American TFP Newsletters 1983, Vol. 3, No. 15 - 1986, Vol. 4, No. 19 by Nestor

Vol. Ill

No. 15

1983

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American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

U.S. Catholic Bishops Challenged Over Their Inconsistency Catholic Bishops of America: Why Show Such Extreme Panic Over the Slaughter That Could Be Caused By A Nuclear Hecatombe And No Panic Over The Slaughter Caused By Legalized Abortion"read a huge banner carried by a large contingent of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) in a demonstration in front of the American Bishops' offices at the United States Catholic Conference in

Washington, D.C. This and two other striking ban ners elaborating on the question were also seen by the many thousands of people participating in the 10th Annual March for Life in the nation's capital on January 22.

of six full pages against self-managing socialism in several of the country's leading newspapers last year, showed skepticism over the Bishops' probable response by posing the following question: "Your Excellencies: We Already Know that You Will Greet This Disconcerted But Filial Question With Disdain. Why? Why? Why? The American TFP further manifested its con cern over the bewilderment and confusion caused

by the Bishops' ecumenical movement that focuses so much on the unbelievers and so little on the faithful.

Reflecting this affliction, the demonstrators con

The American TFP,an organization that gained notoriety with the publication of an advertisement

cluded with the recitation of the Sorrowful

Mysteries of the Rosary.

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(Front page and above) Inconsistency, Concern, Affliction; The American TFP demonstration in front of the U.S. Catholic Conference.

The American TFP

Supports the March for Life in Washington Between 50,000 and 75,000 persons, become familiar sights at this event over when the first line of marchers had according to estimates by pro-life leaders, the years. reached the Capitol, others were still took part in the 10th Annual March for This year, however, because the bench coming out of the assembly point at the Life in Washington D.C. on January 22 mark anniversary, the TFP brought Ellipse. to express their continued opposition to together a larger contingent than usual President Reagan called the Court's the 1972 Supreme Court ruling that per in order to demonstrate with as much em

decision "a tragedy" and said that he ized abortion and their consonance with would continue to support legislation to "end the practice of abortion on de those who shared the same rejection. The TFP displayed three large banners mand." A White House spokesman directed to the American Catholic quoted the President as saying,"We have phasis as possible the rejection of legal

mits abortion on demand.

The now infamous decision unleashed a torrent of abortions that in the United

States over the last ten years has reached 15,000,000. Just for last year alone, the abortion death toll world-wide was a stag gering 40-50 million.

Bishops raising the issue of the hierar

chy's near panic over a possible nuclear hecatombe and their strange silence

waited two years for Congress to rectify

the tragedy of Roe vs. Wade. I assure you

that in the 98th Congress, I will support

any appropriate legislative action that Once again, volunteers and members of about the abortion issue. the American Society for the Defense of The participants filled up the line of will restrict abortion." Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) march that ran from the Ellipse past the The March ended with a dispersion of joined the march in the nation's capital. White House and up to the Capitol. The the people at the Capitol to seek out their Their red capes and standards have size of the crowd was so enormous that local Senators and Congressmen.

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B The 10th Annual March for Life.

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A Self-Managing Convent A recent statement from the National

Coalition of American Nuns(NCAN)does much to show to what extent women's

religious communities have been trans formed over the past twenty years. The statement which protests the limited role of women in the new code of canon law tells of women's "ac

complishments" in the Church and the breakdown of the religious community in to a kind of socialist "self-managing"

community free of distinctive elitist garb and without the oppressive superior. "At the Second Vatican Council,

bishops themselves called for a new ecclesiology and corresponding new church structures. The Church as hierarchical

chain of command was to give way to a church as a community. Pyramidal models were to give way to participative ones in which every voice could be heard. Women religious applied these principles in our lives in community. Notions of 'superior' and 'inferior' disappeared, and affirmation of equal membership and shared responsibility emerged. The prin ciples were subsequently incorporated in our revised constitutions.

"Women religious have reason to fear that these steps toward church as com munity are threatened. We are suspicious of moves toward imposing religious garb, which reintroduces elitist distinctions,

and of requiring 'superiors' in every com munity as the ultimate decision makers, which destroys collegiality. We feel im

The statement reaffirms not only the legial structures in their own com munities, can play a crucial role in the move from bureaucracy and control to ly oppose any attempt by superiors to ap participation and consensus {NCAN prove or disapprove of their constitutions News, 12-82). The nuns' statement testifies to the and practices. "We oppose every form of authoritar profound changes that have taken place ianism which prevents the achievement and the gradual yet radical transforma of maturation to full personhood. We tion of the Church into a new, specifically oppose the present require demythified, desacralized, egalitarian ment of submitting our constitutions to church. NCAN is an organization of 1800 Rome for approval. We as adult Christian women do not need and do not seek per women religious centered in Chicago. mission to intensify our baptismal com Several of its members were recently in mitment. We are committed to gospel volved in a controversy over their ideals and to theological principles which statements supporting a woman's recognize that the Holy Spirit speaks in "right" to abortion. and to persons of both sexes and of every rank. We oppose the mandate from the Sacred Congregation for Religious to end experimentation and to seek its approval

commitment of many nuns to these prin ciples but also their intent to active

for definitive constitutions. We consider

this mandate and the proposed process for approval as a violation of the prin ciples of subsidiarity and collegiality enunciated by the Second Vatican

Extinguishing Christmas

Council.

"NCAN,a forum for those who share

these moral concerns, calls on all religious congregations and individual women

religious to accept full responsibility for

In the aftermath of the Nativity scene court battles, it is interesting to note that modem civil libertarians, atheists and the

the regulations and principles governing like are not the first ones who have tried our life in community. At present, this in to extinguish the celebration of one of volves the acceptance of non-canonical Christianity's most august feasts. status.

pelled to resist these moves and by so do

"The church, based on the gospel call to oneness and equality in Christ can be

ing to call the church to the realization

a model for society. Women in the church,

of its ideals."

who have already successfully shaped col-

Stacking the Deck

In a veritable assault against the Christmas creche, libertarians have at

tacked the city, state and federal obser vance of the holiday as violation of the principle of separation between church and state. Opponents point out that in this largely Christian nation, the creche prohibition represents a trivialization of the Constitution. Many communities who

have enjoyed a long tradition of celebra ting the birth of the Christ Child suddenly Bob DiLeonardo, owner of DiLeonar- jack tables will have lighting that il find that celebration prohibited by a do's Interiors, Inc. is redesigning Caesars luminates only the players and excludes single objection. Boardwalk Regency, a 509-room hotelcasino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The move is not aimed at improving the con dition of the present three-year old decor but toward creating a subliminal gam bling environment that will "relax the morality of people." To achieve this, DiLeonardo has re vealed a number of changes that he and his "environmental psychologist" are

making as part of the $7 million project. The huge lobby windows are being taken out and will be replaced with sheets

of creamy Italian marble. This will be done so that "people won't be able to relate to time. Once they step inside, they'll be in an adult Disneyland," says DiLeonardo {Wall Street Journal, 1-10-83).

In the casino, he plans to use materials that "enhance" noise because in gam bling noise creates excitement. The black-

spectators so as not to disturb the There are some interesting his. gamblers' sense of security. precedents: The hotel's eight restaurants are being In 1644, Oliver Cromwell's parliament redone in what he calls "vestment" col banned Christmas in England. The ors like gold, plum, and deep reds. The Puritans disapproved of what they called richness of the colors suggests to the the "Profane Man's Ranting Day" and diner a relationship between gambling the obvious Catholic origin of "Christ's and royalty. Thick rugs and mohair wall Mass". Christmas riots ensued and after coverings will also be used to com 14 years the unpopular measure was municate a "sensuality" and warmth. repealed. Even the hotel rooms are being In 1649, Massachusetts passed a law changed. For the big gamblers who get fining anyone caught celebrating complimentary suites, DiLeonardo is Christmas. Throughout New England, doing their rooms in bold, contrasting Christmas was suppressedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and defiance colors with bright lighting and noise was strong. Up until 1870,long after the enhanced to such high levels, that the appeal of such laws, Boston's public occupant will be so uncomfortable he will schools remained open on December 25 almost run back to the gambling tables. {St Petersburg Times Parade, 12-19-82). With all the environmental changes at The current attacks aimed at wringing the casino, the Caesars Boardwalk every exterior sign of Christmas out of Regency could be accused of playing with public life seems strikingly similar to a marked deck. those of past extremists.

New Social Diseases — A Non-Nuclear Disaster cancer or a variety of infections. With no to discover a cure. The drugs currently known cure,the disease has a fatality rate in use against AIDS-induced cancer also depress the already weakened immunity would cause and the terrible effects of a of over 40 percent. Since late 1982,the number of reported system. The result is that even the most resulting radioactive fallout, a real disaster that is sweeping the United cases nationwide has climbed to 530, up promising therapies are proving difficult With all the uproar about the widespread destruction a nuclear war

States with devastating effects is not from 141 in 1981. Over 200 of these have resulted in deaths. According to Dr. receiving nearly as much press. The victims of this disaster have the

Richard Selik of the Center of Disease

to use.

In another study of the social disease phenomena, an Alabama researcher

same symptoms as survivors of a nuclear

Control in Atlanta, the number of cases found the carrier is not the only one to

war — chronic fevers, skin cancer, weight

has been doubling every six. months{San be infected. Mothers with the incurable

loss and fatigue, swollen lymph glands, diarrhea and red and purple skin marks on the body. According to some estimates nearly 20 million Americans are experi encing some symptoms of this devasta ting phenomena — the new and incurable

Francisco Chronicle, 11-17-82). virus "herpes" are transmitting the The majority of the victims are young disease to their newborn children. homosexual males. Correspondingly,the Dr. Charles A. Alford Jr., professor of

social diseases such as herpes and Ac

heaviest tolls center around the New

pediatric research at the University of

York, San Francisco, Miami, and Los Alabama believes that about 1000 babies Angeles areas. AIDS has also begun to are born each year with the infection appear in persons with a history of drug transmitted during birth by the mother.

quired Immune Deficiency Syndrome abuse by injection as well as in hemophilia Of these 700 die from it and 180 are patients who have had to draw blood from struck with blindness, mental retardation

(AIDS).

The disastrous effects of these diseases

brought about by rampant and wide spread promiscuity have shocked many. Suddenly modern lifestyles are having consequences that no one imagined. The alarming rise of herpes, AIDS and other diseases has researchers worried that the

United States may be on the verge of a "huge outbreak" affecting not only the highly susceptible homosexual population but others as well.

AIDS is one of the most fatal and

unknown donors at blood banks.

or central nervous system disorders. Dr. Alford reports that seventy percent heightened by a study in the New of the mothers did not know that they England Journal ofMedicine indicating were spreading the virus(San Francisco that as many as 83 percent of homosex Chronicle, 10-26-82). Unlike the theoretical nuclear question ual men may have immuno-deficiency. If this is accurate, says Dr. Paul A. where the "solution" is easily given in Volberding, chief of medical oncology for parroted slogans and political conces San Francisco Hospital, "that implies sions, this red problem is much more dif that this disease may be highly conta^ous ficult to solve. Doctors point out that the and raises the possibility that we are go only real way to stop it is to stop one's ing to be seeing a huge outbreak"(Cor- promiscuous activity and lifestyle—a The sense ofimpending disaster among members of the medical profession was

mysterious killers. The illness begins with shocking reality which most prefer not to a breakdown of the body's natural Tpus Christi Caller, 10-30-82). Doctors treating the disease have yet face. defenses. It develops into a rare skin

Freezing U.S. Technology Leaks According to a top Naval intelligence officer, the best Soviet arms researchers

and developers are not scientists work ing in Russian laboratories but KGB of ficers buying and stealing technological secrets from American firms.

In a convention of the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Associa

"legal" means. Burkhalter pointed out gathered by such operations is presently that there are 30 Soviet and Eastern being used to build missiles, trucks and European firms that serve as fronts for planes. The operation takes advantage of spies. the highly motivated free enterprise "These firms chartered in the U.S. can system to save the Russian government legally buy controlled technology," he billions of dollars in research and develop said."Only when they attempt to export ment costs and more importantly years

it are they breaking the law."

tion at the San Francisco Hilton, Rear

The Russians also use the Freedom of

Admiral Edward A. Burkhalter Jr. said

Information Act to gain access to declassified technological information.

Soviet spies have developed a complex es pionage network that is responsible for having stolen more than two-thirds of Russia's military technology from American manufacturers.

"There is no high-technology firm that is free from the threat of Soviet infiltra

tion or theft," he said (San Francisco Chronicle, 1-6-83).

Burkhalter, the present director of an agency known as the Intelligence Com

munity Staff said that the Soviet techni cians (like all other sectors of the Soviet economy)suffer from a lack of imagina tion and low productivity. To compen sate, Soviet and Eastern Bloc spies ar range deals through Western European purchasing agents or direct deals with employees of American firms. These agents also use completely

As a result, stolen information

of research and development time. With all the talk about a "nuclc.

freeze," the U.S. might begin by freez ing the Soviet's access to U.S. technology.

Revolution and Counter-RevoluUon by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira * Published in five languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism — and even more radicalforms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP • P. O. Box 121 • Pleasantville, NY 10570 5

members,the discounting of a negative information, an unquestioning accep A Roman Catholic nun was recently tance of the group's morals, sharing appointed to head Michigan's Depart stereotyped views of other groups, ment of Social Services, the state's silence that is taken for agreement and iargest agency. With a $3.3 biilion the screening out of adverse information budget, the agency carries out a policy that might affect the group. Is it any wonder that the ideal selfof paid abortion for low income women. Sr. Agnes Mary Mansour says she will managing society envisioned by French carry out the policy once in office and Socialists is turning into a nightmare?

strange Witness

finds no contradiction

between the

Catholic Church's official teaching that abortion is murder and her new job. The appointment by Democratic gover nor James Blanchard was particularly frustrating to the state's pro-life forces which had opposed the pro-abortion Catholic nun's bid for election to the

U.S. Congress. The Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee spent much effort and money to see Sr. Mansour soundly defeated last Novem ber.

The 51 year-old Sister of Mercy sophistically claims to be "personally op posed to abortion," but says that to deny poor women an operation legally avail able to those who can afford it sets an unfair double standard.

Despite her outspoken views on sup

Afghans' Bold Kidnapping Not even the light of day can bring security to Soviets mired in Afghanistan. According to a Western diplomatic source,14 to 16 Soviet advisors including two women were kidnapped in broad daylight in a market area of Mazar-I-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. The bold kid

Military About Face Military topics and programs are becoming popular once again. Recruiters who were once scorned by college youth are now signing up students as the

military career is regaining some of the prestige it lost since the 60's. This year's ROTC enrollment has

topped the 100,000 mark up from 91,000 two years ago. The Junior ROTC,its high school version enrolled 200,000 students. The Navy and the Air Force have met recruiting goals and the Ar my and Marine Corps have surpassed theirs.

Applications at the Armed Forces

academies is also up. The U.S. Military

Academy received 20 percent more ap plications than last year. The Air Force napping netted the largest group of Academy noted a 17 percent increase. At Soviet personnel ever captured by the the Naval Academy 12,600 applicants popular Afghan resistance fighters. aspired for 1,400 openings (St. Dr. Azim Nasri, a spokesman for the Petersburg Times, 12-22-82). Jamlat-lslamI resistance movement, The fading memory of Vietnam, uncer whose stronghold Is Mazar province, tain economic conditions and an in confirmed the report saying that "a crease in patriotism among youth are be number of Soviet advisors" were seized ing credited for the increased popular and were still alive and would probably ity. be taken to Peshsawar, Pakistan (San

porting abortion and the now defunct

Francisco Chronicle, 1-12-82).

ERA, Bishop Edmund Szoka, Archbishop of Detroit approved the appointment ex

Fact or Science Fiction?

"Subversive" Bishop

When employees of a computer firm were asked what developments they ex

plaining in an interview to The Wanderer that were no canonical restrictions that

Since his Installation In 1954, Bishop

would bar such an appointment and that he hoped her presence would "give a powerful witness to the Christian dimen

Leonidas Proaho of Riobamba, Ecuador

sion of the Department of Social Ser

vices"(The Wanderer, 1-13-83).

Self-Managing Nightmare Self-management is a system where by workers supposedly manage their own work and make their own decisions.

The concept is one of basic premises of French President Mitterrand's ill-fated

brand of socialism and has gradually spread and gained acceptance in business circles here in the United States.

Dr. Henry P. Sims, a professor of organizational behavior at Penn State University finds that workers under a self-managing program are susceptible to what he calls "groupthink." This phenomena occurs when workers unanimously make group decisions that may exclude other alternative and sometimes important individual view points.

The attractiveness of conforming in order to be accepted by the group often influences workers to go along with the crowd rather than face unpopularity. The

result can be the hampering of creativi ty or individualism. Prof. Sirhms defines several symp toms of the "groupthink" syndrome: A mentality of group invulnerability, ex cessive optimism among group

has seen his role as one of awakening the Indians to their "downtrodden" posi tion. An advocate of social change, Bishop Proaho likes to be portrayed as "a man of the people." He prefers to be addressed as merely Leonidas and not Your Excellency. In place of episcopal vestments, he wears the ordinary Indian clothing. Like his compatriots in Nicaragua,the Bishop has labored hard to "conscientlze" the population about the social ills

pect in their field over the next 25 years, a number of frightening possibilities were given: One employee expects the use of multicolor lights that will give the all clear code as infrared light deciphers the employee's identification mark on his or her finger. The mark would be invisi ble and have a permanency for two years.

Another expects research will be done on

direct

machine enhancement of

human minds. Others expect telepathic terminals to Input and receive infc ^ existing In their society. The problem Is tion from a computer and still ano. that the term "social Ills" often is used looks for brain implant computers made to distort the idea of the natural ine qualities that exist between men and of DNA (Contact, Nov-Dec 1982). "social change" is often understood to mean the overthrow of the current social and economic structure. At one time or

Running a Risk

another, both the Bishop and his subor

Over one third of the people who run at least six miles a week are likely to suf fer injuries medical researchers report. Half of these will require medical

dinates have been labeled "subversive"

by the government and have even been jailed. As a true advocate of Liberation

Theology, Bishop Proarlo feels "honored when called a subversive." In a recent ar

ticle, he stated: "If we are living within

a system or state evidently not In accord with the designs of God, we must op pose it. In this sense Christ, too, was subversive" (Maryknoii, 1-83). Conversely, but not surprisingly, the Bishop has little to say about those neighboring systems or states truly out side of designs of God such as Cuba or Nicaragua.

attention.

In a study of 1,521 recreational runners carried out by the National Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, the typical

runner has a 1-ln-6 chance of knee prob lems, a 1-in-10 chance of foot problems and a 1-in-20 chance of ankle or shin

problems. Although there are advantages to run ning, the study recommended that run ners consider the trade-offs inherent in

increasing or decreasing their weekly mileage(Corpus Christi Times, 12-17-82).

Playing

PILOT ERROR

the Thina Card' in Red China A bulletin of the Cardiology Research and Development Fund contained a series of do's and don'ts for people who plan ned on travelling to Russia to participate

In Communist China not having to wait in long lines at the barber shop, eating

in a world congress of cardiology in

in fancy restaurants, and buying goods not found in the ordinary markets were

Moscow.

In these instructions, which were

almost totally about how a visitor should

once luxuries available only to the Red

conduct himself in order not to incur the

bosses. Now they are also within reach of the common man, though by a

Soviet dictatorship's displeasure, something especially noteworthy was the following suggestion: "It is a good idea

somewhat less democratic means than a

checkbook. In Chinese, the system is call ed "kwanshi" — bartering. Hsiow Kwang, an employee in a Pek

to take personal toiletries, such as soap,

tooth paste, deodorant, and so on." Isn't that the same as saying that in the Russia

ing cinema, finds that his particular job allows him to rise slightly above the stan

of tanks and missiles there is a lack of

those consumer products which the capitalist world places within the reach

of the most modest pocketbooks? This explains a significant episode that

Ginza street — in Tokyo's fashionable shopping and "shoplifting" district.

dard of misery of his compatriots. The process begins with building good relationships with people who provide

checkout stand and reached the door, the

necessary services and with whom one

happened in Tokyo to a pilot with the Soviet airline, Aeroflot, as reported in Tokyo by Vittorio Zuccone, a correspon

thousand yen still in his pocket. Sudden can eventually establish a "mutual ex ly he heard: "Security police! You're change of good offices." Legal tender for under arrest!" It was the little woman

Kwang in this bureaucratic-free exchange

dent of the Turin magazine, La Starapa.

who had been shadowing him. Perhaps she wasn't up to date on totalitarian fami

is the well-known theater ticket. It is

amazing how such a seemingly insignifi

ly needs. An hour later. Commander

cant commodity can expedite a haircut

At 47 years of age, of which 20 had been spent flying for Soviet civil and military institutions. Captain Vladimir

Orlov emptied the bag in the presence of

and a shave, or obtain one's choice on a

Konstantinovic Orlov was at last made a

the store manager, the police, and an ir

menu of delicacies, or gain access to ex

Commander of the Aeroflot fleet. His job was to fly to cities in the capitalist world.

ritated functionary from the Soviet con

One day, Commander Orlov walked in to a Japanese supermarket with a large paper bag in his hands, and almost emp ty wallet in his pocket. Doubtless he had

clusive import stores. sulate. Among the purloined articles were "Kwanshi" is frequently used to obtain safety razors, after-shave lotion, a health services which otherwise would woman's comb, a bar of Ivory Soap, ball mean long and weary waits for simple point pens, a half-dozen bananas, and a Hitachi hair dryer. The total value of the articles was 21 thousand yen, or about

a heavy heart, for he didn't have enough money to purchase all the items on the $84. The unfortunate Aeroflot captain list given to him by his wife in Moscow. was then placed on a plane bound for His funds totalled 1,000 yen, or about Moscow, where not only his deprived $4.00. The other ten dollars he had

family awaited him but undoubtedly the

brought with him were spent on dinner the night before.

severe punishment of the police as well.

Orlov could hear the admonitions of his

are most responsible for this sad tale, the tyrants who have reduced the Russian

But who is going to punish those who

wife as he was leaving: "Don't forget anything!" His friends had reminded him: people to such misery that they are temp "Not many get to the outside, so be sure ted to steal not diamond rings and gold to get something for me!" His little boy but razor blades and soap? had pleaded: "What are you going to

consultations, treatment, and medi cines.

"Kwanshi" is practically indispensable

in finding work or lodging, and Kwang says the ideal is to have acquaintances in as many fields as possible, including peo ple in the import market. Though relatively unknown in thriving Western capitalist countries, the barter system has actually been the only viable one for some kind of dignified survival of common people living amidst the tages and inefficiencies of commun. . regimes.

bring me. Daddy?" He remembered the

stores back in Russia, the long lines and old and empty shelves, while at the same time he contemplated the marvels of

Japanese opulence, all within reach of his hand. Then the solution came. Orlov

remembered when, as a boy in Georgia,

Stalin made proletarian expropriations. Zuccone observed that the latter also ex

propriated thousands of human lives.

Since his hand was quicker than his conscience, the commander went to work

— stealing what he didn't have enough money to buy. But this time his hand was not quicker than the eye of a small

unkempt woman who walked into the store just behind him. In any case, he paid no attention to her, and as soon as he fill

ed his bag he calmly circumvented the

FOR CLARITY AND INSIGHTINTO THE CONFUSING EVENTS TAKING PLACE IN THE WORLD TODA Y

READ THE TFP NEWSLETTER

CUSTOM-MADE NEWS percent of the students believe the free enterprise system is fair to workers. of a study ^ey made on leading reporters Some 34 percent believe that less and editors of the American media. They business regulation would aid economic confirmed what most people already growth. Pro-life advocates can expect no help knew: The Fourth Estate holds strongly from this journalist class as 90 percent liberal attitudes. support abortion. Only recently, Lichter and Stanley Three quarters of the students blame (joined by Linda Lichter)came out with the United States for the poverty of the another survey. This one does much to Third World. They have no affection for uncloud the mystery as to why leading Ronald Reagan and strongly approve of journalists hold such liberal views.

A year ago, pollsters Robert Lichter

and Stanley Rothman released the results

The team surveyed the social and political attitudes of aspiring journalists

"UN-CARE" CENTERS Day Care centers have been regarded as one of the great rights of so-called "women's liberation." Freed from

household worries, women should be able

to pursue a meaningful career lea\nng the task of child rearing to carefully trained professionals. Free government day care facilities are being advocated to ensure every women her right to work.

Today's day care facilities can hardly claim to live up to the ideal.

Ralph Nader, Gloria Steinem and Ed The centers have become "networks" ward Kennedy {The Victoria Advocate, for spreading diarrhea, dysentery and 12-21-82).

other intestinal diseases to children and at the prestigious Columbia School of If the students at Columbia represent their parents causing what one doctor Journalism. They found the young aspir the journalists of tomorrow, then their ants to be sharply to the left of their clearly liberal views indicate what the calls outbreaks "reminiscent of the presanitation days of the 17th century"{Cor already liberal elders in the press

American public can expectfrom the an pus Christi Caller, 1-7-82). tagonistic pens (or word processors) of In an article in the Journal of the Those who responded, the poll con tomorrow's reporters and editors. As American Medical Association, Dr. cludes, are "overwhelmingly non- more and more journalists see themselves Stanley H. Schuman points out that the religious." Over 80 percent seldom or as "activists" in in addition to their role problem isn'tjust money but more a prob as reporters, their reporting will be col lem of sanitation procedures. The present never attend religious services. Politically, 85 percent describe ored accordingly. situation is something like the conditions

establishment.

themselves as liberals. In the 1980 elec

The Journalism Schools are finding in 17th century Europe when doctors

tions, 59 percent voted for Jimmy Carter, out custom-made liberal journalists who 29 percent for John Anderson and only form an unofficial lobby for liberalism and push their leftist programs and opinions 4 percent for Ronald Reagan. The report also showed that only 25 on the American public.

MARKETING TYRANTS One of the hottest items on the political 15 decree, Khomeini gave an indication market this year is the rehabilitated left that his regime is beginning to moderate ist dictator. With a bit of cosmetic ad

its views—and welcome back cautious

justments, even the most hardened tyrant can become your friend and ally— if you're willing to pay the price.

European and American businessmen.

A good example of this is Libyia's Col. Muammar Kaddafi of "hit squad" fame. After years of socialist proclamations, terrorist support and exporting revolu tion throughout the Third World, he is

having second thoughts about his image. Libyan officials are busy spreading the word that Kaddafi wants to let bygone be

bygones and normalize his relations with the West.

"Today's Kaddafi is a'good Kaddafi'," says one Western diplomatic source."He doesn't want to scare anyone" (Newsweek, 1-81-82). Nor does he want to scare away any

The decree outlined a series of new

measures. New committees are being set up. Old prosecutors responsible for hun dreds of executions are being tried or replaced and a new code of Islamic law is being passed. Exiled opposition leaders are skeptical noting that the move is purely cosmetic. One lawyer noted that the prosecutors are accused of having acted in an antiIslamic way and not for having violated basic human rights {Christian Science Monitor, 1-14-82). Even hardcore old timers have some

marketing potential. Although a difficult case, the new Soviet party chief Yuri V. precious oil dollars in the depressed Andropov is being portrayed as disci surplus world market. Disappointed by plined but moderate leader. Between the performance of Soviet arms, he also recruiting slave labor for his pipeline pro hopes to buy advanced Western weapon ject and building treaty-breaking nuclear systems to aid in the country's "self- missiles, the former KGB head has a defense."

number of Western habits that show his

With human rights violations rife in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini is also having

human side. The press points out that An dropov speaks English, likes jazz and prefers scotch to vodka.

image(and oil) problems. In a December

began to realize the link between poor sanitation and certain diseases.

Schuman, a professor at the Medical

University of South Carolina in Charleston believes the problem stems from many factors. He notes that day care workers tend to develop a rather causal and tolerant at titude toward the frequent lapses in

sanitary procedures. Simple practices like washing hands can prevent infection. Schuman faults public health oMcials who "tend to accept little clear-cut responsibility for day-care operations." Workers who are unfamiliar with many of the norms of food handling often serve meals to large numbers.

Another contributing factor is the high turnover rate for such centers. Children

entering and leaving in an erratic pat tern often insure maximum mbcing of in fected and susceptible children. Dr.

Shuman notes that diaper-age ch'''^''pn are particularly susceptible to sanitation

and

children

under 6

sometimes carry infections that they transmit to their parents without show ing symptoms themselves. According to U. S. Department of Health and Human Services figures seven million children are in day-care centers nationwide. Of these 5.1 million

are in private homes other than their own and 1.9 million are in organized day-care centers. Both private and organized facilities are subject to sanitation abuses and form part of the disease network.

letter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this publica tion with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

Vol. Ill

No. 16

1983

ti-nuclear Freeze Demonstration liirtmffrn

CfjERDOCA^

Some 1500 people gathered in the nation's capital in March to voice their opposition to a nuclearfreeze. Senators Jeremiah Denton and Robert Dole, Congressmen Kack Kemp and Phil Gramm, and Phyliss Schlafly were among the conservative leaders who addressed the crowd that included a large contingent of representatives of the Veterans of Foreign JVarsfrom allfifty states. The American Society for the Defese of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) lent its full support to the demonstration.

American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

A I ^ r T-^X ^^^CFIS*

The American TFP's presence was marked by two huge cartoon-style placards. One placard portrayed an unarmed individual about to be attacked. The attacker thinks: "My enemy is unarmed, I'll attack him!" The unarmed man provided the occasion for aggression. The second cartoon depicted the same characters. This time, however, the intended victim is armed to the teeth and is on his guard. The attacker concludes: "With this man it is better to keep peace."The armed man prevented aggression. To

be a true pacifist, it to be armed. He maintained the peace.

The American TFP on Pacifism Should we want peace ? We must want peace, but we must desire it because of the precepts ofjustice and charity. These two vir tues establish the order of our love and works. This

order determines that we must desire peace first of all for those who are close to us. That is, one must

desire the benefits of peace first of all for his fami

ly, then for his friends, then for the place where he lives, and then for his country as a whole.

Should we desire peace in the international order ?

Yes. We must desire it for all peoples, but accor ding to the same precepts of justice and charity we must desire it above all for our own people. So, when we consider the whole problem of pacifism, our first concern is to keep the American nation in peace.

Can there be any way of keeping America at peace without keeping it strong and able to defend itself ? Obviously not, since we know that our country is struggling against a power that during the forty years since the Second World War has conquered scores of peoples and has dominated so many others in such an atrocious manner. A nation that at this

very moment is trying in the cruelest fashion to con

summate one more of its unjust conquests. This time the victim is the valiant people of Afghanistan. Let us not fail to mention the great number of civil wars, revolutions, and terrorist attacks of every type that have been perpetrated or instigated by this power all over the world. How can we claim to desire peace for ourselves at the same time as we disarm in the

presence of such an aggressor?

East and West Germany:

Impressions from a Passing Train On August 31, 1961 the inhabitants of Berlin were rudely awakened from their sleep by the construction, unprecedented in history, of a huge hall with which the Russians cut the city in half, completely isolating the part not under their control. After World War II, Berlin had been

divided among the allies: the United States, England, France and Russia. But it was agreed that there would be relative freedom of movement from one section

to another, and for the first few years this freedom actually existed. However, Russia slowly began to isolate West Berlin until it finally built the famous "wall of shame."

(Left and below) Watch towers and barbed wire keep East Berliners in "peaceful" misery.(Above) Tradi tional garb and gaiety marked a West German festival.

What was the motive for that strange

move? To prevent a mass flight by the populace, who were undergoing severe privations brought about by a Marxist economy. To this was added an iron-

handed police dictatorship which left lit tle doubt that every German who was given the chance of leaving the regime, would.

The unique characteristics of Berlin â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a Western enclave within communist ter

ritory â&#x20AC;&#x201D; somehow favor flight. The wall, about 118 miles long, is still an image of what the communists call "liberation."

Tfm

Over the last twenty years, it has been extended and reinforced with a stronger wall a small distance away, that runs parallel to it. The wall is manned by heavi

ly armed soldiers and special radarcontrolled machine guns. But in spite of its pitiless technological

me '

and other obstacles, the Berlin Wall has not been as insurmountable as it was in

Even factories in the Ruhr industrial

tended to be. The dramatic escapes and

region are clean and neat.

escape attempts that have been made at But when the train reaches the border test to the inconformity of East Germans of communist Germany, the scene with their state of captivity. Under changes entirely, and life is completely pressure human imagination can devise the most surprising solutions. Tunnels

different in spite of an identical climate and soil conditions. Houses with drab ex

have been laboriously excavated; people teriors falling into disrepair, dirty and have hidden in the undercarriages of unkempt factories, railways and road trains or trucks; balloons have carried

some to safety across the border. Unfor

ways overgrown with brush. Since no one is authorized to travel to West Berlin, the

tunately, not all means have brought suc

stations where the train stops are prac

cess, and many have paid with their lives

tically deserted except for the armed guards, some with dogs sniffing around

for attempting to escape from the pro letarian "paradise." Along the wall, on the West side, can be seen crosses mark

the platforms or under the trains for would-be fugitives.

ing the places where unhappy victims However, alongside this desolate pic gave up the need to ever escape again. ture can be seen some promising and The round trip by train to Berlin is very significant anticommunist reactions of illustrative of the contrasts between East

the Germans of West Berlin who reject

and West. The cleanliness and good order

the enslavement of their brothers in the

of the farms and small towns of West

East. This leads one to hope that some day Germany will recover its strength and seek again its old glory, Christian

Germany is notable. Each house has its

bright flower garden, and the fields are so well kept that they look like parks.

Civilization.

Isn't There Someone You Know

Who Should Be Reading The TFP Newsletter GIVE A GIFT

SUBSCRIPTION TODAY

Blasphemy Rebuffed An unhurried visitor to Italy would cer other such places in the Old World; began to flow from the fresco, and the tainly like to retrace the steps leading one rather, it is the basilica dedicated to Our sword was immediately twisted into its to the village of Genazzano, about 35 Lady of Good Counsel, whose fresco present shape. In 1680, the Patriarch Colonna com miles from Rome. The train takes about miraculously appeared in the city on an hour to reach its destination, winding March 25, 1467 after having detached manded that the sword be taken to the its way through the countryside until it itself from the wall of a church in Albania master blacksmith Andrea and righted finally finds the small medieval town and floated over the Adriatic, as if flee with fire and hammer blows. But when the smith finished, the sword again nestled on the side of Mount Scalambra. ing from the Moslem invasion. But there is another wonder in the twisted itself into its former shape before But the narrow cobblestone streets and ancient buildings are not what sets this venerable basilica. On a side altar, hangs the astonished eyes of all. This singular charming village apart from countless a sword bent in an angular spiral. In a few occurrence is related in detail by the words, this is its story: In 1540, one of gifted Augustinian, Msgr. Angelo Rocca, the soldiers then occupying Genazzano in his De Aleis. The sword is now kept in a small cof lost a gamble and entered the sanctuary

blaspheming. In a burst of rage he drew fer beside the main altar of the basilica, his sword and struck the head, chest and

not far from the miraculous image of the.

legs of a crucifix painted on the wall crucifix, which to this day carries the

Forbidden

Pilgrimage La Vang is a Marian sanctuary 60 kilometers from the imperial city of Hue, Vietnam. According to tradition, it was there that Our Lady appeared and en couraged Catholics during the persecu tion they suffered in 1798. Desolation and ruin under the burning sun are the vestiges left there by war.

above the high altar. Miraculously blood

marks of the blasphemy.

Asian Awakening Taiwan's Military advisor to the Presi dent, General Lai Mingtang urged Chris

tian military leaders from all over Asia

Red China are already beyond redemp tion. But there are other countries which have contracted the disease and do not know how to Save themselves. Such a

to wage a total war against the world's biggest enemy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; international trend poses a serious problem to the safe communism. ty of the whole world in General Lai's In a speech opening the second Asian

view.

Conference of the Association of Military In his remarks. Gen. Lai emphasized Christian Fellowship in February, the spiritual over the physical, noting that General Lai likened communism to a devil the race for spiritual strength outweighs Among the ruins can be found the walls as serious as cancer. the importance of the arms race. of the old basilica dedicated to the Virgin If a cancerous cell is found in a normal "The communists are atheists. We can of La Vang, whose statue still rises atop human body, it must be removed before see that in spiritual strength the com a piece of concrete. For two hundred years there was a custom of going on it spreads all over and begins to threaten munists are no match for us,' he said. "Under the guidance of Our Lord, we are pilgrimage to this sanctuary every three the person's life. Gen. Lai contends that such communist sure to triumph over the devil, defeat years on August 15. But unhappy Viet nam did not see this expression of filial regimes as those in the Soviet Union and communism and win a total victory." piety in 1978, when it was already under communist occupation.

However, in 1981 the populace decid ed to celebrate the feast in spite of the

Cradle to Grave Equality

threats of communist authorities. The lat

ter then appealed to the Bishop of Hue, priests and parish leaders in order to Sweden, that paragon of the great dissuade the faithful from going on the socialist experiment is in the news again. pilgrimage. Nevertheless, on August 15, This time, the government is taking steps ten thousand people (as reported by the to see that not only are its citizens strictly Vietnamese police)came from near and regulated during their lifetimes but in the far, on foot, by cars, bicycles and grave as well. whatever vehicles were available to Swedish churchyard boards have ab venerate the Virgin Mary. Most of them solute authority to decide to the inch the were from Hue. size and positioning of gravestones. The Though without shade from the sun by cemeteries over which they exercise their day, and protected only by the stars by authority stand out in stark contrast to night,the pilgrims' disposition to stay did the old churchyards whose gravestones not waver. "We must obey God first," reflect the natural inequalities in society. they said. And God looked after them: The new Swedish churchyard boards neither sickness nor complaint was can threaten disobedient subjects with

public by refusing them the right range their funerals. Some people want gravestones that are highly polished in the traditional manner. The boards will not allow it. Others want

to adorn the stones with white doves,

traditionally the symbol of the Holy Ghost. The boards refuse on the grounds that the symbol is "too sentimental and sweet."

Every year the boards receive scores

of applications requesting variances from the regulations. As a rule, these requests are denied implying that any variation is inconsistent with the State's concept of

reported during the three day celebra

fines or jail. These coercive powers have equality. The boards interpret equality as turned the boards into small "enlighten sameness. But there was overflowing enthusiasm ed" dictators. They claim that the or While the old unregulated churchyards

tion.

for their deepening conviction in the power of the Mother of God, a power so great that the communist executioners didn't dare carry out their threats. 4

are quiet places full of atmosphere, the what's best for them (even in death). new equalized ones that reflect a false im Board members seem to enjoy the power age of society are gloomy and sterile â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

dinary people just don't understand

they have to humiliate and harass the

like socialism.

SOCIALIST SOUP DU JOUR "It's gotten worse," said a 32-year old recent municipal elections in France, give Beneath the glare of the brightly lit Arc du Triomphe lies the subterranean world iron worker from Clermont-Ferrand. further indication of the population's re of a new class of Parisian citizen â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

"When I came to Paris six yeai's ago, jection of the Socialists' "fare".

"new poor." Each night they gather for there were far fewer people on the streets free soup ladled out by Catholic Aid or the than there are now." This young worker is one of the many Salvation Army. Consisting mostly of men, this new who have joined the ranks of the phenomenon is made up of a growing "clochards," or tramps, who have tradi number of people who have slipped tionally haunted the Paris subway through France's elaborate welfare system. He and others like him are vic

system and landed on the sidewalks of

tims of the economic crisis that has idled

Paris and other major cities.

9 percent of the French work force. A spokesman for the Salvation Army

The "new poor" are becoming an in

creasing embarrassment to the socialist said that their organization is providing government of Francois Mitterrand which came to power on the promise to fight the unemployment problem in

beds for some 4,000 homeless across

France and soup vans feed some 300 on their nightly rounds. While other cities like Marseille and

France. Government officials estimate that

Lyons have similar problems, the situa

there are between 6,000 and 8,000 homeless in the Paris area alone. Many

from the provinces to look for work but

tion is worse in Paris. Young men come

of these are men under thirty who have they don't find any. Single men who have been unemployed for so long that they no exhausted their unemployment benefits longer qualify for unemployment can find themselves with no other benefits.

recourse than to live off the streets or to

seek the aid of charitable organizations. 'T"m disgusted," said 25-year old Yousiff, a Moroccan who grew up in France.'T"ve been unemployed for two years, since I left the army." He said he

Mitterrand: Like the franc, devalued.

is no longer looking for work (Corpus Christi Caller, 2-8-83)

In the face of such difficulties, many enter the world of the homeless, known

in Parisian jargon as "the zone." The in habitants of this world, called "zonards," find shelter in the subway, at some charitable institution, in hallways, in the

warmth of sidewalk subway vents or in abandoned buildings taken over by squatters.

The latest loss by the Socialists in the

\ m

The Socialist promise The Socialist reality

Manager Moses Apsan said:"We charge $69 for the kit. The Supreme Court(NY)

The Decalogue and the Germans

gets $109 and another $97 goes for copies of court records, so the total cost

According to a poll taken by the Public Opinion institute, headquartered in Bielefeld, most of the citizens of the

is about $285. Most clients were in their

70's when we started, but now most'are

Federal Republic of Germany agree with

between 20 and 40." Attorney General Bob Abrams said: "These firms appear to provide a real consumer service"{New York Daily News, 2-2-83).

the basic moral values of the Ten Commandments.

A large percentage of those polled showed support for the Fourth, Fifth and

Eighth Commandments. Even the Ninth Commandment,so in

Where in the World? Many Americans have enormous dif

timately linked to the virtue of chastity

and so despised in our days, was sup ported by 78 percent of those inter viewed. However, the First and Second

Commandments took low positions on the scale.

The poll, taken among 1,016 West Ger mans of both sexes and at various social

levels, proved that the younger and more cultured those interviewed were, the less they felt inclined to observe the moral

precepts of the Decalogue. This symp tom indicates that younger generations, modern culture and major urban centers which are especially characterized by atheism, materialism and the general loss of a moral sense are more influenc

ed by the revolutionary process in our days.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

names and asked to locate various

Cause of Juan Diego Petitions containing the signatures of 26,000 persons In the United States sup porting the cause of canonization of Juan Diego, the Aztec Indian to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared as Our Lady of Guadalupe, were presented recently to Msgr. Enrique Salazar who Is In charge of the cause. The presentation was made in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Snakes in the Grass The place is literally crawling with snakes."The place" is Rousiilon, France in the Eastern Pyrenees that has sudden ly been invaded by adders and vipera aspis.

According to The Economist, masses of snakes have been discovered in a

region where none are normally visible. The snakes have attacked sheep, killed

sheepdogs and frightened hunters and villagers. Some residents have charged that the

stealthy invasion was caused by en vironmentalists who allegedly released snakes to protect newly planted trees in

a national park from small animals. Others put the blame on entrepreneurs who wanted to create a viper preserve in the Pyrenees to produce snakebite serum.

Rebuilding the Tower of Babel If God is not a man,then neither is God

"Lord" or "King," according to a United Methodist Church study group. The five men and five women committee has sug gested changes in the denomination's

ficulty locating the most familiar places on a map. New evidence of this Inability was brought to light recently in a Univer sity of Miami geography class. As an ex periment, the class of 128 students was given a map of the world without place

lectlve mind about the use of the word

"Father" when referring to God. At the same time, a new interpretation has been published in the current issue

of Biblical Archeology Review holding that the Bible describes Eve as Adam's

"power equal" rather than his helpmate.

The two key words are "ezer kenegdo." The author of the article said that his

places. Even an approximate location was accepted as a correct answer. The results were horrifying: 21 percent couldn't find New York City; 41 per cent had no idea were Los Angeles was; 55

per cent missed Chicago; 42 per cent misplaced London and 68 per cent couldn't put Moscow somewhereanywhere in the Soviet Union. Incredibly enough, the University of Miami students couldn't even locate Miami.

Dr. Peter Muller, chairman of the University's geography department says that the results are typical and indicate that the United States is "a nation of

geographical illiterates." He blames social studies programs for failing to pro vide youngsters with a sense of where places are located In relation to one another.

A Real Lemon

study of other uses of the word "ezer"

A recent news story about an over-

and "kenegdo" convince him that the

supply of lemons In Poland provides a good illustration of life in a Communist

former should be interpreted to mean "strength" of "savior," and the latter means "equal". Because "savior" makes no sense in the context, and because

society. It seems that, in order to ensure am

ple supplies of citrus fruit for Chr

"power" Is less awkward than "strength"

officials ordered

in English, he concludes that Genesis 2:18 really describes Eve as Adam's

restrictions permit only people with

November and

extra

lemori

December. However,

"power equal".

children under 16 to buy citrus fruits and

Odd Couples

even then, ration coupons are necessary.

Clifford Edwards new "bride" is a real

dog. Edwards "married" his long-time companion of 13years â&#x20AC;&#x201D; atan and black stubby-legged mutt named Spunky â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at his home in Merritt Island, Florida. Nearly 100 friends who attended the affair were

startied when the dog strolled Into the crowded living room to the strains of the

literature to avoid references it feeis are

wedding march. The groom had kept his

"sexist." The panei concluded that the use of the word "Lord" in referring to God "carries on the assumption created by other maie-gender words that God has

bride-to-be anonymous untii the event, On the other end of this ridiculous

spectrum

one

can

find

Divorce

Since children don't like lemons par ticularly, everyone held onto their coupons hoping for oranges or, at least,

grapefruit. The oranges never came. Christmas came and

went and the

government heeded pleas of desperate storekeepers stuck with piles of rotting lemons by permitting pensioners and people with doctor's certificates to pur chase the lemons. Later, it was announc ed that parents could buy the lemons with November and December coupons until January 31. After that date, the

said that the world "King" means male

Associates, Inc., a firm that seiis kits that provide a do-it-yourseif divorce less lawyers,judges,subpoenas, etc. All that

ruler, so the word "Ruler" should be

is needed is mutual consent between the

coupons...provided they were still edible. The moral: No matter what you hope for in a Communist society, you still end

substituted. It has not made up its col-

parties. Divorce Associates, Inc.

up with a lemon.

male characteristics." The panel also

lemons

would

sold

without

TOO THIN-SKINNED Singer Karen Carpenter died at age 82 of congestive heart failure, perhaps a by the Campbell Soup ads for more than product of anorexia nervosa, the "starv seventy-nine years are going on a diet ing disease." Her last photographs show should come as no surprise. All across the a once-young face emaciated and nation, people are in the process of thin prematurely aged. The news that the chubby-cheeked

cherub-like children who have adorned

Hospital in New York have dubbed the children's preoccupation as the "fear of fatness" syndrome. It differs greatly from anorexia.

While anorexia almost exclusively

manifests itself in young womanhood,

ning down, sometimes to the point of

Two pediatricians published a study on "fear of fatness" is a childhood disease their discovery of a disorder among and strikes at both boys and girls as young children who drastically alter their young as nine. The Campbell Soup kids were created Anorexia subjects are obsessed with eating habits because of an irrational fear in 1904 to help sell condensed soups. of becoming fat, a syndrome the doctors losing weight. The children studied by the "Way back when these kids were con say result in malnutrition and stunted doctors wanted to control their weight ceived, if you were chubby, you were death.

healthy. Today, there's a different outlook on what constitutes physical

fitness. Contemporary standards are dif ferent," said Dan Dollack, a spokesman for the Campbell Soup Company.The cor porate moguls think the slenderization process is good in part because of the country's obsession with thinness(Corpus Christi Caller, 2-5-83).

This "thinking thinner" concept has the medical profession worried. The United States is being confronted with concrete

growth. This preoccupation with thinness is like being in a multi-mirrored room,and thin is "in" among trend setters. Actresses, for example, starve themselves because

and maintain it proportionally, not necessarily lose weight. The problem is that in so doing the children consumed

death not working. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological

what was considered normal.

obsession that manifests itself as a com

slimmed them down a bit -and we'll

only about half the daily calories needed

for normal growth and development— they feel if they don't starve themselves almost none of it in body-building protein. The study showed that all the children into thinness, they won't be able to find work. In other words, you must starve to are below normal height and each work in order that you don't starve to weighed from 5 to 23 percent less than And the Campbell Kids? "We've

pulsion to diet to the point that health is gradually slim them down some more," impaired and lives are even lost. It is a said Paul Mulcahy, managing director for neurotic preoccupation with slendemess. phenomenon prevalent among young advertising."But they're never going to look skinny..." Actresses, appearing on a recent women. Hollywood talk show, described their But this phenomenon that fashion A food company promoting skinny

evidence of the devastating effects of a

bizarre eating habits. Margot Kidder,for pacemakers have decreed as ideal has children! Where's the sense in that? example, talked about a crash diet con even reached the elementary school level. sisting of hot water with an occasional Drs. Fima Lifshitz and Michael splash of lemon juice.

