxiliary Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla of San Francisco, along with representatives, of the Methodist, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Disciples of Christ, Jewish and Buddhist faiths. "It would be an unnecessary tragedy for thousands of innocent Iraqis to die long after the military hostilities have ceased," the leaders said. "The sanctions imposed by the U.N. were intended only to ensure an end to military threats and we believe lifting of sanctions will not contribute to Iraq's nuclear or military capability."