World Watch

"Conspiracy" Against Family Life, and...

Papal visits to Bologna, Brazil

As Vatican has released a new General Catechetical Directory, replacing the last such publication, which appeared in 1971. The new work, a 320-page book, appeared in Rome on September 19; translations will soon follow. The work is intended as an accompaniment to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and an aid to teachers seeking to adapt that universal Catechism to the new needs of their particular churches.

"Some crises, doctrinal weaknesses, and experiences have impoverished the quality of catechesis," observed Archbishop Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, in his introduction to the new volume. That Congregation, which is responsible for the publication of the

new Directory, takes pains to emphasize that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is "a precious theological and pastoral instrument." The new work, therefore, is intended not to replace the Catechism but rather to guide bishops and teachers as they produce catechetical materials at the national and diocesan levels, so that local churches will enjoy the full benefit of the new Catechism.

The Directory insists that local catechisms must be in perfect harmony with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Thus any new editions of the Catechism or works derived from it are subject to the approval of the Holy See, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will scrutinize content, and the Congregation for the Clergy, which will give final approval for publication.

Archbishop Castrillon Hoyos pointed out that the weaknesses of current catechetical programs can be seen in a failure to understand the authority and mystery of the universal Church. The result, he said, has been the widespread promulgation of ideas that are at variance with the authentic teachings of the Church--in turn leading to a fragmentation of Catholic unity, and an inadequate witness to the truth. Both the Catechism and this Directory can be seen as efforts to recover a coherent witness, and to promote true communion, he continued.

The new Directory cites several specific problems in catechesis:

- the failure to understand catechesis as a school of faith and a training in Christian life;

- the failure to appreciate the importance of Church tradition as a conduit for divine revelation;

- the emphasis on Christ's humanity to the exclusion of any understanding of his divine nature;

- the omission of many important doctrines from popular catechetical texts, and the proliferation of catechetical works which treat Church teachings selectively.

Other problems cited include the lack of a clear connection between catechesis and liturgy; the excessive concentration on "method and techniques" rather than actual content; and the neglect of the Church's mission to convert non-believers.

The award of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature to Italian playwright

and actor Dario Fo elicited sharp criticism from some Italian politicians, as well as from the Vatican. Fo's literary efforts--harsh and sometimes vulgar parodies--have earned him many important critics.

The Vatican official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, professed astonishment that the award went to the 71-year-old Fo. "Apart from any moral considerations, the award of the prize to an actor who is also the author of these controversial texts has gone beyond anything that could have been imagined," the newspaper said in an unsigned editorial. In 1977 the Vatican condemned the televised version of his play Mistero Buffo, which that parodied the Church and the Gospels. The Vatican at the time called the production "the most blasphemous show in the history of television."

Fo has also made numerous personal attacks on right-wing Italian politicians including, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi--to the delight of their leftist rivals.

Pope John Paul II traveled to Bologna on the last weekend of September, to participate in Italy's 23rd national Eucharistic Congress--the last such scheduled meeting before the Jubilee Year.

The Holy Father arrived in Bologna at midday, and was greeted by the city's Cardinal Giacomo Biffi and a group of local officials. In his address, he conveyed a message of condolence to the people whose homes had been harmed by an earthquake in central Italy, and then moved on to the main themes of his address for the Eucharistic Congress: reverence for the Eucharist and the quest for personal sanctity.

But from the perspective of the mass media, the high point of the Pope's trip came that evening when he attended a much-publicized concert by--among others--the American folk-rock legend Bob Dylan. After Dylan's rendition of his most famous ballad, "Blowin' in the Wind," the Pope was ready with an answer. "How many roads must a man walk down?" the song's lyrics ask. "One!" the Holy Father replied. "There is only one way for man, and that is Christ, who said, 'I am the way.' It is he who is the way to truth, the way to life."

Continuing to pick up on Dylan's lyrics, the Pope continued: "The answer to the questions of your life is blowing in the wind; that's true. But this is not the wind that disperses everything into the nothingness; but the wind which breathes the voice of the Spirit, saying: 'Come!'"

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Carlo Martini of Milan saluted the former pontiff, saying that his willingness to question his own beliefs made him a prototype of modern man.

Cardinal Martini's homage to Pope Paul VI appearsed in the magazine Famiglia Cristiana, with a cover date of September 25. Giovanni Battista Montini, who would become Paul VI, was born near Brescia on September 26, 1897.

"I was always profoundly touched by his humanity, by his attention to individuals, and by his intellectual curiosity," said the cardinal, who was appointed by Paul VI to head two Roman institutes: first the Biblicum and later the Gregorian University. He stressed that Paul VI had a remarkable capacity for, and interest in, dialogue with those who did not share his beliefs.