Pugliese of North Shore University

□

Homosexual "Rights"Chailenged Fr. Enrique T. Rueda, director of the Catholic Center (a project of the Free Congress Research and Education Foun dation) headquartered in Washington, D.C. recently addressed the City Coun cil of New York (2-22-83) urging that

body to reject proposed legislation that would give preferential treatment to citizens on the basis of their sexual pro

pensities, i.e. homosexuals. Fr. Rueda, who wrote the hook,The Homosexual Network: Private Lives and

authority distorts truth when it provides

special privileges for homosexuals." He noted that homosexual right laws are wrong on two counts: First they signify an official sanction of society for a form of behavior that is destructive, degrading and against human nature. Se cond, the effects of homosexual legisla tion on society are bound to be destruc tive. Official acceptance of homosexuali ty will engender extreme promiscuity which will, in turn, result in the further

titudes of society toward sexuality. We are essentially a radical movement. We are radical because we are defendinj^ legitimacy of diversity in the most en tionally charged of all areas, that of sex uality and personal life, and in as far as we are successful we do indeed break

down the hegemony of certain traditional values about sex and relationships. Often this perception is argued in terms of the need to defend our own minorities,

whether they be boy-lovers, transvestites or sado-masochists..." Fr. Rueda concluded his remarks ad

Public Policy, expressed his concern for the city of New York, the United States as a whole, the safety of individual

erosion of values without which society The priest-author emphasized that

ding, "It would be a great injustice that even implicit approval of homosexual

citizens and the rights of parents to educate their children in an atmosphere

those who do not believe that the ultimate

behavior by legislation is equated with the

purpose of the homosexual movement is to subvert society need only read a recent article entitled "Gay Money, Gay Votes:

lofty ideals of human dignity and the pro tection of the 'right" to privacy. It is socially unhealthy and morally reprehen sible for a society tp enshrine homosex uality on the same level as heterosexuality." The proposed legislation was subse quently defeated.

of decency and true human dignity. In his statement he urged, "If it is true that it would be wrongful and inap

propriate for you to pass legislation that would single out for persecution any

group, it is at least as much true that civic

can not exist.

in the New York Native (2-16-83). This ar ticle stated, in part, "In the long run, the sort of changes that are needed to make genuine equality possible require a change in the underlying values and at

VIDEO GAME FRENZY As more and more young people are taking up the Pac Man and other video arcade game habit, strange side effects from the games are worrying doctors and officials both in the U.S. and abroad.

Two 15-year old epileptic boys suffered seizures while playing Pac-Man — the first two such cases reported in the United States — and Mayo Clinic

neurologists want them to stay away from video games {Newsday, 2-14-83). The specialists, Drs. Donald Klass and James Mellinger, said that the light Video obsession — self destruction? flickering on the screens was the ap parent cause of the seizures. Doctors red with Pac-Man. Tests at Mayo in gang of professional thieves, the police have long known that flickering bright dicated that he was not sensitive to light. discovered that the criminals were "boys light can trigger seizures in some suscep "Pac-Man was his nemesis," Mellinger in short pants and baseball hats." In tiiirsaid. "Just before I saw him, he had had

ty burglaries in four months, the boys

tible epileptics. Similar cases have been reported in England. One was described as "Space

a severe episode while playing that game. netted 9.57 million yen($39,800), the of ficials said. They hid the money in a forest It was the flickering lights."

Invader epilepsy," in Lancet in 1981,the other as "Dark Warrior epilepsy," in the

Meanwhile, on the other side of the and spent it "lavishly" at local video world, some young denizens of Japan's arcades. An intensified juvenile crime drive in video arcades, addicted to Pac-Man and

British Medical Journal last year. One of the boys treated at the Mayo Clinic had been playing the games for

the like, are turning to crime to support Tokyo in February netted 21 boys in their habit.

three groups — including four 8-year olds — who had been breaking-into homes and automobiles to indulge their video game

The doctors said the boy was sensitive to bright, flickering light, gave him an anti-convulsive drug and told him to stop playing Pac-Man and other electronic

In Tokyo,four groups of 36 boys aged 8 to 13 were apprehended for breaking into homes and shops and stealing cash and other valuables in order to "spend lavishly in video arcades" according to a police official. Authorities say that some boys, discouraged by the rigid, competitive Japanese school system spend long hours in video game centers — a habit that can

games.

become very expensive.

real winners and losers in the video ar

over a year. He became dazed and one of his hands began to twitch while he was playing "Combat," another video game in an arcade. Six weeks later he had a full-

scale seizure while playing Pac-Man at home.

Seizures with the other boy only occur-

Investigating what they thought was a

habit.

Hiroyoshi Kamiide, director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Child Guidance Center said authorities were puzzled by

the phenomenon. Japan's crime rate has been one of the world"s lowest and

crimes by youths are rare. All this leads one to ask who are the

cades. Is Pac-Man having the last laugh?

Striking Back at the AntULife Empire President Ronald Reagan has been ad mediate five primary anti-life targets are: vised by prolife leaders meeting at the (1) the International Fertility Research White House that despite divergent views Program (IFRP) at Chapel Hill, North on domestic policies and strategy relating Carolina,(2)the Pathfinder Fund,(3)the to a Human Life Amendment, the Pro-' United Nations Fund for Population Ac

a leading critic of USAID's population

On the positive action side, the Coali tion Director urged President Reagan to send a prolife United States team to the 1984 World Population Conference in Mexico. Mrs. Engel presented the Presi tivities, (4) the International Planned dent with three major documents on Parenthood Federation and (5) the USAID's population control programs in Futures Group." cluding The Structure of Genocide— "It's time these organizations be made detailing USAID's population assault on to stop feeding out of the American tax Colombia, The Worlduride Campaign payers' trough," Mrs. Engel said. "Zero Against Depo-Provera, and the Interna funding for USAID's office of Population tional Population Control Machine and Affairs would effectively dismantle the Pathfinder Fund, a white paper

control programs and policies, "Our im

State Department's anti-life empire."

life Movement stands united in its in

sistence that the Office of Population Af fairs of the Agency for International Development(USAID)be defunded and dismantled.

According to Randy Engel, National Director of the U.S. Coalition for Life and

documenting USAID's abortion abuses.

letter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this publica tion with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

Vol. Ill

No.17

1983

AFGHANISTAN RALLY

A representative of the American TFP encourages the Afghanistan supporters Protesting blatant violations of interna tional law rommitted in the brutal invasion

of Afghanistan, nearly 450 people gathered on March 21 in front of the White House

for a mid-day rally to demonstrate support for the Afghan people on International Afghanistan Day.

Three years after the invasion, the world

Among those attending the com

contingents at the rally, TFP voli joined several other organization suti

Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) who turned out in full support for the event.

the Afghan Community in America,

Recalling last year's Washington

American Conservative Union, College

Republicans, the Committee for the Sur

demonstration, TFP members proclaimed

vival of a Free Congress, and the

several slogans to the crowds:

Washington-based Committee for a Free Afghanistan.

tion at a people who have refused to be

"1982-1983! One year after the historic homage Americans paid to Afghanistan at

cowed by the Soviet Army. With outdated

this place, our admiration for this nation

weapons and little outside support, the Afghans have carried on war of attrition against the Soviet aggressor. Sensing the humiliation that would result in a defeat, the Soviet have stubbornly en trenched themselves in the country's ma jor cities. Chemical warfare, booby traps

of heroes has grown."

continues to look with wonder and admira

As co-sponsors and one of the lareest

memorative rally was a large contingent of the American Society for the Defense of

"One more year of fighting, one more

year of glory!" "Above all because this fight has seen setbacks, countless sacrifices and victories

Several Congressmen and Senators were

among the prominent speakers denouncing Soviet aggression in Afghanistan. A representative of the American TFP addressed the crowd saying: "The American TFP, proud of belonging to the largest family of anticommunist organiza

tions of Christian inspiration in our days, interprets the sentiments of them all by af firming their admiration for and solidari

employed to wipe out the resistance. The

on the way to the final victory." "Only one nation today shows such courage against the Colossus with feet of clay. Because of this, it has the enthusiastic

Af^ans have responded with boldness and

admiration of all men who know what

ample for the world and above all for the

courage threatening to turn their country

honor, country and the duty of rejecting

into a Soviet graveyard.

communism are."

West, where there is heroism but also so many acts of apathetic cowardice."

and scorched earth tactics have been

ty with the Afghan resistance, a noble ex

American Society for the Defense of tradition, Family and Property

OUR LADY OF TEARS — THE AFTERMATH Following the bishop's statement, the

On May 13,1982, the statue of Our Lady

Spanish TFP collected thousands of

of Tears in the Church of St. John of God

signatures asking that the investigation be concluded as soon as possible and that the result of the investigation be published in

in Granada,Spain wept tears of blood. For one week, thousands of Spaniards flocked to the site, standing in line to see the Eigh

detail. They further asked that if the phenomenon was a fraud that the perpe

teenth Century Madonna.

Despite the extraordinary event, church

trator be punished for such a grave

officials showed an unusual rigidness in closing the church at the appointed hour. Enthusiastic crowds spent the night waiting

sacrilege.

to see the statue the next morning pro

In spite of the petition, no results were published nor explanation given. The statue

testing the closing saying "The Virgin

has not been returned. A short press release was issued once more saying that the event

belongs to everyone."

The vigils continued until one morning statue to be taken away for "study and

was not supernatural. The Archbishop em phasized his point by saying that he was willing to "put his hand in fire" to bear

analysis." Later, the Bishop issued an of

witness that nothing had happened. The

when the church was opened, the statue

was gone. The Archbishop had ordered the ficial statement saying that a study of the

Spanish expression "putting one's hand in

statue's weeping permitted him "to say that

fire" is a way of calling God to witness. Toward the end of 1982, news came that

there is no indication of supernatural in

the historic episcopal palace of Granada

tervention; rather, there are reasons to believe that there was none." The com

was destroyed by a raging fire. Officials

munique continued: "...since it is necessary to complete the expert investigation, the

report that all escaped injury except the Archbishop who suffered injuries on his hands while escaping from the blaze

statue will be removed from the Church for

this purpose."

{Si,S(.No.No, 2-15-83).

Our Lady of Tears

France Pays the Price of Its Trip to Utopia A statement to the French news agency France Presse by Prof. Plinio Correa de

Oliveira, president of the National Council of the Brazilian Societyfor the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property e N c L A N D

The victory of the socialist-communist bloc in France in '81 and its defeat in '83

show both the strength and weakness of the left in French public opinion. As long as it is a mirage, socialism, and

4fl01S»f9CW00NE

ofTnto-pwe

• itMavre Rouen

to a much lesser degree, communism, have an undeniable attraction. But when it is put into practice it provokes even greater

iMont-SamtMichei

rejection. Contradiction? I would prefer to say op tical defect. While yet distant from power,

■

-■

"i"

CuSte Lucenu \

it appears as a mirage with which the West has been more and more bewitched since

•

v.;

St MPTl/t

AUSTRIA .

the XVIII Century. It is, as it were, an

earthly paradise of vulgarity, euphoric for

having overthrown everything above it, and sure of its ability to avoid all hindrances, more and more uninhibitedly in a climate in which the complicity of everyone on that level establishes general agreement.

(Biseay,

MthJH ITALY

• Gem

But as soon as the myth is put into prac

tice violated nature protests. Discontent begins to bubble over. The public authorities merely pass more and more laws, and every new law seems to be another manacle.

People who have been deceived by the myth want to revert at any cost to the

MONACO

fJlCf

OiMHes •jAioHie^rlo

Bmnli SPAIN

MUes

, (yfdfditieyyamfmr

madness, invincibly attracts at tne nour ot

previous reality — at least in many aspects. Surprisingly, that reality seems to them to be homey, sensible, comfortable like a

disillusionment.

hearth that, abandoned in a moment of

in Spain. One day history will tell us how much

This is what the elections in Germany

this bad habit of occasionally making an

also proved, in their own way. It is also be-

excursion into the regions of Utopia has

ing proven by what is beginning to happen

cost the contemporary world.

TFP Newsletter — A fortnightly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP).

John Horvat, Editor. Twenty-four issues per year. Subscription rates $22.50 per year for U.S. and Canada (sent First Class); surface mail to other countries, $22.50 per year; airmail rates upon request. For subscription and information write TFP News

letter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantviile, N.Y. 10570. Permission granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this publica tion with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

PLA TO IN THE UNION

The mediocre man has some notions

about many things; I mean vague and fluc tuating notions which demand no effort to

acquire or preserve. Whenever he wants to express his notions, he thinks he attains

face a mediocre man. It is less easy to face hundreds or thousands of them. This,

however, is the inevitable contingency awaiting whoever publishes today, because the mediocre fill the earth. I do not believe the mediocre will be the

utter fulfillment by finding a showy word, or at least one that is not part of trivial speech.

greater part of those who will read these

In our milieu, the term "radical" is one

they will not find them pleasant. But a glance at one or another topic of this arti

of the mediocre man's favorite words. He

lines about them. It is understandable that

a meticulous and exacerbated rejection. So,

cle will be sufficient to infuriate many, because every man — even the mediocre one — is sharp and perspicacious when he

it is a good thing to be antiradical because

is spoken of.

senses that branding a foe a radical will be harmful to him. To be "radical" provokes

it wins one much support. Thus, we can see

Nevertheless, I do not hesitate to declare,

our mediocre man quixotically displaying

even before the mediocre ones, the nox iousness, the profound noxiousness of their

antiradicalism wherever he goes. But as soon as someone contends that such a fiery antiradicalism is nothing but another form of radicalism, he will shrink and change the subject, because in order to refute that ob jection — so obviously true by the way —

frivolity. mediocre one concludes that the more liber

ty there is, the better. For him, absolute

liberty is total happiness. As a voter, the mediocre one will cast his ballot for the

depth the exact meaning of the word "radical". Now, his idle spirit abhors precise and profound concepts. Analogous to this is the mediocre man's use of the word "liberty." It reminds him right away of the hackneyed trilogy he likes (and of which he has already heard a thou sand eulogies): "Liberty, equality, frater nity." Besides, liberty calls to mind the striking statue in the harbor of New York City, which he has seen in pictures and ads; and also a vast and densely populated neighborhood of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In his youth he used to smoke Liber ty cigarettes. And he has in his mind the general idea of liberty as something that provides everyone with the possibility of doing absolutely anything he finds delightful.

candidate

its way into his mind. His teacher used to keep undisciplined students after school and have them copy endlessly sentences like "A good boy is obedient and studious." When time was up, the teacher would hap pily exclaim: "Liberty, liberty!" And all

ization at the University College of the Univer

sity of Sao Paulo and Professor of Modern and Contemporary Historj- in the Colleges of Sao Bento and Sedes Sapientiae of the Pontiflcai Catholic

University of Sao Paulo. He has distinguished himself since his youth as an orator, lecturer and Catholic journalist. He

wrote regularly for the Catholic weekly Le^ona-

Being persuaded that liberty is good, the

the mediocre man would have to know in

When he was a child, this word found

Plinio Correa de Oliveira was born in Sao

Paulo, Brazil, in 1908. He received his doctorate in Law from the Law School of the University of Sao Paulo. He is Professor of the History of Civil

who

will

promise

rio and now writes for the monthly Catolicismo

and the large daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. In 1960 he founded the Brazilian Society for the

Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP)

and has been President of its National Council ever since.

him

TFPs and similar autonomous organizations

unrestricted liberty. As a candidate, the mediocre one draws the support of all of

were later founded in twelve other countries in

the Americas and Europe, inspired by the book

his ilk. Whence he transforms his electoral

Re^'olution and Counter-Revolution and other works of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira.

campaign into a foretaste of absolute, total and unbridled liberty. This naturally brings about, for all slates, the listing and the vic tory of a varying though sizable percentage of mediocre ones. Hence, the diffuse im

petus of legislation and government towards the foolish, the offensive and the gross. Because, when anything goes, then ... That impetus also spreads from the sphere of the state to all other sectors of society.

Is all this no more than the very well known picture of today's reality? — Let the reader examine the following text: "When a people is devoured by the thirst for liberty, it will have leaders who are ready to minister to this craving as much as the people wish, to the point of inebriation.

"If rulers then resist their subjects' ever more demanding desires, they will be call ed tyrants.

"Amidst so much license there springs up and develops an evil plant: tyranny." Is this a picture of present day reality? — Certainly, the picture describes very well the stormy days we are living in. And with genial subtlety and precision it points out how the sowers of tyranny — the com

munists nowadays — profit from the typhoon of demo-mediocrity. But this picture originated...long ago: in the Fourth Century before Christ. Its author is Plato, who so denounces the radicals of liberalism in a democrn

as the

true fathers of dictatorship. The ,

taken from The Republic.

It fits not only the Fourth Century before Christ or today. It is perennial. It is in the

very nature of things. And I have something else to add: I did

not transcribe it directly from the great philosopher's work. I limited myself to

eager for foolishness and rowdiness. This

"It also happens that he who is orderly under his superiors is singled out as a ser

was the ideological core that the word liber

vile man without backbone.

ty left in his mind. In one way or another, neighborhood celebrated that delightful

"And that fathers, in dismay, end up treating their sons as their equals and are no longer respected by them.

thing called liberty. The trilogy seems to

"Masters dare no longer reprove their

A friend of mine found it framed and

suggest to him the same thought the teacher

pupils, who laugh at them. "The youth will claim the same rights and consideration given to their elders and the elders will say the youths are right, so

hung on a wall of...a union headquarters. Thus did the great and solemn Plato penetrate into a union. Not a union of rich employers, nor of scholarly professors; but

as not to seem too severe.

rather one of...taxi drivers in Rome!

"In this atmosphere of liberty there is no consideration or respect for anyone, for

Such a fruit is not born of demagogy, but of a people's culture and tradition. .\nd I

liberty's sake.

emphasize the word "tradition."

the brats would dart out into the street

the cigarette, the monument and the

had in mind when the word blossomed

from his smiling lips. The mediocre man has no idea that his

superficiality can have profound effects. If someone were to tell him so, he would laugh in disbelief. It would be an easy task for anyone to

verifying that those words are truly his.

They are simply extracted from the original by way of condensation (cfr. "The Dialogues of Plato," Encyclopedia Britan-

nica. Inc., Chicago, London, Toronto, 1952, p.412).

SAMOAN SHIPWRECK

â&#x20AC;˘ itr^T-n i --n-

From Mead's description of iSamoan lite,

revolution of the 60's were attacked on

the

false premises. Those who embarked on the voyage in search of Mead's permissivist So moan paradise are now finding themselves shipwrecked on an inhospitable island of startling reality.

In the early 20's, a young anthropologist named Margaret Mead visited a South Pacific paradise called Samoa. There she lived with a white family and although she

developed permissive (and disastrous)

spoke no Samoan she made a series of

morals without commitment, and laws

observations about a society "unpolluted" by the tensions of modern times. Mead was a cultural anthropologistâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

without consequences.

liberal academic establishment

theories on child rearing without discipline,

Yet today, even though institutions and traditions were changed. Mead's Somoan

science that studies the effects of culture

paradise never came about in the United

on a people's habits and behavior. She was

States. On the contrary, the social problems only proliferated.

trained in the school of Franz Boas, a

leading American anthropologist who taught the doctrine of "cultural deter minism." He believed that human behavior

is determined by culture and not by human nature. All social problems are rooted in our cultural institutions and can be solved

by changing them.

Samoa was a cultural anthropologist's paradise. There among the Samoan islanders Mead imagined the most ideal society. In her book Coming of Age in Samoa, Mead wrote the Samoans are

neither aggressive, violent or competitive. No one is hurried along in life. Matters of love, hatred, jealousy, sorrow and revenge are all ephemeralâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;never lasting more than a couple of weeks. The youth live without stress and in complete promiscuity. The

Derek

Freeman, a

distinguished

Australian anthropologist, recently published a book that explains why. The paradisiacal culture Mead described never existed. It was mere fantasy.

ORWELLIAN PEACE The world is in a state of Orwellian

peace. This illusion was confirmed in a report by the Washington-based Center for Defense Information showing that fortyfive nations are now involved in forty dif

In his book Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmasking of an An thropological Myth, Freeman does a scien tific study of Samoan life and behavior, retracing Mead's footsteps to verify her

ferent wars. The Center's by-region study

results.

conflicts each. Latin America is embroiled

His conclusion was that Mead's depic tion of Samoa as a place without

in seven and Europe in three. T1 in an era of post-war "peace" ha

psychological maladjustment is in error.

the lives of millions. The bloodiest of these conflicts is the

"Somoans live with stresses that result in

disturbances ranging from compulsive behavior to hysterical illnesses and suicide"(F"orrune, 4-18-83).

reveals that Asia, the Mideast and Africa

are draining energy and resources in ten - ^ars ^en

continuing tragedy in Cambodia where 200,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian troops are pitted against 63,000 Khmer Rouge

Quoting reports by reliable observers and using his own personal studies in Samoa, Freeman observers that punishments are frequent and harsh. Outbreaks of rage and

guerrillas. The death toll since the 1970 in

Mead's book caused a sensation and had

violent crime are common. Although they

heroic struggle of the Afghan fighters

an enormous influence on American society

compete for different things, the Samoans

that went beyond anthropological circles.

are nonetheless just as competitive as their. Western counterparts. The "free love"

against the Russian invaders and, on the other, Soviet-exported proxy-wars in El Salvador, the Philippines, Guatemala and

child has no allegiance to his parents nor

are discipline and punishment imposed on the young Samoa was an island of complete and unrestricted freedom.

Generations of scholars acclaimed and in

terpreted her work as a model by which undesirable cultural institutions and tradi tions could be changed. Published in 1928, and followed by a series of similar works. Coming of Age in

vasion by the North Vietnamese has been genocidal: 4 million people. Other battles include, on one side, the

society among youth was all fantasy. The implications of Freeman's work are

Ethiopia.

enormous. Generations of scholars and

countries involved in war, a real "pacifist"

With one out of four of the world's

educators have been influencing the forma

movement should call the world's attention

tion and development of the nation's

to these wars and more importantly to their

Samoa helped paved the way for the

children on the basis of Mead's unscientific

causes. The ten bloodiest wars in the

revolution in customs and morals that

observations. The social institutions and

began in the 60's and continues even today.

traditions destroyed during the cultural

Center's report all involve leftist or com munist aggressor forces.

MISGUIDED MINISTRIES production of nuclear weapons. The deci

From nuclear freeze protest to clown "ministry," activist nuns and religious orders have been in the news lately sport ing positions and views that have perplex

to lobby for liberal causes. One such example is a conglomerate of 13 religious congregations who on Holy Thursday withdrew $1.8 million dollars in

ed Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

stocks from 15 nuclear weapons-related in dustries. Sister Mary Frances Schafer, na

human family of the world." A spokesman for Monolithic responded that military sales accounted for only 18 percent of its

Despite orders from the Detroit Arch bishop Szola and the Vatican, Sister of Mercy Agnes Mary Mansour has, to date, adamantly refused to quit her job as head of a government agency that carries out a policy of paid abortions* In Minnesota, Sr. Rosalind Gefre helps run a massage parlor and is protesting the city government's treatment of her profession. The Benedictine sisters of the Federation of St. Scholastica released a statement on Christian feminism that found women to be the "victims of trivialization as well as

economic and social injustice." The state ment also decried their own experience of canonical inequality and sacramental restrictions {National Catholic Reporter^ 3-18-83). In addition to the activists, there are also

corporate nuns who use economic holdings

sion was based on the order's concern for the "welfare and continued existence of the

tional president of the Sister of Charity of

sales and that all such Hrms deal with the

the Blessed Virgin Mary explained, "We are part of the growing resistance to the

military {Victoria Advocate, 2-20-83). In Boerne, Texas, a Houston concern is

idol of nuclear security which is propelling

facing opposition from a group of 700

us toward nuclear suicide."(Nlcr/ioncr/ Catholic Reporter, 4-15-82).

Roman Catholic nuns to its construction

Caterpillar Tractor Co. is being con fronted by three orders of Catholic nuns owning 6,900 shares of common stock. The group has introduced a resolution that will require Caterpillar to provide financial, technical and other retraining assistance for its 10,000 laid-off employees. The same

of a nuclear power plant there. The Winconsin-based Sisters of the Sorrowful

Mother hold 1,050 of the company's more than 70 million shares. With the support

of nearly 3,000 priests and nuns of 12 religious orders in Texas, the sisters are trying to force Houston Industries, cor

porate parent of Houston Lighting and

group was strangely silent about the com pany dealings with the Soviet Union. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Sisters

Power Company, to place a resolution on a proxy statement to all stockholders prior to their annual meeting in May. The resolu

of St. Francis refused to sell a 40 acre tract

tion calls for stockholders to vote on a con

to Monolithic Inc., a California electronic

struction moratorium and an independent

firm on the grounds that the company manufactures computer chips used in the

Power {Victoria Advocate, 3-3-83).

evaluation of the South Texas Nuclear

RED CHINESE "PIPELINE" Now that Soviet Russia has arranged for the West to prop up its stagnant economy

railways and other basic facilities.

with the construction of the infamous slave

evenly until Occidental recovers its initial capital which is expected to be about five years. After that, the Communist govern ment will take 60 per cent of the profits— an economic concept that communist doc

labor gas pipeline. Red China is also ready to follow suit. Western banks and Hrms are

slavishly standing in line to "develop" China's huge potential.

Avoiding the bad press that their Rus sian comrades suffered, Chinese officials

concluded negotiations with Occidental Petroleum Corporation to operate jointly what is planned to be the world's largest open-pit coal mine. A Washington Post article indicates that the mine is to be

constructed in Shanxi province, 300 miles east of Peking and will produce 15 million

Profits from the deal will be divided

trine holds abominable.

Occidental is not the only firm to jump on the Chinese bandwagon where profits apparently count more than human rights. Following Atlantic Richfield's contract for drilling rights in Chinese waters, at least sixteen other firms are interested in drill ing in the Southern Yellow Sea and South China Sea. American firms are also ex

tons of coal annually.

pected to develop China's water power.

In a regime where the per capita income is less than $300 per year, the totalitarian government can count on cheap labor to net at least $600 million a year in hard

One American firm is already studying the feasibility of two large dams in South China.

The Almighty Dollar: An idol ttiai breaks all ideological barriers

currency.

The Shanxi deal is a special project of Occidental chairman Armand Hammer.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution

Hammer, to use Lenin's metaphor, was

one of the first to sell Soviet Russia the rope

by Prof, Plinio Correa de Oliveira

it needs to hang Western capitalism. Since

the 20's, he has been exporting capitalist technology to shore up communist economic disasters.

The American firm will provide $230

million for equipment and personnel. Like the Russian pipeline, most of the heavyduty and specialized equipment will come from the West, although in this case it will come primarily from the United States. The Chinese "pipeline" will flow east since the Japanese will buy most of the coal. The Chinese will provide the site, highways,

* Published in five languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle /4^es has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism — and even more radicalforms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to:

The American TFP • P. O. Box 121 • Pleasantville, NY 10570

Abortion Opposed

Heating up

Canadian Congress On the weekend of April 9-10, over 100 people gathered at the Latvian Cultural

Following efforts by tfie recently elected Socialist government of Spain to "legalize" the barbarous practice of abor tion, the Spanish Society for the Defense

Center in Toronto for a Congress spon

sored by the Young Canadians for a Christian Civilization. Representatives of the American TFP also participated in

of Tradition, Family and Property—

Covadonga (IFF) has undertaken a vigorous campaign calling upon Spaniards to oppose the measure. In the April 6 edition of the most im portant newspaper in Madrid, ABC, the Spanish TFP published a six-page appeal entitled:"Faced with the slaughter of In

the event.

The theme of the Congress was a

global panorama of the crisis now threatening the West. A major address covered the revelations of Fatima and

their meaning in the contemporary world.

nocents — Within the limits of Law and

Other talks were based on the book

Order: Holv Indignation."

Revolution and Counter-revolution by

On the busy city streets of Madrid and other major cities, members of the Spanish TFP, are holding public cam paigns and have already distributed over 200,000 copies of the appeal to the public. The appeal calls upon the Spanish people to take notice of the Socialists maneuver to introduce abortion in Spain and to oppose it with the spirit of prayer,

Plinio Correa de Oiiveira and on the cam

paign of the 13TFPS against French selfmanaging socialism.

Producing Athletes With the steady defection of Soviet athletes to the West, Russian trainers are L*V .a»T'

penance and vigorous action.

The campaign is already having widespread repercussions all over Spain.

Abortion Debated

children who have athletic potential by

studying inherited physical traits, X-rays of body parts and typing muscle fibers.

Singapore, like many Third World countries, is striving to adopt modern

ways by forcing through a law that would "legalize" the barbarous practice of abortion.

In parliamentary debate on abortion. Dr. Augustine Tan, a junior member of Parliament argued that abortion is

murder and warned the government that it will face the wrath of God for such a

decision. Dr. Tan emphasized that abor

tion, if passed, will lead the country to permissiveness.

"When we try to have morality without God, we get all kinds of contradictions. And on the Day of Judgement, we will know who is right" said Dr. Tan (China Post, 3-20-83).

Australian Voice "Communist countries were busily building nuclear power stations and utilizing all the benefits of the nuclear

industry while supporting anti-uranium

Active volcanoes. What goes up must come down

Scientists are looking at a large mysterious stratospheric cloud that may explain the season's strange weather. Made up of tiny droplets of sulfuric acid, the phenomenon is thought to be the result of a volcanic explosion some where in Africa or Asia.

declare itself a "nuclear-free" zone.

"It is sheer ignorance to talk about a

nuclear-free zone. It means nothing and

The scientists are not exactly sure which volcano caused the cloud. One

"amateur" state athletes who wi" nutper-

suspect is Mount Nyamuragiri in Zaire

form their rivals In capitalist l (Corpus Christi Caller, 2-17-83).

temperature reductions.

that has been active since December.

This spring has been particularly active for volcano watchers. There are current

ly about 600 active volcanos around the

Honor Among Guerrillas In just three years. Prime Minister Robert

Religious Freedom in China

Mugabe has turned an efficient and

modern Rhodesian economy into a Zimbabwean

The French Foreign Ministry con firmed the release of a French citizen

who spent 28 years in a Chinese concen tration camp. ■Raymond Ratiiion was jailed in 1955 after refusing to sign a document hostile

to the Rev. Ignace Kung, then Roman mother has gone to a secret location in

nuclear ship wants to come to Brisbane,

ies

Pacific Ocean (Victoria Advocate, 3-9-83).

old son of a French father and Chinese

it will."

special athletic school with 2000 full time students with 19 gymnasiums, a sta shooting ranges and laboratories. Communist Party slogans posted in the hallways emphasize the Soviet government's determination to turn out

droplets, could be causing slight

He also denounced tactics of anti-

nuclear naval vessels, "if a United States

"their motor ability." Once selected, the gifted children are sent to the Physical Culture Institute, a dium, ice rink, indoor running tracks,

would never afford protection if there was a war," Mr. Bjelke-Petersen said.

nuclear protesters who pressure port city officials to prohibit the docking of

skin textures on children's hands and

The cloud, invisible to the naked eye

of Queensland, Australia.

He noted that the Brisbane City Coun cil (controlled by the left-leaning Labor Party) was bending to Communist pro paganda in proposing that Brisbane

According to Prof. Boris Nikityuk,

more than 20 types are being studied as indicators of athletic ability. They have already proved a correlation between

because of the high reflectivity of the

movements throughout the Western

world," said Mr. Bjelke-Petersen, Premier

In constant need of more candidates. So,

they are refining the cold science of sports morphology. Sports morphology is the selection of young athletes on the basis of biological maturity. Soviet scientists identify

Catholic Bishop of Shanghai. The 49 year France for "rest."

The release was supposedly a gesture of friendship for President Mitterrand

who is expected to visit the country soon (The New York Times, 4-13-83).

disaster.

deal

with

political unrest especially among the Ndebele tribe, Mugabe has brought in his North Korean-trained army to suppress dissidents in Matabeieiand, a move that sparked an outcry from the country's Catholic bishops.

Opposition leader Joshua Nkomo of the Zimbabwe African People's Union has been the latest casualty. The former terrorist-guerilla recently went into exile following harassment by Mugabe. Like Nicaragua's "Commander Zero", Nkomo is finding out the hard way, the truth of an adapted adage: There is no honor among guerrillas.

Modern Metropolises Hostile Environments

1^..:The attraction of the city is that it satisfies man's social nature and provides an atmosphere of vitality and community. The hustle and bustle of the people in the

city streets and the noise of the vendors sell ing their wares make the city a warm, organic and social place that goes beyond its mere economic function. Journalist Jane Jacobs noted in her 1958

anthology,TTje Exploding Metropolis, that

the nation's cities "need help not wholesale razing... the remarkable intricacy and liveliness of downtown can never be created

by the abstract logic of a few men. Downtown has had the capability of pro viding something for everybody only because it has been created by everybody."

(Time,4-4-83). She also noted that the busy streets were also a type of built-in security system that keep any would-be criminal in the public eye. This attraction hardly holds exists in the big cities of today. The federal bulldozers of the 50's and 60's razed downtown areas

across the nation making way for the mam

moth megastructures of the 70's and 80's. "Urban

renewal" and

other such

brainstorms deadened the very city life they sought to revitalize. William H. Whyte, a long time observer of this trend, has been concerned by to

day's abstract "blank wall" architecture. American cities (as well as modern cities around the world) are full of tall windowless unadorned monotonous buildings and this has affected the life of the city and its Inhabitants.

In his book, The Social Life ofSmall Ur ban Spaces, Whyte studied how people used streets and squares. He found that they indeed "had something for everyone" and people move, talk, shop and rest in

the public â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and spread fear. Look-alike shopping centers and

megastructures show a certain contc

nature and the surroundings. All acri

country, cities have the same look. This has created cold empty cities with little per sonality and visible life outside and a private life inside. To illustrate the "double life" of the ci

ty, he recounted that during a visit to Dallas, he found no one outside one of the

city's new megastructures. Inside the building, 3,000 doctors were meeting shielded from the city (The Christian Science Monitor, 3-18-83).

Whyte claims that economic proofs are beginning to back up his theory. Architec

them.

tural wonders like Detroit's fortress-like

He notes that today's urban buildings have a different message. They communi cate a sense of awesome security and fear. They have a definite hostility to life in the city shielding themselves from the crowds and the undesirable elements. Whyte finds that the buildings intimidate and put down

Renaissance Center are going bankrupt as well as a lot of other walled-up cities and malls that are not working at all. On the contrary, Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Baltimore's Harborplace modeled on the old-style downtown con

cept are attracting shoppers and tourists.

HOME-MADE SWEATSHOPS? The home has always been the family

center providing stability and security for its members. In the home, the family can

develop the strong moral foundations so necessary to its survival. Today, it is a bat tered fortress barely standing against the corrosive influence of the permissivist

trends and practices of the modern world. Now, another attack against it has been

launched by a new enemy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the bureau crats.

Although less important, the home also has an economic function. The first in

dustries were, after all, "home industries." From the home, housewives,craftsmen and

artisans developed a rich variety of goods and services that are sought after even today.

Native European costumes, Irish Aran sweaters, Flemish embroidery, Japanese

lacquerware â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all are famous for the quali ty and beauty that reflect the richness and personality of their creators. Manufac turers have tried in vain to mass-produce that evasive "home-made", "home

grown", or "down-home" something born of family pride and tradition. Considering the traditional, cultural and economic value of home industries, it seems somehow almost anti-American that the

government would try to enforce regula tions prohibiting some of them. But an out dated 1943 Labor Department regulation forbids work at home in seven traditional

crafts: embroidery, knitting, women's

clothing, making handkerchiefs, buttons and buckles, jewelry, gloves and mittens.

Two years ago, a Virginia-based legal foundation called the Center on National

Labor Policy (CNLF) fought to lift the homework ban. Supported by a group of no-nonsense Vermont grandmothers, they succeeded in removing the restrictions on

work." When she tried to contract factories

home knitting.

to take care of some extra orders, she

tunities. Such a move would create jobs,

Now the controversy is back in the news. The Silent Woman, a women's clothing firm in Ripon, Wisconsin, has been con tracting women to sew in their homes. Labor Department officials and union leaders are campaigning to force it into

couldn't find any that could do the work. "I put my quality up against anybody, any day," she insisted (The Country To day, 3-2-83). In times of disintegrating family ties and

strengthen the family, help supplement the income of the elderly and perhaps give rise to a variety of new designs and fashions arising from the spirit of the American peo

Austrian children in national costume.

Beauty without the bureaucrats should be encouraging home work oppor

ple.

high unemployment, the government

compliance. According to the law, anyone paid for sewing in the home is assumed to be an employee and must work in a factory. The nearly thirty women contracted by Silent Women were unaware they were be

ing exploited or that their modern airconditioned homes were really "sweat

shops." They are not as the union claims "gullible, fear-ridden and exploited" peo

ple but housewives with preschoolers who want to rear children and supplement their income at the same time. The unions insist that the home workers

are underpaid and produce shabby poor

quality material. Co-owner Jean Bice ex plains that although the women do piece work, all earn well over a guaranteed minimum wage and the quality of work is extraordinary. "I can't have (the work) done in a factory because it is so spec tacular. Those women take pride in their

FOR CLARITY AND INSIGHTINTO THE CONFUSING EVENTS TAKING PLACE IN THE WORLD TODA Y

READ THE TFP NEWSLETTER

Vol. Ill

No. 18

1983

Faced With the Slaughter of the Innocents —

An Appeal of the Spanish TFP

t L { 4

Following efforts by the recently elected Socialist government of Spain to "legalize" the barbarous practice of abortion, the Spanish Society for the Defense of Tradi tion, Family and Property — Covadonga (TFP), has undertaken a vigorous cam paign calling upon Spaniards to oppose the

measure with prayer, penance and energetic

and Order: Holy Indignation.

action.

Members of the Spanish TFP holding public campaigns on the busy streets of

In the April 6 edition of the most impor tant newspaper in Madrid, ABC, the

Madrid and other major cities have already

Spanish TFP published a six-page appeal

distributed over 200,000 copies of the ap

entitled Faced with (he Slaughter of the

peal. Here follows a summary of the doc

Innocents — Within the Limits of the Law

ument.

American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

I. Sadness Over a Confirmed Forecast

Man usually rejoices over the fulfillment

of a prediction he makes, not out of a foolish sentiment of self-love, but because

a prediction is an exercise of the mind, and so it is normal for him to experience the wholesome joy of its accuracy. However, this is not the state of mind of the members and volunteers of the Spanish Society for the Defense of Tradition, Fami ly and Property — Covadonga (TFP), as events confirm the perplexities they had voiced in an Open letter to the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). There

rvr . 'hW . 'r. i-i ■

Covadonga-TFP manifested its apprehen sion at a possible victory of the socialists in the elections (ABC, 10-22-82).

The Open letter emphasized that the Resolutions of the PSOE's Congresses favor the establishment of free love, the censurable "rehabilitation" of homosex

uality, and the "legitimizing" of abortion and contraceptives. The Slaughter of the Innocents, Fra Angelica (XV Century), St. Mark's Museum, Since an approval of those measures Florence, Italy would unleash a total offensive against the But how... shocking it is that all this hucenturies old Christian principles with policy and rejecting the Christian, heroic which the law protects public morality and spirit of El Cid Campeador, which is so manitarianism seems to hush when it comes the family, the TFP pointed out this aston identified with Spain that it would cease to to protecting innocent victims surprised by murder in their mother's very womb! ishing fact: While many Catholics were in be if that spirit were lost. Are we, who as Catholics have the grav clined to vote for the PSOE, the Bishops' est reasons to execrate voluntary abortion Conference, which has the divine mission going to fall into such an aberration? of preserving the nation from that abyss of III. Prayer and Penance Some will object that allthese considera horrors, implied in a memo of its Standing Commission that it was morally licit for the The bishops, our shepherds and masters, tions are pertinent only if one assumes that abortion constitutes a crime against human faithful to vote for the PSOE. know the value of Christian preaching bet The socialist victory does not portend a ter than anyone else. They also know that life, a grave transgression of the Fifth Com lesser danger for Catholic Spain than did the fruit of the heroism of our eight cen mandment, "Thou shalt not kill." But, the Mohammedan hordes which crossed turies of the Reconquest would have not they may add, such a severe qualification the strait of Gibraltar in the remote Eighth been a complete victory of the Faith had regarding the interruption of the life of a Century. After a successful crossing, the in it not been for preaching and its noble sister still incompletely formed human being vaders had only to advance against Visigoth penance. seems exaggerated. Spain, which was foolishly optimistic, An analysis of this argumentation would They also know that without either one, lulled to sleep, and led by men whose men the indomitable resistance of the Spanish have some meaning if this Appeal were ad tality and policy can be very well symbol nation against the troops of the despot dressed not only to the venerable national ized by the mentality and the treacherous before whom all of Europe bowed — Episcopate and the Catholic public, but policy of the enigmatic Archbishop Opas. Napoleon Bonaparte, the sower of the er also to those sectors ruled by indifference, However, there are states of mind that

not even the obvious can straighten out. The Socialist Party won with a considerable share of the Catholic vote.

Thus, the TFP's prediction was con firmed to such an extent that we can now

say that we have come to the edge of the

rors of the French Revolution — would have been to no avail. The noble and heroic

impulse of the Alzamiento(Uprising) that freed Spain from the yoke of Communism, a genuine offspring of the French Revolu tion, would have been equally futile.

We ask Your Excellencies, the Bishops:

secularism or atheism, which are truly in

the minority. But this is not the case. It is enough for us to remind the Catholic reader that the Pontifical documents on abortion

have always censured it severely. According to the authoritative teaching of Pius XI, those responsible for a' -'inns

abyss.

Fill the roads of Spain with ardent mis

perform "deadly operations" {Ei

Casti Connubii of December 31, lyJU).

II. Looking to the Future

sionaries who will can upon the people to carry out the great and decisive battles of prayer, penance and action.

V. A State of Mind

if a reaction with all the required force

of impact fails to take place, all that the Socialist Party will have to do is to advance like the Moors of old. There can be no doubt about it. The

attitude of the Cortes, the Government,

and even the King himself will depend not only on the scope of this wholesome reac tion, but also on its ardor. Victory depends on this. Anything else would mean accepting Archbishop Opas'

cal

IV. Slaughtering the Innocents and Protecting the Leftists

As previously mentioned, the socialist

In our century, that boasts an inflexible and absolute egalitarianism, no act of in

victory, a catastrophe under whose weight we are groaning, has been due to the am ple contribution of the Catholic vote.

justice or justice against leftists fails to pro voke a chain reaction of indignant protests

those Catholics to vote for Socialism?

What was the decisive factor that caused

from laicist "humanitarians" the world

A praiseworthy desire to preserve

over, even when those leftists are radical in thought and terrorist in deeds.

mankind from a new world war has led

countless contemporary statesmen to pro-

letter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasahtville, N.Y. 10570. Permission granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this publica tion with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

m t Appeal of the Spanish TFP mote, since Yalta, a policy of detente with Russia.

This policy is based on a concept of men and human affairs devoid of the idea of

evil. According to the adherents of this VI. The Phlegmatic Silence

Distribution of the Appeal by the Spanish

policy, it would seem that men (at least

TFP on the Streets of Madrid

of Antiabortion Demonstrations

those on the left) are conceived without original sin. Therefore, if the leftists are In the face of the buffet (no other word ready to attack, it is primarily because their is fitting) that the Socialist Party gave the

adversaries in the center and the right did not deal with them properly — each and

Catholic sectors that voted for it — or that said it was licit to vote for it — certain anti-

every demand of the left must be met with abortionists have failed to use absolutely

"understanding," friendship and confi

every licit means to prevent the slaughter of innocents that is on the verge of begin Everyone should carelessly and candidly ning in Spain. get along with them in everything, whether True, they are concerned about prevent dence, and concessions must be made.

it be ballet or industrial production. Above ing abortion, but the attention and the zeal all, no one should ever argue with them. of their mentors is mixed with another, un The era of polemics is over; that of dia logue has dawned.

VII. An Allegory Let lis imagine ourselves in the time of

Herod. The horrendous slaughter of the in nocents has begun in order to kill the In

fant God. Popular indignation immediately

begins to boil, but an influential personage steps In, fearing that such a reaction could not only undermine authority, but also ex

expected concern: do not slight the social ists. In other words, let us defend the in This mentality explains how in forty nocent victims from the slaughter, but let years the world was brought to a state of us also avoid causing ideological or emo

cite tempers and rend the country and leave it with the scar of discord for a long time.

tional traumas in those who work for it.

the popular reaction. He succeeds to a great

terror of the communist danger through a

process successively called the policy of the Such a stand would be considered clearly "extended hand," the "fall of ideological unacceptable if the matter concerned assas barriers," Ostpolitik, and, finally, detente. sins of newborn children. Why, then, think This terror is such that world figures who it acceptable regarding the unborn? are serious in other respects go so far as to There is a great distance between an antiadvocate the unilateral disarmament of the abortionist stand lacking punch, fire and the West, that is, its shameful capitulation life — in a word, the true Christian spirit before the Red Moloch! of Spain — and an exaggerated one. Com This state of mind also infected religious mon sense requires that the campaigns circles, leading them to gradually soften the needed in the present circumstances strike

Catholic Church's position against Com

a balance between these two extremes.

munism. From this sprang the very peculiar

In this Spain where there is freedom for policy of the Second Vatican Council, everything and for all, to the point that the which abstained from every explicit con drive for abortion, which is inherent in demnation of Communism, the Church's

socialist doctrine, was able to attain the

greatest adversary in our days. For a reason degree of influence that it now enjoys, one

that has been little explained to this day, cannot understand why those against abor the secretariat of the Conciliar Commission tion should gag themselves and thereby responsible for the preparation of the draft substantially lessen their possibilities of on the Church in the modern world, failed success.

to submit to the assembly a message by 450 In other words, the antiabortion demon Council Fathers from 86 countries, asking strations, made up of throngs of Spaniards for the condemnation of Communism; and that would characteristically like to pro the "Russian Orthodox Church" — a mere

claim and sing their convictions and to

ecclesiastical administration at the service of the lords of the Kremlin — was invited to send observers to the Council. It is a rumored that these observers "vetoed" the

chivalrously explain their noble disagree ment, are instead instructed to parade in

Communism.

of law and order, is not just a licit attitude

chilled and subdued silence.

In short, indignation against a proposal approval of documents condemning like the abortionist one, within the bounds The conclusion of all this is obvious: If

for Catholics, but the result of a real moral

one side has the will to assert itself, expand imperative, the noble and beautiful fruit of and conquer, while the other side only zeal; the same indignation that would be deceives itself, relaxes and yields, the caused by a mass extermination of the former will necessarily eliminate the latter. newborn.

He therefore uses his influence to dampen extent, and the killing continues. It is un

derstandable that Herod, who had already begun to hesitate, now feels less restrained and continues his atrocious persecution. It is not difficult to imagine that Herod would

give the influential appeaser his credit and sympathy, invite him to feasts and praise

him before his compatriots. But it is im possible not to wonder what the candid voices of the innocents victims would have

said to God about such an "appea VIII. Appeal of the TFP The TFP, a civic institution of Catholic

inspiration whose objective is to defend

Christian civilization in the temporal sphere, addresses its Appeal to:

— the illustrious ecclesiastical hierarchy, with the filial veneration due to it; — the leaders of the antiabortion cam

paign, with the regard, sympathy and will

to give them the cooperation they deserve; — all Spaniards, so that the tragic experi ence of the proabortion offensive launched

by the Socialist Party may open their eyes to the true nature and goals of socialism.

The TFP, earnestly committed to a peti tion drive against abortion, summons all

its members, volunteers and supporters to support all legitimate manifestations of

disagreement with the proposed abortion law.

Madrid, April 1, 1983

EDUCATIONAL COUNTER-ATTACK

The beleaguered classroom "Our nation is at risk," declares the sociologists turned corporal punishment

T. H. Bell in 1981. The bipartisan panel

18 member National Commission on Ex

and discipline into child abuse. English

held public hearings on the subject and

cellence in Education in a report released in late April. "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational per formance that exists today, we might

teachers turned third-rate books into literature. Low standards and curriculum

commissioned research by several educa tion experts.

requirements discouraged excellence and the easy-going environment for learning

sion recommended:

actually encouraged functional illiteracy.

well have viewed it as an act of war. As

Billions of dollars in Federal aid only it stands, we have allowed this to hap aggravated the problem as liberal educa pen to ourselves." tors responded to critics by inventing a The deplorable, state of American series of those exciting innovations that education certainly isn't news to be bored, confounded and, in some cases, leaguered parents. Sagging test scores, morally disfigured students all over the mass migration from public to private nation. schools over the past few years and the recent back-to-basics revival have been The federal commission's report de clear indications that something is amiss clares:"The educational foundations of

our society are presently being eroded by

in education.

A generation of perplexed students a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens have graduated from schools in the fan our very future as a nation and as a tasy world of modern education. people."

In that world, two plus two is not

The courageous 7000-word report was a result of study by a panel of college presidents, high school principals and

always four since the "new math" turn ed ordinary arithmetic into incom prehensible abstract algebra. Despite the teachers, scholars and others. It was a widespread violence in the schools. project initiated by Education Secretary

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira * Published in five languages:

English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism — and even more radicalforms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP • P. O. Box 121 • Pleasantville, NY 10570

Among other measures, the commis High schools should tighten their re

quirements to stress the so-called "new basics." Students seeking a diploma should be required to take four years of English, three years each of math, science and social science and a half year

of computer science. College-bound students should have two years of foreign language.

Colleges and universities should raise their entrance standards across-theboard. Students need more time in school.

School districts and state legi<;latures

should consider extending the scl

lay

from six to seven hours and the .^v.iool

year from 180 days to as many as 220. High school students should be given "far more homework."

The findings of the panel are not sur prising. Thousands of parents without degrees in education already concluded that modern education was a failure and

pulled their children out of the public schools in favor of more rigorous and traditional private schools.

What is surprising is that the educa tional establishment did not declare this

before irreparable damage was done to a generation of Americans and that the same commission did not go farther in declaring who was responsible for the "act of war" that systematically pro duced such mediocrity in education.

THE DIMMING OF THE TUBE For years, television fare was limited

cond survey of 1,000 telephone inter

to a drab and increasingly permissive works. The combination of a captive au

view. Forty-nine percent of those inter viewed said they were watching less tele vision compared with 39 percent in 1977

dience hooked on the TV habit and a

and 25 percent in 1962. The principal

veritable monopoly on programming

reason for the decline was viewer dis

among the big three broadcasters gave TV writers and producers a free hand to impose whatever they wished on viewers.

satisfaction with programming.

menu served up by the three major net

Only 75 percent feel television is in tune with modern times compared with

Avant garde writers lost no opportuni

86 percent five years ago. Fifty nine per

ty to hammer at traditional values and morals especially those of the family.

cent feel that television is livelier and more realistic down from 72 percent.

