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t.eanc 0 VOL. 35, NO. 36, •
Friday, September 13, 1991
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Church leaders urge peaceful rebuilding in East Europe
GORBACHEV: "atheist"
YELTSIN: "superstitious"
Top Soviets state views on religion WASHINGTON (CNS) - It was a Philadelphia priest-:editor who got the two most powerful Soviet leaders to layout for millions of people what their beliefs are about religion. On a Sept. 5 ABC-TV "Town Meeting" linking Moscow and questioners in several U.S. cities, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev identified himself as an atheist, while Russian president Boris Yeltsin said he frequently,goes to church, but is also superstitious. Father John Fields, a secondgeneration Ukrainian American and Ukrainian-rite priest, prompted the response when he asked the two to "kindly state for the audience your personal religious beliefs." No bones about it,_ Gorbachev
said through an interpreter, "I am an atheist. But I neVer concealed this. "I respect the feelings and religious beliefs of each citizen, each person," he added. Yeltsin said, "I certainly make a point of attending church" although "the services, the ritual aspect, I don't really observe those." The Russian president said being in church gives him "a kind of internal feeling of moral cleansing:" As a postscript to his 'answer, Yeltsin said that, by the way, "I'm also superstitious." Father Fields, editor of the English edition of The Way, newspaper of the, Ukrainian Archdiocese of Philadelphia, told Catholic Turn to Page Nine
Jesuits work secretly in China, U.S.S.R'. ROME (CNS) - About 80 Jesuit priests are working clandestinely in China., said a top Jesuit official who also noted that lines of communication are not broken between the Vatican and the government-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. Jesuit Father Giuseppe Pittau, chief adviser to Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Jesuit superior, added that 20 Jesuits have been secretly working in the Soviet Union and will now be able'to start normal ministerial activities. At a Sept. 10 news conference in Rome about worldwide Jesuit activities and in a telephone conversation with Catholic News Service afterward, Father Pittau said there are links between the Vatican and some Chinese patriotic association bishops. "You can't say that the entire
patriotic church is separated from Rome. You have to examine it case by case," he said. "Many in the patriotic church have ties to the Vatican, and the Vatican acknowledges this," he said. "As other sources have reported there are a few bishops who have asked to be recognized 1;Jy the Vatican," added Father Pittau. Some of those making the requests have been Jesuits, he said. Father Pittau said he did not know if the Vatican has acted on these requests. The Vatican does not recognize the patriotic association, formed in 1957 with Catholic bishops who decided to sever their ties to the papacy. It was organized by the communist government as a na. Turn to Page Nine
watched the tumultuous August changes in the Soviet Union with hope and expectation. "This is absolutely phenomenal what we've seen in one week," said Archbishop John L. May of St. Louis, who visited Lithuania, Latvia, Byelorussia and' Ukraine a year ago. "My first reaction is great hope - hope that the failure of the coup will solidify . . . democracy and the freedom of the various republics," he said - referring to the failed coup attempt by Soviet Communist hard-liners. The hardliners' failure accelerated the downfall of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. Daina Dumbrys of Chicago, . treasurer of the Lithuanian American Council, described the mood among Chicago's 100,000 Lithuanians as one of "subdued optimism." Before the coup crumbled, she said, "we felt the Baltic republics were in great danger. Since we had been so strongly outspoken, we thought we'd be crushed." But their elation at the toppling of the coup is tempered by the realizati,on that "we still have a long row to hoe. Right now we're in limbo," she said. The Baltic states, particularly Lithuania and Latvia, face daunting economic difficulties, having almost no marketable natural resources and a currency, the ruble, which is worthless outside their borders. On Monday Pope John Paul II led world prayers for peace in Croatia as Vatican worry grew that Yugoslavia's civil war threatens peace in Europe. "We find ourselves before a con-
flict that we hoped would never be repeated in a Europe already torn to pieces by so many atrocities," said the pope, who had asked Catholic bishops worldwide to dedicate, Sept. 8 as a day of prayer for Yugoslavia. The pope has supported Croatian self-determination, but has stopped short of favoring independence. The Vatican position is that the future of Croatia's relationship to Y.ugoslavia must be established through negotiations. The Croatian bishops have supported independence. Behind the Vatican worry is fear that the ethnic and nationalistic fighting in Yugoslavia sets a bad example for other Central and ·East ,European countries - also having ethnic and nationalistic tensions - which are trying to reorgimize politically after the fall of communism. On Sept. 8 approximately 1,000 Serbs demonstrated outside the Vatican nunciature in Belgrade, the Yugoslavian federal capital, protesting Vatican support for the Croatians. The pope reiterated Vatican support for West European mediation to stop the fighting and peacefully resolve the tensions that exploded after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in June. Also re-emphasized by the pope was Vatican support for a "new Europe" in which longterm peace is based on the 1975 Helsinki accords on security and cooperation in Europe. The .accords emphasized that European security must be anchored in human rights, including the self-determination of. peoples, greater economic-coopTurn to Page Nine
YUGOSLAV ARMY tanks 'roll through Borovo Selo, Yugoslavia, as unrest in that splintered country continues. (eNS photo)