Cardinal Martini added that he saw a pressing need for such dialogue within the Church today. "I am often asked why we Christians have been so bad at following the path of dialogue," he said. He pointed out that Pope John Paul II has called upon Christians to make a "courageous" new assessment of the Church as we approach the millennium.

Pope Paul VI also stressed the importance of freedom, Cardinal Martini observed. Speaking about the situation in Europe, he suggested: "It is not possible to think about a harmonious future for Europe without Christianity, but it is also important to remain in dialogue with all the other religions and cultures." That, he said, was the ambition of Cardinal Montini, his predecessor as archbishop of Milan.

In a long medical study, a researcher affiliated with the Pontifical Council for the Family concludes that the risk of contracting the HIV virus while using a condom are far greater than generally recognized.

Father Jacques Suaudeau writes, "Epidemiological studies show that the condom does indeed provide a measure of protection against the virus, but the protection is far from absolute. The risk of contracting an HIV infection while using a condom in sexual relations is at least 10 or 15 percent, according to different studies."

Father Suaudeau's long article is published in the latest edition of the Italian review Medicine and Morals. Its appearance has made a major impact among the Italian media. The author, a French priest was a physician prior to his ordination, conducted 12 years of research in the United States; his article is buttressed with 88 citations of recent scientific studies, most of them from American sources.

Father Suaudeau points out that when the condom is used exclusively to prevent pregnancy, over a period of one year the failure rate (judged by different studies) varies from 5 to 30 percent; the mean is a 15 percent failure rate.

Because homosexual activities are much more likely to rupture the condom, and because the HIV virus is much smaller than the human sperm cell, condoms are much more likely to fail in protecting against HIV; thus the risk of HIV infection could be as high as 15 percent for any single sexual encounter.

The Italian bishops have approved a proposal to set up a Catholic television network, operating by satellite. The bishops also approved the creation of a new foundation to raise the $5 million necessary to launch the venture, which is as yet unnamed.

The new foundation would be governed by a board chaired by Msgr. Francesco Ceriotti, the director of social communications for the bishops' conference. The television would produce newscasts in conjunction with the daily newspaper Avvenire, which is also controlled by the bishops. The bishops hope to see their new venture launched "by the end of this year."

The bishops' entry into the field of television will make them rivals of TelePace, an existing Catholic network which emphasizes evangelization and spiritual formation. Like EWTN in the United States, TelePace has built up a private network supported by donations from its audience. TelePace has also brought in large audiences by offering uninterrupted telecasts of Vatican ceremonies and papal audiences.

The Italian bishops deny that their move is intended to conflict with TelePace.

Saying that they were speaking on behalf of their predecessors of an earlier generation, France's bishops issued a formal apology for failing to stand up for Jews who were deported to concentration camps by the Nazi-backed Vichy government.

Auxiliary Bishop Olivier de Berranger of Saint Denis delivered the apology during a memorial service at the Drancy internment camp outside Paris. Up to 76,000 Jews were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps for extermination. "We cannot, of course, ask forgiveness of the victims who died in the camps, but we will ask it of the descendants of those who long bore the heavy burden of the teachings of contempt," Bishop Berranger told Le Figaro newspaper before the event, which was attended by Catholic and Jewish leaders.

The memorial service coincides with the Jewish New Year as well as the 57th anniversary of the enactment of anti-Semitic laws by the Nazi-backed French Vichy government on October 3, 1940. Although many Catholics joined the underground Resistance movement, spoke out against arrests of Jews, and helped Jews hide from Nazis, many bishops remained silent and even encouraged people to obey the government. The current archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, was one of the Jewish children who hid in a Catholic monastery; he eventually converted to Catholicism as a teenager.

The public apology in France came at a time when the media were speculating about a fuller statement on anti-Semitism from the Vatican. Late in October, a theological commission was scheduled to meet in Rome to discuss "the Christian roots of anti-Judaism." The conference was organized by the theological-historical committee preparing for the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000. Msgr. Rino Fisichella, the vice president of that commission, stressed that the conference would discuss only the theological issues involved in the Christian attidue toward Judaism, rather than taking up the social, cultural, and racial attitudes which contribute to the broader phenomenon on anti-Semitism.

Msgr. Fisichella also cautioned of the need to avoid any "equivocal" statement on such a sensitive topic. While the Church has been called by Pope John Paul II to an "examination of conscience" in preparation for the Jubilee, he pointed out that this process should not be allowed to create "a one-sided vision of the Church." Such an approach, he added, is "almost as if the 2000 years of Church history are only a history of sins and not, first and foremost, a history of sanctity."