Programs often discussed and openly

promoted moral aberrations like homo

Baitdk/New Internationalist/LorK'

Limited audience

Barely half consider television varied and improved. Viewers also recognize the enormous

sexuality and adultery exerting an enor mous influence on society. Something has changed. Television viewers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with today's programming and spending less time watching than

According to John Bowen,one of the influence that television has. Seventy-two study's authors, "From the mid-1970s percent believe that it has too much in and continuing into the present day, fluence over their lives and three quarters

they did five years ago. The major net

programming offered to them by the

viewers have become increasingly say it encourages bad behavior and evaluative, judgmental and critical of the

language.

The only field that fared well in the

works ABC, NBC and CBS have seen three commercial television networks" survey was the network news reporting. their audiences decline from 92 percent {New York Times, 4-18-83). Today's viewer wants the news. And not of all viewing in 1975 to 78 percent last Viewers were particularly critical of just any news. The unstable political and year. More and more viewers are turn the amount of violence and sex on televi economical events have led him to ing on cable television, independent and sion. Others complained that situation broaden his horizons and want national public television â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or simply turning off comedies had gotten sillier and more and international news. News viewing the set. Even network officials admit that juvenile. Mr. Bowen said that one of the was up ten percent from 71 to 81 percent. new prime-time programs are having the biggest issues is that there is not enough On the contrary, newsviewing of local highest failure rate ever. family programming on television. news reporting was down ten percent. That is not to say that people are Researchers commissioned by the Television has long been a one-way

watching significantly less television but NAB interviewed 500 families in their viewer attitudes are changing. A study homes about their television habits. by the National Association of Broad Peter Hart Associates, a Washingtoncasters reflects this trend. based polling firm followed up with a se

street where the networks sent their

messages to their addicted audiences. Now, the viewers are sending their own message to the networks.

SWEDEN'S "BIG BROTHER" A Swede's life is already controlled from cradle to grave.

The evening paper, Expressen says that in Sweden, even before the date predicted

by George Orwell in his novel 1984, "Big Brother" already sees and knows every thing. The people are watched and records are kept of all their daily activities. The high level of vigilance denounced by

the pastor, adding that it would save police labor.

In Stockholm, the management of a swimming pool requested another camera to keep watch on nudist gatherings. In Gundynberg, the authorities want to install an electronic eye in public restrooms. The inhabitants of Stockholm are some

what disturbed at a new method for spot

the newspaper begins in the street. In the checking private passenger vehicles. Some Swedish capital(as in other capitals around the world) it's hard to cash a check, rent a boat, or even shop without being implac ably observed by an obtrusive camera. The cameras follow the passers-by right in downtown Stockholm, and Expressen

police cars are equipped with computer ter minals enabling a team to examine 1500 cars per day instead of the 70 that a regular patrol handles. And when they say exam ine, they really mean it: Not only routine information about the car appears on the

says the authorities are forgetting to destroy screen, but the whole life of the driver as the films after the time provided for by law. well. The most voracious and disagreeable There are more than ten thousand such cameras in the large cities, and requests to computer in Sweden is one called "Rex" install new cameras are multiplying. In that keeps files on all taxpayers. "Rex" will Jo.enkoeping, a Protestant minister request soon be connected to thirty other computer ed a camera to watch over his flock. "In systems with which it will share informa this way, the police can intervene if any tion. "Rex" unceasingly pries into the lives thing goes wrong during the funerals," said of the taxpayers: In less than ten seconds.

it knows if anyone owns a boat, what debts he has and how great they are, whether or

not his telephone number is listed,

nny

other holdings he may have. One advantage for the taxpayer

ihat

it's possible that he will soon be freed from the annoying task of preparing his tax re turn. As Expressen would say, "Big Brother" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or the various computers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; will take care of that for him {Estado de Minas, 4-10-83).

For clarity and insight into the confusing events taking place in the world today READ THE

TFP NEWSLETTER

Breaking Barriers

the house, they can be taxed as much as $100,000.

Gradually the moral barriers protecting the family and society against the cor

"I'm not sure If this is the great Amer ican dream or the great American night

rosive (and antinatural) influence of

mare," said Kurt Vanderwest, president

homosexuality are being broken down. In the town of Groningen in Northern Holland, two women from the neighbor ing town of Foxhole were "married" by a Roman Catholic priest at St Josef's Church. The double scandal — by both the priest and the "couple" — was the first such "marriage" in the Netherlands.

of the club sponsoring the event {San Francisco Chronicle, 4-16-83).

Banned Typewriters In Romania, as in all communist coun tries, the government takes the most stringent measures to stifle opposition. In a move to stop anti-government

Equally scandalous were a church offi cial's remark that the ceremony may cause

leaflets, communist dictator Nicolae

trouble for the priest "officiating" and the silence of hierarchy in the matter. In Oakland, California, two women

Idol worshippers

Ceausescu signed a decree effective April 28 that bans the possession or use

"married" six years ago in a Bay area

New Idols

of typewriters by those having a criminal record or by those who pose a danger to

church have gone to court over visitation rights to a child born to one of them

through artifical insemination.

Video Game Void According to University of Carolina sociologist Robert Wilson, video game devotees are depriving themselves of recreational time that should be used for

creativity and wholesome personal de velopment.

Although seemingly non-productive, activities like daydreaming, meditation,

reflection, self-analysis and reading are

Over a generation has passed since

public order or state security.

scene and fans all over.the world began

The new rule requires Romanians to register typewriters they now own or

an almost religious devotion to their

want to purchase.

rock and roll appeared on the music

The government has been trying to

favorite rock idols.

Beginning this spring, one travel agen cy will capitalize on this devotion by of fering a type of pilgrimage-tour where

stop a number of typewritten clandestine

devotees may pay homage to the late Elvis Presley. Another agency plans six teen departures for Liverpool, where

Post, 4-14-83).

tourists will visit the Beatles' birthplace:

for War

The Presley tour called "Rock On" will

fly to Memphis, Tennessee where devotees will visit the late singer's Graceland mansion, tour his trophy and

leaflets.

What will be next? Pencils? {New York

Massachussetts Opts Nearly half of Massachusetts resi

dents responding to a university poll said they preferred nuclear war to living under Communism. Even if the war killed every

all significant exercises that require quiet time and environment to be proper

also includes a visit to his grave at the

ly "encountered and achieved."

so-called

Gardens."

tions, one third still opted for all-out

Video games. Prof. Wilson claims, are trivial, frivolous and passive. "The video

Sightseeing, dinner, a champagne

nuclear war rather than live in communist

brunch and two nights accommodation

misery.

games so far as I know them are essen

complete the $420 package (the Grisly

tially contentless. They represent a form

Presley package).

of what I would call empty leisure. They replace more valuable forms of the lei

extravagant costume rooms. The tour "Meditation

For Beatles aficionados an eight-day trip called "Get Back" has been sched

sure experience. Self-knowledge is going

uled to leave from both Atlanta and New

to be one of the main losses to video

York. After a visit to London,the tour will go to Liverpool to visit Beatles' land marks and even places that served as in

game overplaying"{Chronicle Telegram, 3-29-83).

Electronic Handcuffs A probationer in Albuquerque has be come the first person to use an "elec

spiration for their songs. The last depar ture is scheduled to coincide with a

one in the United Slates and in other na

The poll, conducted by the University of Massachusetts-Boston questioned 792 residents of the traditionally liberal Democratic state. One of the questions asked:"Suppose you had to make a deci sion between fighting an all-out nuclear war or living under Communist ru' •

would you decide?" Forty-nine pi

chose war while 40 percent chose com

munist rule, with 11 percent being un

Beatles' convention that will feature the group's movies and a flea market of

decided.

memorabilia {Corpus ChrlstI CallerTimes, 3-13-83).

thirds — 33 percent of the total — said

tronic handcuff" to monitor his move

Of the group that chose war, two they would still favor war even if it meant

ments.

the death of everyone In the United

District Judge Jack Love, who devised the program, said the probationer, whose

States, the enemy's country and some

An Expensive Gift

name was not released, was outfitted with the device and there has been no problems with it.

Michael and Linda Brooks of Fullerton, California were overjoyed when they The "electronic handcuff" is a small found out that they won a new $175,000 radio transmitter worn as a^i anklet. house in a Lion's club raffle. Now they

Anytime the wearer strays more than 200 find that with government taxes, they feet from his telephone, the device emits just can't afford It. If they accept the three-bedroom Bue-

a signal to a central computer.

Probation officers in turn check a prin tout of the person's departures to see If they correspond to his established work

na Park home, they will have to pay gift taxes. If they decide to sell it, they will

have to pay a huge tax on the profits. The gift taxes could range from $35,000 schedule {San Fransisco Chronicle, 4-26-83).

to $65,000 or even more. Should they sell

other countries as well.

Prof. Patrick O'Malley,a senior analyst at the school's Center for Policy Studies which released the survey expressed concern about the results. He believes

that the poll indicated a basic difficulty in understanding the scope of nuclear

holocaust and showed "how the process of polltlcallzation has left a deeply in grained impression on the public mind of what Communist rule would be like"

Human Events, 4-22-83). Or, perhaps it shows that the U.S. Is waking up to the horror of the communist ideology.

Bursting the ''Big Bang" Theory The "big bang" theory of the beginning of the universe whereby matter and energy combined and exploded forming itself in to galaxies, planets and eventually "evolv ed" to form life is held sacred by mainstream cosmologists â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and equally sacred to evolutionists. There is however a new view of the

universe that is in striking contrast to this "universe by chance" model commonly presented. The new theory is causing a

veritable revolution in the study of the cosmos. Many theorists now believe that

the entire observable universe may have emerged from nothing or, at least, virtual ly nothing. They further hold that the pro cess of its expansion was spontaneous tak ing a fraction of a second. The so-called "inflationary" model is

based on the assumption that matter can be formed from energy. Fluctuations that exist in the subatomic level make possible the forming of particles from bits of gravitational and electrical energy. With enough energy, the particles may persist. The new view proposes that the universe was born of a quantity of matter no larger than an apple. All the rest of its mass was in the form of energy. In an infinitesimal fraction of a second, this "seed" began to expand at an incredible rate until it reach ed a volume billions of times greater than what may now be observed. This infla

tionary stage lasted less than a second. The theorists claim this concept offers a much better explanation of scientific observations.

The underlining reason why the "big bang" theory is being questioned is that it

A Divine blueprint tures, their shapes, and relationship to each delicately to the gravitational power of the other are all very much alike. The universe that the galaxies had just enough homogeneity of the universe gives the im speed to escape each other's gravity, yet not pression that its parts conform to the same so much as to rapidly disperse"(The New blueprint. The scientists also note the uniform ex

pansion of the universe. They do not find the turbulence of a "big bang" but on the contrary an orderly and smooth expansion. The rate of the initial expansion is also cited. The perfect harmony in which the galaxies formed cannot be explained by

York Times, 3-29-83).

Ironically, the new theory is much more similar to the creationist model of the

universe than to the "big bang" evolu

tionist theory currently in vogue in schools. The "inflationary" model of the

universe may not disprove the evolutionary theory of the universe. Its proponents do,

ists in the universe. The new theorists point to the extraordinary uniformity of the

chance. According to Paul C.W. Davies of however, point out that the universe is not the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in a haphazard explosion of matter and England,"For some mysterious reason, the energy but a marvelous product of unifor

universe. The elements, their atomic struc-

vigor of the explosion was matched so

fails to explain the delicate order that ex

mity and blueprint-like order.

Our Lady of Guadalupe:

More Testimony According to a Florida entomologist looking into the origin of the miraculous

After carefully studying the image under a microscope. Dr. Callahan added his

image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in

testimony to that of scientists from all fields

Mexico City, the 450-year old painting is

and faiths who have declared its authen

"not like any other painting that exists." Dr. Philip Callahan, of the U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture's laboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville is a specialist in radiation and infrared light. By analyzing the wavelengths emitted by the image, he was able to study the material

ticity and marveled at its wonders.

and painting technique used in the painting. With full cooperation of authorities at

"I could not find any semblance of brush strokes or spatula strokes on it." he

reported. "There's no sizing under it. It's not done in oils; it's not done in watercolor. 1 don't know what it is."

The unknown substance used to paint the picture has not aged over the centuries

the new basilica near the famed shrine-now

although a border that was later painted

museum of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dr. Callahan photographed the image with in frared film. The infrared wavelength can go through paint and reveal images invisi ble to the naked eye as well as the stages

around the image did age. Dr. Callahan said that he has no explanation why the substance has not decayed."My personal feeling is that the painting is miraculous. I don't think anyone will ever explain {i"(The Wanderer, 2-24-83).

of the painting process.

Isn't There Someone You Know

Who Should Be Reading The TFP Newsletter GIVE A GIFT

SUBSCRIPTION TODAY

An Open Letter

Volcanic Rerun? The 10,750-foot Mount Baker, in north

ern Washington State, recently sent up

From Camp No. 30

a blast of steam about 2000 feet above

its summit, leading some scientists to speculate that it will be one of the next About the same time the American ported by Communist propaganda, aware bishops released the second draft of their of the fact that in the Soviet concentration pastoral letter on the nuclear arms issue, camp... the authorities are incarcerating an obscure "Open Letter to the Roman people who seek the Holy Spirit?" Pontiff" arrived in the West. The letter was

The letter notes that the times in which Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt was shown model

smuggled in and warns of the danger of dealing with the "Soviet dove with the atomic scepter." The authors of the open letter are twelve political prisoners in Soviet Concentration Camp No. 36 in the Perm region of North

the prisoners cannot gel the Bible even if

Samizdat Material, the letter relates how 14 prisoners attempted to pray on Easter Sunday in 1982. The prison guards dis

alyptic evil in its fortress have a difficult time understanding the sense of Christian

prisoners in Soviet prisons reading the Bi ble and the Koran are long past. "Today,

they go on hunger strikes." They are not allowed to confess to a priest, venerate a crucifix or even to simply pray. ern Russia. The prisoners declare that "people who Reported in the March 25 edition of the have in one way or another opposed apoc

persed and arrested the praying prisoners, humility. We cannot, and we do not want charging them with "organizing a gather to give to Caesar that which by right ing, praying and failing to obey the red belongs to God. Most of us see the sense of life in revealing to the world the real authorities." The report finally reached the West nature of the Soviet 'dove' with the atomic through the Samizdat press, a term which scepter." The letter also denounces those "who means "self-published" material that cir blindly give witness about freedom of culates in the Russian underground. In the moving letter to John Paul II, the religion in the USSR" especially Pimen, prisoners call upon the West not to be de "patriarch of Moscow and all of Rus" and ceived by the psychological warfare waged Filaret, metropolitan of Kiev and Halych by the Communist government. They ask: {America, Ukrainian Catholic Daily, "Are the demonstrators of the peace mar 5-2-83).

ches in the West, who are so vocally sup

â&#x2013;Ą

volcanoes to errupt. It was the longest steam emission in several years. Whatcom County officials near the scene have asked a teanh of scientists

from the U.S. Geological Service to con duct an inspection of the mountain. Mt. Baker forms a part of the

Cascade Mountain Range and has a history of volcanic activity {San Francisco Chronicle, 4-28-83).

Americans on the Move The Census Bureau reports that near

ly half of all Americans changed resi dences between 1975 and 1980. Results of the 1980 census showed

that 94 million or 44.5 percent of all Americans changed residence over the

past five years. Many moved within the same state or county but there was also a interstate population shift from North ern to Sun-belt states.

Florida led the states gaining popu lation with 823,227 newcomers. New

York lost the most residents showing a net decline of 1,097,197 {Corpus Christi Caller, 4-13-83).

Muffling the Word of God In February both the Senate and the

House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing the influence and

spiritual value of the Bible. President Reagan accordingly proclaimed 1983 the "Year of the Bible."

A simple (and laudable) act of the democratic process of this largely Chris tian nation, one might say. But to a

group of sixteen people in Los .Angeles,

the proclamation is a grave violation of the First Amendment.

The protesting group is comprised of Protestant ministers, rabbis, Buddhists, Sikhs, humanists, agnostics and a token atheist or two. They filed suit in the Los

Angeles federal court against President Reagan asserting that Public Law 97-280 "harms Christian and non-Christians

alike because they single out the Bible

from all other spiritual and religious teachings as the 'Word of God.' "

Washington taking the oath of office. Ignoring the need for dialogue

Ihe plaintiffs narrowly interpreting the

Proponents of the proclamation res

law called the designation a "narrow sec

pond that the Bible is not a religion and

"We want the court to instruct the

tarian view" and "an insult to the reli

that no religion was established by it.

President and the Congress that this is

gious beliefs and patriotism of the peo

in violation of the First Amendment, as

ple of the United States." The Rev. John Corssley, a Presbyter

The protest is a strange twisting of the concept of separation of church and state

a warning for the future," said Eve Triffo, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's church-state project

and one of the self-appointed inquisitors involved in the case.

The Reverend Philip Zwerling, a Los

Angeles Unitarian minister and one of

aimed at banning religion from public

ian minister and professor of religion at

life. The law, says Glenn Jones, direc

University of Southern California (USC) who joined the multi-creed coalition claimed out that the proclamation makes

tor of the National Committee for the

Year of the Bible, "only recognizes our

dialogue difficult between people of dif

national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures" {Cor

ferent faiths.

pus Christi Caller, 4-22-83).

Vol. Ill

No. 19

1983

NO MORE BETRAYALS"

niiy

ÂŤ

Pan of the crowd and media representatives at (he Vigil and Raliy in our nation's capital.

On Friday, July 1 and Saturday, July 2,

the express purpose of "neutralizing"

al Center for Public Research was held in

and hampering ability to exploit the

of Betrayal" from noon on Friday, July 1 until noon the following Saturday. This event consisted of reading names of

Washington, D.C. The American TP?

names of the Vietnam war dead in the

the victims of communism, histories of

was of the many organizations sponsor

service of its radical goals. The slogan for the Vigil and Rally was "No More Betrayals" reflecting a recog nition of the United States' moral obliga tion to assist free peoples fighting com-

the various captive nations, personal testimonies by refugees and other ap

a Vigil and Rally organized by the Nation

ing this event.

The event was held in a park behind the Vietnam

Veterans' War Memorial

near the Lincoln Memorial and was in

tended to be a counter-demonstration to

another rally being held at the same time

by far-left activists some hundred yards away.

The Vigil and Rally was organized for

the effects of the far-left demonstration

.munism in their homelands.

Two specific activities were held by the Rally sponsors. The American TP? took an active part. The first was a 24-hour "Chronology

propriate material. Members of the TPP also read from

the work,"The Church and the Commun

ist State, The Impossible Co-existence" by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira.

The second part of the program was a "Commemoration Rally" that began at 1;00 p.m. on Saturday and lasted un-

American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

]"Fp American Socjefy for ihe Defense jpp

THE AMERICAN FP WARNS!

^ ofjradiiion.Family and Proper^/ "

FALSE

NAIVETE IS THE MASK OFOUR WORST ENEMIES

Xi^

Some of the members and friends of The American TFP who participated in the well-organized counter demvnsUation. til 4:30 p.m. This was the main part of

us from Central America,communism will

On the same placard, an enormous

the event.

cut us off from all the Latin American

friends of the American TFP were on

8,000,000 sq. miles of so many nations

pair of scissors held in a hand emanating from Cuba presented the warning: "Anti-North American Communist Propa

hand forming the largest single con tingent in the crowd that was estimated

allied to us."

ganda."

at 1,000 people. The TFP displayed four huge placards illustrated with cartoon

naivete is the mask of our worst enemies."

About 100 members, volunteers and

figures designed to alert the American

world;

360,000,000

The second

placard

inhabitants

read: "False

The third placard contained a map of the world illustrating all the countries

The fourth placard, with a figure resembling a U.S. version of Achilles with his heel prominently exposed, warned: "Naviete" and "Cover-ups,"

public to the latest maneuver of the com

that

munists to increase their influence and

communism since Yalta and read: "In

"Fifth

presence in Central America.

all these countries, the United States

roaders."

The placards contained the following messages:

The first placard carried the wording: "The American TFP warns: In separating

have fallen under the control of

columns"

and

"Middle-of-the-

lost friends, influence and business by

The event was widely covered by

following the foolish tactic of loosening ties with ardent friends in order to sup port neutral and dubious ones."

representatives from both the national and local news media.

COUNTERFEIT SHEEPSKIN A recent probe by the Federal Bureau

ceived ail B's for courses he never took.

of Investigation of diploma mills re

vealed that "hundreds of people in every

According to Robert Pence, agent

profession" have fake degrees. The oper

ation, code named "Dipscam," involved

in charge of FBI operations in North Carolina, such "graduates" can be found

38 mail-order colleges in eight states.

everywhere. They include a high-ranking

An FBI agent named Ezell sent $1,595

to American National University in Phoenix, Arizona explaining that he was too "backlogged" as a result of a vacation

to do the research needed to complete

Washington official, a National Foot ball League player, NASA employees and federal, state, and local workers.

"We have people with PH.D.s in psychotherapy who are treating patients and don't have the slightest qualifications,"

his degree. The school awarded Ezell a master's degree in business administra

said

tion along with a transcript showing he

ordered cancer treatment in Mexico for a

had taken 10 courses for 30 credits. He re

patient who didn't have cancer at all.

Pence.

One

California

"doctor"

There is evidence that mail-order doctors,

psychologists and chiropractors have set up clinics in every state. The FBI has not publicly exposed

any of the bogus degree holders 1 has notified some employers who , given them employment. Several of these have already lost their jobs.

"In the early '70's, people found out they needed degrees to get jobs and it wasn't too important whether

they got them by studying for them or paying for them," Pence said (The Chronicle Telegram, 5-11-83).

TFP Newsletter â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A fortnightly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP)

also available. Direct all subscription requests and inquires to: The American TFP. P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

AIDS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; PAYING THE PIPER

physicians called on the city to shut

Fifteen members either gave speeches or made insertions into the Congressional record which called for increased funding

down the bars, baths and other places

of AIDS research.

open to the general public. Nevertheless,

Notably, not one legislator inferred that the homosexual community ought to bear some responsibility for the near-

U.S. Public Health officials have an

In New York City where nearly half

nounced that the country is on the verge of an AIDS epidemic. They fear that the mysterious incurable disease will soon

of the cases have been reported, three

be spreading from its initial centers in New York, San Francisco and Los An

Dr. Ada Ryan, an emergency room

geles throughout the nation especially among homosexual men and drug addicts.

physician at New York's Flushing Hos pital said that even though the disease epidemic or that their disordered life had reached epidemic proportions, the style might be part of the problem. The city had not applied routine, health homosexuals are viewed simply as victims. Obviously the homosexuals want to emergency procedures.

Over 1600 cases of Acquired Im

munity

Deficiency

Syndrome

have

now been recorded. Five or six new

cases are being reported every day. Nearly 40 percent of the individuals affected have already died. No one is known

have

recovered from the

The New York State Funeral Di rectors Association told its 1200 mem

bers not to accept the bodies of AIDS carriers until the government issued

avoid any publicity of the fact that it is, indeed, their lifestyle that has played the principal role in this situation. It has long been the relativistic and defiant slogan of those who practice the aberration that as long as they don't do any "harm" to anyone they should

disease that is being likened to the Bubonic Plague. The very deadliness of the disease is causing a variety of reactions among those not infected. Nurses are refusing

New York Mayor Koch called the move style they choose. "an outrage" and urged the State's

Health Commissioner to forbid such

treat

the carriers. Morticians are

refusing to embalm and bury them. Po lice and prison personnel are asking for special protection in dealing with criminal carriers.

In San

Francisco, television crew

technicians balked when asked to put

the microphone on an AIDS carrier for fear of catching the disease. The interview which was to "demystify" the AIDS syndrome had to be carried

out via telephone to a separate room Rocky Mountain News, 6-15-83). AIDS is not an ordinary disease.

Because the majority of its carriers are homosexual males, it is quite logically believed to be transmitted by homo sexual activity. Intravenous drug abusers and also blood-related infections are

known to carry it. It is a mysterious disease

and

researchers

have

hinted

(in totally unscientific fashion) that it might be transmitted to the general public by routine close contact with the individuals having the disease.

guidelines on how the corpses should be handled. The morticians fear that they

are especially exposed to the disease.

discriminatory actions. (Newsday, 617-83).

This slogan, in what may prove to be

the understatement of the decade, no

longer seems to apply.

Two nurses in San Jose, California

resigned after refusing to treat an AIDS patient there. The nurses claim that guidelines and procedures were not

spelled out until the AIDS infected patient had been hospitalized for more than a week.

Congress has also entered into the mat

ter. The Public Health Service spent

For clarity and insight into the confusing events

$5,505,000 on AIDS in fiscal 1982 and

taking place in the world today

over fourteen million dollars have already been allocated for AIDS research this

year. There are proposals in Congress that will increase this amount to as high as $30 million.

Recently, the weekly tabloid Human Events reported that in May a special

session on the House floor was organized*

AIDS has another different aspect to it. Because it is a "homosexual issue,"

even routine sanitary and medical pro cedures which would have been put into effect if another type of disease were threatening the public health are not be ing employed so as not to offend the carriers. The strategy of public officials has been as mysterious as the disease itself. For example:

be allowed their "right" to live in the

They forgot about God's rights.

READ

THE

TFP NEWSLETTER

1983 AMERICAN TFP CONGRESS In an atmosphere of enthusiasm and conviviality, nearly 350 participants from all over the United States, Canada, as

well as Europe met in New York over the Memorial Day weekend,May 28-30 for the 1983 American TFP Congress. The three-

day event was the second to be held joint ly with the Foundation for a Christian Civilization, at the Foundation's head

quarters in Bedford, New York. Participants came from seventeen states with large contingents from New York, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Texas,

Colorado and California. The Congress was also attended by the YoungCanadians

for a Christian Civilization along with a

number of Canadian supporters from the

provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. Giving the event an even broader inter national flavor

were the visitors from

Australia and Ireland.

The theme of this year's Congress was the subject: "The Dilemma of the Con servative Catholic." The program pointed out the current social, moral and religious

John R. Spann, President of The American TFP delivers one of the lectures on the dilemma facing conservatives Catholics in the U.S.

crises affecting the daily lives of Catholics

today and the isolation faced by the con

servative Catholics who are resisting the liberal and secularist tide.

Speakers

noted

how

conservative

Catholics in America have become the isolated ones and could be likened to a

drop of oil in a glass of water surrounded by an oppressive environment that tends

to discourage and paralyze them giving the impression that they are the only

ones standing firm in their convictions. Other lecturers commented on how

these isolated idealists should be encour

aged to know that there are many others who share the same ideals as they do, not only all over America, but the world as well. The mere realization of this fact,

they noted, serves to stimulate these Catholics and constitutes an obstacle to

the advance of the revolutionary process since it encourages and calls to action those who oppose it. The American TFP presented an ex

Conviviaiity and conversation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; trademarks of the TFP friends and supporters.

clusive video-taped interview prepared especially for the Congress with Prof.

The program also included daily Mass with the TFP choir, including a High

Plinio Correa de Oliveira, President of

Mass on Sunday that was one of the focal

For the participants in the Cong: Congress,

the Brazilian TFP and inspirer of the now

points of the Congress. Meals were served in a large outdoor tent close to

one of the main features of the event was

15 TFPs all over the

world. A slide

presentation of the actions of the Amer ican TFP over the past year was also given.

gress concluded with a morning workshop and closing lunch.

that it served to unite isolated conserva

the historic 65-room mansion serving as

tive Catholics of diverse origin and

the Foundation's headquarters. The Con

background and stimulate them to action.

BRAZILIAN TFP CONGRESS Several hundred supporters of the

a whole. There are many that combat

Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP)

aspects of the Revolution. One combats divorce, another abortion, another com

from seven Brazilian states and the Fed

bats heresy regarding the Liturgy or man

eral District participated in the TFP's First Regional Congress for Correspond

ifestations

infiltration

inside

the

Church. So everything is piece-meal. But there is another organization that

combats the whole. It has a past with

Over four hundred people attended the sessions of the first day during which several speakers presented a glo bal panorama of the current crises threat

not find in any other organization." During the solemn closing of the Congress, more than a thousand persons

50 years worth of results that you will

ening the very survival of the West. The

packed Sao Paulo's "Brasilio Machado"

conferences were based on the considera

auditorium to hear Prof. Plinio Correa

tions of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

de Oliveira deliver a speech on: Brazil:

his book Revolntion and

Counter

Hopes

and

Apprehensions."

the

revolution. Slide presentations accom panied talks on "The Revolution in the Temporal Sphere," and "The Revolution

conference, interrupted several

in the Spiritual Sphere." A conference was also given on both the history and pre-history of the TFP beginning in 1928

last 20 years, the attitude of Brazilian

when

Prof. Plinio

Correa de

Oliveira

entered the Marian Movement. Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira con cluded

the session

with

a conference

rimes

by applause, he analyzed the evolution of

the communist.danger in Brazil over the public opinion in face of that danger,

and the actions of the TFP combating it. Speaking of the world-wide action of the 13 TFPs against Mitterrand's selfmanaging socialism and the Brazilian

TFP's efforts at unmasking the Basic

on "The Oneness of the Revolution and

Christian Communities, Prof, de Oliveira

the Role of the Correspondents and

affirmed: "This type of denunciation to

Sympathizers."

"The TFP," he explained, "is an or

ganization that feels the need to combat the gnostic and egalitarian Revolution as

Partial view of the 1000 people in atten dance at the Brasilia Machado auditorium.

responds to the warm applause of the audience.

ents and Sympathizers held on May 1415 in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.

(Below)Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira

public opinion has taken hold. The TFP

stopped the seigc of the monster. The claws of the golden lion of the TFP can contain the red dragon!"

Sacrilege in California Statues of Our Lady have suffered sacrilege at the hands of vandals in three California Catholic Churches. Police be

lieve that two teenage boys and a young

girl are responsible for the outrages. In Queen of Apostles Church in San Jose, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima was smashed and the altar set afire. A ring of devotional candles was left burning

run school to harangue its students, and tried to gag two nuns in a reception area near the front door, the nuns fought back and kicked the guerrillas. Soon othernuns came to their aid shouting "get out, get out, or die." 'They thought they were going to find some sweet little lambs ready to die of fright," said one of the nuns {TheJournal), Lorian, Ohio, 5-7-83).

Not a single French Bishop has raised his voice to reject the notice nor has one disassociated himself from it,reports

the magazine /f/nera/res January 15,1983. Policies

Australia's new Labor government is already running into opposition to its highly socialistic polices says Mr. BjelkePeterson, Premier of the State of Queens

The trio appeared hours later in the middle of a Sunday afternoon service in Our Lady of Peace Church. Before about 30 worshippers, one of the boys

land. IMAVM

knocked off the head of a statue of the

ITO WUfl

Blessed Virgin and ran out the door.

"Labor's policies are producingdisaster after disaster for Australians. Labor is

doing its best to discourage private in vestment in productive enterprise. Job opportunity is the first to suffer," the

In St. Clara's Catholic Church, the head of a life-size statue of Our Lady was knocked off and fires were set in various

places fueled by prayer books and hymnals. Police have yet to apprehend the of fenders â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nor do there seem to be any

Bad Image Abroad

plans for reparation at the Churches.

are becoming more and-more concerned

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, parents about the harmful effects of violent tele

Rev. John Morgan, minister of the First Unitarian Congregation of Tor onto, Canada has worked diligently as

anniversary of his death, there is a litur gical notice on Karl Marx found under March 14th on page 139 of the Missal.

Australia's Hard Labor

around the statue.

A Peace Prize

canonized saints of the Church. On the

vision programs on their children, espe cially since four youngsters died recent ly imitating their superheroes.

premier reports.

The Labor government's policies are apparently made as if Australia's high level of unemployment was there to stay. The Queensland premier alSo com mented on the government's lack of con cern for the family and :its efforts to

literally give away funds to communist Vietnam.

The influential Consumers Association

cently named one of the four recipients

'The honeymoon is over for the Hawke of Penang reported: 'Television violence Labor Government and it has ended in and fantasy is causing harmful psycho record time because of failing socialist logical and physical effects on Malaysian policies," concluded Mr. Bjelke-Peterson children. Watching violence on television {Media Release, 5-15-83). promotes aggressive behavior in children. It also affects their imaginations, the way F.D.R.'s Legacy they learn and other attributes that con

of the Lenin Peace Prize.

stitute behavior" {China Post,

president of the Canadian Peace Con

gress against U.S. cruise missile tests in Canada and for efforts to get Canada declared a "nuclear-free" zone. The New York-born

Unitarian

minister

was

According to the official Soviet news agency Tass, the prizes are awarded "for outstanding services performed in the struggle for preserving and strengthening peace." "When I was tQld three or four weeks

ago that (the award) might be a possibil ity, I was excited. Today I'm estatic," said Morgan in an interview {Speak Up, May, 1983). Nuns Fight Back

The main offenders are American im

ports that programmers use to fill time on the state-run television station. Sur

prisingly the complaints are not leveled against the violence-filled prime time programs now shown in the American home but their predecessors. The con

sumer group listed cartoons like "Popeye," "Superman" and "Mickey and Donald" as the

main offenders. These cartoons

show an average of one violent act every 20 seconds.

Members of the Popular Liberation

At a three-day conference of nearly 100 university professors at tl azzo

Vecchio in Florence, Italy held u. early June, participants spoke on the topic, "Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal and Europe." Richard N. Gardner, professor of law and international organization at

Columbia

University summed up the

former president's politi.cal deeds by saying that "without Roosevelt, we would have no United Nations, no Interna

tional Monetary Fund and World Bank, no General Agreement on Tariffs and

Army in Colombia recently found them

"Satan" Among the Saints

selves quite unpopular at a high school in the capital city of Medellin, Colombia. When six leftist guerrillas armed with submachine guns invaded the church-

In the new French Missal of 1983, Catholics will find Karl Marx apparent ly commemorated in the same way as the

Trade, no treaties embodying minimum standards of human rights or procedures, however weak and tentative, to imple ment them." {The Victoria Advocate, 6-4-83).

DANGEROUS PATH In Huamanguilla, a mountain village

bodian model of communism in Peru.

to reoccupy several abandoned posts.

in the Ayacucho region of Peru, redhooded guerrillas came shortly after midnight some months ago to proclaim

Like most revolutionary movements, "Shining Path" is not formed of op â&#x2013;

The reaction of the guerrillas has been a step-up in their reprisals. The red-

their revolution.

pressed and landless peasants. It was founded by radical professors at the

the villages loyal to the government

The former mayor, a local civil clerk and a landowner were dragged from

University of Huamanga in 1970 and its

and massacred local leaders, landowners

members are recruited from the middle

their houses and shot. The guerrillas

and upper classes.

blew up the post office and sacked the grocery store. Four townspeople were

and peasants. More than 650 people have been reported killed in the fighting this year. The guerrillas have vowed to

terror and psychological warfare. With a

continue a war of attrition against the

summoned and had their hair shorn in

claimed strength of 1500-2000 men,

front of a crowd as a warning to wouldbe government collaborators.

the Senderos have been able to control

government and boast of assuming power by 1990. Like all revolutionary movements, the guerrillas real strength has been its

sponsored by the Institute for Govern

loaded (Newsday, 8-16-83). A similar case occurred in Benson, Minnesota.

Twenty-eight year-old Francis Rako-

Virginia in September to address the question. Participants of the one-day Con

Perplexed? Bewildered? Confused?

wski was shot in the foot six years ago Clemens. The injury maimed the wouldbe thief. In an ensuing court case, the jury recently ordered the burglary victim

By National and International Events

what they have done to me," said the burglar who is now on parole after plead ing guilty to the crime."They ruined the rest of my life, because I'm a crippled

V^ith increased public awareness of the

series of Administration-backed reforms

now before Congress aimed at curbing crime. Others spoke on the victims of

crime and the growing network of neigh

borhood crime prevention groups.

to pay $75,000 to the crippled burglar for negligently injuring him. "I don't think it was too unjust for

tice system and the forming of a nation wide coalition to fight crime at all levels.

shortcomings of the present criminal justice system, speakers reviewed the

when he was discovered stealing items valued at $150 from the car of Michael

ment and Politics of the Free Congress Foundation strongly urged a compre hensive restructuring of the criminal jus

For Clarity and Insight

The Institute for Government and

Subscribe to

Politics is engaged in an on-going Judi cial Reform Project designed to con

The TFP Newsletter

of the judiciary in a democratic society.

tribute to the debate on the proper role

GRENADA:

The TFP Congratulates President Reagan that our country has gone much too far by way of concessions. They now feel the mo

In the wake of recent events in Grenada, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP)sent President Reagan the following telegram:

ment has come to make the comunists real

ize that we know our own strength and are firmly resolved to use it in every way possi ble to prevent the collapse of our world

October 29, 1983

The Honorable Ronald Reagan

wide influence and even the loss of our own

President of the United States

independence. Furthermore, the real meaning of what just took place in Grenada could best be summed up not in the motto: '^better

The White House

Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. President,

red than dead,'* but rather ''better dead

In the name of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Pro perty (TFP), its members, volunteers and supporters, permit QULF OF me to express our

I cannot fail to add that the sober, re

sponsible and efficient conduct of the ex peditionary f^'-^es

MEXICO

was outstanding.

ATLANTIC OCEAN

firm belief that your conduct in the Gre

than red."

This American vic

Dominican ReDUblic .

Cayman Islands

nada affair has been

tory sets an exam

Guadeloupe

highly praiseworthy in both its general

nations

lines and in its de

a o GRENADA

GUYANA

to duly express the PACIFIC OCEAN

COLOMBIA

great number of our f ,,

lellOW

Please accept our

respectful testimony of support in this

COSTA RICA

in Grenada seems of a

the

St. vicent

tails.

conviction

world. CARIBBEAN SEA

The intervention

ple for all the free

GRENADA:In leftist hands,a revolver pointed at the head of South

Americans America and knife poised at the soft, underbelly of the United States

matter.

Sincerely yours, John Russel Spann President

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

''WINNING''AND LOSING STRATEGIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA WITH the revitalization of El Salva dor's armed forces and deteriora

ting popular and international support for Salvadoran leftists, the military situa tion of the various guerrilla-terrorist groups in El Salvador has become much more serious.

In fact, officials in Nicaragua's San-

dinist leadership have concluded that its guerrilla allies in El Salvador are unlikely to topple the present government now or in the near future.

"We triumphed and they haven't. It will be very difficult for them to win," concluded a Nicaraguan official who, even though he was speaking for the ruling nine-member junta, agreed to be interviewed only if he was not identified by name.

The comment came after a Salvadoran

army sweep in Southern Usulutan Pro

vince that disrupted one of the guerrilla's vital supply lines in the wake of grow ing pressure by exiled Nicaraguan contras fighting the Sandinist government there.

"There is no brief explanation for why we triumphed and they didn't," the of

ficial said. "There was always a unity

Salvadoran guerrillas â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A fractured force

among (Nicaraguan) revolutionaries from

the beginning. There was from the begin ning one willingness to struggle, and we managed to combine in a more harmo nious way all aspects of the struggle to

destroy the dictatorship." Salvadoran terrorist groups have been plagued with factionalism within their ranks. Last spring the leader of one of

the groups allegedly murdered another.

PROTECTING THE PRESS The United Nations prides itself on tries have met met inin Tailloires, Tailloires, France, France, to t( tries have J. being an international forum where the world's problems can be effectively

protest the move.

discussed. But more often than not the

ernment-enforced codes of conduct for

body has only served as a loudspeaker

news organizations, curbs on access to news sources and the licensing of re porters. The restrictions would, in effect,

for leftist and communist causes.

founders of the oldest groups, subse

One of the latest proposals now being considered is upsetting even the normally

quently committed suicide.

liberal Western press. Some member na

Salvador Cayetano Carpio, one of the

Another factor cited for the failure was the "deterioration of the interna

tions have found that news filtering in from communist and Third World coun

tional situation." In 1979, citing human

tries is not being reported properly by the

rights violations, the Carter Administra

media of the industrialized world. Too

tion favored the toppling of the Somoza government and helped usher in the pre

often, they say, these countries' short comings are presented in a "negative"

sent Marxist regime. Now the United

manner.

States is supporting efforts to preserve

Led by delegates of the Soviet Union and its Third World friends, the United

neighboring countries from a similar fate. The confession of the Nicaraguan of

Nations Educational, Scientific and

The proposed guidelines include gov

give governments the power to tailormake the news allowed to leave their

countries. Governments guilty of wrong doings undoubtedly will feel much more at ease knowing that news coverage of such events will be held to a minimum.

A sampling of the "non-oi ;

news is the United Nation's own .atement on the downing of the South Korean

747, in which it lamented only the loss of life and property. Rather conspicu ously, the document made no mention of the Soviet Union.

ficial helps to bring out the real politics

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has

With such two-faced proposals by the

of guerrilla warfare. The case of El Sal

proposed a series of measures which it

U.N., American Ambassador Liechen-

vador shows that if the factionalized

claims will "protect" journalists(add: of

stein's suggestion that it should move to

terrorist-guerrillas should come to power it will not be through military force or popular support, but rather through

totalitarian regimes). In November, the

sounding New World Information Order.

Moscow appears welcome and long over due. At least then, the world body, that so often parrots Soviet policy, could enjoy firsthand the press system it wants

Eighty-three journalists from 25 coun

to impose on the world.

negotiated surrender.

commission will hold a meeting in Paris to discuss the founding of the Orwellian-

THE TOADS...

FOR HOW MUCH LONGER THE TOADS? by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

Apparently, public opinion is rath er unfamiliar with an option that

elites should now be considered idiots.

Also idiots, in the eyes of the public, are

the press is, all the while, imposing more

the moralists, orators and poets who

and more upon all men.

stressed the suppposed sublimity with which those imbecils speedily pursued holocaust. Finally, the old dithyrambs to religious or civil heroism must be silenc

This option is being promoted world wide through a slogan that has the ap

pearance of a mere play on words:"bet ter red than dead." Everyone knows what this means: it is better to become

a Red, accept the humiliating imposition of the communist regime, conform to the moral, social and economic anti-Christian

organization inherent to it, rather than

ed and give way to the praise of imbecili ty, which drags the weak into following it. Long live the poltroons! Their era of glory has arrived. Should "better red than dead" prevail, they will constitute the flower of humanity, the astute and

run the risk of a nuclear bombardment.

security minded herd of those who have deified egoism. This is the apotheosis of

Let the truth be said. The meaning of

Sancho Panza. How far this century had

vulgar squire. Today, amidst so much talk about a "third way," "Third World,"

that slogan is that life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yes, earthly life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is man's supreme good. One can infer

to fall to be consistent with the long pro

and so on, almost no one remembers a

cess of decadence Christian Civilization was in was in when it awakened to histo

different option that avoids both death and, above all, capitulation to the Soviet

ry! I can already hear someone saying to me, "If we don't opt for the apotheosis

Moloch.

or must be less than love of life. Whence

all the martyrs and all the soldiers who

of Sancho Panza, we will necessarily

vious that beyond Cervantes' alternative

heretofore understood the contrary are

have that of Don Quixote. Is this what you want. Dr. Plinio?" To which I

from this that love of the Faith, national

independence, personal dignity and hon

imbecils. By comparison, those who re nounced the Faith, fled the field of bat

would not hesitate to answer that, as a

tle, or basely aquiesced to any insult to save their own skins, were despised as

Catholic, I categorically deny that the

poltroons.

of Quixotes and Sanchos, and that only two roads are open to man: that of the

The old table of standards has been in

verted. The martyrs and war heroes who stood out in the ranks of humanity's

human race can be reduced to a bunch

dishevelled and insane "hero" of La

Mancha,and that of his abominable and

On a supremely elevated level, it is ob lie the sacrosanct paths of Christian her oism. Yes, of Christian heroism as the Church has always taught it, and to which history owes its wisest, most splen did and most auspicious deeds for the spiritual and temporal good of men.

Today, however, I am not going to dwell on that level, but on another which, albeit much less elevated, de-

The "toads": Those Westem capitalists who, blinded by greed and Indifferent or hostile to antlcommunlsts, provide support to the Soviets

serves our highest attention.

would be inevitable, and that the spectre

I ask: Do men not have the means to

of atomic bombardment would fade

prevent both atomic destruction and the

away. As a result, the dilemma surrender or death would fall apart. What are the obstacles preventing the

catastrophe of surrendering to commu nism?

I have in my hand a weighty study on that question which to me seems highly conducive to finding that happy solution. It is "The Grain Weapon," by Mr. Dermot Healy, which he presented as his doctoral thesis at the University of Alber-

deen, Scotland (Centrepoint, No. 1, 1982, 50 pp.).

In short, the author holds â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and pro ves â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that: a)the Russian leaders were

always very sensitive to a grain embargo by the United States, since the country's food production is insufficient for both

its population and its livestock; b)an em bargo would necessarily bring about widespread poverty with all its sequels such as unrest, strikes, agitation, etc.

If such an embargo were to be pro longed, I think that the fall of the regime

panies do not hesitate to supply the means of victory to the inexorable enemy of all forms and degrees of capitalism and profit. Nothing could be more in sane or repulsive as far as suicide is con

implementing of that wholesome policy? Mr. Dermot Healy points out: a) the pressure put on Congress by all major

cerned.

grain producers in the United States that want to increase their sales to Russia; b) the excessive sensitivity of American presidents to this pressure; c)the pressure

ening fact: the only noteworthy opposi tion to the grain sales came from Amer ican longshoremen who, for a time, re fused to load grain destined for Russia. These workers showed more good

of major private companies that have a near monopoly on U.S. grain exports. These companies would violate an em

bargo; d) once an American embargo was set up, the Russians would turn to other grain exporting countries, thereby rendering the embargo ineffective. I would say that the only reason for the failure of such an embargo is the greediness of gargantuan capitalist com panies. That is, to increase their profits, and therefore their capital, these com

Along with this deplorable example, Dermot Healy mentions a truly enlight

sense and a better notion of their duty and rights than the "toads," that is, the moneyed bourgeoisie, who are by no

means hostile to communism but very hostile to anticommunism.

Behold the toads, always indefatigably destroying themselves, indifferent and even hostile to those who, like the

longshoremen, try to defend an order of things without which the toads... wouldn't even be toads!

ROOTS OF REVOLUTION Revolutionary advocates of "change" in Central America and in the Third World in general have criticized American policy on the ruthless guerrilla movements that terrorize native popula

to these hackneyed Marxist premises and

the real causes of revolution and have

poured billions of dollars into economic and educational programs to aid devel oping countries. Now, roughly twenty

therefore aggravated the problem.

years after VISTA and the Peace Corps were established, the problems have not

tions. They claim that the misunderstood terrorists are only an inevitable product of

disappeared but have, in many cases,

years of oppression. The United States

worsened.

should focus its attention primarily on

the roots of the problem: injustice, de grading poverty and illiteracy. The West, for the most part, listened

According to Verne Newton, a former

executive secretary to the Agency for In

Education and economic moderniza

tion, to name just two causes, have played a much greater role in destabiliz

ing the developing world than poverty and real injustice. Newton points out that in developing

countries it is not the ignorant masses

ternational Development, both liberals

that foment revolution, but it is the

and conservatives have misunderstood

educated elite that usually provide the

earliest and most vociferous agitators for

of the Catholic laity in Nairobi, Kenya,

The case of Central America reflects

change.

Father Osei claimed that while modern

this conflict well. As far as economic

This point is clearly illustrated by the Latin American guerrilla movements, which for the most part are made up of students from upper and middle class

formal education has enlarged people's

development was concerned, between 1945 and 1975 Central America enjoyed

families who were educated with ideas of

knowledge of how others live, widened their horizons and increased their ambi

tions, it has also "brought about a les sening of social cohesion and the decline

real per capita gains in income, GNP and exports that ranked among the highest in the developing world, causing the ex pectations of an optimistic public to rise.

egalitarian revolution. Particularly wor

of respect and belief in the authority of

thy of note is the ruthless Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path movement of Peru, founded by radical professors at the University of Huamanga in 1970.

the established institutions of traditional

With the OPEC oil price increase and

African Society." He further noted that

the worldwide economic recession, the

it has led to "social mobility and the family. Community spirit has given way

urban middle class saw their prosperity vanish. Students and professionals went to the streets demanding sweeping poli

ern liberal education given by Peace

to a certain form of individualism and

tical reforms which they hoped would

Corps volunteers who taught students to question the traditional values of the native peoples. Like the rebellious chil

even anonymity" {Our Sunday Visitor, 9-25-83).

bring back prosperity. Also in the Philippines, as the econo

dren of the 60's, the students often re

states, is another cause of instability in

businessmen and students who are de

placed traditional values with Marxist theory. The results have been disastrous.

the developing world.

manding reforms of questionable value.

Contrary to myth, the revolutionary

Newton observes that the most perilous

In countries like Ethiopia, where the

conflict does not arise because of the

moment for a government is when it

Peace Corps was very active, many of

contrast between the rich and the poor, but rather on account of high expecta

tries to reform itself — a conclusion that

tions of prosperity clashing with the ex

tend to avoid.

Newton cites the example of the West

the students who led the Marxist revolu

consequent breakdown of the extended

Economic modernization, Newton

my has turned sour, it is the clergymen,

many liberal policy-makers seemingly

tion were taught by these volunteers. On one of his trips to Africa, Newton

isting economic and political realities.

