t eanc 0 FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1981
VOL. 25, NO. 40
Va.tic~an VIENNA, Austria (NC) -- The Vatican backs continued research into nuclear energy but says nuclear weapons have become "an oppressive burden on the conscience of humanity and an open affront to those suffering from underdevelopment and hunger." Msgr. Mario Peressin, permanent representative of the Holy See to the International AI:omic Energy Agency, presented. the Vatican position in a speech Sept.
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LONDON (NC) - 1\. British Catholic historian says Pope Pius XII withheld condemnation of Nazi atrocities during World War II because he did not want to jeopardize the lives of thousands of Jews hidden by the Vatican. A defense of Pope Pius' actions is contained in a newly published book, "The Papacy in the Modern World," by Father J. Derek Holmes, history professor at Ushaw College, Britain's largest Catholic seminary. The pope's "own work 0::1 behalf of the Jews might have been endangered by a public denunciation of the Nazis, even though such a denunciation might have justified this moral repudiation," writes Father Holmes. "More than half the Jews in Rome were being sheltered in ecclesiastical buildings that had been opened to them precisely on the instructions of the pope himself," he adds.
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22 to the 25th regular session of the agency's general conference in Vienna. "The conference is being held at a time when humanity ds asking ever more searching questions about the vadue, significance and use of atomic energy and its consequences, not only for the present time but also for the generations to come," Msgr. Peressin said. Noting that the total insta'Hed
defended As many as 30,000 Jews were saved in Italy as a result of help given by "righteous gentiles,". he writes. The author also says that Ernst von Weizsacker, German ambassador to the Vatican during the war, tried to persuade the Vatican to avoid words or actions that would irritate the Nazis because he believed they planned to kidnap the pope before the Allies reached Rome. Von Weizsacker protected the pope concealing the pontiff's anti-Nazi views from his German superiors and by telling German authorities that the pope was sympathetic to the German opposition to communism, says Father Holmes. "Judging from the pope's correspondence with the German bishops, fears of reprisals would seem to have dominated his attitude toward the fate of the Jews in Germany. He was cerTurn to Page Six
nuclear capacity dn the world in- contained a thinly veiled oriticreased by about 11 percent in cism of the recent Israeli attack 1980, the Vatican diplomat said on a nuolear reactor site in Iraq. that the debate on nuclear energy "Suoh an event is apt to put in "demands to be tackled on a . jeopardy the function of the Inworldwide scale, on the basis of ternationa:l Atomic Energy Agenrigorous scientific research, with cy as the superviso!l'Y institution alert awareness of the human under the non-proliferation treaty values involved, and with respon- of 1968," Ms~. Peressin said. sible poHtical orientation." After the destruction of the He praised a program designed nuclear installation the Israeli to ensure that nuclear energy government claimed that the does not involve "unacceptable Iraquis had planned to use the risks." facility to build an atomic bomb. "This principle . . . must con路 The Iraqui government and the stantly be borne in mind in all International Atomic Energy nuclear choices and activities, Agency said that the plant would and must preva,il over all other have been used only for the considerations of the purely eco- production of energy. nomic, industrial and political "If the safeguard system conorder," said Msgr. Peressin. tro1J1ed by the agency is beyond The Vatican intervention also a11 reasonable doubt, no state
should be permitted, on whatever allegations and invoking whatever national interests, to make a military attack oili another state, destroying human Hves and industrial installations," the Vatican representative said. Regarding nuclear arms, Msgr. Peressin said, "There is no other rational and profitable path than that of disarmament and the banning of nuolear weapons by means of worldwide agreements supported by effective guarantees." The Holy See is convinced "of the need to overcome the present precarious situation of internationaI relations, a situation based upon the ba1ance of terror and the system of dissuasion," he added.
'DId not act alone' ROME (NC) - In a 51路路page opinion the court panel which convicted Mehmet Ali Agc!'! said the 23-year-old Turk did not act alone in planning the May 13 attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II, but that there is insufficient evidence yet to name the other people or groups that may have been involved. The statement was signed by Associate Judge Nino Gennano Abate and, represented the views of the eight-person panel which convicted Agca. The opinion was released Sept. 24, more than two months after Agca was convicted of thle attempted murder of the pope. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, including one year of solitary confinement. Agca is serving his sentence at a maximum security prison on Italy's northern Adriatic coast. The opinion said that Agca
"was alone" in St. Peter's Square when he fired two shots May 13, wounding the pope and two 1\.merican tourists. But the statement described Agca, a convicted murderer in his native Turkey, as "only the visible part of a conspiracy whose other members are unfortunately not identified." The opinion said that Agca "could not have premeditated such a taxing plan all by himself without taking into account the most detailed necessities and the consequences that would derive from it. "If one considers that in these difficult and dark moments of human history the head of the church represents a point of univer~al reference on the path toward peace and harmony, the attack plotted against him assumes an aspect of exceptional violence," the opinion said.
NEWLY INSTALLED bulletproof glass protects Pope John Paul II as he speaks from the balcony of his summer residence. (NC Photo)