Yet another factor stimulating media interest in the subject is the persistent rumor that Pope John Paul himself will issue a major statement on the Holocaust at some date in the near future. Interviewed by reporters on the airplane that took him to Brazil in early October, the Holy Father responded to a query about the rash of Catholic "apologies" for past actions. "The Church and the Pope always ask for pardon," the Pontiff said, "but others are silent."

The Swiss government has said that it will take the unusual step of filing a diplomatic appeal with the Vatican protesting the stands taken by a bishop whose strict adherence to Catholic teaching has provoked widespread opposition among dissident Catholics.

Bishop Wolfgang Haas was appointed bishop of Chur, which covers seven Swiss cantons, in 1990. Since then, his insistence on the importance of the male priesthood and authority of the Catholic hierarchy has angered many

Catholics, until finally--after months of public protests which turned Catholic parishes into battlegrounds, but failed to sway the bishop from his adherence to Church doctrine--they appealed to Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti.

"The seven cantons in the Chur diocese met Minister Cotti in early September. They expressed their concern about the situation in the diocese and underscored this situation had worsened in the past few years," government spokesman Achille Casanova said. "The cabinet shares this view, and decided to convey the concerns of the cantons and its own

concerns to the Holy See via a diplomatic demarche," he added. Switzerland's ambassador to the Vatican is expected to present the demarche this month.

Christoph Cassetti, spokesman for the diocese, said the government's statement contradicts itself. "They say on the one hand they do not want to interfere in the Church's internal affairs, but they are doing something in this direction with their demarche," he said. "I see this as an internal affair for the Church, and this contradiction is of course bothersome."

Catholics in England and Wales are being urged to tell their bishops they are wrong in not standing up boldy and unreservedly in defense of the right to life.

The call to challenge the bishops' lack of effective leadership in the fight against abortion comes from Jack Smeaton, the national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. It follows May's general election, which saw the return of a record number of pro-abortion members of Parliament as part of Labor's landslide victory. That result raises the prospect of new legislation permitting euthanasia, the easing of the country's already liberal regulations on abortion, and the extension of the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.

In their election guidelines--in contrast with the uncompromising stance against abortion taken by the Scottish bishops with the leadership of Cardinal Thomas Winning--the hierarchy of England Wales said: "It is legitimate for an individual elector to say to a candidate, 'I disagree with you totally on this i=one issue, but I may vote for you, and in return I shall want to come and talk with you further about the issue over which we disagree.'"

Smeaton said such advice is politically naive, adding: "These words represent nothing less than an abject failure to preach the Gospel of Life, and as a Roman Catholic I say this will not do." He argued that the bishops should have provided the same sort of practical advice offered by Cardinal Winning.

"Is the unborn child our neighbor or not?" Smeaton asked. "If one bishop was being killed legally every day, would we be urged to say to candidates who believed in such killings, 'I may vote for you...?'" He concluded that the Catholic people of England and Wales today should follow the example of St. Paul, who charitably but firmly chose to tell St. Peter he was wrong.

The Vatican maintained a diplomatic silence regarding the outcome of Poland's parliamentary elections, in which a coalition led by Solidarity soundly defeated an alliance of former Communists. But few observers had any doubt that the electoral results were welcomed by Catholic leaders.

"The Vatican never comments on political events of this sort," the press office cautioned. The official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano carried the election results without comment. Vatican Radio prudently observed that "the government will have to arrange a difficult cohabitation with the president, the ex-Communist Alexander Kwasniewski." The radio broadcast asked, but did not answer, a rhetorical question: was the election a victory for Solidarity, or a defeat for Communism?

However, Italian reporters outside the immediate orbit of the Vatican saw no reason to conceal the obvious implications of the story, and speculated freely that Pope John Paul II would be delighted by the latest development in his homeland. Several analysts speculated that the Pope's latest trip to Poland, in June, might have had an influence on the election. But in regular weekly audience following the elections, the Holy Father avoided the topic entirely--despite the presence of a large contingent of Polish pilgrims, who made no secret of their own delight with the newly elected government.

Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, the secretary-general of the Polish bishops' conference, fueled that speculation. The Italian daily La Repubblica reported: "Pieronek said that the appeal to Christian values which the Pope made during his latest trip was a determining factor" in the elections.

The new parliamentary majority will certainly ease relations between Poland and the Holy See, and could pave the way for quick approval of a new concordat governing their relations. Progress toward a new agreement had been slow Bishop Pieronek observed, because "the majority of the earlier parliament was hostile to the Church. Things will now change."