"Liberals should not be so naive as to

recalls that Andrew Young, the former

"The first to the barricades are usually

sell more political freedom, education

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. remarked that there were at least 30 American-

members of the middle and upper classes

and economic modernization as an in

who, while prosperous compared to the

surance policy against instability," he

trained Ph.D.s in the terrorist guerrilla camps of Mugabe and Nkomo fighting for the independence of what is now

bottom ranks, are angry at the depriva

warns. "In most developing countries, these reforms are the very stuff of rev olution, capable of setting in motion powerful forces that may prove impossi

tion they feel relative to what they think they are entitled to," Newton notes.

called Zimbabwe {Kansas City Star, 10-9-83).

"It's not that they're tired of having so

little; they're frustrated at not getting

ble to control. Liberals who seek refuge

Father Joseph Osei, secretary general of the Bishops' Conferences of Africa and Madagascar recently cited modern

more" {Kansas City Star, 10-9-83).

in platitudes about 'peaceful revolutions*

He cites the recent example of the riots in Chile protesting the postponement of

the patricians who cheered Louis XVI's

has left most countries of post-colonial

elections until 1990. After a day of riot ing that left 24 dead, the protests stop

demise at the dawn of the French Revo lution but then recoiled in horror when

Africa poorer and more confused than before independence. Speaking at the first all-Africa meeting

ped. The reason: The leaders of the

the riots began, disclaiming all respon-

demonstrations decided to enjoy a threeday weekend in their country villas.

sibiIity"(A'awjas City Star, 10-9-83). There are, of course, other factors that

education as one of the elements that

and 'stabilizing social change' resemble

play a major role in revolution. For in stance, the Marxist guerillas, aided by various forces in politics, religion, econ omics and the media, are earnestly en

gaged in the revolutionary pyschological warfare maneuver designed to bring the nations of the West under Communist domination.

What Western policy-makers should

realize is that true stability in the

developing world is not depende a mere increase in economic or n.

on ary

aid dollars but on a thorough under standing of the causes of revolutionary unrest.

FREE! Bumper Sticker NEITHER RED NOR DEAD

— RATHER, INDOMITABLE CHRISTIANS HEADING FOR VICTORY

The American TFP•P.O.Box 121

Pleasantville, NY 10570

sign of the Times A vexed reader sent a letter to the

editor of a Southern newspaper noting the callous way abortion entrepreneurs ply their trade. "A colleague and I were eating lunch In a local restaurant.The piped-ln FM sta

tion music was playing. Then a commer cial break:"Lite Beer from Miller,''chew

Wrigley's gum' and 'Get your abortion here.'" Back to the music. Both of us

paused In our eating and felt that nause ating feeling that comes when you just witness something sick"(Atlanta Con stitution, 9-23-1983). Although abortion advocates claim the Infamous work benefits the poor, the

nefarious practice Is in fact a profitable business that necessitates advertising

on (and thereby polluting) the airwaves.

hibition In six years in Moscow's Sokolnlkl Park, Soviet and American trade representatives called for Increased

turned over to boards made up of trade union officials who would buy stock In companies and over a period of years come to have controlling Interests In

trade between the two nations.

them.

Nearly 105 firms were represented In a show called "Agribusiness — 83" aimed at opening Soviet markets to American

high tax society, affirm that the bill would literally lead to the takeover of private

At the start of the first U.S. trade ex

farming and food-processing techniques and equipment. American firms hope to bring In millions of dollars In orders {Newsday, 10-18-83). In another field, following the annual ritual of propping up the grossly Ineffi cient Soviet system, the Agriculture

Department announced that a new longterm supply agreement, which went Into effect on October 1, will allow the Soviets

to buy an additional half million metric tons of U.S. grain. Officials report that the sales Include

400,000 tons or 15.8 million bushels of corn and 100,000 tons or 3.67 million bushels of wheat. As usual, no prices or

Modern Quack Artist

other terms were disclosed.

Maureen Gledhlll of Liverpool, England was thrilled when she bought a colorful

Under the agreement,the Soviets have been buying regularly from the U.S.since September 1 — the day on which the

abstract painting. For the equivalent of $100,she walked out of a local pet shop,

owned by sculptor ErnI Cleverly, with what she thought was a masterpiece — until she found out the artist was a

quack. It seems that one pet shop's ducks

escaped from Its cage and ran through a paint spill. Mr. Cleverley, rather clever ly, saw the value and natural talents of

Korean 747 was shot down {Corpus Christi Caiier, 9-22-83).

Saints Reiic Stoien Thieves In the remote city of Paola, in southern Italy, disabled an alarm and sawed through Iron bars to steal the bones of a 15th century saint from a sanctuary.

with different colors. The duck, accord

"Return the mortal remains of the saint so that the devotion of the faithful

duck's masterpieces at the pet shop and Insisted upon buying It. Cleverley reluc

may continue," said Rev. Saverlo VernI, the Provincial of the Minim Hermits of St.

Taken were the bones, one of the san

dals, hooded cassock, teeth and a 66pound statue of the order's founder, St.

had walked over It. She telephoned the pet shop and Cleverley revealed the painter's true Identity. However, he refused her a refund. "I think It's worth at least 100 pounds ($150)," he said."The duck Is a natural" {Newsday, 10-2-83).

selves to the poor and the missions.

Francis of Paola.

The Hermits were founded by the

miracle-working saint In 1436. Its mem bers abstain from meat and devote them

there Is more than one quack In the modern art business.

Business as Unusuai Despite Its "get tough" attitude toward the Soviets after the downing of the Korean airliner, the United States Is con

tinuing a "business as usual" attitude towards the perpetrators of the crime. 6

women's ordination When Father Vincent Connery,the 33 year-old pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart In Norfolk, Va., wrote a let

ter to the Virginian-Pilot favoring women's "ordination," he became an Instant ce lebrity.

Referring to the exclusion of women from the sacrament,the priest wrote that perhaps It may be "time for the slaves to revolt."

Fr. Connery's controversial letter soon

made him the object of a feature-page ar ticle In a Sunday edition of the Wash ington Post. Several other local news

papers have also run the story, and the television talk shows to air his unortho dox views.

Bishop Walter Sullivan, Instead of reprimanding Fr. Connery, praised him as a "very, very fine priest who Is dedicated In his ministry," and said he "has the right to share his thoughts... To me,the church's position on women as priests has some very solid basis, but we should not be afraid to dialogue on it" {South Texas Catholic, 10-7-83).

The fame of St. Francis' miraculous

Pagan Parody Today's liberal lifestyles and permissive morals have often been decrip'' as a

steady drift toward neobarbari. md neopaganlsm. So, It is not surprising that in Denver, Colorado, a couple decided to reaffirm

cures led Louis XI of France to send for

their traditional wedding vows in a pagan

him after suffering an apoplectic fit. He later became the spiritual director to Louis' son, Charles VIII {San Francisco Chronicle, 10-4-83).

ceremony.

Modern art aficionados claim to find

canvas of abstract art. However, when the work of a duck Is mistaken for that of a human, one Is led to suspect that

Priest supports

Francis of Paola, In a plea to the thieves.

tantly sold the unsigned painting, re specting the anonymity of Its author. Some weeks later, Mrs. Gledhlll be came suspicious when a friend spotted a telltale duckprint and commented that the "masterpiece" looked as If a chicken

value and expression In the often chaotic

Industry by the trade unions {San Fran cisco Chronicle, 10-5-83).

outspoken priest has appeared on two

the duck and tried him out on canvas

ing to Its owner and agent, has a real eye for composition and a flair for color. Mrs. Gledhlll, 28, spotted one of the

Industrialists, already burdened by the

Seif-Management in Sweden In the largest protest march In Sweden's history, more than 75,000 bankers, businessmen and white-collar workers marched on Parliament to pro test a bill that would tax company pro fits more heavily and give the money to trade unions to buy stocks. The measure is part of the controver sial "wage-earner funds" proposed by

the country's socialist government. Un der the plan nearly $250 million a year would be collected from companies reg istering profits. The funds would then be

After studying paganism for the past two years, Brian Becker 24 and his wife Candlce Becker, 23, decided to remarry according to the pagan ritual. With the couple dressed In Celtic robes

in the presence of a "high priest" and "priestess," the twenty-minute ceremony was performed In the presence of twenty-

five similarly dressed people In the park ing lot of Abrahababra, a Denver witch craft supply store. The ancient pagan beliefs lend them selves quite well to the Twentieth Cen tury. According to the "RIma," the socalled "high priestess," "The pagan realizes that there is no heaven except that which he himself makes, and like wise no hell but that of his own crea-

tion"(/?oc/fy Mountain News, 9-12-83).

DIVORCE AND CHILD ABUSE The U.S. Census Bureau has released figures showing that the medium duration of U.S. marriages is 6.8 years and the percentage of marriages ending in divorce, which now stands at about 50 percent, has been climbing steadily since 1950.

As the "me" generation grows up, it also breaks up as the responsibilities of marriage and child rearing threaten its egocentric lifestyle. Children, who once strengthened and gave vitality to a mar riage, are now considered bothersome

added by taking into account the chil

on the playground than their counter

dren's economic and social backgrounds.

parts.

Guidubaldi found that although the academic test scores of the two groups

differed little, there were significant dif ferences in the children's abilities to get

along with schoolmates and teachers. Using a measurement known as the Vineland Teacher Questionnaire, teachers were asked to rate students' social ad

Children of divorce in general are absent from school more frequently and are more likely to be withdrawn or hostile. The study noted that problems diminished when elements of stability

such as helpful relatives and friends were introduced in the household. "Kids in divorced households often

justment. Girls from intact families had find themselves caught in chaotic

hindrances to the career of one or both parents.

Children of broken marriages are the

innocent victims of a type of psycho logical child abuse rarely mentioned by

â&#x2013; ^i

the press. According to a new nationwide study, when marriages fail, so do chil dren's relationships with schoolmates and teachers.

The study, which was partially funded by the National Association of School Psychologists, was critical of the grow ing number of parents seeking divorce. It suggested that much of the parents' behavior is "egocentric" and damaging to children.

"Liberation of adults has meant, in some cases, the enslavement of children,"

said the study director, John Guidubaldi,

former president of the psychologist as sociation and professor of early childhood education at Kent State University. "In many cases, it's been a liberation from responsibilities" {Newsday, 10-11-83). While the study confirmed the finding of similar past studies of smaller scope, it was based on a much wider sample of elementary school children. Conducted

by school psychologists in 38 states, the research involved 341 children from divorced households and 358 from intact

families. An important new element was

Children â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The real victims of divorce

the highest scores averaging 70 points out of a possible 106. Boys from divorced

routines," said Guidubaldi. "Their parents tend to be much more mobile"

families rated the lowest with only 61

[Newsday, 10-11-83).

points. Boys are considered to be particularly affected by divorce. The study found

are not expected to decrease. Some 25

that since they are frequently left without male role models after divorce, boys are more likely to daydream in class or fight

Problems of the children of divorce

percent of all children now live with sin gle parents and experts predict that twice that many will witness their parent's divorce before they reach adultohood.

The "New" Boy Scouts and The Girl Next Do IT SEEMS almost impossible not to be shocked at seeing to what extent moral aberrations and alternate lifestyles

told Timothy Curran, 21, that his avow ed homosexuality was not a good moral example for younger Scouts.

are being pushed upon Western society and made to appear normal and accept

overturned a Los Angels Superior Court

able.

ruling by finding that the use of homo

With the overwhelming support of the

press and support of the liberal establish ment, the so-called "gay rights" move ment aims at more than just being "ac

cepted." The drive to ban "discrimina tion" against homosexuals in employ

ment and other fields is giving rise to a new amoral standard for society as whole. Consider the case of a former Boy

Scout leader in Los Angeles who has filed a $330,000 lawsuit claiming that he was

The 2nd District Court of Appeals

sexuality as a basis for expulsion was "substantially arbitrary." What the court decision really meant was that homosexuality is normal, ac ceptable and a good moral example for young men. Those who maintain that it is a serious antinatural moral aberration

are thus being forced to accept the

into prostitution. Some of the testimony given at the hearings is nothing but a vile attack on very institution of motherhood. Witnesses claimed that prostitutes are

just like "the girl next door" but with more freedom to look after children.

Roberta Perkins, of the Collective of Australian Prostitutes, told the commis

sion that "most women who enter pro stitution don't see it as seedy, wrong or

evil â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they simply see it as a job." Perkins claimed that high earnings and

contrary.

flexible routines allow prostitutes to

Nor is motherhood sacred anymore. The drive to make prostitution an or dinary job is beginning to take shape not

lavish much of their time on their chil dren and furnish all their needs. "This

only in the United States (TFP News

weigh all these facts, you can't help coming to the conclusion that prostitutes

expelled from the Scouts because of his homosexuality. The Boy Scouts of America, who

letter, Vol.111, no. 22) but in other

pride themselves on the civic and moral

Western countries as well.

formation of their members, allegedly

South Wales, Australia, made an inquiry

Recently, the state government of New

may shock a lot of people, but when you

would make better mothers than most

other women" {China Post, 10-8-83).

"PARADISE REDISCOVERED" NOW that Margaret Mead's Samoan paradise has been questioned as an imaginative version of reality, anthro

The people are very open psychologically

"When a husband is killed, his widow is viewed as very vulnerable," Yost

and have an extraordinary sense of car

found."If she has two children, one may

teen people living under the same roof.

pologists have found another primitive people whom they believe might serve as

ing for one another.

a model for Twentieth Century society.

status inside the tribe and children have

The Waorani tribe are an Amazonian

the same status as adults. If a child

Aside from these idiosyncrasies, Yost

people that have been isolated from other

doesn't feel like doing something, the

contends that the Waorani are for the

Men and women have equal social

be buried alive." Infanticides of this

nature accounted for some four percent of all deaths.

tribes for thousands of years. The tribe's

elder accepts his decision without rancor

most part good people. He is credited as

700 members live in a remote 8,000-

and without disciplining him. Through

being the first outsider to win the con

out the tribe there is a relaxed, pervasive

fidence of the remote groups and did so

square-mile area in eastern Ecuador. Mimicing Mead, scientists and anthro

"let it be" attitude.

by taking his wife and three children with

pologists are mounting an expedition to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the

Eureka! the anthropologists might cry, we have finally found a society of

him into the rain forest. He claims his

tribe. They hope that new insights into

perfect and innocent harmony where no

family patterns, stress, and disease in a technologically-based civilization may emerge from their research of this tribe untouched by the "evils" of modern

ble and benevolent savages live in total equality and freedom. However questionable the findings may be, living in such a tropical "para dise" does have its disadvantages.

civilization.

family helped him understand the tribal culture. "It seems to make sense that their

anger and conflict is turned outside the

family," he commented. "However, I regard the Waorani as some of the kind est people you would ever want to meet.

,pACm:COLOMBIA ECUADOR

Waorani

Terrllory

Waorani Area In the Amazon

Return to the stone

age: Model for Twentieth Century man

For example, while the Waorani may

I would entrust my children to a family

the Waoranis for two months while per

have warm family relations, they really

there much more than if I'd left them

forming cultural, biomedical and genetic

don't make good neighbors.

studies. The expedition is being spon

According to Grant G. Behrman, leader of the research team, "Although the word 'Waorani' means 'people,' to their neighbors they are known by an other word, 'aucas,' which means

with friends in America" {Houston Chronicle, 9-25-83).

The five-member team will live with

sored by the Explorer's Club, the Stan

ford University Medical Center, the American Museum of Natural History and other organizations. At first glance, the Waoranis are the perfect substitutes for the Samoans. Ac cording to Dr. James Yost, one of the

expedition's leaders, "It is one of the most egalitarian societies in the world."

He claims there is no evidence of hy pertension, diabetes, cardiovascular dis

ease, rheumatic heart disease, allergies, obesity or sign of cancer. In addition, the Waorani allegedly have a balanced diet and get plenty of exercise. They don't

drink alcohol or smoke, and their pris tine environment is totally devoid of pollutants.

According to Yost, who has studied the tribe for eight years, its members have a great sense of unity and cohesion. Everyone considers himself related to the others, and there is no fighting or physical

'savage' or 'barbarian.'"

Even among the less primitive tribes, the Waorani have a reputation for fero city. Studies reveal that more than 45

percent of all deaths are caused by spear fighting within the tribe. Most of these killings are attributed to ancient vendet

tas between the different groups within the tribe. Another 13 percent are killed

Perplexed? Bewildered?

Confused?

by outsiders. Feminists would be alarmed to find

that both sexes have very defined stereo

By National and

typed roles. The men go out and hunt while the women stay at home to harvest

International Events

vegetables.

Children are indeed punished for mat ters that endanger themselves or the com

munity. Orphans often receive rough treatment and are considered outsiders.

harm inflicted upon other "family"

Handicapped infants are tolerated but

members even though there may be eigh-

can become victims of infanticide.

For Clarity and Insight Subscribe to

The TFP Newsletter

TFR

Vol. Ill - No. 24 - 1983

Global Disorder:

RINGING OUT THE OLD After years of overspending and reckless lending, world bankers and

politicians are being forced to face the

reality that many status quo institutions are eroding. Like the small hole in the dike that gradually widens until tor

rents eventually break through, it may be too late to patch up several of the ever-widening "holes" that have ap

peared in the international organizations designed to insure world economic and

political stability.

This has become particularly clear to a number of Americans who have to

wrestle with a maddeningly flawed glo bal order (or disorder). One of the most apparent examples is the International Monetary Fund, the

banking giant that lends money to sup port the economies of its member states. For years, the IMF has addicted many Third World and Communist countries

to the idea that money is theirs for the taking with only minimal guarantees. Too often it appears that a second prere quisite for a receiver nation to receive

funds is that it must exhibit some hostili

ty or resentment towards the U.S..

The size of this debt has grown to a staggering $700 billion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a situation that the West German newspaper Frankfurter

Allgemeine called "a danger far more real than the oft invoked threat of a nuclear war."

The consequences of this spendinglending spree have been very serious. A sword of Damocles hangs over the inter connected

economies of the

world.

Although Congress has appropriated a stopgap $8.4 billion dollars to bail out the fund, the threat of a wave of defaults from member debtor nations is all too real.

Several American organizations have

been actively opposing the U.S. bail out

arguing that one cannot remedy bad banking with bad banking. Organiza tions like "Free the Eagle!" and the

The United Nations: A questionable future

"Public Advocate" have launched direct

mail campaigns aimed at preventing

the body's value as a world forum is

to a number of "alternatives." More of

more money from.falling into the bot

often questionable. The long overdue

tomless IMF pit.

suggestion of Ambassador Liechenstein

ten than not, the answers many modern sociologists are suggesting are nothing but a veiled form of self-managing so

Another example is the United Na tions. What the IMF is on the economic

level the UN is in the political sphere. In the war of words, many member nations have abused the U.S. to the point that

that the world body be situated in

Moscow was met with applause in many sectors of public opinion. The crumbling of postwar structures

from within. Each country must shed the

like the IMF and the UN is giving rise

traditional inequalities and institutions

cialism.

These new gurus are calling for change

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

every field are proposing a series of gradual yet radical personal and social

conspiracy, she states, calling "for a new human agenda has triggered the most

Order, the Planetary family, a Whole-

transformations, a phenomenon that so

Earth mentality and social transformation.

ciologist and author Marilyn Ferguson in her book. The Aquarian Conspiracy,

rapid cultural realignment in history."

of the past. Theories have been proposed that call for a New World Economic

The proposals advocate change work ing within the establishment. Looselyknit networks of fringe organizations in

Nuclear war,a debt "bomb," the dis

describes as "broader than reform and

appearance of world institutions — a

deeper than revolution." This benign

spirit of change is in the air.

Choking on

BEST

a Fast

ON NOVEMBER 17. an estimated half a million Americans allegedly

pledged to take part in the 10th Fast for a World Harvest, an event sponsored by the Boston-based Oxfam America. Ox-

fam is the former name of its English

counterpart, the Oxford Committee for

BETTER

Famine Relief.

Participants in the event were asked to fast on that day and send Oxfam the amount of money they saved by not

eating. Contributions were tax deduct ible. The proceeds of the event would go

GOOD

toward Oxfam projects to "fight world hunger ... on a village level ... helping people to help themselves."

At times, the shortcomings of a modern education can be seen more clearly by com

paring the current system to that of bygone ages.

famites are supportive of several radical ideas. One of these is support for the

The Hon. William Bell of Bay St. Louis, Miss,

New International Economic Order — a

released some of the questions that the State of Indiana expected him and his schoolmates to

transfers from efficient Western demo

answer back in 1911 as the minimum indication

cracies to Third World dictatorships.

of achievement.

POOR

• Name and locate two countries in which the

following are important products: wheat, cot ton, wool, coffee.

• What causes the change from day to night and from summer to winter?

• Name five republics, three limited monar chies and one absolute monarchy. • Name the classes of sentences on the basis

FAILING

of meaning or use. On the basis of form. • Write sentences containing nouns showing six case relations.

• What is the length of a rectangular field 80 rods wide and containing 100 acres? • Define arteries, veins, capillaries and pulse. • What kind of man was Shylock?

If you passed the test, congratulations! But

don't expect a diploma. The student who passed can now enter high school, not graduate Back to basics

The Oxfam fast idea is a hard one to swallow when one considers that Ox-

from it.

program that calls for sizable resource

Another is the denunciation of U.S.

"militarism" recently evidenced by Ox fam America's endorsement of the No

vember 12 March on Washington pro

testing the invasion of Grenada, the deployment of Pershing missiles in Eu

rope and all U.S. intervention in Central America. After all, says an Oxfam report, to change the lives of the poor, "the

question of war vs. development

a central one" {Fortune, 12-12-5 Marxist regimes are exempt from criti cism. Perhaps the famine relief agency sees in the communist controlled coun tries an endless source of famine situa

tions that it can (profitably) decry. On

going Oxfam projects include active selfhelp programs for Nicaragua's Sandi nistas and, until recently, for the Peo ple's Revolutionary government of Gre nada.

Viewed in this light, the Oxfam fast is definitely less appealing.

Newsletter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

THOMAS DA POVOA TEACHES by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

A FRIEND of mine of German extrac tion, who is just becoming initiated into the savory and succulent delicacies of Portuguese literature, recently told me about the passage I have transcribed be low. Let us savor it together, word by word, or better, drop by drop. At times

we will delight in the lush foliage of precise expression, at others with the charm of the old Portuguese ambience

that took shape before his eyes, and that has returned to mine which contemplated it long ago. Is there anyone of my generation who didn't read The Fidalgos ofthe Moorish House, by Julio Diniz? I suppose that in succeeding generations there are also

can become firmly established and grow even more robust by giving each new

generation new wealth of soul and tradi tion. Traditional family elites from top to bottom in the social scale, behold

what you should desire! But in his romance, Julio Diniz makes

the opposite more or less understood. The elites inevitably decay, and the up ward march of the bourgeoisie of his

time was to replace the old aristocracy with a more egalitarian world. The no bles who wanted to live on must adopt the methods and styles of the nouveau

riche, and not the other way around. This is the context of the meeting of

Plinio Corria de OHveira was born in

George, one of the young nobles of the

Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1908. He received his

numerous readers of the celebrated ro

Moorish House, and Tome da Povoa, a

doctorate in Law from the Law School of

mance.

local laborer enriched as a result of his

However, let it be said in passing that this work has an egalitarian side little to

incessant efforts.

the University of Sao Paulo. He is Profes sor of the History of Civilization at the University College of the University of Sao

my liking. But, at the moment, this is not

Povoa, who was telling him how he had

in question. "Rich father, noble son, poor grand

made it: "What a day that was, George! I can't tell you how I felt! Heavens! 1

son": the well known adage contains an

came back from the master's office with

He has distinguished himself since his

important truth. But, according to the way it is understood, it also contains a grave error, for it is in the nature of things that a wealthy family attempt to

the deed in my pocket, trembling, my heart leaping within me like a child; I furtively opened the gate of the farm,

youth as an orator, lecturer and Catholic journalist. He wrote regularly, for the

better the formation of its children in

and alone, like a thief, with no one to see me, I went in. I tell you, I was almost

daily newspaper Folha de S. Pauio.

every possible way. It is equally in the

mad! I even spoke out loud. I even re

nature of things that this formation,

member what I said at finding myself

becoming solidified and perfected down through the generations, constitute a body of family traditions that inspire devotion and respectability and exert in

there inside: This is mine! And after I

George listened attentively to Tome da

knew it was mine, it all seemed different

to me. Mine! I never tired of repeating

fluence. Whatever form of government

that word! Mine! These trees were mine, these fountains were mine, even the birds

may exist — therefore, with or without titles of nobility — an aristocracy is thus

came to make their nests in what be

formed. This new situation can be seen

by the family in either a superficial or a profound way. In the former case, neces sities, hardships, and struggles seem to become things of the past. Just enjoy.

Once this point of view is accepted, the family begins to fall into decadence. Orgies, the foolishness of incompetent managers, thefts by dishonest suppliers, not to mention the disastrous collapses resulting from unviable, fantastic ven tures — all this tarnishes the family

name. The era of the "poor grandson" begins. But if the family ennobled by labor understands that its difficulties, hard ships and struggles will not cease to exist, but only change their forms, the "rich father" will not be succeeded by the

up there singing were mine because they longed to me. You'll surely laugh if I tell what I did. I embraced those trees, I pat

ted those walls with my hands, I splashed

Paulo and Professor of Modern and Con

temporary History in the Colleges of S3o

Bento and Sedes Sapientiae of the Ponti fical Catholic University of Sao Paulo.

Catholic weekly Legiomrio and now writes for the monthly Catoiicismo and In 1960 he founded the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP)and has been President of its National Council ever since.

TFPs and similar autonomous organi zations were later founded in fourteen other

countries in the Americas and Europe, inspired by the book Revolution and Counter-Revolution and other works of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira.

property-labor. And in this passage, Ju lio Diniz gives us the feeling that, given human nature as it is, property is born

in those basins, I drank from those foun tains, I laid down in the shade of those

from labor as a flower blossoms from

trees, I sang, I leaped, I wept... This

the stem. The hope of becoming an

came to me for being honest and true to my word... From that moment on I

owner leads labor to the fullm

■" its

impetus, to its total fertility, ai.

> its

knew what it was to love the earth. From

heroic continuity.

the sowing to the harvest it meant cease lessly tending the fields. I took as much pleasure in seeing my crops grow as I did in seeing my children grow; each new sprout was like a new birth in the house.

With this hope, labor is like the waters

brought in from the orchards. In the be ginning it was almost madness. This is

of a river that flow happily and swiftly, rushes over rocks singing sweetly, swirls into foam, and finally reaches the sea. Without it, labor is like a river of heavy waters, flowing slowly and lazily, resigned to zigzaging caprices in order to avoid obstacles instead of overcoming them, overflowing here and there and flooding

I measured the growth of the trees I had planted, and counted each fruit I

my life. God helped me, and from then

adjoining tracts, with waters that become

"poor grandson." If the "rich father"

on all went well" (Julio Diniz, The

stagnant and whose surface is covered by

knew how to teach his''noble son'' that

Fidalgos of the Moorish House, Livraria Lelo e Irmao, Lisbon, pp. 43-44).

dead leaves and the endless, futile danc

his situation is as precarious as his grand father's; and that he has even more at

What is the purpose of all this, my

ing of insects.

Legislation on labor is indispensable;

stake("the greater the height, the greater

reader? Now, at the end of the XX cen

the fall"); that the danger facing the no ble is that of becoming soft, diluted and rotten; that the state of being noble — with or without the title, I repeat — im

tury, hasn't the past pushed aside the

it can be just, it can even be excellent. But if workers are given every possible

noble-plebian issue? Upon considering

right while social security and other taxes, levied in the name of social wel

poses on him much more onerous duties

the immediate reality, almost everything would say so. But what about the pro blem equality-inequality, which is more

than on ordinary men; then the family

alive than ever in the false antithesis

the world of labor.

fare, take away all possibility of savings, a brutal blow will have been dealt against

Honor and the '84 Olympics IN THE fall of 1883, an unruly mob insulted King Alfonso XII of Spain

and threw stones at him as he passed through Paris returning from a trip to Prussia.

Upon hearing of the outrage, the townspeople of the isolated Spanish vil lage of Lijar, a hamlet tucked away in the mountains of Sierra de los Filabres

in Andalusia, became so enraged and in

dignant that on October 14 of that same year, they declared war on France in order to defend the honor of their king.

The handwritten declaration signed by the village's councilmen is still proudly guarded in Lijar's town hall. Although no soldier ever went to war nor were

there any battles fought, the indignation of the proud Andalusian villagers did not

gLl|

wane for the past one hundred years. It was only recently that the town's

Socialist Mayor Diego Sanchez formal ly ended hostilities by signing a peace

treaty. The French ambassador ordered the consul general in Malaga, Charles Santi, to sign for the French. "Don't think we were ever afraid of

the French," said schoolmaster Ezequiel Campos referring to the peace treaty.

In a symbolic way, the villagers of tiny Lijar did everything possible to remem

â&#x2013;

ber the attack on their King and defend the honor of their nation.

The Lijar-French "one hundred years

war" presents a striking contrast to the reactions of world public opinion today.

o''

For example, the brutal downing of

the Korean 747 provoked only a weak and fleeting indignation in the West. Everything is being done to conveniently

"forget" the 269 victims of the Soviet at tack. The mass media rarely mentions the massacre and when it does the United

States is presented as a "partner" in the crime. At the same time, it's "business

Spanish combatlvl-

as usual" with the Soviets. Even the

ty -

number of the New York-Seoul flight is

a centuries

old IradMinn.

being changed from 007 to 017 to "re

Jaime th<

form the image" left by the disagreeable

iuer-

or drove ti. loors from Valencia In

"incident".

1238.

Despite this psychological sedation, there are still a few isolated "Lijars."

One such pocket of resistance is a group of California businessmen who have

formed the "Ban the Soviets Coalition," a movement that is part of a national ef fort to ban the Soviet Union from par

ticipating in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Costa Mesa-based organization

notes that the Soviets prize their par ticipation in the Olympics because of its

propaganda value. Denying their en trance would have an important punitive effect.

"The Olympic Games are intended to exemplify the very highest standards of sportsmanship, honor and fair play. To allow a country to participate that has shown its utter contempt for human life

..i-

â&#x2013; <* s

Lenin Stadium in

Moscow.

Athletic

achievement with out honor.

would be the ultimate hypocrisy. We must

that the Soviet Union be banned from

demonstrate to the world that we have

the Games.

integrity and recognize the moral obliga

- The Los Angeles, the United States and the International Olympic Commit

tion not to compete against an adversary as debased as the Soviet Union," the group's official petition states. The "Ban the Soviets Coalition" ho

pes to gather one million signatures sup porting five demands: - The President and Congress should ban Soviet competition in the 1984

will suffer a major propaganda defeat and the Olympics will once again become a sporting event and not a political one. Amateur athletes will be able to compete

tees should retract or revoke the Soviet

against amateurs and not the profes

Union's Olympic participation invi

sional athletes fielded by the Soviet

tation. - The Soviet Union should voluntari

Union.

ly withdraw from the 1984 Games.

recalled the dishonor done to the Spanish

Just as the declaration of tiny Lijar

- If the Soviet Union is allowed to

monarch, efforts such as the Olympic

participate, the U.S. should support the

ban will help recall the incomparably more tragic lesson of the Korean 747. A "benevolent" Soviet Russia is a myth

Olympics through executive order, con

formation of a Human Right's Monitor

gressional legislation, or by denying visas to Soviet participants.

ing Committee to protect the human rights of Olympic participants, including

- The remaining 49 states should fol low the example of the host state of

the rights of defection and political

be based on its consistent policy of

asylum. If their efforts succeed, the Soviets

brutality and oppression rather than its supposed "good intentions."

California by passing resolutions asking

and our deahngs with that regime should

DISTORTED IMAGES A LARGE segment of the population

in its history. With the opening of

that has until today rejected the no tion that movie and television audiences

Tokyo's Disneyland and the Epcot Center in Florida's Walt Disney World,

should serve only as intellectual land-fill

profits are expected to amount to well

sites for the immorality and profanity carted up to the silver screens and elec

over last year's $100 million.

tronic tubes weekly may soon find their few remaining avenues of acceptable fare

redoubt of respectability to fall. Next season, some public television

polluted as well.

stations will start to show a I3-part week

One of the surprising cases is that of

Disney Productions. The vast billiondollar-plus entertainment empire has

clearly profited from its family-type entertainment devoid of nudity and pro

fanity. The enormous popular success of Disneyland and its other ventures has proven that the Disney-style program ming is far from outdated. But now, even the producers of Snow

White will be sullied. In February, Disney will release a new comedy film called "Splash" which will include nu dity and four-letter obscenities. According to Ron Miller, who is mar ried to one of Walt Disney's daughters and heads up the enterprise, the com

But Disney Productions isn't the only

ly series containing nudity, profane lan guage and political harangues. The pro gram is being offered to more than 200 programmers of the Public Broadcasting Service affiliates and subsidized by tax payer dollars.

"Ideas can't hurt anybody and they can't kill anyone." says producer Michael Mears (blithely unaware of the excesses of the French Revolution, for

example). "But keeping ideas out of the air can be very destructive." According to Mears, the series which deals with topics like suicide, abortion,

cruelty to animals and homosexuality, "will ask whether the American public wants to get turned on and really involve

pany feels that its films are outdated and

people in the experience that is televi

wants to shed its squeaky-clean family image. He also cites the fact that the firm's motion picture division's opera

sion" {San Francisco Chronicle, 11-2-83). Hopefully the Americans who have

ting income is down from $52 million in

practically begged the networks for

1983 to $20 million last year. The flimsy excuse comes at a time

when Miller boasts that the company as a whole is experiencing the greatest year

wholesome family entertainment will not "turn on" to Mears' television experi ence or Disney Production's "Splash,"

but simply turn them off.

Walt Disney World In Florida

RED-FACED REDS

Among the persecutions of the Cath olic Church in this century, one of the most ruthless was that of the Spanish

Spain's vocation as "the sword of Rome, the light of Trent and the hammer of heretics."

FREE!

1938, the Republicans killed 12 bishops

Now,as another battle looms, with the Socialists in Spain showing their true col ors by passing an abortion law, limiting

and 4,184 priests and religious. Thou

the role of the Church in education and

NEITHER RED NOR DEAD

sands of churches were closed and looted.

nationalizing industry, the Spanish Civil War martyrs may play a key role in the future of that overwhelmingly Catholic

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; RATHER, INDOMITABLE

Republicans (communists) at the time of the Civil War in 1936. Between 1936 and

The murdered religious are considered

by many to be martyrs and their beati fication process is once again under consideration.

Under Paul VI, the process was stalled

on the grounds that it would hinder reconciliation in post civil war Spain. For this reason, the Spanish weekly, Fuerza Nueva, accused Paul VI of undermining

country.

Bumper Sticker

CHRISTIANS HEADING FOR VICTORY

The development has been particularly disturbing to the ruling Socialist Party. Some of its partisans supported and even

participated in the Popular Front, the coalition of communists, socialists and anarchists who perpetrated the crimes.

The American TFPâ&#x20AC;˘P.O.Box 121

Pleasantville, NY 10570

Our Lady of Penha On November 6, a statue of the Virgin Mary at the Shrine of Our Lady of Penha in Rio de Janeiro, Brazli, reportediy wept. Some forty peopie praying in the Sa cred Heart Ghapei reported seeing tears in the left eye of the famous statue of the Madonna. One of the priests present, Canon Paulo Correia, ciaims that the sta tue also wept later on that night as well as the foilowing morning. When word spread that the statue had cried, smail groups of peopie gathered in front of the chapei Sunday morning with hopes of seeing the phenomenon. Canon Correia, however, dissuaded them saying that the Cardlnai Archbishop of Rio, Eugenio Sales, recommended that

the statue be removed for further study. The Cardinal-Archbishop had the statue taken from the sanctuary so that

Mysteries of the Deep

lions of years ago.

The formidable beast reached eighty feet in length and had teeth over five in ches In length. The modern Great White

Shark twenty feet long, would be smail In comparison.

A recent dredging off the California coast resulted In the discovery of some five-inch White Shark teeth. Scientists

were alarmed to find that the teeth were

not prehistoric but recent {ChronicleTelegram, Eiyria, Ohio, 10-6-83).

Modern Devastations

Cuban Construction Workers and African Students

Wurttemberg, almost half of the region's spruce and fir trees are suffering from an apparently incurable disease. The Ger

In the fabled Black Forest of Baden

it couid be tested to see If the tears were

mans call it Waldsterben or forest death

tion in Grenada, American soldiers en

safe to avoid similar occurrences.

countered surprisingly stiff resistance

The Episcopal Vicar of nearby Leopoithat he actually saw the tears but recom

During the much lauded U.S. interven

from armed Cuban "construction work

ers." Having thus demonstrated their concerns with employment opportuni

mended that "the fact be treated cold

ties, it should come as no surprise that

ly" until it could be verified.

the communists controlling Cuba are

Fr. Wencesiau Vaiiukevicius from the

parish of St. Sebastian In Barreto, Niteroi, commented that the priests should be the first to hush up such news until the Church Commission studies the

case"(0 Globo, 11-8-83). Church authorities have still not re

leased any studies proving the tears to

be false, nor has a falsifier been found. Meanwhile, the statue that wept is out of sight and the only thing that remains is an empty niche and a mystery.

swam In the waters off California mil

real, if tests prove that the incident was fraudulent, the statue Is to be kept in a dina, Fr. In^clo Lot^rio Rauber, claims

".A

According to marine scientists, the ancestor of the modern great white shark

also involved in educational activities for "students."

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that nearly 10,000 young Africans are undergoing training on an island seventy-five miles south of the

and blame the Industrial pollutants in the air and the resulting "acid rain." The phenomenon is not limited to the

Black Forest nor to West Germany. The blight Is hitting nearly thirty-five percent of the forest land that covers one third

of the country. Large areas of East Ger

many and Czechoslovakia have also been affected.

The disease Is particularly devastating to the Germans' psychology. The forest

is an intimate part of their lives. Nearly every German town boasts its own forest

main island of Cuba.

which sometimes is even in the middle

The "students" are brought mostly from Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique and Namibia and have the option to stay for four years where they are taught in English and Spanish. A teacher from Na mibia notes,"We need educated peopie

of the town. With typical industrious-

ness, the Germans have developed the art of forest management to a high degree. What is particularly shocking is the sud denness with which the desease strikes.

who can rebuild our land after the libera

Much like a cancer that for years devel

tion struggle is over." The ages of the young Africans who

oped unnoticed in a patient, whole

A study by a professor at Rutgers

are taken to be "educated" on the island

sometimes within a matter of mc^^hs

University points out that an Inmate's life in prison is distressing, depressing and psychologically devastating.

range between twelve and twenty. Natu rally, they are also forced to serve as laborers on the citrus groves to broaden

Apparently healthy trees first bei, turn yellow and then brown. Needles tall

Criminal Care

John J. GIbbs, an associate professor

their education.

at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, aware of a prisoner's state of mind when

aware of a prisoners state of mind when he(or she)first arrives in Jail. During the first 72 hours of incarceration, symptoms of depression can escalate meteoricaily, sometimes by as much as 132 percent, according to Professor Gibbs. Researchers found that persons ar rested experience "shock, disbelief and uncertainty." The prisoners react this

forests fail victim to the Waldsterben,

off, the tree dies and the trunk begins to rot. Scientists fear that if the blight con tinues, the hills will not hold their soil, nor the mountain slopes their snow,and

Child Substitute When a Santa Anna, California, couple decided to file for a divorce both parties demanded sole custody of their dog, Runaway.

Orange County Superior Court Judge

floods and avalanches will result.

Welfare Double Fraud The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled the General Service Administration was

way, the study reported, because they

John Wooiey declared on Sept. 7, that the dog was a "child substitute" and

are concerned with overcrowding and

therefore in accordance with California's

lack of Information about the status of

child custody laws awarded Rex and Judi

ployee reinstated and awarded back pay.

their cases {The Plain Dealer, 11-27-83). Unfortunately, a similar foilow-up study

Wheatiand joint custody of the animal. "Runaway was the nucleus of our family," said Mr. Wheatiand who must

The judge contended that Ruth 0. Gloster's 1980 guilty plea to welfare fraud had no bearing on her performance in her job as GSA janitor and therefore cannot be the basis for firing her. Gioster collected nearly $16,000 over a period of six and a half years while employed {Fortune, 12-12-83).

on how the victims of crimes are affected was not offered with Prof. Gibb's re

search. However, It is safe to say that if such data is made public. It will show the victim's reactions to be Just as psychoiogicaily devastating.

now alternate months caring for the dog. Incredibly enough, Mr.Wheatiand,has received many letters of support from

other "child substitute" owners. {The New York Times, 11-27-83).

wrong in firing an employee on welfare fraud charges. The court ordered the em

Peopid In the auditorium of the Case de Portugal Hotel listen attentively to the admirable exposition of Prof. Pllnio Corrda de Ollveira, President of the National Council of the Brazilian TFP,on the need to deepen convictions In order to fight communist/progressivist ideas and on the possibilities of victory for the antlcommunlst fight.

ON OCTOBER 22-23, the Brazilian

of lectures explaining the principles

commitment to fight revolutionary ideas

Society for the Defense of Tradi tion, Family and Property(TFP)held its

that guide the Brazilian TFP and its methods of action. The talks also outlined

and reasons for confidence in the victory of the ideological anticommunist strug

second regional congress in the city of

the TFPs' actions against the maneuvers of revolutionary psychological warfare.

friends and supporters could take in their

Sao Paulo, Brazil for its friends and sup

porters. Seven hundred and thirty-five people from eighty-five Brazilian cities representing twelve states and the Fed eral District of Brasilia participated.

The high point was the solemn closing session where nearly two thousand par

ticipants and guests filled Sao Paulo's

TFPs as well as representatives from the Argentine TFP. The group of forty-nine

Casa de Portugal Auditorium. After en throning a statue of Our Lady in the place of honor, members of the TFP proclaimed the progress and actions of the TFP since its last Congress. Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, President of the

Americans

National Council of the Brazilian TFP,

Among the international guests was a

delegation of fifty-three friends and sup porters of the American and Canadian

and

four

Canadians

cluded people from California, New York, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Mis souri and Ohio.

The two-day seminar featured a series

delivered the principal address. During his remarks, repeatedly inter

rupted by applause. Prof. Correa de Oliveira spoke on the need to deepen our

gle. He also suggested concrete steps the own circles.

Next, a supporter from Southern Bra zil expressed his satisfaction with the Congress and a supporter from Califor nia spoke on behalf of the American del egation. A young man from the state of Salvador who only recently came to know the TFP, thanked Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira for his efforts on

behalf of youth.

After closing the Congress, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira personally greeted a great many of those i auditorium.

THE DAY AFTER WHILE the American press was hard After describing some of the scenes in

less nuclear course."

pressed to give the film "The Day After" rave reviews, Pravda, the official Communist Party daily thought it excel

the program, the Soviet press claimed

lent.

cut some of the more horrifying scenes.

that the portrayal would have been much worse had it not been for the censors that

The report carefully avoided telling the

While the film was supposedly helpful in allowing Americans see the horrors of nuclear war, the same privilege will not

be extended to the Russian people. A few Soviets who have seen videotapes of the

The newspaper wrote that the film would inspire millions of Americans to oppose the Reagan Administration's mi litary programs. Many Americans, the article continued, were "not only shaken by the film, but also spurred into ac tion," distributing leaflets and gathering

"Washington starts a limited nuclear war in Europe."

signatures on petitions protesting Ameri

While acknowledging that there were

can nuclear weapons. Apparently the re

some Americans who disagreed with the

"People's eyes were opened wide,"

view did not protest the Soviet's nuclear

allegedly "apolitical" message of the

the report stated. Hopefully wide enough

arsenal responsible for the destruction of

film, the newspaper dismissed them as

Kansas City in the film.

militarists who support Reagan's "reck

to see the pacifist propaganda in the film {The Denver Posty 11-24-83).

plot, especially since the simulated war begins with a Soviet blockade of Berlin

and an invasion of West Germany, a fact

that was conveniently simplified as

program shown by Western friends said it was unthinkable that Soviet television

would air the program because it would undermine public faith in the Soviet civil

defense system â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a system that they are all too ready to use.

Re-Designing Architecture local materials that have been proven able to withstand the elements as well as

building traditions of local contractors.

This return to the traditional styles had its beginnings in the designs of Philadel phia architect Robert Venturi who wrote

in the early 60's that the vernacular styles are "familiar, ordinary and conventional

rather than original, outlandish and avant-garde." For decades, these styles

were ignored as "quaint" or "provin cial" but hardly functional. Now, the movement has grown to include several well-respected architects, architectural

historians and large corporate design firms.

One of these is Kenneth Frampton, a Columbia University architectural histo rian who has interpreted regionalism as a necessary defense against such leveling

forces of the megalopolis as technology and maximal efficiency. Architect Lawrence Speck of Austin, Texas, was once dismissed as "only" a

regional architect. He believes that

"good architecture is regional architec ture" {The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 9-23-83).

Another historian, Vincent Scully of Yale University, wrote an influential

book in 1955 on regional architecture titled "The Shingle Style." In his recent follow-up book, "The Shingle Style To

day,"Scully wrote that the new shingle style became popular because so many Americans "were seeking to escape from city and suburb alike in order to dig back down to the roots of American decency once more." He contends that a true ver

nacular architecture is "traditional in the

deepest sense, and of piercing symbolic power."

Faceless and "placeless" architecture: the end of an era?

Architecture, like any other art form, embodies the spirit of a peo ple. The variety of architectural styles somehow expresses the cultural dif

ferences that exist between peoples. Today, that expression has been al

most totally obliterated by a crushing ar ray of ultra-modem buildings built in the so-called international style existing in most major cities. Having no relation to a specific period or place, these large boxes of steel and glass level all regional distinctions. For years, architects pres

Bewildered?

locality, a variety of American styles

Confused?

have surfaced ranging from Colonial to ranch-style or an eclectic combination of various styles. One of the reasons cited for the

changes is that traditionally-inspired

ented the new style as the style of the future.

and avante-garde architectural tas

Now, however, some avant-garde ar

By National and International Events

buildings have a likeable and understand

able aspect that appeals to a broad range of people. Traditional-style ar chitecture tends to bridge the gap that for much of the century separated popular

chitects are reacting to the "placeless"

Perplexed?

and often out of place buildings and have started to design buildings in the regional and vernacular style. Depending on the

tes.

The regional style often makes use of

For Clarity and Insight Subscribe to

The TFP Newsletter

Vol. IV - No. 1 - 1984

TFP BOOK HERALDS DEMISE OF SOCIALISM IN FRANCE IN December 1981, a series of publica tions in the West's major newspapers warned of the dangers of self-managing socialism. At that time, the euphoria of socialist electoral victory had not yet worn off in France and the world watched in

expectation at the new type of socialism that was emerging. The educational campaign promoted by the Societies for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) was centered on a six-page Message titled: "What Does Self-Managing Socialism Mean for Com

munism? A Barrier? Or a Bridgehead?" by Plinio Correa de Oliveira, and it pointed out that "self-managing" socialism is no less disastrous than ordinary socialism. It was soon published in its entirety in 49 newspapers in 19 countries in the Free World. A summary of the Message later appeared in 65 newspapers and 33 interna tional editions q{Reader's Digest. Only in France was the Message refused publication. Two years after this publication, under the rapidly dimming star of Socialist Presi dent Francois Mitterrand, the Message of Plinio Correa de Oliveira has broken the

barrier of silence and censorship in France with its December publication in book form.

Ads for the 216-page book titled: SelfManaging Socialism: Heads Roll in Busi ness, in the Home and at the Schools have

appeared in the major Parisian newspapers and magazines such as Le Monde, Le Fi

Idcole

garo, France Soir, L'Express,Paris Match,

Magazine Hebdo,Minute as well as in over 30 other French newspapers in the coun tryside. Over 100 bookstores in 15 cities

across the country are carrying the book. The richly-illustrated work edited by the French TFP graphically points out the ef fects of socialism in every sphere of human activity, as well as the story of the epic study around the world since its first ap pearance. A biography of the author and

a history of the various TFPs has also been included in the work.

Self-managing Socialism: The Heads Roll â&#x20AC;&#x201D; In Business, In the Home,

In School. A denunciation that reached the four corners of the globe.

The book carries in its entirety the Com munique: "France: The Fist Crushes the Rose," also by Plinio Correa de Oliveira. The communique pointed out that the refusal of the French press to publish the

The warning proved to be well-founded. Using an obscure anti-trust law, the French

of a leading political opponent... We are skeptical that such an abuse of state power

government has targeted Le Figaro and

could still exist, but it's clear the spirit

other right-of-center newspapers and, as the new book states in its title, the heads

of Robespierre lives on in France," com

TFP Message for fear of reprisals amounted

are starting to roll in France.

(12-12-83).

to an actual lack of freedom and was the foretaste of similar "reforms" to come.

"Francois Mitterrand has a hand firmly on the guillotine, ready to cut off the head

As one of the most profound critical studies of self-managing socialism, the TFP

mented a Wall Street Journal editorial

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

effects of self-managing socialism. It is evi dent to all that the idea that inebriated the nation has fallen from favor. "If there is an economic crisis and a crisis

of credibility, both for Mitterrand and for

socialism, there is now a crisis of legiti macy," writes Max Lerner in the Los Angeles Times (6-28-83). "The idea called socialism is dead and the French intellectuals who tried to make

collectivism respectable have gone into hiding. This is a major event in Western

civilization: The advanced country that took socialism most at its word has seen the future and even its intellectuals have

acknowledged it doesn't work," writes the Wall Street Journal (10-31-83). MKterrand and Marchals - Socialists and communists with a common goal: anarchical social "order" Message has helped to discredit socialist

As President Francois Mitterrand ap

Like the petals of the wilted rose, the term "self-managing" has fallen out of usage and the stark reality of hammer and

thought both in France and throughout the

proaches his third year in office, France

sickle socialism is left unmasked in the

world.

finds itself in the throes of the devastating

clenched fist.

