FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEnS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 25, NO. 49
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FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1981
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Guatemala in 'dark night' says Sister Honora An evening free from the sound of exploding bombs is the luxury of American life most appreciated by Maryknoll Sister Honora Felix. Fresh from the suburbs of embattled Guatemala City, she is visiting her mother, Mrs. Henry Felix of St. John the Evangelist parish, Attleboro. In Guatemala she teaches at Monte Maria School, where Dominican Sisters Jean Reimer and Helen Lavalley sought refuge last week after being held captive in the countryside for five days. Those sisters are now at their Michigan motherhouse where they have refused to comment on their experience for fear of endangering others in Guatemala. Many of her Monte Maria students, said Sister Honora, have lost family members to Guatemala's ceaseless street fighting and assassinations. "We would hear an explosion at night," she said of her Guatemala convent, "and go to the door to see if we could tell where the bomb had fallen. Then we'd call friends or listen to the radio to find out what had been hit. We'd sit down, hear another ex-
plosion and start the routine all over again. "It is hard to know what is actually happening, though," said Sister Honora. "From day to day and hour to hour the situation changes. People here can hardly imagine living with phones tapped, mail censored and speeches and sermons monitored. One of our sisters has an 80-year-old mother in New York who sends her every clipping that even mentions Guatemala. Some, of course, are very critical. Sister was called to the police station and warned that this must stop." Sister Honora, 47, a Maryknoller for 25 years, is no stranger to unrest. She served in Panama during the 1964 Canal Zone riots and was in Guatemala in 1960, arriving two months before guerilla warfare first broke out. -In Mexico and Panama from 1961 to 1967, she returned to Guatemala as the civil strife began its present escalation. Parents of the 1,450 students in her school, she said, include both supporters and opponents of the military regime of President Romeo Lucas Garcia, an army general. Some have reo
moved their children from the school because of the sisters' "consciousness raising" program. "We use the Latin American Bible, which has contemporary photographs, and the bishops' documents from the Medellin and Puebla conferences," said Sister Honora. "And the 1965 Guatemalan constitution is very subversive," she added wryly. "There is a long section on human rights and all the students need to do is read it and compare it with actual conditions." She is unwilling to predict what will happen in Guatemala, saying that events in neighboring countries will influence the eventual outcome, as will U.S. decisions with regard to aid in Central America. But she concurs with other missioners who claim that both the church and the Indian peasantry, comprising 63 percent of the population, are targets of government persecution. Unfair land tenure, 90 percent illiteracy, rigged elections and deplorable health conditions are among factors keeping the Indians in subjugation, say the missioners. Turn to Page Two
Vatiean -China rift deepens 'Christ is management' LAS VEGAS, Nev. (NC) "Christ is management and I'm in sales. This is "my business. We're out to broadcast the Good News." That is how Bishop Norman F. McFarland of Reno-Las Vegas describes an evangelization campaign being conducted through. out Nevada in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the diocese. Radio, TV and newspaper messages are inviting Catholics to retum to the church and IlonCatholics to find out about it. Bishop McFarland said the campaign is not an effort to rebuild a diminishing Catholic community. "Indeed, it's quite the opposite. Nevada is the fast-
est growing state in the union." The church, in the midst of a financial crisis during this growth, has had to attend to Catholics already in the state and at the same time expand to meet increases in the Catholic population, Bishop McFarland said. "People say 'What are you looking for more for?' " the bishop continued. "Again, I can only answer because it is our business. We cannot be satisfied if there are people out there whose needs we can supply. Christ is the answer to all our problems, so we reach out to these people. Christ said to go out to the whole world. He didn't say take Tum to page thirteen
By Nancy Frazier NC News Service The already shaky relations between the Vatican and China seemed to take a turn for the worse in late November after reports that four priests have been arrested, accompanied by renewed criticism of the only Vatican路 appointed Chinese bishop since the communist revolution of 1949. Catholic sources in Hong Kong told the Italian news agency ANSA Nov. 28 that four priests, including three Jesuits, were arrested Nov. 17 because of their refusal to belong to the National Association of Patriotic Catholics, a government-approved body which does not recognize any ties to the Vatican. Meanwhile, Bishop Ye YinYun, who was elected by the association in September to hold the same office as Vatican-appointed Archbishop Dominic Tang Yee-Ming as head of the Archdiocese of Guangzhou (Can-
ton), China, told the British news agency Reuters that Chinese Catholics considered Archbishop Tang a "traitor" to their church. According to the Hong Kong sources cited by ANSA, the arrested priests were Jesuit Fathers Vincent Zhu Hongsheng, 65; Joseph Chen Wuntagg, 73; Stanislas Shen Baishun, 79; and Father Fu Mezhou, 70. All four had been working in Shanghai. The sources said Father Zhu, who was imprisoned from 1954 to 1960 and assignect to a labor camp from 1974 to 1979, had received many foreign visitors' in the past two months and was accused of maintaining contacts with the Vatican and sending religious information outside China. The charges against the other three priests were not specified, but none are members of the patriotic association. A spokesman at the Jesuits' headquarters in Rome said thre was no information on the priests
except what appeared in the Italian press. According to the Hong Kong sources, Father Shen had previously spent 24 years in jail and Father Hezhou, 15. The arrests indicated a further deterioration in the fragile rapport between the Holy See and China. There are no diplomatic relations between the two states, but the June 6 appointment of Archbishop Tang to head the Guangzhou Archdiocese had initially been considered a sign of improvement in relations. In the interview with Reuters, Bishop Yin-Yun accused the 73yea:\-old Archbishop Tang of "betraying China and leaving the country under false pretenses" "He deluded~l.lS," Bishop YunYun said. "He was allowed to go to Hong Kong for two reasons: to visit relatives and to undergo medical care, and that's all. He didn't write or telephone to tell us that he was going to Rome." The bishop was referring to Turn to Page Eleven