A new church has been consecrated in Oswiecim, the Polish town known world-wide by the German version of its name--Auschwitz. The church, dedicated to St. Joseph, was built on the initiative of the Italian hierarchy, and commemorates the 40,000 Italians murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz and other death camps, during World War II. The campaign to have the church built lasted 13 years, partly because of the political changes in Poland, but also because of the great sensitivity about developments in the neighborhood of the camp (which is preserved as a memorial site), notably the long hassle over the Carmelite convent there and more recently the campaign against a planned shopping mall near the gates of the old camp.

The consecration took place on the Sunday following the feast of St. Francis of Assisi--an appropriate date since the interior was, in part, donated by the Franciscan community in Assisi. The building incorporates many symbolic features commemorating the victims of Auschwitz; the cornerstone came from the "Wall of Death," and one of the chapels is built from bricks similar to those used for the crematorium ovens. During the consecration ceremony, Cardinal Camillo Ruini spoke of the church building as "a kind of theology in stone of Auschwitz--a place where Christians, Jews and believers of other faiths died." Special efforts were made during the ceremony to respect Jewish sensitivities--a number of Jewish guests were present, and ecumenical prayers were offered for all the victims, irrespective of nation or faith.

Building democracy in trouble-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina is not easy. The local head of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nikolaj of Sarajevo, complains that he was prevented from taking part in recent local elections. He was told by officials that his name was omitted from the voters' register because, back in 1991, he was resident in Croatia. But this, he says, is no valid reason for depriving him of his vote now. "Croatia is not my native country," he protested to the media. "My native country is Bosnia-Herzegovina, where I was born 70 years ago."

Furthermore, he says, he was able to vote in last year's elections without any problems, but this year, although he registered as a voter in good time, he was informed that he was not eligible. His problem neatly encapsulates the difficulties involved in setting fair voting standards in a country torn repeatedly by warfare.

Ethnic Albanian students in Kosovo, the would-be independent province of Serbia, have grown tired of waiting for the "St. Egidio agreement" on education to take effect. They have mounted a massive protest campaign, despite pleas by the Kosovar-Albanian leader, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova for more time.

Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 percent of the population of Kosovo. In the "old" Communist Yugoslavia the region was formally autonomous, with its own education system using the Albanian language and emphasizing that culture. But in 1990, direct rule was imposed from the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and the Serbs began to impose their own school programs, with Serbian as the language of instruction, an emphasis on Serbian literature an culture, and history and geography taught from the Serbian point of view. Teachers who attempted to keep the old programs were fired or harassed by the Serbian police, and in the end found themselves effectively forced out of the classrooms. In 1991, when the Serbs imposed ethnic quotas on admissions to the University of Pristina, the premier higher education institution in Kosovo, the Albanian faculty members all quit in protest. Since then, Albanian-language classes, at all levels--from kindergarten to university--have been held in private apartments and other makeshift premises, often under conditions of harassment by the Serbian authorities--and, on occasion, the arrest of lecturers and teachers on questionable charges.

Last year the St. Egidio Foundation, a lay Catholic organization based in Italy, made an attempt to get the Albanians back to their proper classrooms. Under its auspices a deal was negotiated between the Kosovar Albanian leader Dr. Rugova and the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, which envisaged a phased "return"--starting with the kindergartens and working upward to the university--and established a commission of six representatives (three Serb and three Kosovar-Albanians) to work out the practical details. The deal was hailed by many international figures--including President Bill Clinton--as a major breakthrough. However, the "small print" of the deal was less promising: there would be no immediate change in the situation--the commission would spend the next two years working out a time-table and ways and means for the return. Furthermore, the terms of the agreement as given to the world media differed markedly from the version published in the local press in Kosovo; the "local" version was less favorable to the Albanian side.

It was decided that the Commission should meet in secrecy and hence the citizens of Kosovo had little chance monitoring its progress. This particularly annoyed the students of the "alternative" ethnic-Albanian University of Kosovo. (By now, the "official" university premises had been completely Serbianized; "imported" Serbian faculty members taught students brought in from all over Serbia, and a Serbian Orthodox basilica had been erected on campus). But soon it became clear that no progress was being made at all; scheduled meetings of the commission did not take place, since the Serbs simply did not attend.

As the August anniversary of the deal approached, the Albanian students decide to wait no longer. They called on the parents of school pupils and the older pupils themselves to join them in a campaign to "liberate" their classrooms from the Serbs. This campaign was scheduled for September 1, the opening of the school year. But Dr. Rugova opposed the idea. Protests now, he said, could lose Serbian good will, and the St. Egidio process was not dead. "The eyes of the world" were watching Kosovo, and soon, very soon, there would be positive action--provided that the students did not rock the boat. The students were skeptical, but agreed to postpone major action for a month, until the university term opened on October 1.