Keeping Watch on ERA After the devastating defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), disgruntled feminists regrouped around liberal congressmen in the faint hope that the unpopular amendment would be reintroduced. Pro-life and pro-family forces were ready with their own amendments to insure that the "simple" yet ambiguous language of the 24-word amendment would

not be misconstrued to support abortion, homosexual "rights," and other programs in the name of equality.

amendment be added to exclude such

"rights" to homosexuals.

Several pro-ERA advocates believe that the amendment would legally sanction "homosexual marriage" as well as prohibit

discrimination in federal and state employ ment, schools and the military.

Pro-family groups are not opposed to the

ERA so much for what it says but for what it doesn't say. What they ask is that ERA proponents allay their fears by clarifying their doubts. Despite ravings from femi nists who claim that pro-family advocates are overreacting to the simple language of

Other issues that have been left unclear

the amendment, the efforts to define exac

in the ERA debate are those involving the draft and assignment of women to military combat, the denial of tax exemption to

tly what is being promoted by the amend

private schools, churches and seminaries

"This article shall not be construed to

that treat men and women differently,

secure, expand or endorse any right to abortion or the funding thereof," read the pro-life amendment sponsored by Wis consin Republican Representative James

widows' and wives' benefits and other

ment have met with opposition, leading one

to suspect that in defining the ERA,its ad vocates are also defined and the prudent suspicions of those opposing the ERA are being confirmed.

Sensenbrenner.

After a brief but heated debate, a divided house voted 278 to 147 in favor of the

Equal Rights Amendment â&#x20AC;&#x201D; six votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority to send the amendment rambling back to state legislatures. Pro-life ERA sponsors

mil

switched votes when no amendments were allowed to the ERA and therefore no in surance that the lives of the unborn would

be protected.

Pro-life forces pointed out that proabortion groups in three states have already used a State ERA in their respective state constitutions to guarantee abortion funding

...y'

and that a national ERA would be used likewise.

Nor is abortion the only issue left un defined by the ERA. The issue of homo

sexual rights is equally ambiguous. If discrimination because of sex is not permit ted, some have interpreted it to support homosexual "rights." Pro-family groups have also been insisting that a clarifying

Life before ERA. Keeping an eye on the ball was simpler.

Newsletter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

High Frontier: Assured Survival A titled "The Hundredth Monkey." In simple elementary prose, the author, Ken Keyes Jr., suggests that if we just wish hard enough, the nuclear menace will go away. Unfortunately, this Peter Pan-like at titude of wishing away a nuclear holocaust

has pervaded many segments of Western

public opinion. Faced with an enemy whose empire far exceeds that of Julius Caesar or

POINT DEFENSE

Napoleon Bonaparte and whose ruthlessness has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, many harbor the opti mistic, though increasingly faint hope that the Soviets' intentions are peaceful. Pointing to all the treaties, agreements and accords that the Soviets have signed and broken avails nothing. The Russian

people, they reason, don't want nuclear war any more than the American people

ALL1E$

(but neither do they want communism). ^CITIES

Meanwhile, the Soviet government an nounces that it will enlarge its nuclear

USSR

arsenal while the United States offers to "build down" its forces.

Like it or not, the reality is that the

Soviets possess a large number of nuclear weapons. If they are consistent with their history of atrocities, there is no reason to

Diagram showing three point Interception of Soviet missiles by space-borne non-nuclear weapons

believe that they will not use them if it is

The proposal envisions a layered missile

Inside the West, the media has engaged

to their advantage. Up to this point, wish ing away missiles has served only to disarm

shield that would be undertaken in five

in a type of nuclear terrorism promoting

steps:

films such as "The Day After" and others of its ilk to terrorize the population into

the American side, leaving the United States alarmingly vulnerable to Soviet attack.

One of the most comprehensive, thor

oughly supported and seemingly practical

1. Deploy a defense system around American ICBM silos using a system of small conventional rockets to intercept

incoming missiles. Using available techno logy, the first "protective wall" could be

approaches to ballistic missile defense has

completed within two or three years at a

been the much-debated "High Frontier" national defense project.

cost of $10 million per silo defended.

A study initiated by the Heritage Foun dation in Washington D.C. and directed by Lt. General Daniel O. Graham, U.S. Army

(Ret.) presents the findings of more than a score of leading scientists, space en

gineers, strategists and economists. The 175-page report shows how the U.S., making use of present technology could:

1) close the "window of vulnerability" in two years; 2) provide a layered strategic defense starting with cheap and simple

point defense of U.S. missile silos, then a spaceborne capability to destroy hostile missiles within the first eight minutes of launch; and 3)give American industry the

2. Deploy a similar non-nuclear ballistic missile defense system in space on 432 satellites. The satellite network using

existing technology would form a global

"High Frontiers" and similar programs are more than concrete plans of action.

They ask Americans to reject the sophistic adage, "better red than dead" and suggest the United States take a realistic approach

to the growing Soviet nuclear threat with the same assertiveness, resolution and courage that put Americans on the moon.

ballistic missile defense(GBMD)within five

3. Deploy a second generation space defense system within ten or twelve years

capable of attacking and destroying hos

tile objects anywhere in near Earth orbit. 4. Develop a military "spaceplane" to

service and inspect the satellites of the system.

5. Develop a stepped-up Civil Defense program.

and medical opportunities in space.

space defense system will create with it a

policy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)to one of Assured Survival. The

non-nuclear catastrophe of communist domination.

or six years.

protection and incentives to develop a broad spectrum of commercial, scientific The strategy would change the present

surrendering to the equally destructive

Like the space program before it, the

Perplexed? Bewildered? Confused?

whole technology that will have spin-off industrial benefits.

study points out that presently the United

Since it was Western technology that allowed the Soviets to develop and perfect

By National and

States cannot effectively defend itself

their present nuclear arsenal, "High Fron

against a Soviet first strike and that years

tiers" proposes that once the technology

international Events

of laxness have left the civil defense program

has been developed, it should be protected

in shambles.

from being used by the Soviets. Despite long neglect, the Heritage Foun

In fact, the plan is far from new and even makes use of technology developed as part of President Eisenhower's Project Defender

in the late 1950's and early 1960's before it was shelved by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

dation study leaves it strikingly clear that

For Clarity and Insight

the United States does have, and has always

Subscribe to

had, the means to protect itself from a Soviet nuclear strike. What remains to be seen is if it has the will to do so.

The TFP Newsletter

FLATTENING FASHIONS Fashions, Uke all other popular art forms, are expressions of individuals and society. Ideally they should adorn, dignify and enhance the qualities and vir tues of the person wearing them. More often than not, fashions have

served to foster permissivist lifestyles. Paris, Milan, and New York have long been considered the major fashion centers where designers decide and often decree what the world will be wearing and how people should express themselves. Now one more city, Tokyo, has burst upon the fashion scene and is disconcerting some Western designers.

those worn by the street people of the modern cities. But with a portion of the fashion industry and many fashion maga zines promoting it, the trend is gradually gaining acceptance. The egalitarian wares are becoming the latest in clothes, spread ing beyond the glittering showrooms and filtering down to the mass-assembled de partment store versions. Unconventional designers are exper imenting with yet another innovation: skirts for men. California designers Peter Cohen

and Paul Batoon see dresses and skirts as

an option that will gradually gain accep tance for men.

"As we question assumed roles of mas culine and feminine, we're becoming more flexible and experimental with the clothes we wear," says Batoon.

With designer impoverishment and uni sex clothing gradually coming into vogue, today's "anti-fashion" fashions may mean more than just a fad. Perhaps they are ushering in a whole new lifestyle.

Not since the introduction of the seem

ingly omnipresent blue jeans has there been a design that has done so much to level social distinctions and mores. Rather than

enhancing, the so-called Japanese fashions stress anonymity. Rather than adorning, they boast a ragged look. Japanese design ers claim to have "democratized" the world of fashion and a number of Western

designers and trendsetting socialites have been the first to jump on the impoverishedlook bandwagon. The design, says Japanese designer Issey Miyake, is no design. The new rebellious look in fashion is the tattered look â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a

series of ragged, layered and loose-fitting clothing that, despite designer price tags, eschews any pretension of wealth. The shabby chic can come faded with custommade holes and tears to give the lived-in look.

Many of the clothes are one-size-fits-all, allowing people of all shapes and sizes to wear the same clothing. The person becomes a mere rack for a voluminous amount of

fabric that hides the fact that the shapes of

people are different and allows the wearer to assume an anonymous appearance.

The first designs offended the more con servative elements in the fashion industry

The "new look" In fashion: ragged, Im poverished, unisex and egalitarian. A new

as critics claimed that the clothes resemble

fad or a new mentality?

Lithuania:Religious Persecution The Faith is being persecuted more

Teachers and militia personnel lurk

and more in the largely Roman Cath

around churches to make sure children are

olic nation of Lithuania in spite of its com

not being prepared for First Holy Commu nion. Even young children are stopped in

munist government's immense effort to convince the West that there is complete

religious freedom. The Catholic Church in communist-

dominated Lithuania has long been groan

the streets on the suspicion that they are on their way to catechism classes.

One case is that of Father Sigitas Tamkevicius, pastor of Kybartai, who along

ing under the yoke of government regula

with 522 other Lithuanian priests went on

tions, police attacks and media harangues. But its plight has become even worse since Yuri Andropov assumed power in the

record against the Regulations for Religious

Kremlin. Some priests continually face threats of blackmail and imprisonment. In

Associations. The priests contended that

the regulations contradicted Christ's com mand to preach the Gospel to the whole world, contravened Canon Law and clash

state activities" and is presently , ng sentencing. Father A. Svarinskas, ui Vil nius, was tried on "anti-Soviet" and "anti-

constitutional" charges and sentenced to seven years in a Soviet labor camp and three years in exile.

On June 6, the faithful, gathered to pray for their pastor, hardly fit into the church

in Kybartai. After Mass, all present went in procession around the church, praying the rosary on their knees.

On July 6, again a large crowd of faithful gathered at the church, and from 7:00 PM

dividuals circulating petitions against such heavy-handed methods have been rounded up and penalized, and both children and

authorities responded by arresting several

celebrated. During the sermon, the priest

adults are under investigation. The press and television warn that children under

priests. According to a report smuggled to the

encouraged the dismayed people of Kybar

eighteen may not serve Mass, participate in processions or sing in choirs. Others

West on the repression of the Church in

have arrested two of the best priests in Lithuania. We must be proud of them and rejoice. It would be strange and incom prehensible if the priests did not suffer in a nation persecuted for the Faith."

were interrogated and penalized recently

for organizing Christmas celebrations and All Souls' Day processions.

the communists' own

on the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for

Lithuania S.S.R. Constitution. Soviet

adoration. At 8:00, a solemn Mass was

even

with

Lithuania and published in the November issue of the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, Father Tamkevicius, 44, was charged and found guilty of "anti-

tai saying,"Do not be saddened that they

U.S. Education - A Risky Business The problem of American education has become a national issue — one

that goes much deeper than the liberal education system's failure to teach students the primary skills necessary to function in our modern society. New evidence, however, indicates that, while a solid grasp of the basics is essen

tial, not only reading, writing, and arith metic that are being neglected. The problem is both educational and cultural and in volves a student's basic outlook on life.

Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell described this attitude, finding that the

for filtering out the real problems and dangers affecting the world. Television, indifference at home, medio

crity, and parent apathy (not to mention

perintendent Wall claims that the parents are "cheating" their children.

desire to broaden horizons and, as the

report of the National Forum on Excellence in Education noted, for putting the "na

"They might teach them reading, writing, and arithmetic, but there are a lot of other things we teach in school —

tion at risk."

like how to get along with other chil

The shortcomings of the nation's

school system have become such a na tional problem that many parents are

colleges and universities have enmeshed students in "pragmatic vocationalism and

Edwin and Cheryl Burwell of Angle-

"literacy, general civility and intellec tual competence" (Chronicle Telegram, 11-28-83). Students in increasing numbers are showing a pervasive ignorance and even contempt for those things essential to a civilized, literate society.

When a number of community college teachers in the Sacramento, California area

Easton Wall, of the Angleton Indepen dent School District, has taken the Burwells to court alleging that they have violated the Texas compulsory school attendance law.

The Burwells have decided to fight

an ignorance of some of the most basic

couples, have sued Wall for $30 million

matters but also a determined refusal to

in a Galveston court, claiming their civil

world come through to them."

"It not that they're missing a set of facts because they had a bad seventh-grade teacher. It's much worse than that. They're

not just damaged intellectually but retarded developmentally. I see it — and this is risky — as a form of mental illness."

The teachers reported that most students could not identify the Middle Ages, did not

rights have been violated. Adrean Burwell, 8, and his brother Reuben, 7, study through a correspond ence school run by Christian Liberty Academy Satellite Schools of Prospect Heights, 111. The unaccredited organiza tion enrolls about 8,000 students nationwide.

Burwell says that his children are get ting a better education than those in public schools. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills — a standard test used to deter

know who the Vice President of the United

mine academic skills — indicates that

States is or even which century they live in.

both boys are two years ahead of chil dren their own age. Furthermore, the parents claim the public schools fail to provide a religious

Another almost unbelievable example was that more than one-fifth of the students in a Dallas school could not locate the United

States on a world map. These shocking results were not the result of inaccessibility to information but rather that the students themselves seem to have

a desperate need to be ignorant of these basic facts. The self-centered youth culture — if it can be called culture — has a mania

viewpoint.

children through an unaccredited cor

back and, with two other Angleton

to be sleepwalking through life, and psy chically they don't let huge portions of the

Victims of the violence-racked public

schools might very well disagree with his

respondence course. Superintendent

found that not only did the students display

"The students," said one teacher, "seem

dren," he said (Corpus Christi Caller, 9-19-83).

ton, Texas, have been teaching their

were questioned about this trend, they

expose themselves to the world.

Speaking for the school district, Su

that of the educational system)all share the blame as guilty parties in blunting student

educating their own children to ensure their proper formation.

careerism" that exclude an interest in

not teaching," Burwell said. "They are not teaching about God. The whole force of public education is anti-God."

environment for their children. Since he

couldn't afford to send them to a private school, Burwell, 32, decided to educate them himself.

Students sleepwalking through coui

"We object to what the public schools are teaching and also to what they are

(above). — Primary education - Ignoring

•

^ ^ • F\-

the basics (below).

Musical Chairs and Apartments Just two weeks before Christmas,

Under Ohio's revamped juvenile code,

that he saw evidence of Increased religious

children who commit minor crimes can

freedom In China and a growth of Chris

probably get away with only a slap on

tianity. At the same time, he Implicitly acknowl

George Lackey received the disturbing

the wrist.

news that he would have to move from his

An example of such leniency can be found in Cleveland, where police have adopted a new standard In prosecuting shoplifters. Those who are caught steal ing something of minor value will no

apartment. Always a model tenant at the public housing project In Clarksyllle,Texas, Lackey was told that he must trade apart ments with another person at a public hous

ing project on the other side of town In order to achieve racial Integration in the two projects. The scheme has outraged whites and blacks alike as fifty families, 25 black and 25 white, have been ordered to exchange residences by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice. The two developments are almost identical and are designed for low

Income, elderly boarders. One project lies In the black part of town and the other In the white. The average age of those In the white building Is 77 years. "We never denied that the two projects

were segregated," said pharmacist Billy Barker, a housing authority commissioner.

"It wasn't a policy to keep them segregated — we just let people live where they wanted to live."

He said low-income white residents on

the waiting list tended to wait until a unit In the white project became available, and blacks opted for units In the black section,

longer be arrested. Instead, they will re ceive a citation similar to a traffic ticket. Second time offenders and first timers

In the game of musical apartments, the unlucky victims were drawn from a hat to decide who would exchange apartments. The case In Clarksvllle Is considered to be

a test case for the nation's 40,000 public

housing units {Newsday, 12-10-1983).

How Big is the Government?

$300 will still be arrested {San Franslsco Chronicle, 10-21-83). But for juveniles, the crime does not

become a felony as long as It Is under the $300 limit and the child who repeat edly shoplifts Items of lesser value can be fined a maximum of $50 whether It Is

the first or subsequent offense. Similar ly, the maximum penalty for a misde meanor, such as prostitution or drunk driving Is a $50 fine. "The penalties aren't severe enough to slow them down, says Judge John 0. Young of Franklin County Juvenile Court In Columbus, Chio who apparently knows his physics {Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, ChIo, 11-14-83).

be possible one day and that the Chinese Catholic rift with the Vatican could be

healed (San Francisco Chronicle, 12-14-83).

Mounting Evidence significant evidence pointing to the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin has been found that links the cloth to the time of the

Crucifixion , according to a theology pro fessor studying the Image. Rev. Francis Fllas, a professor at Loyola University In Chicago released the results

of a computer analysis which shows Shroud Imprints fitting six Greek letters of a Pon tius Pilate coin from 29 A.D., near the time of Our Lord's Crucifixion. Earlier studies In

dicated that coins were placed on the eyes

of the Shroud figure In accordance with the custom of the times.

The new analysis found Images corre

sponding to two previously undiscovered letters — O and C — and confirm four other letters discovered In earlier research.

According to Father Fllas, who has re searched the cloth for more than three

Cyberphobia

decades,the analysis "dates the Image, not

Millions of Americans are suffering from

a new malady — cyberphobia, the fear of computers.

According to Retailing Home Furnish ings, some computer operators were even driven to violence and have physically at tacked their computers. Machines have been stabbed, shot at and thrown from office windows.

According to Science Digest,one market According to the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, a group established In 1982 to find ways for the government to cut costs, the federal gov

of the "Anglican tradition" in China would

who steal something worth more than

where apartments are generally larger. Now both units must have at least 45 percent black by law.

edged the destruction of Anglicanism In China, saying that he hoped a restoration

ing research firm has suggested that, while most people accept the new technology as inevitable,"25 percent are afraid of It" {St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 11-24-83).

ernment has enormous costs and assets.

the cloth," and offers the "most significant" evidence to date the Shroud {Kansas City Times, 12-14-83).

The six-month analysis was conducted at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and led by Robert M. Harallck. The computer broke up photos of the Shroud Into more than 250 shades,finding the coin

Imprints In the area of the right eye on 1931 and 1978 photographs of the Shroud. The finding differs from claims that the Imprints were not visible in the 1978 photos. Father Fllas said.

In addition, the analysis found the face of the Shroud Image to be similar to the face of Jesus on an Icon that dates from the

Uncle Sam spends more than $91 million dollars an hour, and employs 2.8 million

sixth century.

people. It owns one-third of the U.S. land mass, a 744 million acre area equal to all

the states east of the Mississippi River

tZ IT

plus Texas. The Federal government occupies 2.6 billion square feet of office space, an area equal to four times the total of the office space In the nation's 10 largest cities. It owns and operates 437,000 vehicles, ex cluding those In military use {Chronicle Telegram, 12-15-83).

IN the.

Vhtf OM 7

Shoplifting and Traffic Tickets It's a law of physics: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

This physical law had its counterpart in the law of the land. If someone were to

be caught shoplifting, even the smallest

In Bristol, England, Rolls-Royce recently fired an eighteen-year-old em ployee because his appearance did not meet company standards or,for that mat ter, society's standards. Peter Mortlboy, a punk rocker, normal ly goes to work wearing 18 earrings, a studded dog collar, steel armlets and a stud through his nose. The last straw came when he showed up with his hair

Token Religious Freedom During Red China's so-called "Cultural Revolution," the Catholic Church was all but destroyed. It was only recently that the

of items, It could result in arrest and criminal court proceedings. Since most thieves start by stealing small things, the

open In order to show Western tgurists the supposed "religious freedom" that exists

system helped stop crime at Its roots. Now,at least In one state, criminal codes

under the communist regime. One such tourist was the Anglican arch

have changed and youngsters are not learning this Important lesson.

bishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcle. During his two week stay, the Anglican prelate said

Spiked Punk

authorities have allowed token churches to

glued to form a wide strip of 4-lnch-long spikes across the top of his head. Mortlboy was fired from his $120-aweek job as an apprentice technician at the company's Bristol, England plant because his supervisors believed that the frightening spikes(excluding esthet ic considerations) endangered the eyes of his co-workers.

Mortlboy claims he didn't cut the spikes off because "I'm not happy unless I look the way I want to look"{Newsday, 10-13-83).

The ^^China Card" - A Joker? There are some Western military strategists who actually believe in the Sino-Soviet rift. They argue that AmericanChinese relations must be kept warm so that, in the event of a war, the United States can play the "China card" against the Russians.

The so-called People's Liberation Army (FLA)of Communist China consists of the world's largest land army (3.2 million men), the second

air-to-surface missile-armed or anti-sub marine warfare aircraft. Most of the ma

jor weapons systems are obsolete. The strength of the Chinese Navy lies in its

bat capability and its ability to send mass concentrations of troops to serve as can non fodder for the enemy. During the "in

vasion" of Vietnam four years ago, Chi

Lacking the most elementary equipment

nese army troops had to use horses to carry their artillery into battle. Once in battle, the Chinese troops took such a beating

for modern warfare, the Chinese could

from the well-armed Vietnamese that, with

always unleash their hordes using the

their 20,000 casualties, Peking decided to

medium and short range craft and in its coastal vessels.

retreat and declare

the whole episode a "victory" for the people of China.

1,000 small high-speed fl ^ third largest air force

(some 5,300^ combat

j J1

Even a massive transfusion of West-

em arms, most mili-

at least prove to be so g much of a menace as

from^starting a war in them, maintain them numbers

not

midable FLA is not all

only a minimum Chinese

value of the so-called

weap-

"China

single and mu^ltipl^ Little progress in the last seven hundred years. Until the XIII Century mounted cavalry u.,

stage l.quid fueled

oKettsive weapon of the Chinese.

missiles called the CSS-1 and CSS-2. These have a range of only 620 miles and are considered effective only against large cities. The CSS-1 has a

fectively during the Korean War. In theory,

than an asset.

the Chinese could invade the frozen wastes

What's more, it hardly makes sense to ally oneself with an enemy that actively helped kill Americans in Korea and Viet nam and is responsible for the deaths and subjugation of millions of its own citizens (Data from Richard Allen and A^ 'es. News Digest International, 9-83).

1 megaton warhead. The Chinese only have

But even this would prove difficult since within the army itself there are conflicts, uncertain military doctrine and poor stra

tegic and tactical communications. These

the missiles is that they are liquid-fueled and require several hours to erect, fuel and aim. They must also be defueled after a period of readiness and are thus vulnerable

problems severely reduce the army's com-

to conventional and nuclear attack during their preparatory stages.

WHILE others were fretting over money

Huge gaps exist in the Chinese earlywarning radar net and there is virtually no coverage at altitudes below 5,000 feet. In

and profits, a group of Americans took a courageous stand, and chose to pay the price.

addition, Chinese cities have little air de fense and most of the anti-aircraft weapons

Boston harbor on September 26 to unload its

are outdated.

The FLA Air Force boasts of a large col lection of obsolete aircraft that would serve better in a museum than in a modern air

war. It has very limited all-weather and

Soviet-Chinese

"human wave tactic" that worked so ef

of Siberia.

longer ranges of 3,720 and 7,440 miles respectively. The common problem with all

if the Soviet-Chinese

rift is real, a huge ragtag army might prove more of a liability

20 iciloton warhead while the CSS-2 has a about 15 CCS-3 and CCS-4 which have

card" is

Longshoremen Reject Soviets When the Soviet ship Novormigrad entered cargo of lumber to the Allied Flywood Co. in Charlestown, Mass., members of Local

they face fines for contempt of court. To compensate the workers for their los ses, Ted Temple, a local conservative, has called for a fund-raising drive to help them. According to Temple, "The dock-workers

must be congratulated for their stand despite the fact that our government did precious little to stop trade with the Soviet Union

1066 Association, indignant over the down

after the cold-blooded murder of 269 inno

ing of the jumbo jet, refused to unload the

cent victims..."

ship.

"It is especially disconcerting to see busi nesses like Allied Flywood buying lumber from the Soviet Union when there Is high unemployment in our own lumber and paper industries across the country. It is immoral

Similar actions followed in other Eastern

night-fighting capability and lacks basic electronic equipment and weapons systems. The FLA Navy is likewise hardly an asset. It has a few long-range submarines but only one of these is equipped with missiles. There are no similarly equipped

seaboard cities and today Soviet ships, see

of $800 in wages. Because the workers vio

for American business to buy products that are made by slave or prison labor. There are many innocent people in Soviet labor camps"

surface vessels larger than a destroyer, no

lated a court injunction against the boycott,

{Human Events, 12/10/83).

ing the welcome mat is not out, stopped deliveries to Boston and other ports.

In taking their stand, each longshoreman

reportedly lost vacation time and an average

RETURN TO ENCHANTMENT For modern man, technology has the answer to many of the miseries

and mysteries that have pursued or eluded

him for centuries. Everything in to day's society has value only if it is geared toward economic production. Anything

2C/

outside this focus he scowls at with the

disdain of a Twentieth Century Scrooge. But like the Scrooge in Dicken's tale, contemporary man also has his counterpart of Marley's ghost. Some scholars have begun to note that the ef fects of such secular and sterile rationali

ty and the awesome power of technology over the individual have given rise to renewed desire for fantasy, enchant ment, symbols and mystery. For decades, the world of enchant ment and the marvelous was whisked to

the cultural sidelines while more progres

sive and "enlightened" writers and ar tists plied their trade. But lately, books and films stressing mystery and symbols have entered the mainstream and fairy

tale-like novels and epics have become best sellers.

The trend is not mere escapism. The

phenomenon has been noted by scholars as very serious and real. According to Kathleen Agena, a contributing editor for Partisan Review, "In a modern era

shaped by science and technology, it is startling to see this fascination with mys tical symbols and motifs that hark back to notions of an enchanted universe and to the hierarchical social order of the

Middle Ages. In fact there is evidence that the return of enchantment has a

larger meaning. Discussions with a broad range of authorities, from artists to his

torians to psychologists, and an analysis of past cultural changes suggest that it is a symptom of a profound crisis in Western thought."

This crisis, say some observers, has been caused by the disillusionment of sec

tors of society with the prevailing ratio

Fascination with fantasy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from the medieval to the moon. An a ntlbody for the sterile XX Century.

nal mechanical world vision. The chaotic failure of this vision of the world to

make frequent use of symbols and en

lisher: "The gnomes' life is agi\

deliver what it promises has caused a

chantment motifs have more than dou

tied to natural rhythms. There is a sense

reaction. Economist-historian Robert L. Heilbroner likens the situation to a

bled and account for half of the top ten

of tradition and orderliness as opposed

best sellers.

to the chaos of modern life" {The New York Times Magazine, 11-27-83).

chronic illness,"The expressions of fan tasy that we're seeing in culture are aris ing like antibodies to fight the disease of sterile rationality that prevails in our so

Children's fairy tale books are reap pearing. Epic novels like T.R.R. Tol

A similar revolution has occurred at

kien's trilogy. The Lord ofthe Rings zxiA

the movies. The most notable of the suc

Frank Herbert's "Dune" novels have

cessful science-fiction films. Star Wars dominated the market.

ciety" {The New York Times Magazine,

been sold by the millions. One of the most popular items of the

11-27-83).

"enchantment" literature is a number of

disturbing theme in accounting for the

This trend is having its repercussions

Film director George Lucas sounds a

lavishly illustrated books portraying

appeal of Star Wars'. "We've lost all the

in the political field. A public disillusioned

imaginary beings in enchanted lands.

fairy-tale lands on this planet. But there

with the all-too-apparent shortcom

Books featuring such elf-like beings as

is a bigger mysterious world in space.

ings of the often-demagogical "leaders" tends to admire the qualities to be found in true heroesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a tendency that some

"gnomes" and "faeries" are having a

We've just begun to take the first step, and we can say, 'Look it goes for a

scholars view as having dangerous impli

tremendous success.

The publisher of the series on "Gno mes" recorded sales of 900,000 hard

zillion miles out there!'"

The circle is complete. Modern man develops his space technology to find

cations in a democratic society. The extent of this widespread trend is

cover books and 500,000 of its paper back edition.

new "lands of enchantment" out of this

most apparent in the arts. Within the last

Says Paul Gottlieb, president of Harry N. Abrams, the "Gnomes" pub

world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a convergence of pragmatism with fantasy.

ten years, science fiction novels that

(iWl E DEFEND the right to life of W the innocents. He who defends great moral principles with true convic

Explaining the conse quences of the soft

A contingent of American TFP supporters in Washington

antiabortionists' position

tion will never be defeated."

With this statement emblazoned on

one of its three banners, The American

Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TP?)joined over 75,000 other anti-abortion demonstrators in Washington, D.C. on January 23. It was one of the most forceful displays in years protesting the infamous U. S.

TFP

SUPPORTERS

Supreme Court decision that "legalized" abortion eleven years ago. Anti-abortion demonstrations were also held in other

major U. S. cities on the same day. A

contingent of TFP volunteers and sup porters joined some 500 demonstrators

in Los Angeles, and smaller groups par ticipated in protests in San Francisco and Denver.

This year's Washington March was larger than those of previous years as in dividuals and entire families from anti-

abortion groups, schools, parishes and state organizations came from all parts

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

of the United States in a determined ef fort to make their voices heard and their

influence felt in this 1984 election year. The turnout illustrated that even after

suffering from both a major Supreme Court decision that struck down a num

ber of state laws restricting abortion and the defeat of the Hatch amendment last

June, pro-life groups and grassroots sup porters are growing and maturing. They

T I? SUPPOR^Ek^

have realized that the so-called "mod

erate" position has meant delays and only favors the abortionists."No Com promise" was the theme of the Eleventh Annual March For Life.

"The soft line did not work any more than did Chamberlain's effort to nego tiate with Hitler for peace. So, we have relearned hard lessons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the abortionists

will not accept even a little bit of prolife." One is either for or against the

killing of innocent preborn children. There is no position in between," read

the statement of March For Life presi dent Nellie J. Gray. After pro-life leaders met with Presi dent Reagan, a number of prominent

speakers and members of Congress ad dressed the crowd at the Ellipse behind the White House around noon. President

Reagan appeared on the balcony to acknowledge the demonstrators.

Caliiornia March for Life In Los Angeles â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Victory through unity of the "soft" antiabortionists â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those

It went on to note that "If there were

who do not act energetically against the

a danger that more than one million

heinous crime.

innocent Americans would be executed

The TFP document pointed out that

it is not the pressure of pro-abortionists

in the next year, it is certain that all Americans would be so indignant that

that maintains legalized abortion in the United States; rather, it is the softness of the antiabortionists. "When the day

the elected officials who were in any way

comes to render accounts to God for

elections."

partisans of this unjust execution would be clamorously defeated in the next

volunteers and supporters who distrib

their actions, these soft ones will see that they were cruel. They were the soft, cruel exterminators, the ones principal ly responsible for the continuation of legalized abortion in the United States,"

throughout the halls of the Houses of Congress as they dispersed to seek out

uted a statement rebuking the inaction

the TFP statement declared.

their local Senators and Congressmen.

The American TFP was well repre sented by a large number of members,

The March ended in front of the Su

preme Court Building, but the indigna tion of the marchers continued to be felt

POLLUTION IN "PARADISE" COMMUNIST propaganda would have us believe that environmental prob lems are the natural by-product of the

class exploitation of capitalism. But in communist countries, although little

ganda simply proclaimed that China had no environmental problems. The work of environmentalists thus came to a halt, and not a single nature preserve survived

after the period. The starving peasants

tons of mineral salts on the bottom of

a 30-mile-long reservoir. In another instance, according to the

Paris-based newsletter Globescan (1545 New York Ave., N.E., Washington D.C. 20002), Zev Volfson, a journalist from Soviet radio who recently emigrated to

talked about, the collectivist economy has also wrought havoc on those "Uto

in rural areas invaded the abandoned

pian" environments.

animals for food. The result was serious

Israel, reported that the hasty construc

damage to fragile animal habitats and

tion of the Soviet gas pipeline and

For example, in the late '50s the

preserves and caught valuable birds and

Chinese communists began the ill-fated

virtual annihilation of the wildlife. To

technical accidents have already

"Great Leap Forward" toward trans forming their villages into thousands of tiny self-managing industrial centers.

day many species of wildlife are still threatened. Nearly ten rare species that

some 4 million tons of gas, whk ,. iias

The movement ended in complete

failure, crippling the economy and ruin

encompass rhinoceros, antelopes, tigers

Chinese experience are also common in

backyard foundries soon stripped the

the Soviet Union. In the introduction to

earth bare of trees, leaving deserts where

the book Environmental Misuse in the

forests once stood.

Soviet Union, Fred Singleton finds that, in general, "the emphasis upon rapid in

At the same time, Mao Tse-tung or dered a massive "Away With All Pests" campaign to rid the cities of mosquitoes, rats, flies and sparrows. According to

witnesses in Peking, inhabitants killed sparrows and songbirds by the tens of thousands. With their predators exter

polluted lakes and water sources and destroyed forests.

and ducks have vanished. Environmental accidents similar to the

ing the land. Peasants seeking fuel for

dustrialization throughout the Soviet period has encouraged a prodigal at

Perplexed?

titude toward the destruction of other

Bewildered?

natural resources that may be affected by the extraction of mineral ores."

Confused?

The Soviets confirmed the fact that

minated, harmful insects soon multiplied

more than one billion gallons of highly

uncontrollably. To stem the tide, the

concentrated waste salts from a fertilizer

government ordered the uprooting of

plant spilled into the Dniester River last

trees and grass, resulting in massive destruction {Newsday, 12-3-83). During the "Cultural" Revolution of

September. The spill disrupted water supplies to millions of people, killed hun dred of tons of fish, destroyed river

the '60s and '70s, Government propa

vegetation and deposited one million

For Clarity and Insight Subscribe to The TFP Newsletter

THENEBRASKA SEVEN SINCE last Thanksgiving Eve, the parents of children in a small Chris tian school in Louisville, Nebraska have been in jail in a landmark case which seriously threatens parents' natural right

that Faith Christian students have con

sistently scored at levels equal to the averages of Nebraska public school children one to three years older than they are.

a sect whose ideology and philosophy is avowedly anti-Christian. State certifica tion-indoctrination, they feel, will not

guarantee the kind of education the parents demand.

has tried to close down Faith Christian

year to standardized tests to insure that

School, a small thirty-student academy which emphasizes a God-centered educa

this legitimate requirement continues to

While the Nebraska Seven wait in jail, the case is attracting national attention as a religious rights question that could have serious implications for the hun

be met.

dreds of similar schools that have been

tion. The State of Nebraska is one of the

State certification of its teachers,

to educate their children.

For seven years the State of Nebraska

Faith Christian school officials are

even willing to submit their students each

formed due to dissatisfaction with the

teachers and schools and the state claims

damentalists claim that state-certified

that Faith Christian has violated state law on several counts. Pressure has also been

teachers are not only required to lake courses of questionable value, but also

quality of public education. Being labeled as a mere "local issue" by some elected officials, fundamentalists, feeling be trayed, have indicated that it also might

brought to bear on the state's twenty-two

those which promote secular humanism.

have an effect on the 1984 elections.

few stales that require certification of

however, is another matter. The fun

other unlicensed Christian churches to

submit to state regulations or close down. On April 24, 1979, the state cited Faith Christian school on nine separate ac counts. Among them were: failure to submit reports to the state, failure of the

.'F

School ruling

threatens natural right of parents to protect their

8^^ children

administrators and teachers to submit to

state teaching and administrative cer tification, and failure to comply with the rules and regulations of the State Depart ment of Education.

The stale attempted to close the school by padlocking the door and Jailing the church's pastor, Everett Sileven. The church members responded by breaking the padlock and continuing classes. After

parents refused to answer questions about their involvement in the school.

Judge Ronald E. Reagan issued warrants for the arrest of fourteen parents, Sileven

and his daughter, Mrs. Theresa Schmidt, the school's principal who also holds a master's degree in education. Seven fathers were incarcerated while their

wives and twenty-three children together with Sileven and his daughter fled to other states to avoid arrest.

The "Nebraska Seven," as they are now being called, are being held inde finitely for contempt of court until they consent to talk. Even if they do talk, they

will still be held in contempt of court if

they insist on sending their children to an unlicensed, and therefore illegal, church school. One of the seven has

already been released after testifying that his children attended the school but wouldn't do so in the future unless it was certified. Fundamentalists refuse to treat the

Chinese Chicanery WHILE Red Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang was being wined and dined by Washington dignitaries and local state

officials, the Chinese foreign ministry

tion of 1966-76, the Bishop, togeiiici with his vicar-general Most Rev. He

Binzhang, were imprisoned. The recent sentencing appears to be only one of a series of such aggressions.

confirmed the tragic news of the incar ceration of Bishop Peter Joseph Fan Kueyan of Baoding. The 76-year-old Bishop Fan, no longer recognized as Bishop of Baoding by the communist Chinese regime, has been sen

most of their lives in jail and were re leased in 1979 were tried again, given long sentences and returned to the labor

centered education versus a state educa

tenced to ten years in prison for remain

camps.

tion that is often imbued with secular

ing faithful to the Vatican, rather than

However,such blatant persecution of

humanistic tenets.

submitting to the government's puppet

religion in China, did not prevent Mayor

case as a mere bureaucratic problem in volving state statutes. They say that the real question is that of Christian God-

The school directors feel that the in

transigence of the stale is unfounded. They concede that the state has the right to ensure that children learn to read, write, compute and that they should have basic notions of the nation's history, geography and form of government as well as certain health and sanitary re quirements. These basic requirements have been met and noteworthy is the fact

Several months prior to Bishop Fan's trial, five elderly Jesuits who had spent

church, the so-called National Associa

Dianne Feinstein from presenting the key

tion of Patriotic Catholics founded in

of San Francisco to the Chinese Premier-

1957. Vatican Radio reported in Decem

dictator and proclaiming January 13 "Premier Zhao Ziyang Day." Ziyang, in

ber that he had also been accused of

secretly ordaining priests and bishops. The prelate, one of the last Chinese

bishops ordained by the Vatican, was taken from his diocese in 1958 for refus

ing to cooperate with the government "church." During the Cultural Revolu

turn, expressed the hope that American businessmen will help China update its agriculture methods, explore for energy and modernize its transportation system â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no doubt to help travel to remote labor camps.

BISHOPS SUPPORT SOCIALISM ONE of the greatest artifices of so cialism has been its ability to dis guise and present itself as a plausible alternative to both capitalism or com munism. With this ruse, communism has been able to dupe a considerable number of people. But in the end, the "alter native" is always the same: communist dictatorship.

of integrating rose-like Christianity with the crushing fist of socialism. While

decrying violence, they express their full support for the government leaders who

persuasively integrate the people into this new socialist order.

This is not the first time these bishops

have supported the socialist government. In the spring of 1983, the government of

As the African nation of Zimbabwe

the then terrorist, now Prime Minister,

slides tragically down the ramp of its

Robert Mugabe sent in a crack North

own "African-style" socialism, the out ward signs of a totalitarian regime are becoming more apparent. Mass arrests, armed repression, government censor ship, land reform and confiscations are gradually turning once-prosperous Rhodesia into an impoverished socialist

Korean-trained army unit to repress dis-

Reporters who complained about losing a scoop during the Grenada rescue mission are missing an even better one by not requesting the government to release some of

the thousands of captured docu ments that reveal what might have happened had the Cuban-backed

Marxist regime remained in power. Reports from documents seized

viet Union and Soviet-bloc countries, would have been expanded to an 18battalion militia. The potentially 10,000 man force would have dwarf ed all other island forces in the region. Had Grenada not been rescued,

In the midst of this decline, the Cath

the Soviet-supervised Cuban con struction workers on Grenada would

enthusiastically support Zimbabwean

have completed missile storage faci lities being prepared some 800 feet

socialism, defend the government efforts at transforming their society and pledge their continued help to the government. The pastoral letter even finds some common ground between Christianity and socialism, a position already con demned by several popes. The document states:"We acknowledge that socialism

from the island's new Point Salines

airport. According to Knight-Ridder's Frank Grave, concrete shelters exact

ly like those found in Grenada house Soviet AS-4, AS-5, AS-T and AS-11 bomber-launched air-to-surface mis

has inherited some elements from Chris

Mugabe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Enjoying strong support from

tianity, but we also know that some forms of socialism do not agree with Christianity. It is therefore up to us, who

strange quarters

socialism with the Christian vision. We

Agreements

cret military agreements with the So

olic Bishops of Zimbabwe issued a per plexing year's end pastoral letter. While decrying atheistic Marxism, the bishops

do this through dialogue and free co operation with ..'all men of good will'

And Secret

during the mission indicate that the Grenadian army, backed by five se

republic.

believe in Christ, to inspire our evolving

Sour Grapes

siles in the Soviet Union and Eastern

Europe. The missiles have nuclear

capacity and a range of up to 250 sent in Matabeleland. The atrocities

committed by the army were such that the bishops protested by saying that some army units thought they were above the law. At the same time, how

miles {The American Sentinel). Following similar communist takeovers in other countries, an in tense religious persecution was also planned for the island nation.

(Pope Paul VI,"The Development of

ever, the bishops recognized the right of

According to Columnist Jack

Peoples"), always bearing in mind, though, that the kingdom of God is greater than any political, social or

the socialist government to maintain

Anderson, a document prepared by

"order" and repress dissident activity

Maj. Keith Roberts, a Grenadian

with armed force.

who headed the KGB-style "Special Branch," listed the Roman Cai'^

economic system." "In Zimbabwe, socialism is under

But along with this "dialogue" in which the bishops have made every con

stood to mean equality regardless of

cession, "men of good will" on the other

race, creed or sex, an equitable distribu

side have been far from cooperative. Mugabe, a dyed-in-the-wool socialist,

tion of land, health care and education for all regardless of income; it means fair wages, a lifestyle of self-reliance as well

has vowed that he will transform the

Church as the "No. 1 antagom the revolution," and the Anglican Church as "a major threat to the revolution."

nation's economy from capitalism to

The government's goal, he said, was to "control all churches, their

socialism, declaring that "capitalism is the philosophy of impoverishment" {Daily Telegraph, 5-16-83).

leadership, membership and their activities" and he suggested re moving "all deeply religious head

"To the extent that government has in

Herbert Ushewokunze, the Minister

teachers" from the schools "by

fact begun to implement these policies, we have expressed our full support in word and in deed (through our work in

of Home Affairs, does not share the

whatever means most suitable."

bishops' optimism about the transition to a new social order. Speaking of the

style Catholic Church that could be

as sharing, the promotion of cooperative ways of production and a national policy of reconciliation.

education, health care and social devel

rich Zimbabweans who resisted the

opment). We support the government in its efforts to motivate people toward self-

change, he said, "Let them know this:

reliance."

for the majority of our people. To win them the right to life, our government is ruthless and it may have to resort to emergency powers" {The Star, Johan

The bishops leave no doubt that their ultimate goal is to work together with the governn:ent for the "radical transforma tion of man and society" and the crea tion of a "new social order." Like the

rose-in-fist self-managing style socialism, the bishops present the optimistic hope

we will crush them. Socialism means life

nesburg, 6-15-83).

Meanwhile, as the Bishops dialogue, the arrests, confiscations and censorship in Zimbabwe continue.

Roberts called for a Nicaraguaneasily manipulated by the govern ment. Noting some resistance to the idea, he concluded: "It is abundant ly clear that the Roman Catholic

Church is gearing up for confron tation with goverrunent" {The Rocky Mountain News, 1-22-84). For any interested unbiased re

porters, there are still scores of cap tured documents awaiting analysis.

PLUNDERING AFGHANISTAN IN September of 1981, the chief So viet geologist in Afghanistan, E. R. Okhrymyuk was captured by Afghan

H-:-.

anticommunist soldiers in the outskirts

of Kabul. Among the belongings of Okhrymyuk, who was eventually ex ecuted, was a file of geological papers

describing the Soviet long range plans for the mineral rich country.

Extensive surveys had revealed that

Afghanistan is a veritable treasure chest of mineral wealth with large deposits of

oil, natural gas and other valuable re sources. Afghan refugees contend that these new-found riches are being chan neled to the Soviet Union as "credit" for the so-called national debt owed to

the Soviets for their military "assis tance."

Like all mining operations, the Soviet

plunder was well engineered. In the early 60's, even before the communist take

over in 1978, hundreds of Soviet geolo

gists had mapped out the major mineral deposits. They found some 1,500 depos its of different metals — gold, uranium, chrome, copper, lead, zinc, lithium, be ryllium, tantalum, bauxite, iron ore as well as emeralds and lapis lazuli. One of these surveys resulted in the discovery in the 60's of the enormous

natural gas field in Kwaja Gogerdak in northern Afghanistan. The Soviets built

a pipeline at ihe Afghans' expense and signed a contract in 1968 to buy gas for 18 years at a price well below current world levels — and much less than the

price they will be charging the European nations for the gas running through their infamous Siberian pipeline. When the communists took power in

April of 1978, an army of 2,000 geolo gists and miners "invaded" the country. Within eighteen months, they began to

haul away the nation's natural riches. According to the Okhyrmyuk papers, the Soviets now have plans to process cop

per in Ajnak, south of Kabul, mine coal in Sarai-Suf, and excavate hight quality iron ore from the enormous deposits

found in Hadjigak in north-central Afghanistan.

According to Abdul Latif Auruh, former chief of the Afghan Economic Ministry's gas and oil department, now in exile in Pakistan, the Soviets are

Afghan anticommunist fighter — The embattled nation's most valuable asset iron ore and other minerals are being

relatives now exiled in India. The torture

extracted.

sessions reportedly have left some vic

This explains, in part, why the Soviets have spared no measure, not even chem ical weapons, torture and wholesale slaughter, in order to dominate Afghan

tims deaf and other speechless.

Amnesty International has charged that Afghanistan's puppet government

According to British correspondent Ross Benson of the London Express, "The Soviet butchery is systematic. It is deliberate ... carried out with ruthless, uncaring efficiency." "The tragic death loll is mounting

runs eight torture centers in Kabul in its widespread brutalizaiion of political

with villages flattened and 1

'd in

murderous reprisal raids while ,

vVesl

istan.

prisoners. The report was based on six months of interviews with ex-prisoners and their

stands back accused of betrayal in the bloody battle for freedom" {Rocky Mountain News, 11-3-83).

Revolution and Counter-Revolution

"systematically looting Afghanistan's mineral wealth" {St. Louis Post-Dis

by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

patch, 9-25-83).

The only flaw in the Soviet plan was the unexpected and widespread resistance

of the Afghan people. They have proven as rich in courage and determination as their country is in minerals but much more difficult to handle. The heroic

Afghans have proudly resisted the wellarmed Soviet occupation forces and their partisan sympathizers. They have

doggedly disrupted the plunder of their mineral wealth by periodically blowing

up sections of the natural gas pipeline and attacking mining sites where coal,

* Published in five languages: 1 English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian

Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism — and even more radical forms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP • P. O. Box 121 • Pleasantville, NY 10570

A Negative Experience The Catholic seminary has aiways had as its purpose the training of candidates to the priesthood where, with the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, men would give their lives to God.

age living an organic life close to nature

plates on the backs of House members'

was quickly dispelled. After a few sub zero nights in the dwelling, the two

chairs. Other measures are also being taken but were not disclosed.

modern Indians almost called off the

whole project until March.

"The romance of the idea of making a fire for a pleasant evening goes away

AIDS — A World Problem

very quickly," said McMakin.

many of the former restrictions in semi

living in an "alternative living struc

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), the disease that has killed more than 1,000 people in the United

nary training have been changed. One ex ample is St. John Fisher College near Rochester, N. Y., which now permits its

ture" does have its scholastic value.

States — most of them homosexual

countries and poses a global health

preseminary students to live off campus

According to McMakin, "The teepee is educational, because it gets other peo ple to t^'ink about the comforts they have

and to date.

and that they shouldn't take them for

Under the pretext of preparing semi nary students for the "reaiitles" of life,

Formerly, Catholic seminaries in the

True to requirements of their grant,

granted"(Chronicle-Telegram, 12-28-83).

United States, which offer four years of

remain celibate.

Today, dating is being heralded as a "positive experience." "To the extent

that it (dating) helps people develop bet ter self-awareness and helps with their personal growth, it's good," said Glenn Dorman,a pre-seminary junior from Lake George, N.Y."But as a romance that in volves heavy emotional and time commit ment, that's something else"{Newsday, 12-22-83).

Judge Throws Book at Teen A county judge in Tucson, Arizona has sentenced a teenager convicted on a

theft charge to a probation period of book reading. Judge Jack Arnold of Pima County Superior Court told Carl Whitehead, 19, that he must begin reading books and provide a list of those he finishes to his probation officer.

Judge Arnold said that although the youth appeared intelligent and clean-cut he was, like so many of those affected by television and the movies, "braindead."

"If you don't start reading and doing some thinking, I'll put you in the peniten

tiary," he warned (The Rocky Mountain News, 1-14-84). Undoubtedly, the lenient sentence will consist of soft cover books.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

gave two students at Oberlin College, Ohio a grant of $1800 to study "alter native living structures." The one-year project of Tom McMakin

able and often fatal malady doubled in 1983.