In early September, a team from the St. Egidio Foundation did indeed visit Kosovo--but it soon turned out that they had come only to "inspect" the disputed buildings. The students thereupon mounted a low-key campaign of evening "walks" through Pristina. Since they neither carried placards nor chanted slogans, the authorities would have difficulty in taking action against what, legally, were simply large numbers of people who had decided to take an evening stroll in the same direction and at the same time. Nevertheless, as evening after evening several thousands joined in the walks, there were several tussles with the police and the editor of a local Albanian-language newspaper was arrested for allegedly "inciting" the walkers. When the main marches to "liberate" the university began on october 1, the police were ready. In Pristina and in six other towns where the university has subsidiary campuses, thousands--in some cases, tens of thousands--of students and members of the general public converged on the university buildings, only to have their way blocked by baton-wielding police. Many of the demonstrators were beaten, including medical students (mostly women) who were attempting to administer first aid to the injured. In Pristina there were at least 100 arrests, including the rector of the "alternative" university.

But the students had planned well. They had invited to Pristina representatives of all the foreign embassies and international organizations in Belgrade; the eyes of the world were indeed on Pristina. In the wake of the demonstration came cautious signals from Belgrade. A face-saving formula was adopted: soon, very soon, a meeting of the commission would be held in the university premises in Pristina, which would be open to the general public. The students are prepared to put major actions on hold, they say, to "give St. Egidio a chance," and to get on with their studies, but, until they--and all young Kosovar Albanians--are back in their proper classrooms, the fight will continue.

A Vatican official has expressed "bitter regret" at the passage of a new law restricting religious freedom in Russia. (For an account of how Catholic negotiators failed to obtain changes in the law, see our story, page XX.)

Speaking to a session of the Permanent Council for European Security (OSCE) in Vienna on September 25, Msgr. Mario Zenari--the Holy See's permanent representative to that body-- voiced regret that the Russian parliament, the Duma, had approved a bill which will restrict the activities of religious groups.

"My delegation must point out that the observations which Pope John Paul II made to President Boris Yeltsin, and the interventions of the apostolic nuncio and the apostolic administrator for European Russia, were not sufficiently taken into consideration," he complained. "We are concerned with article 27 of the law, and with the bureaucratic process necessary for the registration of non-Orthodox religious communities--which, according to the language of the law, will be subject to discrimination and exposed to the arbitrary will of local officials."

Msgr. Zenari said that the Holy See agrees with those who see the latest legislation as a step backward for religious liberty. He remarked that President Yeltsin himself had observed that an earlier version of the same bill was at odds with the new Russian constitution.

Speaking to the press from Bologna, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger went a step further in condemning the new law, saying that it would constitute "an obstacle to dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox," and "complicated the situation for the Catholic Church in Russia."

Defenders of religious freedom suffered another setback in Moscow when they were able to muster only about 500 people to what had been billed as a mass rally at Gorky Park to protest the new law. Organizers attributed the low participation to the fact that the rally took place on a work day. They also cited rumors, which they said had been deliberately circulated by ultra-nationalist circles, that ruffians might attack the assembled protesters.

Turn-out was especially low among Moscow's Catholics, of whom only about 15 were reportedly present. One young Catholic woman told Keston News Service that the rally had not been vigorously promoted at her parish and complained that "We are the most passive religious group in Russia, except perhaps for the Orthodox."

The defense minister of Saudi Arabia has said that freedom of religion is respected in his country, exists since non-Muslims are free to practice their faith in the privacy of their own homes.

Prince Sultan told the Saudi-owned, London-based al-Hayat newspaper, "It is known that Islam is a tolerant religion and does not stand against believers in God practising their religious rituals. The kingdom has no objection for them practising their religion in their homes." The prince was replying to a question on whether he had discussed the topic with Pope John Paul when he met with the Pontiff.

Saudi Arabia has been the object of criticism from many quarters recently because of its law banning any public worship by adherents of non-Muslim religions. The US Congress is mulling a law that would sanction countries that practice religious persecution, specifically naming Saudi Arabia among current offenders. Of the 12 million Saudi citizens, almost all are Muslim, but a large number of the six million foreign residents working in the country are Christian, who--under current restrictions--may be expelled from the country for attending Mass..

In September, after Coptic Christians reported seeing strange lights around the steeple of their church and then a vision of the Virgin Mary, tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims descended on the small village of Shentana el Hagar, where the apparitions had been reported. In response, angry Muslims rioted, smashing windowsand attacking the homes of Christians.