The

radical face of the

National

Since there is a latent period of one to

Organization of Women (NOW) was de monstrated in their protest against a bill signed into law by New York City's Mayor, Ed Koch. The law requires bars,

three years before detection, doctors suspect that ailment is at the same stage in Western Europe as it was in the United States two years ago and that the region is due for an outbreak equal in size. "AIDS is now being found a little bit everywhere and can no longer be* con sidered a uniquely American problem,"

restaurants and liquor stores to post a sign warning pregnant women that al cohol can damage the health of their unborn children.

The New York Chapter of the feminist group said that they were uneasy about

the bill because it might be a step toward "protecting the unborn at the expense of

said Dr. Jean-Baptist Brunet of the French Health Ministry (San Francisco Chronicle, 12-19-84).

women's freedom."

Even the outspoken Mr. Koch, who has signed legislation prohibiting dis

Telephone Trance

crimination against homosexuals, was

People suffering from stress can now obtain instant help by calling "Dial-aTrance." The unique service is being of fered by psychologist Larry McManus who operates a hypnotherapy clinic in Chicago. The daily recording allegedly hypnotizes the caller into a feeling of well-being. Begun on January 1, McManus says

shocked by NOW's request that he veto the law. Defensively, he commented,"It is a warning in the same way that we warn pregnant women about various medicines which can have special side

effects on the unborn" (Christian In quirer, 2-84).

"High" Unemployment

that he has received over 6,000 calls in

the first three weeks of operation. The peak period is between 10 and 11 p.m.,

Half of the 750 job applicants at an Alcoa aluminum plant in Vancouver,

Washington were turned down because they failed to pass a drug test.

indicating that most Dial-a-Tran are mainly people who just wai to sleep (USA Today, 1-24-84).

Hers get

The amazed personnel director of the

firm, Carl Sedler, said that hospital tests given to ascertain whether or not drugs had been used within the preceding two to three days found widespread use of marijuana. One percent of the 375 re About ICQ of the applicants called

to find out why they were rejected. None denied using drugs nor did any say they would stop if they were hired (Kan sas City Times, 1-14-84).

Bulletproof Back Pack

and Steve Morris consists of living in a canvas teepee in Indian fashion without

worst hit outside the United States, with

number of European cases of the incur

Abortion's True Face

jected showed signs of hard-drug use.

Teepee Trial

threat, according to medical experts. Western Europe is by far the region 267 confirmed cases of the disease. The

training for the priesthood after students

have received a bachelor's degree from a public, private or religious college or university, have not allowed their stu dents to date. It was judged to be con trary to the intention of the candidate to

males — has now appeared in 32 other

Nuclear Apathy When the Pennsylvania emergency management agency sent a nuclear at tack alarm to 44 county civil defense agencies, citizens were told of an immi

nent attack and urged to take appropriate action.

While other county officials chose to wait for a confirmation, a civil defense

worker in Lehigh County set off the nuclear-attack sirens. In Allentown, the county's largest city, residents general ly ignored the sirens or mistook them for fire alarms.

Government officials are taking a

Four minutes later, the order came to

modern conveniences.

series of protective measures as the

So far, the study has confirmed what most people already know about such

disregard the order, as it had been ac

threat of world-wide terrorism hits closer

cidentally sent off by two Harrisburg

to home.

extended camping trips: Life in a teepee is cold, tiring and tough.

According to House Sergeant-at-Arms

AT&T technicians installing new emer gency equipment. The accident did,

Jack Puss one of these measures has

The romantic image of the noble sav-

however, show the deficiencies of the

been the installation of bulletproof metal

nation's civil defense system.

Liberation Theology's March Toward Marxism All too often, Liberation Theology is taken by the American public at face value â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an abstract "theology."

What many people fail to realize is that

in its practical application the theology of liberation provides real impetus for the Marxist revolution in Latin America and in the so-called Third World.

The efficacy of the Liberation

Theology movement is based largely on the appearance it gives of being part of the Catholic Church, even though it Is

radically opposed to traditional Catholic theology. Indeed, its advocates accuse the traditional Church of being unable

to interpret the status and direction of

contemporary society. The Church, they claim, must follow the march of history

toward the ideal socialist egalitarian society.

Availing themselves of the mistaken notion that Liberation Theology is a bona fide movement inside the Catholic

Church, its promoters have made great inroads by using the ministry of the Church to lead the people of the pre

dominantly Catholic Latin American countries toward their Marxist goals. One such example was a "mass" of fered on Students' Day in Cartagena, Colombia at the University Plaza last June 9th. The text of the "mass," transcribed and translated from a re

cording of the ceremony illustrates the shocking reality of liberation theology. "Liberation and peace from the

Father of the oppressed and from Jesus our Brother, for all present here and for

the whole people," began the priest. "Yes, may peace and liberation come

Msgr. Helder Camara â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the "red archbishop": "I hold In deep respect the memory of Camilo Torres(the South American terrorist priest)and that of 'Che' Guevara and in general aii who feel obliged in conscience to choose violence"(E/ Siglo, Santiago, Chile 4/16/69).

always defended Human Rights, because

The Our Father, a prayer given by

You condemned the exploitation of man

Christ himself in the Gospel, is deformed to read:

reverently replaced by the "Hymn of

by man, because You wanted to be one with the Poor in the Spirit of Love and in the unity of liberating praxis. Amen." The Epistle and the Gospel were like wise replaced by so-called Announce

Glory": "Glory to the Father of the People

ments of Liberation. One of these

changes the book of Isaias to read: "Let

sure the exploiters do not take awa> from us our daily sustenance and lead us

for all the oppressed in our Fatherland and in the world," responded the peo ple in the opening prayer. The traditional "Gloria" was ir

in the Whole Universe, and in Latin America peace to those who seek libera tion. Because of your love for the op pressed we praise you, we bless you, we

all the inhabitants of the earth and of beautiful Latin America, from martyred

sing to you, we glorify you, we give you thanks, God Father of the people, al mighty enemy of the oppressors. Jesus, son of the working man, identified with

"Liberator Father: Hallowed be your

name! Let your freedom come. Let your will of liberation be done in our Father

land and in the whole Universe. Mai

to unite our wills to fight for a New

Humanity. Do not let us be destroyed

Central America and the luminous

under the oppression of Military Dic

Caribbean to the usurped Malvinas, lend

tatorship and deliver us from being tor

an attentive car! Let all the inhabitants of the earth listen, because I am about

tured and assassinated by the de facto regimes."

to speak of the abomination of exploita tion to which the people of Latin

The end of the "mass" leaves no

doubt as to its purpose as the priest encourages the students: "Our Father;

the oppressed, sent by the Father to

America are being subjected by the

achieve liberation: You who condemn

gringo multinationals and the national

Make the students of Colombia imitate

the sin of exploiters, have compassion on

oligarchies which are always ready to sell

the clear example of our departed com

the misery of the Colombian People; You who oppose the alliance of religion with the powerful, hear our clamor against the reactionary shepherds of the

their Fatherland."

Church; You who live and manifest your

presence in the actions of the masses and

his death became the "symbol of strug gle for his followers."

in the just struggles of the people, favor

Even the Consecration is blasphe

In a caricature of the Apostle's creed,

Christ is portrayed as a "subversive

against the established order" who after

panions, and let us understand that our commitment is with the just struggles of

the People and with peace and love. Brethren: in the name of God, Father

of the People, let there be no repose for

the cause of the Latin American People

mously changed so that the bread and

our lives while there is even one person being exploited in our Fatherland or anywhere else in the world.

against cruel dictatorships and the Doc

wine become a mere symbol of the lib eration of the people.

brothers!"

trine of National Security. Because You

The response: "We so promise as

THE VANISHING FARMER IMMIGRANTS who came to the United States soon populated its vast virgin

expanses and by 1916 the nation had a strong agrarian base of 32.5 million peo ple, that is, 32 percent of the population was "down on the farm."

When the Depression came, over 30 million Americans still lived on the farm, but the ratio of farm dwellers to urban

dwellers dropped to one in six. The farm

population declined further during and after World War 11 when many farmers, attracted by industry, traded the eco

nomic precariousness of farm life for the apparent security of the growing suburbias. Today,the ratio is one to forty-one. Only four percent of the American po pulation, or 5.62 million individuals, live and work on the farm, and their number continues to decline.

By government definition, a farm is a rural place that normally has annual sales of agricultural products of $1,000 or more.

Change of address. Empty mailboxes and empty fields.

their non-farm counterparts. Seventy percent of farm women stay with their

Unemployment among farm workers

husbands compared with fifty-four per cent of non-farm women. Sixty-eight

is also less frequent. Only four percent of the farm labor force was jobless in 1982, compared with the 9.5 percent for

there are marked differences between

percent of farm men were found to be

non-farm labor.

those who stayed on the farm and those who left it. According to the report, more farmers live with their spouses than

with their wives compared with sixty per

The study also noted that in 1982 the number of farmers in the United States declined by 180,000.

A document based on

1982 statis

tics and issued jointly by the Commerce and Agriculture Departments notes that

cent of non farm men. Divorce is much

less likely among farm families.

BUSINESS AS USUAL Ruthless slaughter in Afghanistan,, military repression in Poland, the downing of the Korean 747... With each new outrage by the Soviet regime, West ern governments raise furious objections to its blatant disregard for human rights and then bombastically(and reluctantly) impose only mild sanctions. It has become the fashion to impose

1981, the ten nations of the European. officials agree that there are problems in imports worth about $400 million a year,

volving compensation for the jumbo jet but in any case non-political exchanges

or 5 percent of the total, as a sign of their displeasure at the Soviets' role in the Pol

a "gradual basis" {Chronicle-Telegram,

ish matter. Member states later watered

12-27-83).

down the list to 60 products, represent ing only $140 million a year in sales. As the January 1 deadline approached,

Common Market decided to ban Soviet

sanctions, be they political or economic,

the Common Market decided to let it

and Western governments have all taken

quietly pass claiming that the sanctions had achieved their purpose. President Reagan followed suit by lift

their turn at handslapping the naughty Soviets and their mischievous henchmen.

But after a very short while such sanc tions, like other fads, lose what little meaning they may have. With the Soviet's

lack of response by way of concessions,

ing some of his own sanctions against the Polish communist military regime. The Polish government airline LOT may now resume charter flights to the U.S., and

restitution or even apologies, the "un

Polish fishermen can now cast their nets

fortunate" incidents are soon forgotten.

in U.S. waters. The action was taken

The Soviets have made no significant withdrawal from Afghanistan, yet Presi dent Reagan agreed to lift Carter's fa mous(and effective) grain embargo that

even though the Polish government has not met all of the original conditions of the sanctions.

More recent is the case of South Korea,

was intended as a protest against the

which will resume limited relations with

Soviet occupation forces in that heroic

the Soviet Union in a move to improve

country.

When the Soviet-backed Polish regime declared martial law on December 13,

with the Soviet Union will be resumed on

relations that have been strained since

the downing of the unarmed Korean 747 by Soviet jet fighters. Foreign ministry.

President Reagan Desires

"Continued Growth"for the TFP IN HIS 1984 State of the

THE WHITE HOUSE

Union Address, Presi

WASMINCTON

dent Reagan stated, "After all our struggles to restore America, to revive confi dence in our country and hope for our future; after

February 13, 1984

all our hard-won victories

earned through the patience and courage of every citizen â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we cannot, must not and will not turn back. We will

Dear Mr. Spann:

finish the job." Feeling a great conso

Thank you for your letter of support and for providing me with an up-to-date account of the activities of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family

nance with this statement,

and Property.

the American Society for the Defense of Tradition,

Family and Property(TFP) sent a letter to the President

supporting his resolution "to finish the job." The letter noted that since its

founding, the American TFP has strived by word and deed to uphold the val

I am very pleased by the support your society has given to me on many occasions and I would therefore like to express to all your members my best wishes for TFP's continued growth and prosperity. The present time affords the United States many possibilities to do good but also imposes weighty responsibilities. With your help and the help of all patriotic Americans, I know our nation can surmount all the challenges which lie ahead. With warm regards,

ues that have made America

Sincerely,

strong. The letter also enclosed a

summary of the American TFP's principal activities, noting that "An analysis of these actions will bring out the analogy between our activities and many of the essential points of your action."

We have reproduced in its

entirety President Reagan's

Mr. John R. Spann President

American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property Post Office Box 121

Pleasantville, New York

10570

response.

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

St. Thomas Aquinas and the Socialists by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

A BRAZILIAN friend of mine in Spain — actually one of that country's most ardent admirers — sent me some

news of what is going on under the pre sent socialist government.

It was no surprise for one who knows

the mentality, doctrine and program of the majority PSOE (Spanish Socialist

quences were broken chairs, empty fire

extinguishers rolling around the floor, water fountains pushed out of place or wrecked, and garbage, a lot of garbage: garbage composed of waste and (un translatable) everywhere (untranslatable). Inside the place, where the twenty-four hour program organized by the Spanish National Radio was going on, things were getting bad — in spite of being pro

Workers' Party), because Spanish so cialism (like its French counterpart) strives to destroy the family in every

tected from the bomb threats usual on

possible way. Divorce, the "depenaliza-

such occasions.

tion" of homosexuality and of abortion

But in the streets outside, where more

in many circumstances, and the promo tion of contraception are key points in

than five thousand people were pushing, shoving, screaming or doing whatever they could to get in — things were tak

the PSOE's activity. My friend wrote me:

"Immorality in Spain has really grown

ing on a tragic color. The tension in the streets gradually increased, until it finally

in the last few years. This winter all the

exploded into a wave of vandalism dif

billboards are terribly immoral,and you cannot imagine what the TV programs

tered the windows of the Sports Palace,

are like. The ambience in the schools has

ficult to justify (sic). While some shat others began to smash the windows of local shops at random. The next morn

Plinio Corrfia de Oliveira was born in Sao

Paulo, Brazil, in 1908. He received his doc torate in Law from the Law School of the

University of Sao Paulo. He is Professor of the History of Civilization at the University

unbridled immorality. In short, immor

ing, cobblers, .'ihops, jewelry stores, banks, gift shops and markets all showed

College of the University of Sao Paulo and Professor of Modern and Contemporary History in the Colleges of Sao Bento and Sedes Sapientiae of the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo.

also reached a climax of immorality. What you see in the streets are scenes of

ality has a green light and is completely

signs of a night rent by drugs and rock

out of control.

music.

"As a concrete example I'll tell you about the orgy, under the auspices of

was organized by the official National

the socialism billeted here, with which

It should be noted that this celebration

Aquinas! Yes, on the feast of the peerless

Spanish Radio, and sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Science, by the University of Madrid, and by the

Doctor of the Church, the Angelic Doc

Madrid City Hall to commemorate the

they celebrated the feast of St. Thomas

He has distinguished himself since his youth as an orator, lecturer and Catholic

journalist. He wrote regularly for the Cath olic weekly Legionario and now writes for

the monthly CatoUcismo and the large daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

tor. It took place from twelve o'clock

feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, which is

In 1960 he founded the Brazilian Society

noon on January 28 to twelve o'clock

on January 29." So reads El Alcazar.

for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and has been President of

noon on the 29th.

A lapse, a terrible lapse, but only a

"On the night of the 28th, hundreds

lapse of the socialist authorities? No.

of youngsters, frustrated in their hope

Let the reader consider another item.

of attending the Third Radio and Stu

On January 26, on an 8 o'clock p.m. Spanish TV program, all the types of contraception known to date were pre sented and described in detail. This pro gram is normally viewed by children who

dent Festival held in the Sports Palace,

took out their indignation by rampaging through the local stores and shops. The situation inside the Sports Palace was no

its National Council ever since.

TFPs and similar autonomous organiza tions were later founded in fourteen other

countries in the Americas and Europe, in spired by the book Revolution and CounierRevoluiion and other works of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira.

better after the intervention of Mayor Tierno Galvan, who literally encouraged those present to take drugs, saying: 'Rockeros, si no es que colocaos, que se co/oquen y al lore,' expressions whose approximate meaning is smoke the weed and don't miss out on what is going on

of the film, many children were inter

and sleep unconcerned. Instead of demol

around you.

viewed and asked what they thought

ishing churches and statues, socialism ac

have been out of class for some hours. At noon on January 28, a film was

shown on TV which contained utterly

Today they live side-by-side with those bulwarks. Spain has a king. It could be

pornographic material. This film was

said that there the things of th

shown on a program that is usually an

are intact, and that the various v..

rch

educational one for children. At the end

the social hierarchy appear to eat, drink

"I have taken this information from

about it. One fourteen year old boy said

claims the king and celebrates the saints.

the sober Madrid daily ABC(1/29/84).

it was normal, and that what he saw

St. Thomas Aquinas, for example...

The same item was published in the well-

in the movies was usually done on the

But the fact is that these bulwarks

known E!Alcazar, whose headline read:

camping trips he took. All this sparks obvious censures in those Brazilian ambiences which have

have been terribly thinned down, and tend to become even more so. Why,

"The Rock of a Savage Night Went Through Madrid." The subtitle was:

"Broken Windows, Smashed Showcases, Looted Stores." The item stated:

not yet conformed to the ever growing immorality in our country, which has become so socialized.

then, should the socialists waste time overthrowing them? One can see that it is better for

socialism to give the orgy free rein so as to give the people the illusion that neither is corruption the irreconcilable enemy of St. Thomas, nor is St. Thomas

"A mob destroyed a liquor store on Jose Juarez Street. Many spectators in the Sports Palace took drugs, ran and

less obvious commentary. To the social ists of the first part of the century, it

screamed, and threw rocks; it was a fight

seemed as though the victory of deprava

the irreconcilable enemy of corruption.

among madmen. As soon as they got in

Thus they attempt to incorporate the Angelic Doctor in the cortege of count

own stands. Drugs, alcohol and the stri

tion, stupidity and chaos necessary for their rise to power could only be ob tained by overthrowing the supernatural,

dent sounds of rock, usually bad (sic),

natural and historical bulwarks of tradi

soon brought on bloodshed. The conse-

tional, Christian Spain.

How well socialism moves by celebrat ing St. Thomas Aquinas!

side, some of the spectators set up their

However, I would like to close with a

less accomplices of the red socialization.

1984: YEAR OF THE TERRORIST? SINCE 1962, the U. S. government has kept facts and figures on terror

ist groups and incidents all over the world. The files list some 700 identifiable

guerrilla and terrorist groups which have committed more tham 8,000 acts of po litical violence.

Experts who analyze the figures are finding that the number of incidents is growing annually and terrorism is ex panding into countries previously unaf fected. Furthermore, the whole shape of

international terrorism is becoming more lethal, more widespread and more dif ficult to contain. The truck-bomb incidents in Lebanon

which killed nearly 300 American and French servicemen are seen by many as a mere prelude to what could come in 1984.

Among the trends that lead the experts to these conclusions are:

• More attacks are being directed

against human life. Half of the terrorist actions in 1970 were aimed at property.

Today, eighty percent of the targets are people. • Thirty-five to forty-five percent of the attacks each year are aimed at U.S. citizens or property.

• No continent is free from the crime.

In 1970, acts of terrorism were reported in 48 nations. In 1981, that number rose to 91.

"Never before have(U.S.) authorities

Fortress on the Potomac — Target for terrorists?

been so alarmed about the potential for terrorist attacks within this country's borders," reports U.S. News and World Report (1/9/84). These concerns are compounded by the fact that this year the United Stales

offers four prime targets for international

pass bearing the person's photograph.

ample documentation to support the

Industry is likewise beefing up se curity, especially companies with de fense contracts. The Pentagon has sent advisories to representatives of these companies to be on the alert against ter

claim.

terrorists — the Summer Olympics in

rorist activities after a New York-based

Los Angeles, the World's Fair in New

group called the United Freedom Front

Orleans, and the Democratic and Re

made telephone warnings that defense

publican national conventions in San Francisco and Dallas respectively. This

contractors were to be targets. The group

year's presidential and congressional campaigns also have .security officials

made good their warning with the recent

felt by the bombing of the U.S. Capitol

bombing of a Queens, N.Y. Motorola radio repair plant. The cause and source of the upshift in terrorist activity is hardly surprising. The mere fact that the vast majority of the

last November 7, has launched the fed

attacks are aimed at the West and not

eral

behind the Iron Curtain gives an indica tion as to the groups' orientation.

worried.

The anticipation of violence, already

establishment

into

fortress

mentality. "Grey alerts" requiring increased

A new book, published in January

identification checks and .searches of

1984, Terrorism: The Soviet Connection

suspicious parcels are in effect at the nation's 7,500 federal buildings. Other

by Ray S. Cline and Yonah Alexander, says that the evidence is too overwhelm ing to ignore.

top-level buildings have added extra guards and barriers.

Concrete barriers, 3 feet high and 20

feet long, aimed at frustrating suicide at

The report says that Moscow main

tains about forty terrorist training centers inside the U.S.S.R., Eastern Europe and several other nations. Train ing programs lasting up to five months teach participants such subjects as the psychology of terror, guerrilla warfare, how to take hostages, assassination tech niques and other related matters. The Soviets' use and promotion ol

rorism is quite consistent with comnu. nisi philosophy. The Conservative Digest article quotes Lenin's view of the tactic: "We can achieve nothing unless we use terror. The energy and mass nature of terror must be encouraged." The main goal of the rise of terrorism in the West is not merely the destruction

of lives and property. It seeks to bring about instability and change by making a psychological impact. Terrorism is an essential aspect of what Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira calls, in his book

"The vast archives of PLO documents captured in Lebanon in 1982 offer over

Revolution and Counier-Revolution,

"total revolutionary psychological war

tacks similar to those in Beirut block

whelming proof of direct Soviet ties to

entrances to the State Department and

the PLO and their terrorist training

the White House. The same barriers are

camps," the authors point out. An analysis made in an article in the

tional communism hopes to deceive and

February edition of Conservative Digest contends that terrorism is a vital part

"to divide at every step, disarticulate, isolate, terrorize, defame, persecute and

of Moscow's foreign policy and offers

block its adversaries."

also employed around the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York City. The Pentagon has doubled its guards. No one can enter the building without a

fare." Together with the smile of detente and the rifle of the terrorist, interna put to sleep the irreducible neutrals and

Charles Stuart, vice president of the

FUNNY MONEY

bank's marketing division, said that the ads "afforded us a very efficient cost-

AS THE voices of the homosexual

effective way of reaching an important

population become more strident and the barriers of morality that once shielded society from this aberration are

being rapidly destroyed, some business men see in this a lucrative opportunity and have joined the media and many politicians who openly support and cater

liquors are being aimed at homosexual consumers in large homosexual C02!ters like New York and San Francisco. Well-

established firms such as Seagram, Ab solut Vodka, Simon & Schuster, Dean Witter, and Reynolds, Inc. are not only

buying space in homosexual newspapers and magazines but are trying their best to improve their image among the homo sexual population. Their ads often vie

instituted a cold, lifeless "religion" of their own which is both opium and

market" {Chronicle Telegram, Elyria, Ohio, 1/16/84). The bank's philanthropic division also gave $25,000 to the Pride Center, a

scourge to those forced to bow to it. The

homosexual-oriented service agency.

become, as it were, the official state religion.

Other corporations are following suit since money, not morality, has priority.

to homosexuals.

Advertising campaigns offering bank ing services and promoting name-brand

heavily upon the shoulders of the Rus sian people, the communist rulers have

"DEIFYING" LENIN

According to Marxist philosophy,

adoration of Lenin, the leading terrorist in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and

first dictator of the Soviet state, has

Every citizen is expected to know Lenin's life story, even his early youth. Party members are required to be fa

miliar with his copious writings. January 21, the 60th anniversary of

his death, was celebrated throughout the Soviet Union with state-organized cer

religion is the opium of the people, emonies and homages. Hundreds of

an oppressor of the poor and alienated. In the name of "liberation," the Soviet

regime has been eradicating all vestiges of Russia's Christian past with systematic ruthlessness by closing or burning chur ches and persecuting the faithful.

While the yoke of communism weighs

with those of the "gay" bars and bath

houses.

Pernod Ricard, for example, which boasts of being the largest distillery in France, hosted a series of Pernod-tasting parties at fancy "gay" bars in San Fran

thousands of statues of Lenin adorn

sidewalks and squares across the coun try, and on this day the authorities en

courage newlyweds to leave bouquets at the Red Square mausoleum where the

tyrant's body is meticulously preserved.

The nation's newspapers carried bom bastic stories extolling Lenin and Lenin

ism. "Leninism â&#x20AC;&#x201D; our banner and weap on," proclaimed Socialist Industry. "Victorious banner of our epoch," par roted Red Star, the country's military paper. "Our knowledge, strength and weapon," reads the headline of the

Communist Party daily Pravda, "Lenin

cisco last spring in an effort to sell one of its cordials. In addition, Pernod do

is always with us â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in our hearts and in

nated money to the San Francisco "Gay"

our actions."

Freedom Day Marching Band. Bank of America, circumventing its

The Pravda article describes Leninism as an "irrevocable law. Time has no

own policy against advertising in local publications, recently placed a series of

power over Leninism, it has no power since Leninism (is) Marxism of the pre

full page advertisements in the homosex ual publication, the Castro Times of San

jective regularities of history..." {Rocky

sent-day epoch, truly reflecting the ob Lenin â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Feet of clay

Francisco.

Mountain News, 1/22/1984).

Socialist Sweden's Surveillance SWEDEN is marching resolutely toward the mode! Orwell set forth in his

book, 1984. Beginning this year, a gigan tic computer has started compiling de tailed information about every Swedish citizen. Big Brother, or better said, Big Bureaucracy seems to be omnipotent,

wanting to know everything about every

from their unwilling parents and placed in the hands of state institutions.

Der Spiegel interviewed Swedish

the egalitarian principle reigns tyran nically. A Swedish citizen cannot go to the doctor or hospital of his choice. For

every disease, there is a specialized hos issue. Mr. Palme confirmed the facts, pital, and someone taken by an a smiled at those with "German"(hyster lance to the wrong hospital cannu . ical) fears, and said there was not the treated. This comic-tragic situation has slightest problem. He was quoted as say already resulted in many deaths. If some Premier Olaf Palme about the whole

one. In no other country in the world are the lives of its citizens more extensively registered. To date, twenty-five cate

ing that taking children away from their

one has several diseases, he faces the

parents only proves that Sweden is more

unhappy prospect of going to different

concerned about its young than other

clinics to obtain the corresponding treat

gories are on the government's "need-to-

countries.

ment for each problem. One unfortunate

know" list. These include: what each

In Sweden women have the right to work. Unfortunately, euphoria accom panying this right is tempered by the

person ended up going to seven clinics!

Swedes pay the highest taxes in the

he admitted the information had been

Swede pays in taxes, current purchases, police record, fines incurred, ownership of weapons, bank accounts and transac

tions, credit cards, driver's license, dwell ings owned or rented, and other items too personal to be mentioned.

And, as if this stripping away of one's right to privacy were not enough of an

world, with between fifty and eighty-five used by others than for whom it was in percent of their earnings gobbled up by tended. Says Premier Palme,"We have the Ministry of Finance. For example, if everything under control" {Der Spiegel

intrusion into the average citizen's life,

a couple with three children earns the

the Swedish Department of Social Ser

Swedish average of 150,000 crowns a

vices has the right to take children away

year, their net after taxes is 100,000

from their parents when it thinks the

crowns. But if only the husband works

parents are not giving them a good edu

and earns 150,000 crowns, the net after

cation, and this "right" the State pur sues vigorously. Presently, twenty-two

taxes is only 80,000 crowns.

thousand children have been separated

As for such detailed information on

the lives of Swedish citizens, Palme harsh reality that they have to work counseled there is not the slightest prob because of the bullying tax burden. lem or danger, in spite of the fact that

Neither is there room for individuality in Sweden. Even when a person takes ill.

10/24/83). Such is the real-life situation in Sweden today. But then, of course, Orwell's book

was just wistful Marxist thinking. The Swedish experiment is proof of that, isn't it?

A Tale of Two Societies A STORY is told of a Frenchman who once, while talking with a friend from another country, uninhibitedly remarked: "France is the country most

loved by Divine Providence." At his companion's demand for proofs, he said:

The Readers'Digest article also notes eighty kinds of delicious bread baked in Mr. Poilane's shops. Mr. Poilane him self keeps rigorou.s control of affairs to

maintain the quality of his product. At

a contract for supplying bread (probably to be consumed by a privileged few in the "dictatorship of the proletariat"), Mr. Poilane passed by the window of a press agency featuring a photograph of the lines in front of his Paris shops. The cap

times he even leaves his office, puts on an apron, and prepares a batch of bread personally. "A real bread baker," he

economy in decline: bread shortage in

chose bread and wine for the miracle of Transubstantiation. And where are the

says, "should never lose contact with the

Europe"!

flour or the batter."

best bread and wine produced? In

With all this care and quality, it is no

Obviously, the miserable inhabitants of Soviet-dominated Russia, accustomed

wonder that people line up in front of

to interminable lines in front of markets

Mr. Poilane's two shops to get a sam

with empty shelves, could never have imagined that in France people line up

"When Our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to

perpetuate His presence among men, he

France!"

Much is known about French wine.

But where can one find equally as coveted French bread? Two places are mentioned in the November 1983 Belgian issue of the Readers' Digest: Rue de Cherche-Midi and Boulevard de Crenelle, in Paris. There is where the connoisseur

of good bread will find the Poilane bakeries, owned by Lionel Poilane, a

member of a family which has been in

the bread baking business since the six teenth century.

Every day, planes leave Paris with boxes of bread from the Poilane bakery destined for the United States, Germany and the Mid-East. Twice a week a ship ment goes out to Tokyo. What makes the bread of Lionel Poi

lane so special?

First, the flour he uses is stone-ground and contains all the minerals, germ and fats of whole wheat. Mr. Poilane does

not care for the standardized, bleached white bread that is baked in electric ovens. His ovens are heated with wood. No thermostat is used to control their

temperature because, he says, a good bread baker should know how to do it

just by experience. As for machines, Mr. Poilane uses them only to mix the batter. Given the volume of bread he

produces, mixing manually would be much too tiring. When the bread is finished baking, the loaves are stored in wicker baskets identical to those used

in the sixteenth century. Buying bread: In France (above), in Russia (below)

pling of his tasty bread. Those lines led to an interesting epi sode. Once on a trip to Moscow to close

tion beneath read: "The capitalist

to buy delicious bread that for them ex ists only in the old Russian fairy tales.

Ad Memoriam According to Catholic sources, a 70-year old Chinese Roman Catholic

priest who spent 29 years In a labor camp has died.

The sources, who asked to remain anonymous, reported that Rev. Francis

a loaded Uzi submachine gun,two extra

offering sex education courses to Its

clips and 70 9-mm bullets.

students â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hardly newsworthy, except

After negotiations on the ground failed to resolve the situation, the Boeing 727 took off, with 152 passengers aboard. A half-hour later, the gunman surrendered his weapon to the jet's captain and asked for political asylum. Once on the ground, FBI agents led

for the fact that the teacher will be an avowed prostitute.

The repugnant move at the Technical

Institute of Castelmagglore Is having lit tle reaction from residents.

"It is a correct initiative from both the

Zhude died In a labor camp In Hefel, 248 miles west of Shanghai. No cause or date of death was given.

Windsor away amidst the passengers' applause, not for the efficiency of the law

Father Zhude was arrested In June

enforcement officers or the attitude of

"an interesting perspective" {Chronicle,

1955, In Shanghai, and although It was

the crew... but for the hijacker. "We all rooted for the hijacker," said

Elyria, Ohio, 1/30/84).

known that the Paris-educated Jesuit

he was given an additional twelve-year

Pat Brooks, one of the passengers. "I think he aid a very courageous act to get

sentence last June. The charges were

out of a situation he didn't want to be In"

not known but It Is believed the sentence stemmed from his refusal to break ties

{Newsday, 2/13/84).

was suffering from high blood pressure,

to the Vatican and join the puppet state-

scientific and cultural points of view," claims the Institute's principal Paola De Donato, who added it will offer students

Texas Ruling In 1974, the Texas Board of Education

ruled that biology textbooks used In the

state must treat evolution as merely a theory about man's origin. Now, neither Darwin, the venerated mentor (or Inven

approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association {San Francisco Chronicle,

Of Cabbages and Kids

2/8/84).

called "Cabbage Patch craze" goes on.

tor) of evolution himself nor his everevolving theory need be mentioned In

The makers of the Cabbage Patch Kids

Texas textbooks.

are still in high gear, waiting lists con tinue to outstrip supplies, and would-be

educators, in rages not so unlike those

Imposed immorality Residents of an apartment complex In southwest Houston were told that they

Christmas is long over, but the so-

buyers still line up even In freezing

must conform to mandatory nudist re

weather outside stores. New shipments of the dolls are snatched up within the

quirements or leave.

hour.

April 1, the complex would have areas In

The homely dolls come complete with "birth certificates" and "adoption papers." Babyland General Hospital In Cleveland, Georgia makes the original,

which nudity is mandatory. Residents must sign a rigid new lease agreement

market for $125 and up. Coleco Industries

abiding by those conditions on March 1.

of Connecticut mass produced a cheaper

Officials of Corson Financial Corp., which owns the 278-unlt Fleldstone

Apartments, announced that starting

Citing a depressed rental market, of ficials said that by the arbitrary decision they hoped to attract nudist tenants {St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2/8/84).

more expensive all-fabric dolls which

version with a elastic head which Is be

ing whisked up for $20. Nearly three million of the dolls were "adopted" between June and the end of December. Paradoxically, over one mil lion unborn Americans were refused the

Students' Dress Code

same privilege last year.

Students at Virginia's Washington and Lee University are upset with the dress code and putting pressure on the univer

sity to change the way Its students dress

Press Criteria

In Grenada using a fiim released by the Pentagon. Indignant over press restric tions, CBS conspicuously put "Cleared

campuses across the nation. The stu

by Defense Department Censors" at the

dents leading the action are demanding

bottom of the screen. The news com

that their male classmates wear neckties

mentator mentioned twice that the film

to class as prescribed in the university

was shot and censored by the U.S. gov

code.

"We want to strengthen the traditional

ernment, Implying that the government release was untrustworthy.

values that made this school very uni que," says W & L student body President

trouble to Inform its viewers of a similar

think Is correct" {Fortune, 3/5/84).

Rooting for the Bad Guy As American Airlines flight 658 from Port-au-Prlnce, Haiti to New York's Ken nedy Airport was preparing for takeoff, Jean Phlllippe Windsor, of Haiti, boarded the plane and demanded to go along. The 34-year-old Haitian army corporal carried

In the Marxist state of Zimbabwe, peo ple have to watch what they say about

the nation's officials. Making fun of President Canaan Banana's name was

recentiy made a crime punishable by up to five years In jail and a $1,000 fine. The Law and Order Maintenance Act of 1983 makes It an offense to undermine

the authority of the head of state, en gender "feelings of hostility" toward him or "cause hatred, contempt or ridicule" of him.

President Banana's prestige has slip made In Zimbabwe {Speakup, Jan.-Feb.,

On October 27, all three major net

Surprisingly, the move Is contrary to the "everything goes" attitude so pre valent today on college and university

to do what In our hearts and minds we

No Laughing Matter

1984).

works reported on the American rescue

Robert Jenevein. "Wearing neckties to

of their would-be predecessors, called the move a drastic step backwards.

ped as a result of derogatory remarks

for school.

class may not be popular, but we have

Upon hearing the ruling,"progressive"

However, CBS did not take the same

film. On August 3, CBS News used video tapes taken on a Soviet ship, the Ulyanov, In a NIcaraguan port to prove the Presi

Perplexed? Bewildered?

Confused?

dent wrong In saying that the ship was carrying military equipment. The broad

cast failed to mention or include a cap tion that the tape was shot by a Cuban camera crew and cleared by Cuban mil

itary authorities {NFD Journal, 2/84).

Sex Education â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Italian Style A technical Institute near Bologna Is

For Clarity and Insight Subscribe to The TFP Newsletter

Moscow Attacks the TFP X Escucha Chile (Chile Listens). "They have again turned to aggres sion, calumnies and harassment against

ly do it at the service of the CIA. "Only a few days ago, the holy al liance of the dictatorship of Pinochet and El Mercurio gave them two pages to

No!To Divorce In New Ireland

WITH most of the nations of Cath

the church, and have resurrected this organization that seems to have come

place an ad against the Church, against opposition to the dictatorship, against

from the Middle Ages both by its gaudy dress and by its thinking.

Property?

the people of Chile in general. And this they did to stage their comeback and resume their attacks against the Catholic Church, on a date with religious mean ing: December 8.

"Right, Pepe, these cavemen who did much at the service of the rightist con spiracy against the government of the

Chilean Catholic Church is now like it

undermined the family in other coun

was in its heyday, and the regime of

tries, has been forbidden by the constitu tion siace 1937. Now, however, the issue

"You are talking about Fiducia, this

organization called Tradition, Family,

"So that the aggression against the

olic Europe abandoning Christian tradition by approving abortion and divorce laws, Ireland in this regard stands out as a notable exception. Last

year, by an almost two-to-one margin, an abortion referendum was defeated,

leaving Ireland one of the last abortionless countries in Europe. Likewise, civil divorce, a scourge that has seriously

Popular Unity, and who also attacked the government of Eduardo Frei. "That is to say, under the disguise of

Pinochet, El Mercurio and the CIA have

their hands into it all the way" {Audio

of divorce has returned to Irish news.

a medieval crusade against Marxism, the

Noticias Internacional, Radio Moscow,

same crusade that is talked about in

• The New Ireland Forum,a body made Qp of Northern Ireland's largely Catholic

White House circles, the Fiducias (de

program Escucha Chiie, 12/19/83, 18:30 hs. GMT).

fend) the interests of the terrorist and

What was Radio Moscow so upset

Social Democratic and Labour Parties

criminal dictatorships, and they obvious-

about? Read on...

and other political parties in the Irish republic, has been discussing the idea of

FACED with the growing subversive

tain way, all of us are infiltrated... be

the largely Protestant Northern sector

cause ideas circulate throughout the ambiences. There is probably Christian in filtration in Marxist groups as there must also be Marxists in Christian groups... infiltration of ideas, of influence, is in

into the Irish Republic, which is ninety-

evitable and good."

Taking this as an answer to its pre viously published critical study of the

taught by Catholic social doctrine. In a forty-five page document addres sed to the forum, the Irish bishops re

In support of their action, the Chilean

inroads that leftist subversion made

iterated the Church's position by de

TFP published an Open Letter to Juan

in the ranks of the Chilean clergy, the Chilean TFP responded by publishing its own reply, "Archbishop Fresno Says In

claring that a united "new Ireland" should not permit divorce.

Catholic country or its government

that their attitudes were shared by hun

filtration of Marxist Ideas and Influence in the Church Is Good — The TFP Re spectfully Asks the President of the

dreds of thousands of other Chilean

Chilean Bishops Conference For an Ex

or statutes reflect Catholic values. Such

Catholics. The paid advertisement was titled, "From Pudahuel: The Distress of

planation" {El Mercurio, 12/22/83). Finally, the hierarchy responded. A statement issued by the Secretary of the

a legal system may sometimes be repre

and Nuns in Low-Income Neighborhoods Ascends to Archbishop Fresno."

Bishops' Conference, Sergio Contreras,

than the rights of the majority."

Archbishop of Temuco, railed that the

The prelates point out that a similar

Shortly thereafter, the Chilean TFP published an extensive document, also

TFP did not deserve any response and

situation exists in England, where the

addressed to Archbishop Fresno, which

organization. The Chilean TFP answered this out

tion and divorce legislation that is hostile

subversive activity taking place in the

burst by publishing the prelate's state ments in full and reaffirming not only

Allowing civil divorce in Irelanu, ..le bishops continued, would be "a direct attack on the very institution of mar riage, therefore on the institution of the family, and, accordingly, on the basic fabric of our society."

action of many priests, nuns and seminarians who were limiting access to

the Sacraments and favoring the return of the nation to the state of affairs which

existed during the time of Allende, three hundred mothers from the city of Puda-

huel circulated a petition expressing their alarm about the situation.

Francisco Fresno, Archbishop of San

tiago, in El Mercurio (11/6/83) that respectfully delineated the concerns of the three hundred mothers and noted

300 Mothers Over the Action of Priests

deeply analyzed how the political-institu tional crisis in Chile was concealing the

a "new Ireland" with the integration of

denied

that

was

Catholic

religious field. The study, "There Are

the facts about the subversive actions of

Some Who, In the Name of the Faith, Intend to Lead Us to an Atheistic, Bloody

the clergy in Chile, but the organization's

and Tyrannical Regime — A Puppet of

12/17/83).

genuine Catholicity as well {El Mercurio,

five percent Catholic. Discussion between Catholic and Protestant forum members

has been particularly sensitive on the

prohibition of civil divorce, which is

The bishops stated that a Roman "should not feel it necessary to apolo gize that its legal system, constitution,

sented as offensive to minorities; but the rights of a minority are not more sacred

Catholic minority lives with recent abor to Catholic values.

Moscow," appeared in the December 8, 1983 edition of El Mercurio. Having

from marital breakdown can be resolved

They said that most social ills resulting

pointed out the grave dangers facing the

without recourse to civil divorce.

nation, the study asked Archbishop Fresno, as the spiritual leader of millions of Chileans, to take remedial action.

Currently, Ireland's civil courts grant approximately twelve annulments an

There was no official reply to the mes sage, but only a surprising, unofficial

their decision on the relaxed restrictions

reply. The December 14 issue of La Tercera

published a statement of Bernardino Pinera, Archbishop of La Serena, presi dent of the Chilean Bishops' Conference.

nually. Catholic Church tribunals, basing df Vatican II, grant almost ten times that number yearly. The New Ireland Forum has yet to fake d position on divorce, but the calls for a national referendum on divorce or

a liberalization of current laws lead to

During the last session of the Bishops'

suspicions that in the name of ecumenism

Conference, Archbishop Pinera was

and ifnity, a watered-down divorce law

quoted in the paper as saying,"In a cer-

may Well be in the works.

DE-SACRALIZING ROME The Eternal City, City of Martyrs and Saints, Apostoiic See, Sacred City â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all are titles that refer to Rome as the center of the Catholic Church and of Christendom.

Tragically, the secularization of Italian

society has made possible a new concor dat between the laicist Italian state and

the Vatican that tarnishes this august im

age of Rome and its host state, Italy. Rome has lost its status as a "sacved"

city and Roman Catholicism has been abolished as the state religion of Italy.

The new concordat was signed by Prime Minister Bettino Craxe and Vati

can Secretary of State Agostino Cardinal Casaroli at the Villa Madama, a govern ment-owned palace in Rome. The new fourteen-article document is the result of

fifteen years of negotiations between the Italian state and the Vatican and was made to remove what Craxi called "un

Swiss Guards at the Vatican. Outflanked by Msgr. Casaroli?

suitable and anachronistic provisions

schools, wi'l no longer be mandatory. Priests will continue to receive exemp

commission is due to report back on the

tions from Italian military service, and Italy will still pay part of their salaries. However, clergymen will not receive special jail privileges if arrested. Another tragic provision of the new

Deputies gave their approval to the con cordat, and the signed version is expected

now governing church-state relations." Although ninety percent of the people of Italy are baptized Roman Catholics, the practice of the faith has waned con

siderably. This has been evidenced by the fact that Italian voters have rejected referendums that would have prohibited divorce and reversed one of Europe's most liberal abortion laws.

The agreement codified this trend by

abolishing the Catholic Church's status as the official state religion, thus great ly diminishing the powers of the Church in civil affairs. It makes Church marriage annulments subject to state confirma tions and requires parents to state on a yearly basis whether or not they want

their children to participate in religion classes that, although offered in the

concordat is the removal of Rome from

matter in six months.

Both the Senate and the Chamber of

to pass both houses in Parliament. The Communists expressed satisfac

its official status of "Sacred City."

tion with the agreement. In an editorial

Among the privileges that designation af forded was the banning of offensive and

in L'Unita, the Communist Party

pornographic books and shows inside the city limits. The floodgates of filth are

that "from the point of view of the Com

now open.

substantive requirements" have been met {The New York Times, 2/19/84). Following the signing, Cardinal Casa

The status of Vatican City as an in dependent city headed by the Pope re mains intact.

The only unresolved issue is the taxa tion and administration of Church pro perly, charities and investments. A joint

newspaper. Senator Paolo Bufalini wrote munist Party the most important and

roli declared that the pact was consistent with the conclusions of the Second Vati

can Council, particularly those involving religious liberty.

Is This the Death of Europe? JUST after Spain passed an infamous

imminent threat to the unborn baby. The

Portugal's ten million people, i

law legalizing abortion, neighboring

communists had introduced a clause that

eight percent are Catholic. On the other side of Europe, the Greek Socialist government ran through Parlia ment a much more liberal bill allowing

Portugal tragically followed suit on

would have allowed abortion for mothers

January 27 by passing a similar bill in

with "economic difficulties," but it was

Parliament.

deleted after long debate. As usual in such cases, unofficial and

In a healed floor debate, the nation's ruling Socialists along with the Commu nist members of Parliament garnered enough votes to have the bill passed. The so-called "moderate" bill, which will in

evitably open the floodgates to even more liberal measures, permits abortion

only in cases in which the mother's life is threatened, rape, fetal deformity and

abortion within the first trimester. If the

undocumented statistics circulated which

woman is married, her husband's con

said that 2,000 women die from as many

sent must first be obtained. Unofficial

as 200,000 clandestine abortions commit

reports put the annual number of illegal

ted each year in Portugal and that the "compromise" measure would remedy

abortions at 150,000 in the nation of

the loss of life.

At present, only Ireland and Belgium have the honor of maintaining laws pro

Tragically, the mass slaughter of in

nocents will soon begin in yet another overwhelmingly Catholic nation. Of

nine million.

hibiting the heinous, anti-natural crime of abortion.

TFP Newsletter â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A fortnightly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP). John Horvat, Editor. Twenty-four issues per year. Subscription rates $22.50 per year for U.S. and Canada (sent First Class); surface mail to other countries, $22.50 per year; airmail rates upon request. For subscription & information write TFP Newsletter, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.V. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

OLYMPIC-SIZE ESPIONAGE WHEN,at a meeting in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, a senior Soviet member of the International Olympic Committee spoke well of the prepara tions for the 1984 Summer Olympics

Games, Los Angeles City officials were surprised. For four years, Constantin Andria-

nov had been criticizing the American efforts to organize the games at the Los Angeles site. But as the July 28 starting date looms closer, his positive remarks were seen as an indication that the

Soviets do plan to participate. Andrianov commented that the Los

Angeles organizing committee is "working very well." While he admit ted that the Soviets had some criticism

in the past, the Soviet IOC member af

firmed that they were now eager "to congratulate the organizing committee on the excellent Job they have done."

Los Angeles Olympic Committee Pre sident Peter V. Ueberroth was amazed

at the statement that "obviously had been carefully prepared in advance." "I was very surprised to hear his ex

^..Li ipii n.i

ceedingly complimentary statements after about four years of remarks that,

by and large, were negative" {Los Angeles Times, 2/7/84). What was the motive behind this

seemingly gratuitous sign of good will? A Soviet defector has testified that it

is not good will that is prompting the change of direction but a unique es pionage opportunity. Thomas Schuman, a former editor

for the Novosti Press Agency, a KGB

Moscow's Lenin Stadium.

The Downing of

Training ground for sports and spying.

the Korean Jumbo Jet.

An Olympic achievement?

front, claims that United States is on the verge of allowing the Soviets to ac cumulate a wealth of sensitive informa

tion when twenty-five planeloads of Soviet "tourists and journalists" will land in Los Angeles this summer. At a news conference sponsored by

travel restrictions presently placed on

familiar with the techniques "jour

the Costa Mesa-based Ban The Soviets

nalists" used to carry out espionage.

Coalition, Shuman, whose given name

Soviet journalists, they will have a field day in accomplishing their objectives."

is Yuri Bezmenov, said: "At least 75

Shuman, who defected in 1970, also

group of over 120 national and state

percent of Soviet journalists are KGB

contends that the Soviet ship that plans

organizations, including the American

members, whose assignment during the

to dock in Los Angeles harbor will serve as a veritable command post for

TFP, that wants to bar the Russians

sion and recruitment of agents to buy, such operations. The former journalist

for the outrageous shooting down of

steal, or search out U.S. high technol ogy secrets. If the U.S. agrees to lift the

Korean Airlines Jumbo jet last Sep tember 1, killing 269 people.

Olympics will include spying, subver

claims that when working for Novosti Press Agency he became personally

The Ban the Soviets Coalition is a

from the Summer Games in retaliation

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

THE RABBIT by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

OF THE three principles affirmed in

should last as long as the world is the

the name TFP — Tradition, Family

world; as a sacred right of man because he is man; a right, therefore, that no state can abolish without entering a very grave and head-on conflict with Catholic morality. For this reason it is even stranger that some Catholics classify private property

and Property — only the third, that is, property, is contested with a certain in sistence. This contestation comes primar

ily — and naturally so — from socialists and communists, who deny private pro

perty. However, it also comes at times Catholic circles, and this is much less

as an injustice of former times that the Church supported out of weakness, but

natural.

from which She should become disas

The businessman is, by definition, an owner, and it is incomprehensible that someone be comfortably and opulently installed in the position of an owner and

sociated at this point in human evolu

from certain business sectors and some

at the same time be against property. This contradiction is like that of a mon

arch who is also a republican, or the president of a republic who also calls himself an anarchist. Given these hypo theses, it would be a shocking contradic tion for the monarch not to renounce his

crown or the president his capacity as chief of State. It is no less shocking for the owner not to renounce his goods and give them to works of charity, for example. That Catholics be against private pro

perty is also extremely odd. In the first place, the hostility to private property of many of them shows through rather than shows up. That is, it filters out through insinuations, veiled criticisms, and unex

pected connivance with the left rather than by frank affirmation. Why all this mystery? If they are against private pro perty, why don't they say so? And if they favor it, why do they never defend it? Why does their sympathy always go out to those who attack it? And why does

their antipathy turn only against those

tion. Was it then a weakness of God to

affirm private property in two Com mandments of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods." And was it a weakness of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Plinio Correa de Oliveira was born in

Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1908. He received

his degree in Law from the Law School

to corroborate the Decalogue for all time

of the University of Sao Paulo. He was

by affirming that "...till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not

Professor of the History of Civilization at the University College of the Univer

pass of the law..." (Matt. 5:18)?

sity of Sao Paulo and Professor of

What is most irksome is that between

this patronal "antiownerism" and its "Catholic" counterpart there are pro found convergences. "Antiownerist" businessmen attempt to justify their position in terms of the encyclicals, and "antiownerist" Cath olics in economic terms. Both seem to think that the world is

heading for an esoteric situation already known to them, but which they do not yet dare reveal to us. This situation would not be identical to Communism, although it would include the abolition of private property. That is, we con clude, it would be genuinely communist. What rabbit is about to jump out of the sleeves or pockets of these enigmatic magicians?