For three nights, hundreds of Islamic militants chanted pro-Islam, anti-Christian slogans and causing property damage in a continuing sign of the tense relations between Egypt's Muslim majority and the minority Coptic Christians. Although Muslims revere the Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ--a prophet in the eyes of the Islamic faith--their religion prohibits venerating images of people. Twice before, in 1968 and 1986, there have been reported sightings of the Virgin Mary in Egypt, both times in the country's capital, Cairo.

Since the first reported sighting of the red lights and silver-white objects around the church's roof, followed by "spiritual images," about 150,000 people have visited, said the local priest, Father Youanis Rateb Abdel-Nour.

As spokesman for the bishops of Sudan, who had gathered in Rome in Septmber for their ad limina visit with Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum painted a dire picture of the situation in his country. "You Holiness, our people need help--contrary to the statements of our government," he said. He recited a long list of problems stemming from the continuing civil war, which pits rebels in the predominantly Christian south of Sudan against a regime dominated by Muslims from the north.

The war has "divided our episcopal conference in two," Archbishop Wako reported, because communication is difficult between sections of the country. Although the government has promised aid to the starving populations of southern villages--particularly after a papal visit there in 1993-- no help has arrived.

Despite those problems, the Church remains active in Sudan, with roughly 7,000 baptisms taking place every year, the archbishop reported. Khartoum alone now has 200 young men studying for the priesthood. However, he allowed that the bishops hope to bring adults into more active participation; many adults dwift away from the practice of the faith because of marital irregularities, including divorce, extra-marital unions, and polygamous households.

Still, the primary concern for the Sudanese bishops remains the security of their people. "The attitude of the government toward the churches--especially the Catholic Church--is negative, to say the least," Archbishop Wako reported. The latest evidence of that hostility was the systematic destruction of churches and parish centers, which the government justified with the vaguest of explanations. The overall pastoral situation is dominated, the archbishop concluded, by "poverty, hunger, the absence of rights, and insecurity because of that hunger."

The National Minorities Commission (NMC) in its latest annual report has urged the federal government to scrap the religious criterion and to extend Scheduled Castes (SC) status to all "Dalits" (people of lower-caste origin) irrespective of their creed.

The report submitted to the federal welfare ministry recommended tjat the government rescind the 1950 constitutional amendment which denies SC status to Dalits who have converted to religions other than Hinduism.

"Dalit" in Sanskrit means "trampled upon" and refers to the members of lower castes who were once treated as "untouchables." Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits enjoy SC status, which entitles them to free education, preference in hiring for government jobs, and special quotas in membership in legislature-- all measures intended to improve their socio-economic status. However Muslim and Christian Dalits are denied these statutory benefits on the ground that these religiond are not offshoots of the Hinduism which fostered the caste system in India.

"Taking into consideration the social situation in the country, Dalits remain Dalits whatever be their faith," said James Massey, a NMC member who was instrumental in making the Commission proposal. "We

have made a clear proposal. It is now for the government to act."

Since the 1950s, Christian churches in India have been demanding extension of SC status to Christian Dalits, who comprise more than 60 percent of India's 21 million Christians, Catholics accounting for 15 million.

The US State Department revealed in September that North Korea has agreed to allow a team of US experts into their Stalinist country to assess the growing famine there, which some groups claim have killed up to a million people.

US spokesman James Rubin said the unprecedented offer was made in a meeting in New York and accepted by representatives of North Korea, which has been one of the most closed societies in the world. The United States has sent several shipments of food to North Korea this year, but Rubin did not promise any additional deliveries. The US experts will assess procedures for ensuring that outside food donations reach the intended recipients.

The Christian relief group World Vision has reported that the famine-attributed by the country's government to two years of flooding, although some outsiders blame the failed policies of collectivist agriculture--has killed up to a million people. Other aid experts dispute those numbers. Defense analysts are watching the crisis warily because of fears that it could push North Korea to send its million-man army to invade its more prosperous neighbor, South Korea.

In August a government panel of experts in Japan decided to postpone, until its next session on October 28, a final decision on whether to recommend approval of the birth-control pill for the nation. Whether the government will give the green light to the Pill or continue a longstanding ban is likely to be determined by further study of possible medical side-effects on users of oral contraceptives.

The government panel has received a wealth of information from Dr . Francis K. Hirata of Nagoya, who in turn received the material from the American pharmacist Lloyd J. Duplantis of Louisiana. A sharp critic of the Pill, Duplantis and his wife are familiar faces in American pro-life circles. He explained how he became involved in a 20-year campaign to amass evidence against the birth-control pill:

At the invitation of Dr. Hirata, Dr. Duplantis will make a lecture tour of Japan from November 30 through December 5. When the Japanese bishops' conference heard of the plans for that tour, Bishop Augustinus Nomura of Nagoya, Cardinal Peter S. Shirayanagi of Tokyo, and finally the entire

conference offered to back the tour to maximize its visibility.

The Archbishop of Nagasaki next weighed in with a strong statement arguing that the decision about approving or disapproving the Pill should not be based on medical findings alone.

The rule for human behavior, individual and social, is moral rectitude, Archbishop Xavier Shimamoto pointed out. God has enjoined man to "increase and multiply" in the context of marriage in which man and woman are joined in love. "Whereas using the Pill for contraception, and employing any kind of artificial contraceptive method, expresses an attitude of denial and refusal toward a life which is to be born."

More than 500,000 Filipinos marched in an unusual September demonstration in Manila--a demonstration which was first organized to demand that President Fidel Ramos step down when his term

ends, and then became an expression of approval when he pledged to do so.

The rally was organized by Cardinal Jaime Sin and former President Corazon Aquino, who also played key roles in the 1986 people's revolt that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The mainly peaceful protest was marred before it began by the discovery of bombs in two Manila churches. Both were defused by police.

Early on the day of the demonstration, Ramos made the declaration that he would not support a campaign by his supporters, who are seeking to amend the constitution in order to allow him to run for another seven-year term. "We are thanking the president for what he said," Cardinal Sin said in a conciliatory gesture at the rally. "In thanksgiving, we now pray for national reconciliation."

Argentinian President Carlos Saul Menem offered a strong public defense of the right to life in Buenos Aires early in October, as he prepared for a visit to Rome and a meeting with Pope John Paul II.

Speaking from his national capital just before he traveled to Rome to open a new transplant unit at an Argentine medical facility there, Menem said, "We have joined with the Catholic Church in defending human life from time of conception." He noted that Argentine law prohibits abortion, and promised to oppose any change.

President Menem met with Pope John Paul in the morning of Saturday, October 11. That afternoon Msgr. Leonardo Sandri, the apostolic nuncio to Argentine, was ordained a bishop in St. Peter's basilica. During his stay in Rome the Argentine president presented decorations to several cardinals serving in the Roman Curia and to Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

The massive appeal of Pope John Paul II once again surprised observers during the first weekend of October, as at least 1.5 million people gathered to worship with him at the concluding Mass of the second worldwide Encounter with Families.

During his weekend in Brazil, the Holy Father never varied his topic: the importance of strong family life. He began his visit with an appeal to government and social leaders to promote family life, and ended with a plea for family members to pursue personal sanctity.

Soon after his arrival in Rio, the Pope told 2,500 official delegates to the family congress that the world needs a new international dialogue on family life, and that opinion leaders should push government officials toward policies that would strengthen the family. The Holy Father lamented that today "the shadows which obscure the conception of human life" have lengthened to cover the entire family, causing "attacks and efforts toward disintegration."

"Sometimes it seems," the Pope continued, "that the enemies of God--instead of a frontal assault on the Author of creation--prefer to aim at his works, of which man is the highest. Among the truths which are obscured in the heart of man because of secularization and the domination of hedonism, those which effect the family are particularly endangered."

The first such problem, the Pope said, is the lack of recognition and respect paid to the dignity of conjugal communion. "Conjugal fidelity and respect for life in all its phases of existence are subverted by a culture which does not admit the transcendence of man created in the image and likeness of God." Thus, he concluded, the enemies of God fail to recognize the intimate bond between marriage and the procreation of human life.

The Pope's message, with its clear denunciation of abortion, came at a time when his host country was engaged in a heated debate on legalizing that practice. On October 1, on the eve of the Pope's arrival, Brazilian First Lady Ruth Cardoso spoke out publicly in favor of legalized abortion, and insisted that the papal visit would not influence the country's political leadership. In Brazil, a 1946 law allows abortion only in cases or rape or when the mother's life is in danger. But that law is not enforced, and a group of private clinics perform abortions with the tacit consent of the government. Throughout his stay in Brazil, and even in his meeting with President Henrique Cardoso, the Pope studiously avoided any direct comment on the country's political debate. But his fundamental message was clear.

On Sunday, as the Rio meeting concluded, the Pope presided at an outdoor Mass near the city's oceanfront, with a massive congregation estimated at 1.5 million or more. In his homily the Holy Father once again paid homage to the vocation of marriage, and the unique gift in which married couples collaborate in God's work of creating human

life.

That afternoon the Pope began his return trip to Rome, concluding the 80th foreign visit of his pontificate. Observers who had seen the extreme fatigue on the face of the Holy Father during the celebration of World Youth Day on a hot weekend in Paris noted that he seemed more relaxed and energetic in Rio, where the temperatures were more clement.