Modern and Contemporary History in the Colleges of Sao Bento and Sedes Sapientiae of the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo. He has distinguished himself since his youth as an orator, lecturer and Cath olic journalist. He wrote regularly for the Catholic weekly Legionario and now writes for the monthly Catolicismo

and the large daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. In 1960 he founded the Brazilian

Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and has been President of its National Council ever since.

TFPs and similar autonomous organ izations were later founded in fourteen other countries in the Americas and

Europe, inspired by his book Revolu tion and Counter-Revolution.

who defend it?

It must be said that there are Catholics

This rabbit portends nothing good.

who go even farther, and openly affirm that the Church is completely discon

The mystery created before finally bring

nected from the institution of private

ing it out for the admiration of the peo

act freely in economic matters would be

recognized if he were not likewise given the ability to choose and env ' the

property in our days. They say that

ples can only raise suspicions. Even be

means necessary for the exercis.

Communism, as a social and economic

fore the rabbit appears on the scene, it

right. Moreover, experience and History

regime, is just as acceptable to the

attest to the fact that where political regimes do not recognize the ownership by individuals ofeven the means ofpro duction then the use of humanfreedom

ligion. Once the persecutions cease, the

promises to be the bearer of calamities. It is therefore necessary to do everything we can to keep the rabbit inside the sleeves or pockets of the magicians. The best way to do this is to cite some of the pontifical teachings on private

Church will accept living in total har

property which both disconcert the busi

tainly becomes clear that freedom finds

mony with communist states, just as She

nessmen and silence the Catholics of the

has placidly done with the capitalist

"antiownerist" clique.

protection and incentive in the right of private property" (Encyclical "Mater et Magistra," A.A.S, Vol. LIII, pg. 427 —

Church as any other, and that the only reason for the conflict between Com munism and the Church until now was

the fact that the former persecuted Re

states, as She felt at ease in the mon

Now,the position of these leftist Cath

in fundamental matters is violated or

completely destroyed. From this it cer

emphasis ours).

archical-centralist state before the French

Revolution, and as She even more remo tely, that is, in the Middle Ages, co operated intimately with the feudal state.

his

So they will not say that these teach

ings are obsolete (what is an obsolete papal teaching?), I'll start right off with a text of John XXIII:

olics is disconcerting since private pro perty, with one accidental change or the other, is pointed out in pontifical do

"... the right ofprivate property, even in relation to goods employed in produc

cuments as an institution proceeding from the fixed and invariable aspects of the very nature of things. It is thus refer red to as a legitimate institution that

on the very nature of things which tells

tion, is validfor all time. For it depends

Through this passage one sees the

legitimacy and perennity of the regime of private property. It proves with lu minous simplicity how the supression of private property amounts to the most complete tyranny. In my next article, I will furnish the

reader with other quotations. (If any of our readers would like a copy of the ty andfor this reason, civil society exists follow-up article "The Popes and Private for man. Furthermore, no one's right to Property," we will be glad to provide it). us the individual is anterior to civilsocie

Swindles, Schemes and Social Security IN DECEMBER of 1919, an Italian im

tributed to the support of one "winner."

And the future does not look good. By

migrant named Charles Ponzi con

The initial investment was naturally quite

the year 2050, the number of people over 65 (and therefore "winners" in the in stant money scheme) will make up 22

vinced twelve friends that by trading

modest.

international postal coupons, he could

With today's smaller families and the

make them a 50 percent profit within 45

decreasing number of young people en tering the job market, the "investors" are becoming much more scarce. Now social security taxes are huge, in some cases, as much as fourteen percent of a

days on an initial $250 investment. At the end of the 45 days, the twelve friends filed into Ponzi's office and

received S375. When Ponzi repeated his offer, most of the investors returned the

money to him on the spot for reinvest ment.

Soon the word spread that the incredi ble Ponzi could make everybody rich and within a month, thousands of people

person's salary. Three workers must sup port each "winner." Unlike Ponzi, the

government does not have any special fund for the money collected for later payment to investors but uses the social security monies like regular taxpayer dollars.

percent of the population â&#x20AC;&#x201D; double the present figure. The case of the incredible Ponzi should be a lesson for all those who advocate unsound economic "wonder" theories.

Social security, deficit spending and so many other economic policies of today that are based on spending money that

really isn't there may work for a while, but they are sure to end up sooner or later in disaster.

lined up in front of his office to give him their money, expecting to return 45 days later and collect their almost-instant fifty percent profit. By April of 1920, he was

collecting a quarter of a million dollars a day. He had to hire sixteen clerks to take the money and an equal number to

guard his daily haul. In less than six months, Ponzi had taken in over $10 million and his name was famous from coast-to-coast. Ad

justing to the increased business, he soon opened a new office and gave his busi ness a new name, "Securities Exchange Company." He bought a 20-acre estate and spent $500,000 decorating it. Rumor

had it that he spent over $100,000 stock ing his wine cellar. The incredible Ponzi was finally ruined when a former friend informed Boston

police that Ponzi was wanted in Mon treal on a forgery charge. A further in vestigation soon revealed the scheme of the master swindler.

As long as the number of Ponzi's new

investors grew and supplied with him enough money to pay off his old in vestors, the scheme would work. His

fame provided him with this essential ele ment of his prosperity. Of course, it is inevitable in all such cases that when the

numbers level off, those at the end of the

Losers. Future workers: The social security numbers don't add up. Winners. Retirees: In the game early.

line finally pay for the profit of those

gained in the beginning as well as the "profit" skimmed off by the promoters. The Ponzi scheme is not new. Through out history, variations of the ingenious Italian's game have been played using roughly the same principle. According to Irwin Schiff, author of The Social Security Swindle, one of the most striking examples still in operation is the Social Security System. Operating on a scale that would dwarf the incredi

ble Ponzi's wildest dreams, millions of workers have to pay into the system to

guarantee a secured return at the end of their working years. The Social Security Administration doesn't have to rely on word of mouth to enroll millions of new

workers in the plan. In most cases, par

ticipation is mandatory. In the beginning of the venture, it was easy to be a "winner." Those who started collecting had paid little or nothing into the system and yet received all the bene fits, and in 1950 fifteen workers con

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1 Comparable Worth: Incomprehensible CONSIDERABLE controversy has de veloped around a new cure-all em

ployment plan that supposedly will end job discrimination on the basis of sex. The doctrine is called "comparable worth," a name which sounds innocuous

enough but whose application promises to be another nightmarish scheme to

equate things which by their very nature are unequal. Its advocates are pushing to make it the "civil rights issue of the 1980s."

The formula goes much farther than mere pay equity between women and men. Equal pay for equal work is not the issue nor could it be since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 guarantees this. Proponents

of comparable worth contend that a massive (yet undocumented) societal

conspiracy has segregated women into particular jobs. These "women's jobs"

are not paid according to their relative worth to their employers as "men's

jobs" are, but derive from antiquated

pay scales that are still imbued with sex discrimination.

Cited, for example, is the pay differ ence between the female-dominated nur

sing profession and the male-dominated contruction trades. The result is a gap between the average wages of men and women which allegedly is 59 cents to every male-earned dollar. Even the proponents of comparable

worth are at a loss as to how to remedy

the supposed problem. What essentially is involved is comparing entirely dif ferent work in different industries in different labor markets and somehow

coming up with an equitable solution.

Some kind of direct government inter vention or "affirmative action" is sought

to equalize the 23,000 job titles listed by the Census Bureau, a task that promises to be a bureaucrat's apotheosis and a taxpayer's horror. The whole issue gained impetus when

a federal judge in Tacoma, Washington ruled thai the state had discriminated

against women by failing to pay 15,000 state workers holding traditionally fe

male jobs on a scale comparable to those in male dominated jobs. The plaintiffs will receive a projected $500 million in back pay and wages. Thus far, comparable worth advocates have succeeded in passing legislation in fourteen states. Most of it, however, is

very vaguely worded and little has been done to implement it.

One of the most enlightening discus

sions on the cloudy concept was the Con ference on Comparative Worth spon sored by the Eagle Forum and held in Washington last fall. Organizers of the conference brought in experts from all

fields, both pro and con, to focus on the goals, techniques and practical impact of comparable worth economics. The discussions revealed that the issue

is much more complex than the simplistic wage gap presented by feminists. The cir-

r ing their children. The responsibilities of

led by incompetents. According to Dr. Walter Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University and author of The State Against Blacks, comparable worth conjures up the notion of a "just wage, but in reality is a concept that does

Dr. Michael Levin of the City College

motherhood often require a flexible job

not exist in economic theory or the real

of New York showed that the average

close to home which consequentally af

world.

number of work hours per week for

fects the wages she is paid. What really irks most feminists is that the traditional family structure itself, in

that the arbitrary readjustment of wages

cumstances surrounding women in em

Mr. Gilder points out that marriage

ployment are not the same as those sur rounding men, and for the most part the

motivates men to work harder in the labor force â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as much as two and a half to four times as hard. On the other hand, women tend to devote more time to rais

wage gap can be explained by economic factors.

For example, during the conference,

employed women is 35.7, while for men the average is 44. The average woman

many cases, favors the unequal distribu

stays with the same employer for 2.6 years while the average for men is 4.5

tion of wealth between the sexes especial

years.

ly since the feminists attach no economic

Mr. George Gilder, author of the best-

selling book Wealth and Poverty noted that women choose part-time work much

Dr. Michael Levin goes further, noting impedes industry's ability to compete. Government, he said, can adopt such

policy because it does not need to make a profit or compete. It simply raises taxes

value at all to noble careers like mother

to make up for what it wastes. Impos

hood and homemaking.

ing the same system on the private sec

Schemes like comparable worth legis

tor however would amount to national economic suicide.

men but only one-third of women work

late conditions that tend to favor the "liberated" feminist lifestyle by jeopar

full time year-round. A women in her

dizing the very conditions that allow

Orville Bergen, a businessman and president of the Illinois Manufacturers'

prime is eleven times more likely to leave a job than a man and thus tends to

mothers to work. If the average man

Association, sees the measure as one

works longer hours to make a living,

more government regulatory burden that

choose easily transferrable, non-tech

then women must sacrifice time with

would substantially damage the American

nical jobs.

economy. Noting that high regulatory

more often than men. Three-fourths of

One major factor in the debate is an

children, flexibility and their part-time option if they are to be paid comparably.

institution that feminists hold to be of

Aside from being a veiled attack on

little worth and conservatives hold to be

the family, the theory also suffers from grave economic impediments. Dr. Lindsey believes that comparable

to believe it is being taken seriously.

worth is unworkable because when wage

victory for its enthusiastic supporters, leading to an exodus of jobs and doing

of incomparable worth: the family. Ac cording to Dr. Cotton Mather Lindsay, professor at Emory University Business School, there is no wage gap between un married men and unmarried women in the present labor market.

disparities lose equilibrium with market

costs are already pushing many busines ses overseas, Bergan said "This com

parable worth concept is so bad. it's hard Comparable worth would be a Pyrrhic

forces, workers leave less attractive jobs.

more harm than good"{Business Action

These jobs will go unfilled or will be fil

Network: Washington, 12/83).

When a woman leaves the work force

and exercises her right to constitute a family, a new factor enters that changes the earnings of both men and women. Clockwise from top: Students in secretarial school, housewife at market, oil rigger. Vic tims of a societal conspiracy?

''2nd Class" Commitment Two-thirds of the men and women interviewed in a recent major news

paper poll believe the women's move ment has not helped them. The results

appear to indicate that the women's movement which claims to represent all

women is really a very vocal minority serving special interest groups. The poll by the New York Times found that only 26 percent of the 927 women and 382 men interviewed believe that the women's movement has helped

them get better jobs. Sixty-five percent of the men and sixty-three percent of the women were critical of the movemen

Mondale: "Who's got the votes?"

itself and of the changes that it has made in American life {Concerned Womenfor

other things, to guarantee these so-called

America, 2/84).

"rights."

nist movement remains a minority since

At the NOW-sponsored "lesbian rights" leadership conference, held in

it openly expresses its radical views, which are hardly consistent with tradi

power and politics for 1984. In addition,

It is hardly any wonder that the femi

Milwaukee, the main theme was lesbian

tional values and morality. Indicative of this is the position of the

for the first time in its 17 year history,

radical feminist National Organization for Women (NOW) which won wide

candidate. Former Vice President Walter

spread publicity for its futile ten year effort to pass the Equal Rights Amend ment(ERA). Women all over the coun try who NOW claimed to represent, lob

didates for his support of the NOW plat

bied to see the measure soundly defeated. Now the feminist organization is open

the group has endorsed a presidential Mondale was chosen over the other can

form, one of whose key planks is the homosexual "rights" issue.

At a press conference after the en dorsement, NOW president Judy Gold

smith praised Mondale for "his commit

ly promoting the homosexual and lesbian

ment to economic and social justice for

"rights" issue and is hoping to use its political clout (or at least its ever-favor able media coverage)to insure that poli

all Americans, including millions of les bians and 'gay' men who will no longer

tical candidates will promise, among

tolerate second-class citizenship"{Human Events, 3/3/84).

Natural Disasters If it seems like the United States is

getting more than its share of natural disasters, well, it is. This phenomenon has had particularly disastrous effects in the property and casualty insurance in dustry, which just suffered its worst year on record. The industry has registered losses every year since 1978. Last year, claims resulting from Hur ricane Alicia in August and the severe December freeze brought losses to an all-time high. Analysts expect damages to total over $2 billion, while overall

underwriting losses for the year will hit $12.2 billion (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/14/84).

The eight-inch fringe-toed lizard, which lives only in the Coachella Valley, is holding up millions of dollars' worth of development in the area. A ten-month ban on development is presently in effect until the problem of the lizard is resolved.

With private and federal money, the developers hope to raise $20 million to buy up 20 square miles for the lizards. Residents of a retirement village in Berkeley Township, New Jersey, have run into a similar problem. Their problem is not lizards but snakes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; two species protected by law.

Before the last 250 single-family dwell ings in the village can be constructed, developer Robert F. Dross must build for

ty snake pits to house the native corn

and pine snakes. Although the pine log "No-Fault" Criminals With the incidents of child abuse and

kidnapping rising at an alarming rate, one major insurance firm is offering coverage for potential crime victims. The plans not

and brush snake pits do not pose a safe

ty hazard to humans, the proposal has outraged homeowners who are not inter ested in sharing their yards with the en dangered reptile (Corpus Christi Caller, 2/21/84).

Reach Out and Touch

Something A Los Angeles psychologist has in vented the last word in instant psychol ogy. The so-called "Stress Control Card," a small piece of plastic about the size of a credit card, will tell the user at any time his or her stress level and how to remedy the problem.

Alfred Barrios, a Los Angeles clinical psychologist, claims that the card will relieve stress and thereby cut down on diseases and illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart attacks and chronic ex

cesses like drinking, smoking, overeating and drug abuse. All this, for just $3.95. In some quarters, however, the touch

sensitive card is apparently being taken seriously. The U.S. Navy purchased 20,000

for use in Its alcohol and drug safety programs.

The secret is in a small square of heatsensitive liquid crystal which is pasted on the card. Holding one's thumb over

only cover crimes committed on the

the square for ten seconds vvill result in

streets, but can even apply to domestic violence such as spouse battering and

a color change which is the stress read

child abuse.

person is experiencing stress. A red square indicates tenseness; green, calm

ing, When the square remains black, the

Continental Insurance Co., has already begun offering three crime plans in five states. One of these is the "Missing

and blue, a state of relaxation.

The card works on the principle that the outer extremities of the body become colder as the person becomes more tense. As the person relaxes, the circula tion in the hands returns to normal(The Kansas City Star, 2/28/84).

Child Assistance Plan." The New York-

based company will pay up to $20,000 in reward money, up to $5,000 for advertis ing the reward and up to 70 days in fees for a private detective to help police hunt for a missing child. Another plan covers those who fear

Military Victory

that they (or a member of their family) may become a victim of mugging,spouse battering, child molestation or other violent crime. The third policy insures against losses incurred by theft or fraud.

A federal appeals court has upheld the right of the military to discharge avowed homosexuals, saying that unless the military regulations are "repugnant" to the U.S. Constitution or statutory law, the courts have no power to in*'=^rcede. The ruling by the U.S. 9th Girci >urt

Among the expenses paid to crime vic

tims will be medical expenses, psycho logical counseling, lost-work compensa

tion and extra household expenses such as child care and housekeeping, According to Randy Sanders, Conti nental's branch manager in Newport Beach, California, the policies are already selling well in Southern Califor nia and will soon be available in Northern California.

"I expected that the missing child coverage would be the most well re ceived," said Sanders, "but the three

plans seem to be selling about equally" San Francisco Chronicle 2/23/84). Not everyone is happy with the plans, Representatives of social service agen cies feel it legitimizes crime as another "risk" to be protected from financial loss in modern society.

Crime may not pay, but there is always a way to make some profit from it.

Leaping Lizards California land developers, hoping to avoid an envirornmental legal battle, are asking the federal goverment for five million dollars to begin a lizard preserve.

Stalin: physical and moral deformities

The Stature of Stalin

of Appeals came in the case of Sg. . erry Watklns, who has been trying to strike down regulations banning homosexuals from serving in the Army (Intercessors for America, 3/1/84).

Stalin's ugliness would have supplied ample material for cartoonists according to Victor Kravchenko, who knew him. In his book I Chose FreedomfEd. A Noite,

Chernenko's Dark Past

Rio de Janeiro, 1948) Kravchencko says: "Few of us really believed that Stalin's

tendency to isolation and his aversion to

All that the liberal press has deemed fit to tell the public about Konstantin

public appearances were due necessarily

Chernenko, the latest Soviet dictator, is

to his unattractiveness.

The official

that he is a "moderate" bureaucrat and

painters and even the photographers who took thousands of pictures attemp

a protege of the dead-and-buried Brezh nev. Little has been publicized on the

ted to hide the fact that he is short and

dark, gloomy past of the new tyrant. A report in Human Events (3/3/84)

squatty, his complexion is darker and

more asiatic than generally supposed, his face Is pockmarked, his left arm is partially deformed, and his teeth are uneven and poorly treated. If his physical defects gave him an inferiority complex, perhaps we can find here the explanation for the avidity with which he delights in the flattery given him in doses that would

ried out "torture and excecutlons" in the

turn any normal stomach."

Ukrainian city of Dniepropetrovsk.

throws some light on the subject. Cher nenko casts the same sinister shadow as

Andropov. During Stalin's Great Purge in 7938-39, he was second-in-command of a local NKVD section â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Infamous and

dreaded Soviet secret police, now called the KGB. In this capacity, Chernenko car

New French Morality French newspapers have of late given much emphasis to the publica

dividualistic obsessions of the Social

Security system lead to a veritable rev

tion of a report of the Social and Eco olution in mentalities. For example, nomic Council on "the consequences of there are cases of people who decide not the marriage statute on juridical, social to marry in order to obtain tax advan and fiscal systems." The writer of the report is Evelyne Sullerot, a sociologist, journalist and author. According to statistics contained in the report, a silent revolution has been shak ing French society for ten years: onethird of Frenchmen will never marry,

tages afforded them by the law. But all this is not just a passing phe

nomenon. It is a social problem, which is illustrated by the fact that ten years statistics reveal an annual decrease of

100,000 marriages per year. In other

and another third will go through at least

words, the percentage of singles rose from ten percent ten years ago to thirty-

one divorce.

six percent today. Divorce has made the

The alarming phenomenon is a result of the social mechanism abandoning its primary ends. The tax system favors the unmarried and divorced; revenues tend to help concubinage rather than benefitting the family unit; social security (known as the URSSAF in France)favors bigamy instead of aiding family stabili ty. All this means that those who really

situation even worse. Ten years ago,ten

suffer the most are those most often

family runs a serious risk of disappear ing in France. More serious still, the cur

forgotten — the children, especially when they are legitimate. The report points out to Frenchmen,

percent of all marriages in France ended in divorce; today the figure is twenty-

eight percent. At present, the divorce in dex in Paris is fifty percent. The number of illegitimate children born rose from six percent to 14.2 percent in the same ten-year period.

These figures indicate the fact that the

rent socialist laws, far from fighting this disastrous state of affairs, are designed

so worried about their tax statements and

to aggravate it by favoring situations

purchasing power, that they are being

contrary and harmful to the normality and equilibrium of family life.

drawn into a new social morality that leads people to reject marriage and chil dren. This new "morality" is obviously being especially aggravated by the work of the French Socialist Party, whose par ty platform includes the abolition of the

Here can be seen how the Mitterrand

regime endeavors to destroy the institu tion of the family by implanting a regime heading for totalitarianism. It is tragic to see that in the socialist and communist

supposedly given to Nicaragua by the Sandinist government is too much even for the naive to swallow. Perhaps Ortega

was not relaxed enough to talk about the issues of freedom and prosperity as he was asked because he was well aware of

the report of the CPDH. *

ACCORDING TO Father Ernesto

Cardenal, the controversial self-pro claimed Marxist priest serving on the Nicaraguan cabinet, just as there is no

incompatibility between Christianity and democracy, neither is there incompati

bility between Christianity and Marxism. In an interview published in the March issue of GEO magazine, a general in

terest monthly, Fr. Cardenal defined his position: "I am a Marxist who believes in God, follows Christ and is a revolu tionary for the sake of the kingdom." The former student of Thomas Merton

noted, "Marxism is a scientific method

for studying and changing society. Chris tianity presents us with the goals that we must achieve - namely, a perfect humanity. Cardenal said that he became a Marx

ist by reading the Gospels and by visiting Cuba. Despite its persecution of religion, the Maryknoller found it to be heavenly. "I found out that the government there was

actually putting the Gospel into practice: giving the people food, clothing, helping education — and on an equal basis."

Cabbage Patch Craziness

family and the installation of an atheistic

countries behind the Iron Curtain the in

There is yet more news on the Cab

and totalitarian regime similar to that of

stitution of the family is suffering iden tical persecution, revealing similar

have been sold by the millions to adults

communism.

Sullerot's report also shows how the obsolescence of economic law and in

statistics, in short, if undergoing the same crisis devastating France.

bage Patch fantasy. The dolls that and children alike will soon be joined by other kindred dolls.

Baby Cabbage Patch dolls called Preemies will soon be on the market. Like

More Wrongs Than Rights IN A REPORT released in the middle

their older antecendents, the dolls will each have different facial characteristics, hair color and style, eye color and skin tone. Each also comes with a "birth certifi

cate" and "adoption" papers. The owners

of January, the Nicaraguan "Perma

become "parents" of the inanirrnte dolls.

nent Commission for Human Rights"

"Preemies" are touted in the.

(CPDH) denounced the violations of

tional literature as having "all arrived

personal freedom and atrocities perpe trated by the Sandinist government. Ac cording to the document signed by Marta

prematurely, but with extra care, they'll do just fine"(CorpM5 Christi Times, 2/14/84). Paradoxically, the rush to be

Baltodano, the organization's coordi

come a "parent" of a doll, comes at a

nator, in 1983 1,169 people were im prisoned without just cause, besides 15

time, when millions of mothers reject that responsibility through abortion.

killed, 207 disappeared, 104 were tor tured, and there were 99 violations of the

Coleco Industries, Inc., the marketer of the line, will also introduce individual

right to peaceful assembly as well as 46 property violations.

ized pet animals called Koosas that can be registered at the Cabbage Patch Kids

These statistics released by the CPDH

Koosa Kennel Association.

disprove the humanitarian character that

Daniel Ortega (photo) attempted to give

was obtained a few months after the rev

The fantasy goes yet further. Recently

the Sandinist revolution in a recent press

olution, with the national literacy cam

in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.

interview in Quito, Ecuador. When asked

paign. We were able to reduce illiteracy

about the advantages that Nicaragua

from more than 50% to 10.7%. There

Archbishop Peter Gerety had to cancel a proposed simulated "baptism" of

supposed by gained with the victory of

was another statistic, recognized all over the world, of something that happened

some of the dolls scheduled at Newark's St. Benedict's Catholic Church. "The

systematically in our country and was thought normal — the death of children

baptism of dolls is totally unauthorized

international organisms — by UNESCO, under a year of age, due to poliomyelitis for example — of the successes achieved (which no longer happens). Daniel Ortega's scanty list of benefits by democratic conquests.(One of them)

pretation," Gerety said in a statement {Corpus Christi Caller, 2/10/84). To

Sandinism, such as an increase in free

dom and economic prosperity, he said: "There are statistics recognized by

and can lead to scandalous misinter

say the least...

THE LION OF MUNSTER I T HAS BEEN fifty years since Nazism

bells of the churches in the Diocese of

wielded power in Germany. Few among the German population, terrorized

burials and between one and two o'clock

Munster should ever ring, except for

by tile implacable Gestapo, dared to raise their voices and denounce the danger

in the afternoon to remind the faithful

of the violence done to their Shepherd.

posed to the Church and Christian Civ

In spite of the danger to his personal

ilization by the rise of Hitler, whose

safety, the prelate continued the fight. In September of 1941 he wrote a pastoral letter against Bolshevism, which pointed out that the Nazis, while attacking Rus sia, attempted to implant the errors of communism in Germany. In 1942 he

atheistic, materialistic and socialist doc trine was very much like communism. Of

those few voices perhaps the loudest was

that of Cardinal von Galen, Bishop of Miinster, whose heroic reaction to Na

tional Socialism opened gold pages in the

fought the dechristianization of children

history of German Catholicism.

brought on by the closing of Catholic

Today, the echo of the fearless cry of

schools.

resistance of the "Lion of Miinster" is

At the end of the war, a large number of documents of the Gestapo and the

an edifying example to all those who refuse to bend their knees before the

Ministry of Propaganda on the "von

Red idol at a time when the sordid waves

Galen case" were found. The dossier of

of pacifism and ecumenism attempt to

the Ministry run by Goebbels alone was

weaken the West's will to fight the com

554 pages long, and most of it was ac companied by memos. This extensive

munist advance. Clemens August, Count von Galen, was born in Dinklage, the castle of his ancestors, on March 16, 1878. Of gigantic stature, corpulent

though affable to others, frugal, simple and serious in the way he dressed. Count von Galen hungered for a life of sacrifice

and self-denial. He was an anti-liturgicist and very devoted to Our Lady and the Sacred Heart, to which he consecrated

his diocese. He studied in the Theological Seminary of the Jesuits in Innsbruck, and was ordained in 1904. Fr. von Galen

worked among the faithful in Berlin un til 1929, when he was appointed Pastor of St. Lambert's Church, in Miinster. In September of 1933, nine months after

Hitler's ascension to power, Pope Pius XI bestowed upon him the fullness of the

documentation is an eloquent proof of Cardinal von Galen after receiving his hat in

the enormous turmoil and furious hatred

Rome, March 1946

caused by the Bishop of Munster in Nazi circles.

priesthood and made him the Ordinary

When Nazism began its death throes,

of the Diocese of Miinster. The new bishop chose the motto "Nec laudibus

Bishop von Galen was still standing firm and was soon to receive the reward for

nec timore" for his coat of arms, words that well describe the uprightness of his

Pius XII made 32 new cardinals and

character.

among them was the Bishop of Munster.

Bishop von Galen saw clearly the ter rible work of dechristianization being done by the National Socialists, and in 1932 he wrote a "Study Against the Plague of Secularism." In January of

It was the consecration by the Pope

his intrepidity. In February of 1946,

himself of the fight without concessions against the rule of Hitlerism.

But God had reserved an even greater crown of glory for the "Lion of Miin

principal tenets of Nazism. Weeks later,

ster," for on March 22, after an opera tion for appendicitis, Clemens August, Cardinal von Galen, gave up his beauti

in his Easter Pastoral Letter read solemn

ful and combative soul to his Creator.

1934, he wrote a pastoral letter attack

ing adoration of the race, one of the

ly in the cathedral, he denounced the

danger of Hitler's sect, calling it a "mix ture of truth and error, idealism and in

famy, authenticity and facade, whole some authority and brutal despotism."

An "infernal mystification is in process which can mislead even the good," he warned.

Bishop von Galen considered it his sacred duty to oppose the Nazi errors

with the crystalline truths of the Gospel. In 1935, he dealt a new blow against Nazi subversion by publishing a pastoral let

Perplexed? Bewildered? Confused?

ter against pantheism. In March of 1937, when Pius XI unmasked Nazism to world

public opinion in his encyclical nender Sorge, Bishop von Galen made L \ \ >

sure that it was read in the pulpits of the churches in his diocese.

Knowing that he might be arrested at The "Lion of Miinster" during an annual major procession held in the city

any time. Bishop von Galen ordered, in

For Clarity and Insight Read

The TFP Newsletter

case he were imprisoned, that none of the

TFP Newsletter A fortnightly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP) John Horvat, Editor. Twenty-four Issues per year. Subscription rates $22.50 per year for U.S. and Canada(sent First Class); surface mail to other countries, $22.50 per year; airmail rates upon request. For subscription & information write TFP Newsletter, P.O. Box 121, Pieasantviile, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter with credit given to TFP Newsletter.

TFP Clarifies the Issues

ECUADOR REJECTS THE LEFTISTS URING the recent elections in D Ecuador, the voters of that Andean nation were faced with the clear choice not only between two strikingly dissimilar candidates but also what political, economic and social direction the country would follow for years to come. The election results, greatly influenced by a series of public statements by the Ecuadorean TFP, vague declarations by the country's Catholic ÂˇÂˇ hierarchy and surprising facts about the leftist candidate, amazed everyone: The left suffered a stunning defeat. In the months preceding the first round in the election process, the coalition of parties for the center-right Front for National Reconstruction (FNR), headed by Leon Febres Cordero Rivadeneira, a self-made millionaire, showed itself almost entirely void of any ideological basis. On the other side, was Rodrigo Borja Cevellos and the Democratic Left Party (DL) whose vague socialist programs called for the use of government resources and self-managing policies to solve social and economic problems. All the political analysts predicted that Cordero and the FNR would win the first round by a small margin but that Borja and the Democratic Left, aided by a massive advertising campaign would win the second and final round. The outcome looked even darker for the FNR when Cordero finished second to Borja in the first round by a wide margin. Shortly before the final round of voting began, the Ecuadorean TFP, sensing the need to clarify the ideological issues at stake, published the three-page declaration "Ecuador At a Crossroads" Quito, Ecuador. An Informed populace moved declslvely away from the Marxist abyss. in El Commercio and El Universo, the country's leading newspapers. A It was evident that until this publicaThe TFP statement noted that in the shortened version of the same decla- tion, the general public did not see the past few years not a single pronounceration was later published in nine other danger that Borja represented for an- ment from the Ecuadorean Hierarchy newspapers across the country. ticommunists or for religion. had been heard alerting the faithful The manifesto raised the ideological To this was added the predominating specifically and unequivocally to the problem inherent in the leftist can- factor of the silence of most of the socialist menace in the country. On the didate's position and showed the coun- Sacred Hierarchy about, and the open contrary, it pointed out that several try the communist abyss toward which support of certain ecclesiastical sectors declarations by the nation's Bishops it was being led. for, the DL. had been, to say the least, questionTHE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE D EFENSE OF TRADITION , FAMILY AND PROPERTY

able. The document observed that while the Cardinal Archbishop of Quito had recently declared "one of the most important matters (for Catholics) was the fulfillment of the obligation to vote" and that they could not vote for "the parties

which propose, for example, to deny · religion its place in public life," it was quite unclear as to what party he was alluding. The TFP statement asked: "Were the

Rishops referring to the Democratic ,eft?" It is possible that they were ... but it is beyond question that it was not an unequivocal reference. The document added: " ... what good does it do to af-

firm that to vote in an election is an obligation whose motives are derived from the Faith, if one does not point out the risk of an anti-Christian current taking power?" The TFP further noted that when the Bishops affirm that the Church plans to "stimulate the elaboration of

alternatives for a Christian renewal of economic, social and political structures by overcoming the vices of the liberal capitalist system and the temptation of the Marxist system" this could in no way be harmful to a socialism that is frequently presented as the alternative to capitalism and communism ... and whose Marxist character goes unnoticed. Just before the publication of the TFP document, Borja had reassured the Bishops' Conference and Catholic public opinion in general, that he would not

ja, while trying to reassure industrialists, was at the sa me time attacking the right to private property in his writings. The coup de grace during t he debate came when Cordero demanded that Borja explain his statements classifying the Church as a sect. The le ftist candidate was non-plussed. The impact of the TFP campaign was such that the Popular Democracy Party, the party of the Government and a sympathizer of the DL, accused the TFP of meddling in politics. However, both the newspapers and radio stations rebutted this, saying that two ideological concepts were beginning to become clear for the country to decide upon: totalitarianism or free enterprise. Two days before th e election, El Universo and El Comercio published a ha lf-page advertisement in which over one hundred priests, including several monsignors from the Archdiocese of Quito, applauded the position of the TFP as being in accord with Catholic doctrine. The city of Quito was a supposed stronghold of Borja, and its Archbishop had declared: " ... that the Sacred Hierar-

chy had neither supported nor vetoed any candidate" and that the Church only does this when the ideology or programs of these groups include some persecution of the Church or deny Her freedom to act in Her own field. Ap-

"What confidence should be placed in Borja, who referred to the Catholic Church as a sect? introduce abortion and that the State would continue to subsidize Catholic education. In response to these rema rk s, the TFP published a timely art icle asking, "What

confidence should be placed in the comments of Borja, especially since they come from someone who, in a publication a few years ago, referred to the Catholic Church as a 'sect, 'accusing Her offanaticism, advocating Her total subjection to the State and affirming that the liberty She enjoyed is a concession conferred by the State"? (Political and Constitutional Law, Rodrigo Borja, pgs. 97-102). The TFP article stated that it was n ot enough for such an individual to now make some innocuous affirmations. Rather, it was necessary for him to retract the errors which he had affirmed and acknowledge the legitimacy of the institutions and principles that he had so virulently attacked. In a nationally televised debate between the two candidates, Cordero, the FNR candidate, began to show the influence of the argumentation of the TFP in his statements, eg. the DL 's membership in the Socialist International, its totalitaria n character and opposition to private property and the fact that Bor2

parently, the Archbishop had not read Borja 's statements. · In the end, the Front For National Reconstruction won the election by over 100,000 votes. In the innumerable co mmentaries following the election, most observers said that the principal causes of victory and defeat were the ideo logical anticommunist and antireligious campaigns . For example, El Telegrafo of Guayaquil quoted Borja 's Vice-presidential running mate as saying, "! can only say

that there were a series of factors involved. (.. .) They used high calibre weapons. First, that Borja was a communist and as such would attack the right of private property. They were, in this way, able to create a psychosis ofterror, especially among the small, rural landowners, ( ... )among the middle class in general, regarding Borja's candidacy. Then, they used the religious sentiment of the people to get them politically motivated against Borja, making him out to be an enemy of the Catholic faith and of religious teaching. " Following the election, the TFP issued a press release stating, "The TFP has the

joy to note that the results of the recent election eloquently express the fact that the nation has opened its eyes to the very

Our lady of Good Success (Quito)

grave threat of the socialist offensive. It was feared that, due to misinformation, socialism would win. Nevertheless, after a short bur clarifying controversy that clearly showed the proposals of the leftist currents to be contrary ro the traditional socio-economic doctrine of the Church, the mature reflection of the Catholic Ecuadorean people pushed the co1111r1y decisively away from the Marxist abyss·. "The TFP expresses its satisfaction, giving thanks to the Most Holy Virgin of Good Success, and asks that She continue to provide Her maternal and unf arhomable protection since, even thoug h the defeat inflicted on socialism removes it from power, it persists in irs resolve ro drive the nation toward the regime longed for by Marx. " •

CONTENTS INTERNATIONAL Ecuador: The story hr h ind the rightist victo1. Pages 1-2 Special Report on Central America Pages 5-7 Spain: Self-managing socialism in the schools Pages 15- 16 COMMENTARY Page 3 AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS Pages 8-9 SOCIAL DOCTRINE Pages 10-1 1 HISTORY Page 12 GENERAL NEWS Pages 4, 13 , 14

MEDIOCROLOGISTS PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA him of having too much self-confidence. terrible tangle of their current problems. He, who has so much pride, does not And here and there are many things that know what pride is. He is modest and seriously threaten to collapse at any and who pay the same respect to all proud, docile toward Marx and revolted moment. What is lacking in the public life of against the Church. His motto is the cry contradictory opinions. "Every affirmation is insolent to him of Joab, 'I am bold only against God. ' the Nation is a sufficient number of men "The mediocre man, in his fear of able to resolve this situation. because it excludes the contrary proAnd, above all, I see that those who position. But if someone is a bit friend- superior things, says he prizes good ly and a bit inimical to everything, the sense above all else; but he does not are able to do so are sparse, inarticulate, mediocre man thinks him wise and re- know what good sense is, for by those and bewildered. In short, men whose served, admires his delicacy of thought words he means the denial of everything consensus could yet save all, are there saving nothing. and extols his talent for making tran- great. And why are they so? Because the "The intelligent man raises his head sitions and fine distinctions. "In order to escape the censure of to admire and adore; the mediocre man legitimate aspirations of peace those being intolerant of all those who think raises his head to mock; everything men had just after World War II were forcefully, it is necessary for the me- above him is ridiculous to him, and to led astray, right at Yalta, toward the swamp of spineless and utopian pacidiocre man to take refuge in absolute him the infinite is a void." It would be necessary to read the fism - a pacifism that found its most doubt; and even then he must never call doubt by name. It must be couched in above in the original French to get its precise expression in Carter's foreign policy, as well as in the many terms of modest opinion, reforms of detente, Ostpolitik specting the rights of the opand ecumenism. posing opinion, and taking Affirm nothing, deny nothon the airs of saying someing, cry out for almost no thing without saying anything. right, protest against no obEach sentence must be prescenity, in short, raise up fixed with the sugary periphmoderation as the supreme rases, 'it seems that, ' or 'if rule of thinking and the it is licit to say it this way... ' obligatory element in desir"When the activist of meing, feeling and acting: all diocrity acts, he has only one this hurled the West into the thing to worry about: the/ear swamp of mediocrity; and, of committing himself. H e thus expresses a few thoughts with the West, the Brazilian people, which for this reason with the reserve, timidity and prudence of one fearful that gropes lamentably through crisis, in spite of the splendid his words will shake the world for their daring. intelligence that God gave it. Meanwhile, the leaders of "Upon Judging a book, the the other side of the world first word of the mediocre man always refers to a detail, laugh at our great misery, which both inside and outand usually a detail of style. 'It is well written,' says he side Brazil never stops gro'>' when the book is common, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalln at Yalta. Blrthplace of pacifism. ing for an instant. Their headtepid, colorless, and timid. quarters is in the Kremlin ... 'It is poorly written,' he says when the full flavor. It was written by one of the I have read about specialists on the work is full of life, when the author heroes of militant Catholicism in Kremlin: kremlinologists . When promakes up his own language as he goes France, Ernest Hello (1828-1885). perly oriented, they are of incontestable along, when he expresses his thoughts On reading these observations about utility. with that daring assurance of a writer's the mediocre man, the reader perhaps But we lack another type of specialfrankness. The mediocre man detests will have smiled maliciously more than ist: mediocrologists. What can be won books that make him reflect. He is once upon feeling that one or the other definitively by fighting the Kremlin, pleased by books that are similar to all applies to so many people in private life, reducing its vanguard tower a few centhe others, that coincide with his habits, and very especially in the public life of timeters or a few meters, if its adversary, the West, continues to steep itself that do not crack his mold, and that/it contemporary Brazil. into his emâ&#x20AC;˘;ronment, that he knows by So much is said about conscientiza- in mediocrity? ln this downward march, heart before rPading them, because tion. Are our people fully aware of the is it not true that we will hit rock botsuch books are just like all the others mediocrity of so many of our "stars" ? tom long before the Kremlin? â&#x20AC;˘ he has read since he learned to read. Now, to me this is a work of national Plinio Correa de Oliveira founded, in "The mediocre man says there is salvation. I will explain. something good and something bad in Having travelled much, I can say, 1960, The Brazilian TFP. TFPs and similar autonomous organizations were founded everything, and that his Judgements without any crass patriotic vanity, that since then in 14 other countries, inspired by our people are one of the world's most his book Revolution and Counter-Revolumust not be absolute, etc. "If someone forcefully affirms the intelligent. Howe.ver, I see them wob- tion. He writes for the large daily newspaper truth, the mediocre man will accuse bling indecisively in the midst of the Falha de S. Paulo. man likes writers T who say neither yes nor no about anything, who never affirm anything, HE MEDIOCRE

Missing a Golden Opportunity of the Reaga n T Administration to negotiate with the Soviets on space-age weaponry brought HE REFUSAL

about an outcry by liberals that the United States had passed up a golden opportunity to prevent the now imminent militarization of outer space. The Soviets have generously offered to scrap their present awkward and unsuccessful antisatellite missile in exchange for a moratorium on further antisatellite tests. Although agreement is still a long way off, they are also proposing a treaty - viewed by many to be unverifiable - on the issue. Curiously enough, the Soviet offer comes at a time when the U.S. Air Force is just completing tests of a sophisticated 18-foot missile that can be launched from a plane flying at high altitude. The system reportedly far outperforms the antiquated 150-foot monster missile the Soviets have tried to deploy and will give the United States an incontestable advantage. Despite evidence that the Soviets have already employed some antisatellite techniques, liberal politicians have criticized the plan to continue the development of the U.S. missile system claiming that deploying it would only encourage the Soviets to "resume" the arms race in space. In the on-going "Star Wars" debate, one fact that has been ignored is that in the ever-changing world of space-age weaponry, the key to staying in the race is technology, something that the Soviets lack . However, what they cannot develop, they steal or obtain by other means.

weapons more accurate and to enhance their command and control with better computers and communications" (Newsday, 3/ 9/84). In a speech before the Commonwealth Club in California on April 3, CIA Director William Casey outlined the extent of the problem. "During the late I 970's, the Soviets obtained about 30,000 samples of Western production, equipment, weapons and military components and over 400,000 technical documents, both classified and unclassified. The majority was of U.S. origin, with an increasing share of our technology obtained through Western Europe and Japan (Human Events, 5/5/84). Officials believe that there are twenty thousand people involved in technological looting all over the world , and their methods vary from buying the equipment to outright theft. U. S. officials were particularly concerned about the possibility of Soviet espionage at the Olympic Games in California, due to the proximity of Silicon Valley, a veritable supermarket of high tech gadgetry. The possibility of this leftist larceny has lessened with the Soviets' announcement in May to withdraw from the Games. Given the Soviets' enormous dependence on the West, putting a stop to the flow of Western technology to the communist world would seem to be a logical solution to stopping the arms "race" in space. A strange "race" indeed, in which the competitor must sustain both himself and his opponent. â&#x20AC;˘

"... the key to staying in the race ogy, something the Sovwts lack. "

U.S. technological edge: Impressive

It is no secret that the Soviets are looting the well-stocked technological larders of the West to build their anticapitalist communist society. The stagnant laboratories of the state-run Soviet industry have simply failed to produce the necessary elements to survive. The Italian firm Volvo built Russian car factories, American concerns built Russian truck factories and the European-engineered, slave-bui lt pipeline carries Russian gas to Europe. The use of this technological booty for military purposes is well known, but not well publicized. U.S. officials believe that more than 150 Soviet weapon systems contain technology derived from Western sources. According to a report by the wellknown columnist Jack Anderson, there are fourteen specific areas where U.S. technology has helped the Soviets "to develop new generations of smart weapons, to dramatically improve their airlift capability, to make their nucl ear

technol-

Soviet technique: trying to "steal" the lead

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TFP SPECIAL REPORT

What's Happening in Central America? INCE so many important and con- course, are mixtures of truth and over to leftists, and the democracies have troversial events tak ing place in Cen- falsehood and otten implicit in nature, gone into bankruptcy and politic.al contral America directly affect the United and therefore elusive of analysis or vu lsio ns . These regimes' supposed States, the TFP Newsletter is presenting refutation. defenses have proven to be ineffective. a series of articles on the siLUation in Once points I, 2 and 3 are clea rly forBut doubtless those who threaten Central mulated, they obviously do not apply to America with a subversive fire of co nthat area. What does the press say about Central Centra l America as a who le, but to one tinental dimensions are still waiting for America? Its comments practically never or more of the countries that mak e it up. the situation to become more defined: if vary: guerrilla activity, mi li tary oppres- But the insinuation remains that they all the small nations there fall into Marxism, sion, human rights violations, bishops' await the sa me futu re. it possibly wi ll open the floodgates now Now, another message is beginn ing to larr.entations, economic crises, revoluobstructed by the outrageous excesses of tions, t hreatened fore ign interventions, come ac ross: the Central American na- the Nicaraguan regime. tions are the vanguard of a process which and so o n. If the great masses in El Salvador, Nowadays, armed connicts, socio- engages virtuall y every country in Latin G-uatemala and Honduras truly desired economic and political crises no longer America. That is, once the Ce ntral it, those countries wou ld have fallen inhave defined beginnings, clear develop- American countries have fallen into the to Marxism lo ng ago. The great problem ments, or precise ends . Guerri llas start Soviet orbit, th e South American cou n- comm unism faces there is precisely the undeclared wars, which grow like cancers tri es will follow suit. rejection of pu blic opinion, particularly Toward the end of the 70's, when this the poor. This is why the action of cerand become chronic emulsio ns between war and peace. Political crises a re neither nascent process was just a hypothetical tain leaders who feign to be anticomdetonated nor defin iti vely disarmed. threat to most Latin American nations , munist but who busy themselves , n lv They start out a lmost imperceptibly , two arguments were brought forth to with making concessions to the Red, grow and perpetuate themselves in a den y its potentia l: On the one hand, it fai led so far to bring its normal resull : was believed that prosperity would be a n capitulation. peculiar mixture of normality and efficacious antidote against subversion; catastrophe. It is not the case here to refute the With daily news reports so often fill- on the other hand, the nature of the various fa ll acies which com munism and ed with partiality and inaccuracy, the in- political regimes at that tim e wa s its collaborators employ to create a spirit ternational press tends to create an enor- presented as a guarantee against the ex - o f defeatism , the sensation that it is futile mous confusion. But th e message that pansion of this danger . to resist Red imperialism because all is In democratic coun tries, the fact of a lready lost , the illusion that the Marxcomes through in the back of the readers' minds is: I) Central Amer ican nations their being democracies was considered ists will be magnanimo us with their next will inexorably be transformed into by many to be a factor of stability and conquest, and the myth that the left has Marxist regimes, or at least socialist peace, and countries governed by au- really convinced those fighting for it and ones; 2) The anticommunists in North thoritarian regimes were thought to have is thus assured of marching on. and South America, and especially the a built-in mechanism for national stabiliA careful analysis of the Nicaraguan American government, will be a ble to do ty in the strengt h of Lhe incumbent situation shows clearly that Sandinism little or nothing to preven t this from hap- a utocrat. Bul al times of crises, bo th wa s ab le to d eceive public opinion by pening, since a considerable part of the types have shown th eir vulnerabil ity; carefully hiding its Marxist character, for American political establishment is op- now prosperity in Latin Ameri ca seems a s soon as the o rientatio n of the new posed to any foreign intervention; 3) A to have vanished like a spring morning regime became clear, there was a dizzylarge part of the Catholic clergy is either mist, and no country of South Ame rica ing plunge in its popularity. sympathetic to or outright enthusiastic even dreams of recoveri ng it. The same rejection of communism Heavy-handed â&#x20AC;˘ go vernm ents in the about this process , which contributes to becomes even more patent when one its mome ntum and a llays the fears of region either have begun to wane, are notes that: I) During the twenty years many people about it. These notions, of worn out, o r have simpl y handed power between the fa ll of Cuba and the tragedy

of Nicaragua no leftist government was established solid enough to last; 2) in the two Caribbean nations, the strategy for takeover was the same, that is, to create general uprisings against utterly worn out dictatorial regimes and make sure that the Marxists behind it all would not be identified as such.

Even at that, Nicaragua would not have been a victim of the process that ravages it today if communism had not had the collaboration of a large part of the clergy. In El Salvador and Guatemala, subversion would have been wiped out long ago if important sectors of the clergy did not have a like bent.