As the second worldwide Encounter with Families opened in Rio de Janeiro, and delegates awaited the arrival of Pope John Paul II, one Vatican official spoke of a "conspiracy" against family life, while a leading Latin American prelate accused the United States of engaging in a crusade to promote abortion.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, spoke at the opening of the Rio congress. He told an audience of 2,500 official delegates from all across the world that families play the crucial role in the development of any society, and that Catholics must fight against "harsh and systematic attacks" against family integrity, which he attributed to "a global conspiracy against life."

The cardinal, who is Colombian by birth, cautioned against the tendency of Christians to sequester themselves in "safe" havens, and insisted that in order to save themselves and their societies--and to spread the message of the Gospel--Catholic families must become engaged in the "culture wars." The best defense of the family, he said, will come from families themselves. And the defense of the family is a principle element of the "new evangelization" which will help the Church usher in the third Christian millennium.

Following Cardinal Trujillo to the podium, a prominent American legal scholar followed up on the prelate's argument, saying that many international organizations--particularly the United Nations--are engaged in efforts to promote contraception, with enormous negative consequences for family life. Harvard professor Mary Ann Glendon, who acquired considerable experience in working with international organizations when she headed the Vatican delegation to the UN conference on women in Beijing, said that powerful lobbying groups were leading international bodies toward a posture that would favor the autonomy of children over parental discipline, and homosexual activity over married love.

Archbishop Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegulcigalpa, Honduras, completed the line of argument by pointing a finger directly at the United States, which he said is the ultimate source of the campaign that is now undermining family life, especially in Latin America. The archbishop, who is the president of the Latin American bishops' conference CELAM, complained that the US sees Latin America in simplistic terms, as a source of illegal immigrants and of drug traffic. "They fall into the fallacy of thinking that we are underdeveloped because we are populous," he continued, and as a result the US political leadership sponsors heavy-handed measures to control population.

While organizations backed by US aid have distributed condoms and lobbied for legalized abortion, Archbishop Rodriguez said, the fundamental problems of the region cannot be solved without a change in individual attitudes and individual behavior. The Church in Latin America, he said, must face the real problems of the region, which include consumerism, individualism, and the growth of religious sects.

The Chilean Bishops' Conference reacted with a statement of public disapproval after a decision by the lower house of the country's legislature to legalize divorce.

The general secretary of the Chilean bishops' conference, Bishop Javier Prado, said, "it is very sad--not only the fact in itself of legalizing divorce, but also the way the decision was made." He added, "The Catholic Church regrets this decision, because all the arguments and documents presented in order to stop the legalization of divorce in this country were simply dismissed by the majority." The bishop also regretted the fact that "after voting, some of the representatives shouted and applauded as if they were in a soccer match and not in the Congress."

The new law, which still must be confirmed by the Senate before becoming law, was passed 58-26. "We still have expectations that the Senate will at least introduce the modifications that somehow protect the institution of marriage and family," Bishop Prado said.

Chile is the last Latin American nation to maintain a ban on divorce.

The US House of Representatives opened a new chapter in a familiar political debate early in October, approving a measure that would ban partial-birth abortions as well curb the flow of government subsidies for international population-control groups.

The House voted 296-132 to approve the Senate version of a ban on partial-abortions. President Bill Clinton has promised to veto the measure when it reaches his desk, as he did last year. The Senate was unable to muster the two-thirds majority necessary to override that first veto, but this year Senate Republicans said they are within one or two votes of making the bill veto-proof. The House has passed the both bills with enough votes to override Clinton's veto.

The House also insisted that a bill restructuring the State Department must include a ban on funding for international population-control groups that promote or perform abortions. In the past the Senate has failed to support such provisions.

New Ambassador to Vatican

President Bill Clinton on Monday named Rep. Lindy Boggs, a Democratic from Louisiana as his nominee to be US ambassador to the Vatican, replacing former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn, who has returned to Massachusetts to mull a run for governor in that state.

Boggs has served nine terms in the US House of Representatives, succeeding her husband Hale Boggs, who was House majority leader. A pro-life Catholic from New Orleans, Boggs had a long career in the Congress after her husband's death in an airplane accident. She served as a member of the US delegation to the installation of Pope John Paul I. Her name first surfaced in relation to the ambassadorship during the summer after Flynn hinted that he was planning to return to his home state to resume his political career there. But Flynn's credibility may have been tarnished by a September exposé in the Boston Globe, which charged that his behavior as ambassador (and even as Boston's mayor) had been erratic, allegedly as the result of heavy drinking.