Why, then, consider irresistible a process that can be halted simply by unveiling its agents and beneficiaries? We feel that the wall of misinformation about Central America can be breached by bringing to our readers' attention truths that are being systematically hidden from them. â&#x20AC;˘

Is a Central American Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Being Constructed? The Process Has a Frustrated Precedent-South America the last few years the world 0 press has been continually drawing public attention to Central America. News VER

reports would have us believe that this part of the Americas, ignored for many decades by its northern and southern neighbors, was becoming a "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of Central America.,, A similar process was underway between 1963 and 1973, when some nations in South America fell victim to a socialist offensive in which the Christian Democratic parties. the progressive clergy and important sectors of the bourgeoisie, backed by the liberal establishment in the United States. organized themselves and imposed tendencies that worked toward the goals of international communism. In this process. nations such as Chile, Peru and Bolivia found themselves subject to regimes openly or virtually MarxSome years after the communist offensive had been halted, another was begun in Central America. First came news reports about the revolt against Somoza, always carefully hiding the capital aspects of the issue: the important role of leftist sectors of the clergy in the Sandinist conspiracy and warfare; the clear and open Marxist thinking of its leaders; the simplistic a-ideological and haphazard repression carried out by the dictator; the collaboration of the governments of Venezuela, Colombia, and Costa Rica with the dictatorship in Panama and the Cuban tyrant in support of Sandinism; and finally, the decisive role of Jimmy Carter in declaring a boycott against Somoza while showing sympathy for the guerrillas. Once Nicaragua had fallen to the Sandinistas, whose Marxist position became increasingly clear, the international news turned its attention to El Salvador. There, another chronic guerrilla offensive had the country on the verge of civil war. As the crisis in El Salvador developed, the world press sought to give the impression it was about to fall into com6

ist. Others, like Argentina and Paraguay, were on the verge of falling into a similar situation. Simultaneously, the seeds and symptoms of the very same process began to appear in Colombia and Ecuador, where socialist and confiscatory reforms were proposed and approved. Now, all over South America the leaders of this process were members of the Catholic left who, often protected by their bishops, gave support, momentum. credibility and later. in defeat, protection to the various kinds of socialists and Marxists. The TFPs have always been in the vanguard of the opposition to this process of communization and have won important victories in their legal, peaceful and ideological struggle to alert Catholic opinion in those countries. munism. At the same time, symptoms of a similar process appeared in Guatemala, where traces of revolutionary ecclesiastical activism could also be found. In Costa Rica and Honduras great political, economic and social crises began to make themselves felt. Such a panorama, with its exaggerations and myths - but also with its deeper reality that occasionally comes to the surface - has now captured the attention of the whole world because of the grave danger that it portends for both North and South America. This danger sparked the TFP to send observers to Central America to gather first-hand information on what was really transpiring there. This research revealed some basic aspects of the issue that must be brought to light: First, many people may be unaware that there is a great similarity of race, culture and mentality between the peoples of Central America and the peoples of northern South America. Second, in spite of the curtain of silence that has systematically surrounded them, these nations have a combined territory three times the size of Uruguay, a population double that of Chile, and an eco-

nomic production equivalent to that of Colombia.

An Indispensable Preliminary - Undoing the Myths One of the myths that must be done away with, a myth similar to one which circulates in the United States and Europe about the nations of South America and which, in turn, is repeated in every one of those nations, is the old story that in Latin American countries there are abysmal economic and social difficulties between social classes which make revolution not only understandable, but justifiable. Âˇ Obviously, there are social differences in all countries; and in recent years they have been considerably accentuated by a phenomenon whose universality history will one day explain. This includes peasant migration to the cities, the persecution and abandonment of the agricultural community, the imposition of artificial and foreign standards of living and consumption, and the frequent Âˇapplication of absurd economic policies that have caused the ruin of broad sectors of the population. Furthermore, the discouragement of the once vast and laudable works of mercy that the wellto-do carried out, inspired by the Catholic Church, coupled with the advance of demagogy and the fermentr1tion of class struggle, has helped tl e various social groups the image of au\ crsaries and competitors rather than hierarchically unequal elements destined for harmonious collaboration. Spreading the myth of abysmal inequalities lulled to sleep public reaction in those countries that still had been unaffected by the subversive process. But it was obvious that the storm of distorted reports carried by a large part of the press would overtake those nations just as soon as communism was ready to conquer them. Finally, it is necessary to point out yet another myth: the supposed anticommunism of certain Central American dictatorships, a number of which never bothered to develop any ideological support. They simply carried out an indiscriminate repression against any opposition and thus sought to maintain stability. This had the double effect

of, in the long run, provoking even greater resistance, and then drowning out dissident anticommunist voices, which caused many of them to fall under Marxist influence. Characteristic of this is what Somoza did in Nicaragua, aggravated by unexpected, even unimaginable concessions he made to Sandinism. The Forces at Work in Central America Vary Little From One Country to the Next

What forces are at work in Central America, and where are they heading? We must emphasize first the role of the clergy and its decisive power and influence. A large part of the clergy, including the episcopate, frequently try to shift the people from a conservative attitude first to one favoring reform, and then to one favoring revolution. Markedly socialist la y reform movements are also at work: Christian Democracy and the Socialist International. And finally, the liberal establishment in the United States also lends its weight to the leftist process. The clergy and the lay reformists alternate with the local military in the exercise of power in these several nations. Though not in every case, the military has often shown itself incapable of understanding that to govern does not mean to dominate, but above all to lead public opinion down the paths of order, tradition and progress, which are normal aspirations of the people. Therefore, the military frequently holds power for extended periods, but at the end of its tenure it is forced to relinquish it to some political party in elections of often disputable fairness. When parties akin to Christian Democracy and the Socialist International are elected, they tend to strengthen the power of the State, limit private initiative, favor egalitarianism, a nd directly

instigate class struggle, and in so doing they destroy their own prestige and open the way to Marxist regimes. To sum up, in stable democracies political parties alternate in the exercise of power. One rises due to the opposition's decline rather than to any growth of its own popularity. In unstable democracies, the military rises to power through the demagogy of center-left politicians, and stays there until its own prestige peters out. In this picture, only one faction has maintained its insignificance over the years: the far left. Despite its struggle to capitalize on the shortcomings of successive regimes, the left remained insignificant. Therefore, the problem it faced was how to break out of that chronic stagnation. A Lifesaver for the Marxists: Symbiosis With Subversive Elements in the Clergy

The scandalous collaboration of a large part of the Nicaraguan clergy with the Sandinist offensive, and the support given by members of the episcopate to the Sandinist revolution in spite of the subsequent conflicts they have had with the Marxist government, gives us an idea of how far both share common ideals. Above all, it demonstrates how the chronic failure of Marxist movements was compensated for by leftist priests and conniving bishops. In the past few years, much notoriety has been gained by the participants in this leftist shift, who draw their inspiration from the so-called Liberation Theo logy and ally themselves with declared Marxists. Together, they abet and nourish a hard-core nucleus of subversion. These same agents also lay the foundations of a sphere of influence for this nucleus so that, even though Marxism fails when presented as an atheistic

and anti-religious movement, its prospects for acceptance in the near future are greatly enhanced due to the religious connotation it has begun to flaunt. The fall of Nicaragua, aided by this scheme, and the subsequent insistence of the world press that El Salvador and Guatemala were ready to follow suit, gave the impression that the region had undergone a general collapse and that communization was unavoidable, an impression cleverly gauged to avoid any other result. Interruption in the "General Collapse": Questions and Hypotheses

As of this writing, there has been no general collapse, and even though guerrilla movements in Central America have become chronic, they have slight probabilities of success. Why? Did the scheme's fraudulent character become fatally obvious as the reality about Marxist Sandinism and its ecclesiastical collaborators became known? Or could it be the scope of this devastating conflagration was such that the spiritual and temporal powers of the West could no longer remain indolent and felt called upon to take efficacious measures to bring it under control? Or could it have been the resistance of Salvadoran opinion to subversion and to the socialism of its Christian Democratic military government? One could also ask if the pseudoreligious war unleashed by subversive priests might not provoke authentic Catholics to wage a true religious war, which would do incalculable damage to communism, and whether this risk restrains the Marxist onslaught. While it is not in the scope of this article to analyze this matter in depth, perhaps it will clarify many of its aspects. Upon close examination of the situation in Central America, it becomes clear that in the plot to communize this strategi, gion, powerful sectors ano merous leaders from different quarters are organized in a mysterious but systematic way. It also becomes evident that the poorer classes, which are usually presented as procommunist, valiantly resist as soon as they become aware they are being led towards communism. This a rticle is intended to provide the reader with an overview of the traumatized Central American sub-continent. Subsequent issues of the TFP Newsletter wi ll deal in detail with the particular circumstances of each one of the region's beleaguered nations. â&#x20AC;˘

Strange Latin American alliance: priests, guerrillas and workers form a united front

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATION E VERYTHING in nature reflects ·cod and the moral law H e instituted for men. However, this very well-kno wn truth is usually applied only in a unilateral way. The influence of sentimentalism has led us to ignore the aspects of nature that teach men about the beauty of courage, audacity, and, in short, all the attributes a man should possess for battle - a contest that, when waged against evil, becomes a sublime duty. Liberalism prevents us from paying due attention to those aspects of nature that remind us of the notion of evil.

HOW

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MUCH Ihe animal kingdom can teach us about the different aspects of good and evil! Not that animals are capable of having vices or virtues. Nor that in them there is something good or bad that in any way transcends their m ere animal nature. The serpent, f or example, is absolutely as good a creature of God as is the lamb. Nonetheless, with its guile, harmfulness to man, slithering motion and seductive po wers, the se,pent is used, by a series of rich analogies, as an appropriate symbol of iniquity and e vil. (It was through it that the de vil spoke to Eve.) By another series of rich analogies, the lamb, with its purity, meekness and innocence, is a suitable symbol of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian. While animals are equally good as creatures of God, they teach us about good and evil so that we may love one and hate the other. But, in any case, animals are merely animals. Forgive us f or the apparent banality of this last remark . Nowadays, the confusion in minds is 8

so great that if you tell someone that you are going to have a drink of water, you had better say that water is water, not gunpowder or granite .

battle. The falcon is an adm irablt symbol of the warrior's virtues. calm, strength, agility and precision. He mo ves through the air witf such balance and ease that om could say the law of gravity doe~ nor exist for him. His speed is proportioned tc T H I S falcon swooping down the rabbit's so that it will not esupon a rabbit fleeing in panic shows cape. H is powerful claws and beaA us the strong and noble beauty of are already open. Yet, at th~

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LAW AND LIBERALISM height of the attack, he maintains a loftiness admirably symbolized by his wings nobly opened, in a motion that one could call ideally serene. "But what about the poor little rabbit?" some sentimental reader could say. "Is it right for the falcon to attack it?" Let him not be upset at the falcon, nor at our response, for it is God's will that animals eat one another, and that falcons eat rabbits. You cannot look at an animal that eats another as you would at a cannibal. God, Who commanded men to love one another, also commanded that in this valley of tears animals

should prey upon each other; and He permits us to eat the animals. In so doing, He teaches us that men are immeasurably more than mere animals. This constitutes another great lesson: God is not egalitarian .

â&#x20AC;˘

W.lfA T could better make us understand the horror of greed, pride and guile than the bird in the second photograph? The low, furtive "Jorehead," the arrogant bearing of the head, the cold "inhuman" gaze, the scornful mouth, the aggressive hooked beak, a terri-

ble mobility that seems completely designed for the attack, in short, everything about this vulture inspires horror. Horror of what? OJ the moral evil that separates us from God. A liberal does not like to think about this. It is precisely because many are not prone to admit the existence of evil that God instructs us with symbols like this vulture.

â&#x20AC;˘

HUS, by observing nature, one

learns to be neither sentimental nor liberal.

SOCIAL DOCTRINE

PARABLES AND PRIVILEGES the doctrinal U positions of the so-called Catholic left, which only a few have fought perNFORTUNATELY,

tinaciously over the years, are now being applied all over the world by parties or political movements affiliated with it. Turning a deaf ear to the clearly proclaimed doctrine of the Church, these ilitias of Maritainism try to justify Lheir totalitarian action by employing the old, much-disputed and specious distinction between socialism as a philosophy of life and as a mere economic system. They claim that the latter distinction would be acceptable, and only the former condemnable. This would be to ignore that socialism is a socio-political system which attempts to strangle humanity precisely by controlling economic life, which is one of its most important points of support. (There is no doubt that he who enslaves the body ends up enslaving the soul.) Typical of the declaration issued by leftist Catholic currents of opinion is the following attitude: Christianity doesn't have an economic system it dogmatically imposes on society. Nor does it oblige anyone to fight the economic positions of the socialists. The confusion arises from capitalism's atempt to make itself the economic dogma of Christianity. One would even go as far as to think that the application of the Gospel in the economic field tends more toward the idea of community than that of privileges. To begin by saying that Christianity does not have an economic doctrine it dogmatically imposes on society deviates from the essence of the problem of socialism and capitalism. The subject is poorly formulated. What we should see is if the basic premises of a particular regime or economic system are in accordance with Natural Law and the lessons taught in the Sacred Scriptures.

Let us see quickly, within the limits of this article, how in light of the Gospel no essential characteristic of the capitalist regime is in itself odious or condemnable even though it may be subject to abuses. This is clearly confirmed in the social encyclicals: "Leo XIII's whole endeavor was to adjust this economic (capitalist) regime to the standards of true order; whence it follows that the system itself is not to be condemned'' (Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, of Pius XI). It is important to point out that when leftist currents of opinion fight capitalism, they fall upon the foundations of every healthy economic order, dragging them all to the same gallows of the despoiling process in order to execute them in the name of universal collectivization. "It is true," says Pius XI, "that even today these economic conditions (of the capitalist regime) do not exist everywhere exclusively, for there is another economic system which still embraces a very large and influential group of men. There are, for instance, the agricultural classes, which form the larger portion of the human family and find in their occupation the means of obtaining honestly and justly what is needed for their sustenance" (idem). Nevertheless, it is spread about that what must be done is to exterminate private property and free enterprise wherever they be found, be it in the cities or the country. So it is that free enterprise in the economic field and private property are derived from Natural Law and therefore cannot be arbitrarily excluded from any morally acceptable economic system. This truth stands out in the preaching of Our Divine Saviour. Far from condemning or questioning them, He speaks of them as being dictated by common sense and as coming from the natural order of human relationships. When He spoke to the people, as well as to His disciples, the Son of God used

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

* PabJished1 ln five languages:

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English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian

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simple and clear language, taking examples from daily life in order to make Himself better understood by His listeners. One man owns a vineyard (Matt. 21 :33-41), another acquires a pic!ce of land (Matt. 13:44), and a third freely hires some workers for the grape harvest and also freely disposes of his own money (Matt. 20:1-16). A man of high station leaves talents of gold to his servants with which to trade (Luke 19: 11-26). Another, a wise and faithful steward - who today would be called a capitalist employer or farmer - is praised by his lord for having cared well for the household placed in his charge (Luke 12: 42-48) and so on. The Catholic leftists, along with socialist of all shades, condemn the capitalist system because it aims at making a profit. But profit, in itself, is not condemnable and is in perfect accord with the teachings of the Gospel. It is enough to recall the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30). Through it one can see that the investment of money, in certain cases, was recognized as something good by the Divine Master. The servants who worked dilligently and multiplied the capital confided to their care and zeal were worthy of praise. On the contrary, the servant who buried the money and by his inertia failed to give it a productive end, was punished by his lord. However, it could be said that the importance of these and other parables lies in their application to one's spiritual life, lo the life of grace, and not in their purely temporal aspects; but the Divine Teacher used elements of daily life easily understood by His listeners to illustrate truths of the transcendental sphere. So it is that from time immemorial common sense has dictated that the purpose of economic production was not nnlv to obtain goods sufficient for on, wn survival, which is just and laudabk, but also to obtain a surplus of goods. Money is a convenient representation of the many kinds of true wealth, which is one's greater or lesser capacity to exchange goods or services within human society. When capital is thus applied in economic activities, it generates what is usually called profit. Profit and the capitalist goal of profiting from goods or services rendered, in themselves, are not condemnable. What is immoral is the abuse, the profit which is exorbitant, usurious and harmful to one's fellow man. But what political, social or economic order is not subject to abuses? The State itself, with its absorbent and totalitarian modern tendencies, is today the greatest oppressor of the weak and forlorn. Also bitterly criticized and flatly condemned by the communists, socialists, and Maritainists or Catholics of the left,

is the systems of wages. While this system can a lso be subj ect to abuses, it is perfectly acceptab le and just in itself as lo ng as the wage is proport io nal to the service rendered and the working co nditions are h umane. H ere also the social doctrine of the Church is confirmed by the Gospels, which give us many examples of the free contracting of ser vices. One of t he best example of the justice of the wage system is in the parable o f the laborers in the vineyard (Matt. 20: 1-16). The owner of the vineyard hired men to work a greater or lesser number of hours, and to a ll he paid a wage previously agreed upon . Those who had been working longest complained against the apparent injustice. But the owner's answer was quick and clear: " Friend, I do thee no wro ng: didst thou not agree with me for a pen ny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will give to the last even as to thee. Or is it not lawful for me to do (with my goods) what I will? Is th y eye ev il , because I am good?" There are two things especially notable in this parable: O ne, that the system of

th is s pontaneous aspect: the spontaneity of one who disposes of what is his in order to better reward hi s fa ithful and dedicated helpers. In any case, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard shows us that , in the eyes of the D ivine Master, the institution of the wage earner is just and equitable. T his is the opposite o f what socialist demagogues have preached for centuries, since the tim e of Simon the Magician. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not condemn the fact that some were

"And to whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more''.

" ...And the lord of the vineyard responded to one of his workers who had complained: thee no wrong ... Is thy eye evil , because I am good?'."

sa laries is perfectly just and normal. Two, the owner (capita list) of the vineyard has every r ight to dispose of his goods as he sees fit, a long with the obligation to pay his laborer a just wage. All this clearly points to the licitness of the capitalist system. Participation in the profits of the harvest, or that whi ch is given over a nd above the just wage (the fact that other laborers earned the same amount for working less hours), is not imposed by a coercive decree, but on the contrary has

vineyard owners whi le others were wage earners who wor ked from dawn to dusk, and this lesson of economic inequ a lity can be fo und thro ug hout the Gospels. Accordin g to the communists and socialists, the fruits of labor belong exclusively to the worker, and the landowner or capitalist is a mere parasite. This opi nion, which is also shared by the so-called Catholic left, expla ins why both the radica l and the moderate la nd -refo rmers are so inflexible in their opposition to the leasing of la nd s. According

to them, th e la nd should belong only to

those who cultivate it, just as the urban workers should be co-proprietors of the business in which they are employed. What do the Gospels say about the real social function of land? T he owner of a vineyard (Matt. 2 1: 33-41) let it out to husband ma n and went abroad. And when harvest ti me drew near , he sent his serva nts to the h usbandmen for the fruits of the harvest. But after taking and beating the servants, the husbandmen sent them away empty handed. The ow ner sent other servants , who were insulted by the husbandmen, and some were even ki lled by them. These husbandmen acted together, as though they had formed a Peasant League against the rightful owner of the land. Finally, the owner of the vineyard sent his own son, with the hope that at least he wou ld be respected. "But the husbandmen seeing the son, said among themselves: This is the heir: come , let us kill him, a nd we shall have his inheritance. And taking hi m, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him." Now, in this parable, Our Divine Saviou r appeals to His listeners sense o f justice: "When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what wi ll he do to those .husbandmen? They say to Him: H e wi ll bring those evil men to a n evil end; and will let out his vineyard to ot her husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due season." Th is is an acknowledgement of the "privi lege" of the landowner, in his ca pacity as an owner, to receive what is due from the fruits o f his land. Is Ou r Lord J esus C hrist justifyi ng acts of capitalist greed or censuring the cri mes of those who assault the ri ght of private property? Here is, by way of st. mary, what we answer to those who say that the Gospels a pplied to the economic field wou ld favor communa l ownership more than privileges or inequality. T o renounce one's own 'Friend, I do goods and lead a li fe in community has never been a commandment o f the Gospel, but a counsel to those who aspire to a more perfect s tate in li fe. Let us remember that God imposes o n us the law of inequality not only in regard to the distributio n of materia l goods, but also o f those in the supernatura l o rder, the li fe of g race : " And to whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be req uired: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand t he more" (Luke 12: 48). e 11

HISTORY

''ADORE WHAT THOU DIDST BURN ... '' T. REMIGIUS, the A rchbishop of Reims, instructed King Clovis, a penitent pagan, in the mysteries of the Catholic Faith and baptized him on C hr istmas Day in the year 496. King Clovis embraced Christianity with suc h ardor that even before receiving Baptism he became the apostle of his subjects. When Clovis reno unced his idols, his nobles and soldiers respo nded unanimously: "O pious King,

we abjure the cult of mortal gods and wish to serve the immortal God that Remigius adores." I t is said that upon hearing the narration of the Passion of the Savio r, Clovis beat with his lance on the grou nd, and exclaimed full of indignatio n: "Ah!

If I had been there with my Franks, I would have avenged the injuries to my God." A prophecy In his Vie des Saints, D' Alzo n shows us that o n the nig ht preced ing the ceremony o f Clovis's ba ptism - the vigil of C hri stmas - St. Remigius s pent severa l ho urs in praye r before the a ltar of the C hurch of St. Mary . Afterwards, the Archbis ho p of Reims went to the King's residence, wis hing to take advantage of the silence of the nig ht to give the monarch his las t inst ructions. Remig ius led him to the oratory of the palace where Queen C lo tilda waited for them in prayer. A few nobles and some members of t he clergy were assembled there, a nd all of them sat down before the Sain t, who then made an ad mira ble sermon on t he unity of God, the tr init y of Perso ns, th e Incarnati o n o f the Word of God, and the word of Redem pt ion. While he was s pea king, a celes tial light s udde nly shone in the orato ry, eclipsing the lig hted candles. An pleasant fragrance spread throughout the sanctuary , a nd a Heavenl y Voice spoke fro m on high:

"Peace be with you; it is I, fear not, thou shalt remain in My lo ve. " After these words were heard, the s u pernatural light disappeared. The King a nd Queen the n knelt before the holy prelate, whose feat ures were shining with a most lively s plendor. At that moment, Remig ius, taken up by the prophetic s pirit , pronounced these words to Clov is:

"Thy posterity will nobly govern this kingdom, it will glorify the Holy Church and inherit the Empire of the R omans. It will not cease to prosper as long as it follows the way of virtue and truth. But decadence will come through the invasion of vices and evil customs. And it is this way indeed 12

1hat kingdoms and nations cast themselves into ruin."

"No," responded the Bis hop, " it is the beginning of the road that leads to

According to D' Alzon, the prayer of St. Remingius at the a ltar of St. Mary remai ned in the memory of the French and was preserved in the adage, "Regnum Galliae regnum Mariae" - The Kingdum of France is the Kingdom of Mary.

it. ,,

" Is this the Kingdom of God?" On C hristmas day, C lovis went to the C hurch of Our Lady. A ll a long the way the streets were covered wi th rich clo ths, tapestries a nd garla nds. The great portal of the Basilica glittered with a thousand fires, and a precious perfume filled the a ir. St. Remigius led the King by the ha nd . The la tter , overwhelmed by such riches, asked: "Most Holy Father, is this

already the Kingdom of God that you have promised m e?"

"Is this already the Kingdom of God you L-.J . d ?" 11,U,U, promise .... "No... it is the beginning of the road that leads to it. "

Clovis approached the baptismal font and humbly asked for the Sacrament o f Regeneration. St. Remigius ma de him confess his faith in the Mysteries of the one true religio n, a nd afterwards he said to him with all the majesty of his office:

"Bow down thy head, Sicambrian, adore that which th ou didst burn and burn that which thou didst adore. " At that ins tant, the cleric in charge of bringing the holy o ils became separated from the royal cortege, and the size of the multitude prevented him from rejoining it. Therefore, the o il was not available when the Archbisho p was ready to place it in t he baptismal water. St. Remigius, with his hands a nd eyes raised u p to heaven, began to pray, weeping profusely. Suddenly, a dove wh iter than s now came close to him, carrying in its beak a sma ll ampule of ho ly oil. The ArchbishoJ1 o pened it, and a sweet perfum e pervaded the area. As s uddenly as it had arrived , the dove disappeared. King C lovis, who was bowing down before the man of God, was then baptized as were two of hi s sisters, th ree thousand soldiers from his a rm y a nd a multitude of other perso ns . Ma ny priests ass isted the Bishop.

Epilogue The tiny n ask of miraculous o il, brought to St. Remigius by a dove, served for long centuries for the consecratio n of the kings of France. It was called the "Sancta Ampola." (*) From that day o n , King C lo ,l\ved a profound res pect 1, St. Remigius. H e ne ver undertoo k a nything of importance withou t asking the counsel or the blessing of the Archbishop of Reims . H e was freed from many dangers and obtained brilliant victor ies through the prayers of the saint , which brought him the protect ion of God. St. Remigius lived 96 years a nd was Archbishop of Reims for 74 years, the longest episcopate in histor y. At the end of his life, St. Remigius became blind, but far from being saddened by this, he rejoiced over it, fo r he considered it an excellent opportunity to embrace with greater love the Cross of Jesus C hr ist. â&#x20AC;˘ (*) At the time of the French Revolution, the deputy Romme destroyed the "Sancta Ampola" in an act of sacrilegious hatred directed against the Altar and the Throne.

White House Visitor ECENTLY, the American TFP and the Foundation for a Christian CivilizaR tion, Inc. were honored by the visit of a distinguished guest from the White House, Mr. Robert Reilly, Special Assistant to the President for Public Liaison with the nation's Catholic community. Mr. Reilly, an outstanding opponent of the so-called Liberation Theology, has also been active in working against the pacificist aspects of the U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Peace. During his brilliant talk on "Catholicism and Politics" to a full auditorium of members and supporters of the TFP, Mr. Reilly analyzed the development of Western political thought and how it relates to Catholic social doctrine. In his remarks, he stressed that it is Christianity's and Catholicism's understanding of human nature that makes politics possible. Citing historical examples beginning with the ancient Greeks, he showed how it was only Christian Civilization based on the concept of Original Sin that adequately explained human nature and limited the abuses of politics. In this way, it provided for a civiiized society. On the other hand, he noted that modern ideology, whether it be communism, Nazism, or another of the same

Mr. Robert Reilly

ilk, destroys politics by proposing a godless, laicized world that fails to satisfy human nature's aspirations of a higher order. The spread of these metaphysical models has brought about a loss of the distinction between that which is human and that which is non-human and has resulted in what Mr. Reilly characterized as ''the rebarbarization of man.'' Abortion, he pointed out, was a decision based on modern ideology which refused to recognize the unborn as human. •

Welfare vs. Warfare RESIDENT Reagan's "drastic cuts"

P in welfare spending have drawn fire from a number of critics who like to claim that the present defense buildup is only being achieved at the expense of domestic welfare programs. A noted economist concludes, however, that this is not the case and that the real fiscal facts on government spending present an entirely different picture. In a new NSIC (National Strategy Information Center) publication On the Brink: Defense, Deficits, and Welfare, author James L. Clayton methodically negates the welfare-warfare myth. Clayton, dean of the graduate school at the University of Utah, supports his timely 153-page study with three charts and 17 tables drawn from such sources as the Economic Report of the President, the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States and numerous other studies from the executive and legislative branches, as well as the private sector. Clayton analyzes the defense and welfare spending trends from postwar 1950 up to the present budget. For purposes of analysis, he claims that it is more realistic to use the 1972 dollar as a term of comparison. In this conversion, the 1950 budget was equivalent to $30 billion while the 1984 fiscal year outlays will be nearly $250 billion. Defense spending tripled during the Korean war and rose later during the Vietnam War, dropped every year from 1968 to 1976 and modestly climbed

from 1976 to the present. "In the past ten years, defense spending has increased only 27 percent in real terms," says Clayton, "hardly the 300 percent leap suggested by 'current dollar' methods" (Sea Power, 2/84). Measured as a percentage of federal outlays, the defense budget was from fiscal I 975 to 1983 well below the 29 percent of the funds allocated to defense in 1950. Only in 1984 will the budget reach the 1950 level. In this sense, the portion of national resources has actually been shrinking until recently and in comparison to earlier years is still small. The U.S. defense budget is not a Moloch, but rather about average for a country of its size, wealth and influence. The latest comparative figures ( I 978) show that the average country spends some 5 .4 percent of its GNP for defense while the U.S. spents some 5.1 percent. Using the same methods, the author analyzed the massive shift from warfare to welfare spending after the Korean War. From the $8.5 billion spent in 1950, today's federal welfare outlays amo unt to $35 1 billion. He notes that welfare spending has grown much faster over the years. During the decade of the 60's, it nearly doubled, then doubled once again over the seventies, and the outlays are continuing to grow. Measured as a percentage of federal outlays, welfare expenses in fiscal year 1982 were 42 percent. With the "drastic" welfare cuts of the Reagan Administra-

tion, the percentage fell "dramatically" to 41 percent for 1984. Despite the disproportion between what is spent on welfare and on defense, there are many who believe that the two budgets are interrelated. Using empirical evidence of post-World War II federal budget data, Clayton disproves the thesis so often defended by many in Congress and in the national media. Clayton claims that it "is abundantly clear from quantitative data that defense spending has had virtually no negative impact on our federal, state and local social welfare programs . . . Both defense and social welfare have lives of their own." Moreover, he affirms that numerous other studies in other countries have confirmed his conclusion that defense and welfare tend to be independent of each other. The United States is now facing a fiscal crisis of unprecedented dimensions. With federal deficits threatening to reach $200 billion annually and a cumulative federal debt that is expected to exceed $2 trillion by fiscal year 1986, Clayton believes it is time to deflate the myths and start facing the economic facts. •

Peace Studies the most controversial subjects being promoted in the schools 0 these days is the so-Otlled "peace studies" NE OF

that are supposed to be a "balanced" study of nuclear conflict and how to prevent war. The issue seems to be as explosive as the subject matter involved. Attacks have surfaced that claim the studies, especially one titled "Choices: A Unit On Conflict and Nuclear War," published by the National Education Association, are heavily biased to promote pacificism and surrender rather than peace-through-strength. Discussion groups, workshops and even participation in local disarmament group activities are some of the methods used to teach the course. One course requires the students to write a diary in wh i · ''iey imagine their survival after a born, .1st. In the Letter-to-the-Editor section of the Denver Post (1/28/84), three sixth grade "victims" commented on what they had learned at school - and on the general better-red-than-dead orientation of the course. One of the children writes: "I learned a lot about the atomic bomb. Ninety-five percent of the people in a nuclear explosion die. I hope next year they have this class." Another says: "I think it is fine to have nuclear power. As long as we use it right, like for heating houses or for electricity. I don ' t think we should use it for weapons." Still another said, "We should reduce nuclear bombs on all sides, because we already have enough bombs to blow the world up seven times over. I've learned a lot about nuclear bombs in my nuclear awareness class at school" - learned, that is, at !eat one side of the story... • 13

Maltese Maneuvers The tiny, yet strategically located island of Maita will join Libya, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and other nations in receiving arms, ammunition and training "free of charge" from communist North Korea. According to a Maltese journalist writing in Freedom at Issue, the secret agreement was revealed at a mass rally held by the nation's conservative opposition to protest police raids and methods of interrogation employed by the Socialist government. Opposition leader Fenech-Adami said that the treaty provides for the dispatch of military instructors to give training and education to the Maltese military, as well as arms and ammunition . Observers have speculated that the move was made by aging Socialist Prime Minister Oomlnic Mintoff to stay in power in the face of fading popularity and domestic support (Globescan, 3126184).

Chllllng Coercion Smiling faces and official propaganda notwithstanding, President Reagan's recent trip to Communist China has failed to ameliorate that country's harsh reality. Not only does religious persecution and forced labor persist there, but the practice of coercive birth control is widespread and growing. Fox Butterfield, in his book China: Alive In the Bitter Sea, described In detail how neighborhood cadres were assigned to monitor their areas to Insure that the one-child-per-couple tyranny was enforced. China scholar Steven Mosher, in his book Broken Earth, describes a scene in one rural area where a group of pregnant women was assembled and told in no uncertain terms that they were to undergo abortions or receive drugs that would cause them to abort their children. The practice of involuntary abortion is apparently so widespread that even CBS's "60 Minutes" felt the necessity to report on the tragic situation. According to a Wall Street Journal editorial (419184), the U.S. government has been contributing indirectly to this "family planning" program in China through contributions to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. For fiscal year 1984, those contributions totalled $38 million. The Fund, in turn, is giving $50 million over four years to China's birth control program. Despite official denials, the agency has failed to present any proofs that coercive abortion is not continuing in China and has even given the Chinese government an award for excellence. Testifying before a Senate foreign relations subcommittee on March 22, economist Jacqueline Kasun remarked t hat the United States should separate 14

itself from the savagery of forced abortion. Kasun, who teaches economics at Humboldt State University in California, also quoted a 1982 New York Times article that described Chinese women who were locked in detention cells or brought before mass rallies and harangued into consenting to abortions. She called upon the United States to stop these "mad experiments (of the Chinese) upon their own people." "For the sake of our national honor and our name in history," she said, "we should - we must - lmmmediately terminate all support for the U.N . Fund for Population activities, for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and all organizations which support population control in the People's Republic of China" (National Catholic Register, 418/84).

Berlin Wall II

West Berlin authorities have noticed that East Germany has started building a second wall along the infamous Berlin Wall in an effort to make it even more difficult to escape from the communist "paradise." The original structure dividing the city is already fortified with guard towers, dogs and minefields but nevertheless has been the scene of several recent escape attempts - not all of which were successful. Work on the new wall began at the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, about 75 yards behind the old wall and stretches towards Potsdamer Platz, the busiest square in pre-war Berlin. Police report that the new wail is about 16 feet high - three feet higher than the old one. Nearly 28 miles of the original Berlin ERA: Equal Right to Abortion? Wall separate East Berlin from West Berlin, and 74.5 miles of it seal off the During the long and listless twelve rest of the island city from communistyear odyssey of the Equal Rights occupied Germany. It was built in 1961 Amendment (ERA), its advocates claim- after 2.7 million people fled the country. ed that the amendment was not linked to the abortion issue and that conserStrategic Targets vatives read into the short and vaguely worded document an interpretation According to a Red Army defector, that was not there. western political and military leaders A Pennsylvania state court decision would become targets of KGB assasrecently showed how well-founded anti- sination squads If a war broke out with abortion groups' fears were when Com- the Soviet Union. monwealth Court Judge John MacPhail Using the pseudonym of Vlktor Suvostruck down state laws restricting Med- rov, the former army officer said units icaid funding for abortion invoking a of the Special Forces of the Soviet state ERA law. Arguments presented by military intelligence directorate - the the American Civil Liberties Union and GAU - and teams of KGB intelligence Planned Parenthood claimed that the and security agents have pre-assigned restrictions "discriminated" against assassination missions in case of war. poor women. Other units, Suvorov said, wou ld try to Citing the new interpretation, pro-life wreck nuclear installations, attack groups have vowed to intensify their NATO command centers, disrupt comfight to halt any new attempts to re- munications and destroy key targets introduce the ERA. Observers note such as air bases. The defector also since one of the real motives for the noted that because of their rigorous amendment was exposed, it will have peacetime training and dangerous wardifficulty passing in Congress. time duties, the GAU and KGB com ~ to recruit top athletes into their uni The defector's account appeared in Atrocities In Afghanistan the March issue of Military Review, published by the U.S. Army Command While Western reporters flock in dro- Staff at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. The ves to report on alleged atrocities in El report noted that if Suvorov's claims Salvador, the Soviet extermination poli- are accurate, some of the potential cy in Afghanistan continues unheralded. assassins have already visited target Amid reports of chemical warfare, areas in the West through invitations to toy-shaped booby traps and civilian sporting events. massacres, the Soviets have embarked on a new offensive in the Panjshir De-Bugged Valley where they are reportedly employing for the first time saturati on In the computer field the term bombing against the elusive anticommunist guerrila forces and the villages "debug" means to eliminate errors and that support them. The number of c iv- malfunctions from a computer program. ilian casualties is thought to be high It had its origins in facts: An early IBM although no offic ial figures are yet computer (51 feet long and eight feet high) developed a malfunction after a available. Diplomats report that Soviets and moth flew into the complex mechanism. their Afghan auxilaries were reported to When the moth was removed, the combe "systematically destroying all live- puter operated smoothly again - an stock and crops as they moved into the example of how entomology affects valley " (The New York Times , 512184). etymology (Client's Monthly Alert, 4184).

HEADLESS SCHOOLS IN SPAIN OVED by the thrust generated by

M its radical goal, self-managing socialism has now hurled itself at

schools in Spain. This onslaught has been feltÂˇ more in private schools, where some 3,300,000 students are enrolled, constituting 380Jo of the country' s student population. Most of these schools are maintained by the Catholic Church. The education reform promoted by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) violates the freedom of the C hu rch a nd the inalienable rights of parents to educate their children. Furthermore, the Socialist Party aims to gradually impose the self-managing mentality and doctrine on young students through carefully worded slogans. Everything wou ld lead one to expect a bitter conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics over this matter. Nevertheless, looking at the "arena" of this ideological confrontation, one would say the bull is poorly bred a nd has no horns, while the bullfighter has neither sword nor cape. On the Catholic side, there were protests from parents, teachers, students, religious men and women and even prelates. The dispute over the proposed "Organic Law of Education" (LODE) seems to be dominated by the ta lismanic power of dialogue. Faced only with the smiling complacency of ecclesiastical authorities, the socialist leaders advance on a wide open road. Into what abysses can this dialogue between the Spanish bishops and the PSOE lead Spain?

Lucid But Painful Prediction Of the Spanish TFP On October 12, 1982, just prior to the national elections , the Spanish TFP published a n open letter to the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), "Spanish Socialism and the Traditional Doctrine of the C hurch." In it the TFP explained the points of the PSOE program, including educa tion re form , asking Catholics if they knew these points a nd whether the texts by the PSOE had been well interpreted. Finally, the document expressed the TFP's perplexity at the ambiguous position the Bishops' Conference had taken regarding a program so opposed to the Church. The Socialist Party did not a nswer the open letter , and the Bishops' Conference failed to make a pronouncement, so the word that could have saved Spain from socialism was not spoken. The PSOE won t he elections with the considerable and perhaps decisive support of Catholic voters. From then on the PSOE has been gradually but relentlessly applying its program.

Two aspects of Catholics demonstrating In Madrid against the socialist-inspired education law

Owners, Teachers and Parents: Heads Roll On February 28, 1983, the Madrid da ily ABC carried a front page story: "No Religion in Schools ." Weeks later, the Minister of Education disclosed the socialist plan for education. It begins by enumerating certain principles of selfmanaging socialism . W~.ile in the first steps of the plan's application the state prudently tolerates some vestiges of the former regime, it is given powers to gradua lly extinguish these remnants. School properties, for the time being, will not be confiscated. However, the owners of private schools, most of which are religious institutions, will be reduced , as one religious put it, to "sweeping the courtyard " and to facing worker tribunals for decisions for which they are not responsible. And the reason they are not responsible is the socialist law prescribes that a "council" (call it a Soviet if you will) will take over the school. The self-ma naging council will take over the owner's functions and retain the right to summon him a t will without granting him any right to vote. The council, which will be something like an assembly, has a position for a president, a secretary and a headmaster in the state sch ools and will name a d irector for the private schools. Furthermore, this little Soviet will be made up of delegates drawn from students, teachers, parents and workers, and a minority representation of the owners. Will the parents, teachers and students be able to reach an agreement to preserve the autonomy o f their schools within the system? The law leaves no room for illusions : socialism reserves for itself the

regula tion of both parent and student associations and instructs its militants to join these associations and tie them to the all-pervading party. What will be the fate of private teachers, reduced by t his proposed legislation to the sta te of r ' ,;Âˇ employees, when the socialist u1 UGT-FETE, in common agreement with the socialist party, brings pressure to bear upon them?

State Omnipotence Hovering over these myriads of councils is the State School Council, a kind of Supreme Soviet of schools with the participation of union members, representatives from the federal and provincial governments, universities, teachers selected by the Party, and school delegates. But the school representatives will not be allowed to form a majority. Even the Supreme Council will have no decisionmaking power: the socialist government will have the final word. Completing its siege, the socialist plan will cut off a ll p ublic support or assis15

tance to schools that refuse to cooperate. In order to survive, these schools will have to drastically increase their tuition charges. And in view of the growing tax burden that the regime is heaping upon the taxpayers, very few parents will be able to pay the tuition. The schools that submit will be required to provide free teaching and will be left completely dependent on the socialist government. "As long as there is one single broken window in a public school, we will not give a penny to private schools," threatened socialist leader Victorino Mayoral during the election campaign.

In Spite of the Climate of "Dialogue," Religious Organizations Feel Obliged to React Both the powerful Spanish Federation of Religious (FERE) that includes priests, religious and nuns dedicated to education, and the Spanish Confederation of Educational Centers (CECE), which includes the majority of private school owners, have maintained an attitude of dialogue and collaboration with the PSOE on educational matters. This was admitted by Fr. Martinez Fuentes, president of the CECE, and Fr. Aquilino Bocos, president o f FERE. The latter let it be understood that the entity over which he presides would be obliged to denounce possible abuses. The two organizations, while trying to keep up a dialogue with the Socialist Party, made declarat ions along this line when the shocking news of the proposed refo rm became known to the public. The Spanish Conference of Bishops, in its 38th Plenary Assembly, iss ued a statement on the matter. In a bland language hardly proportional to the grave risk to which the Catholic schools are subjected by virtue of the educational reform , the Spanish Hierarchy pointed out that the plan fails to offer guarantees for private schools as regards : I) The preservation of the a utonomy a nd identity of this kind of educational institution; a) the preservation of the owners' aut ho rity. In their document, the bishops also lament the design of imposing a political model o n the sc hools. Both FERE and CECE made doctrinal cri ticisms denouncing the self-managing character of the proposed reform .

Demonstrations of Protest and the Arrogant Attitude of the PSOE Other organizations have also denounced the self-managing basis of the plan: I) the opposition in the Spa nish Cortes; the Federation of Independent Teachers Uni ons (FS IE), the Catholic Confederation of Parents and Students Associations, and specialized private publications. Very much annoyed, the Socia list Party stealthily endeavored several times to p lay down the accusation of self16

management by affirm ing that the law does not fully implement self-management. Complacently enough, Bishop Yanes, president o f the Bishops' Commission on Education, stated " in fact, one cannot say that the LODE is a laicist law or that it is a law that imposes selfmanagement in the strict sense. " The dialoguing entente between the bishops' leadership and the Socialist Party was unable to stifle a widespread malaise. Protest demonstrations started to ta ke place. First, hundreds of students mani fested their disagreement in front of the Ministry of Education. The socia list authorities, usually so understanding and inclined to dialogue with feminists and homosexuals, ordered the police to break up the students' demonstration. The youths dispersed. Feeling that it was losing support, the Socialist Party blindly pushed forwa rd the parliamentary debate with great speed despite protests from opposition representatives. It refused to debate the iss ue on state-controll ed TV and threatened to prolong parliamentary debates beyond the C hristmas holidays if the proposed law was not approved. Catholic parents demonstrated in Las Palmas, Bilbao, Valencia, Valladolid and Santander. At the same time, the left suffered a significa nt electoral defeat in Madrid's Complutense University, the largest in the country. On December 17, hundreds of thousands of Catholics marched in the rain in Madrid in protest against the bill. According to the march organizers, between 800,000 a nd 1,000,000 people took part. The socia list -co ntrolled police acknowledged the presence of only 250,000. The marchers carried signs and roared: "Maravall (The Minister of Education), resign! The people reject you!" and "Liberty, yes; LODE, no! "; "Maravall's dictatorship is going to end!" The government permitted the massive demonstration to last only two hours and the police prevented a few thousand people from continuing on to the Ministry

of Education. Only a few priests and nuns appeared at the protest, and no bishop appeared. The clergy as a whole stood out by their absence. Something quite different took place at the same time in another part of the Spa nish capital. Very early in the morning, a great fire had broken out in discotheque that caused the deaths of 80 people who were under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The Vicar of Madrid went to the morgue to celebrate a Mass for those who had died in that ambience of orgy, and the Archbishop of Madrid himself celebrated a public Mass for those who had died in that censurable place (ABC (12/20/83). But no Mass was celebrated to prevent self-managing socialism from destroying the Catholic schools and taking over the souls of their young students, for that would be harmful to the dialogue with the socialist government. Meanwhile, demonstrations similar to the one in Madrid took place in Barcelona and Cadiz. 100,000 people participated in a march in Seville, an electoral stronghold of socialism.

Misleading Catholic Reaction: A "School Pact" Strongly influenced by the bishops, Catholic organizations tried to lead Catholic reaction to a middle-of-theroad position through the so-called School Pact. In practice, this pact accepts all that is essential to the socialist project and proposes co-management as a means (both unacceptable and ineffective) of holding back the slide toward self-ma nagement. . The Socialist Party was jubilant at this defeatist proposal and continues its gradual advance without making any concessions . Resorting to what the people call " the steamroller, " the socialists manag~ ed to get their proposed law approved in the Chamber of Deputies. The bill is now being debated in the Senate. •

TRADITION, FAMILY, PROPERTY Half a Century ofEpic Anticommunism HERE IS the re markable story of fifty years in defense of the basic principles of Christian Civilization by the outstanding Brazilian Catholic thinker and man of action, PUNIOCORR~A DE OLIVEIRA. This 468-page book, amply ill ustrated, details the founding of the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Fami ly and Property (TFP) and the subsequent appea rance of 14 other autonomous TFPs a round the world. Breaks the myth of the "irres is tibl e" force of communism and socialism. ORDER FROM:

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POPULATION GROWTH-A HEALTHY SIGN Challenging the "doomsday" soothsayers OT since the 1960's has the issue N of population growth sparked such concern and emotion as it has with the opening of the United Nations International Conference on Population in Mexico City. Demographers point to a ticking population bomb, scarce natural resources and growing unrest in Third World countries. Doomsday predictions seem to support the Malthusian concensus that world peace and economic growth depend exclusively on holding down world population at any cost. The issue has become even more controversial in view of the White House position paper on population. The paper challenges several myths regarding population control and its relation to economic growth. More importantly, the first draft condemned the use of U.S. funds in programs which include abortion as a means of population control. The paper infuriated many of the population control activists who used the opportunity to add a global dimension to their attacks on the increasingly effective and annoying pro-life movements and to condemn the " inhumanity" of the Reagan Administration.

While recognizing the need to achieve population equilibrium, the White House position paper, in effect, declared that the population problem is not as simple as it is popularly posed. A sharper focus is necessary in order to consider many factors which weigh heavily on the causes and effects of sustained population growth. "The relationship between population growth and economic development is not a negative one,'â&#x20AC;˘ the controversial draft deciared. "More people do not mean less growth." While the baby boom after World War II actually stimulated growth in the United States, the rapid influx of youth in some developing nations strained their infrastructures and economies. The successful reduction of world mortality rates through tremendous expansion of health services, the sharing of technology and the teaching of agricultural techniques brought about more people. However, an almost paranoiac reaction to this increase ensued. To remedy this new "crisis," counter-productive economic policies in poor and struggling nations were instituted. A pseudo-scientific pessimism among the more ad-

,OpiQtial

Painhood

(Inset) Population controllers: promoting a Doomsday paranoia for whose benefit"! (Above) More moums .â&#x20AC;˘. ou1 more mmas, too.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY AND PROPERTY

Valuable human resources. Growing evidence of Malthus's mistake.

vanced nations provoked the demographic over-reaction of the I 960's and I 970's. Malthusian Premises Many of the population controllers base their beliefs on the often debunked thesis of Thomas Malthus, an eighteenthcentury economist who held that population tends to increase faster than food supplies with inevitably disastrous results. The premise suffered greatly in the late 1800's when the industrial era ushered in a period of general prosperity a nd exuberan t population growth. Even Karl Marx denounced Malthusianism as a n intellectual fraud and capitalist ploy. The post World War II era brought about a growt h-oriented population policy in many Western countries and a corresponding growth-oriented economic boom. More people meant more markets. Economists tended to agree with Colin Clark who argued in 1960 tha t "population growth is generally beneficial," often serving as "the only stimulus powerful enough to shake men out of their established ways a nd customs, and make them seek something better" (Fortune, 12-60). By the 1960's, this a ttitude had changed as Malthusian ideas permeated the West. Studies like Hugh Moore's widely-circulated book The Population Bomb 0954) soon turned the concept of prosperous growth into the " popula tion problem " and later into a crisis that 2

would include world-wide fam ine, urban riots a nd economic catastrophe. The dire predictions missed by a mile. Not only did the famines fail to materialize, but the measures taken to control population a re lead ing to serious underpopulation problems for the future. In 1982 the average birth rate for the nine Common Market countries was 1.67 children per couple, well below the 2.1 needed to maintain cu rrent population levels . West Germany is at the bottom of the scale with a rate of only 1.4. The effects of what the French call denatalie - the low birth rates - are becoming a cause for concern. Each year, the growfng number of Lhe aged imposes a bit more of the crushing burden of support on a shrinki ng number of youth. The West German government has resorted to direct fina ncia l rewa rds by paying women who refrain from having abortions. Each woman giving birth will be awarded the equivalent of $ I 800. A childless Europe The prospect of a n aging, childless Europe is echoed throughout t he Continent. According to British historia n Richard Tomlinson, " the other EC nations will either have to face their demographic stagnation or see their muchvau nted social welfa re systems disintegrate" ( Wall Street Journal, 6-20-84). Communist-dominated Chinese society was being heralded as a showcase in

population control until reports surfaced that women were being forced to undergo a bortion to meet strict government quotas and that some "abortions" were being performed well into the ninth month of pregnancy. In 1980 government set a policy allowing each married couple only one child to keep China's population down to 1.2 billion people by the end of the century. The communist short-term solution to its population (and political) problems is currently being suggested for use in many Third World countries. According to Allan Carlson of the Illinois-based Rockford Institute, there are serious flaws in the Malthusian analyses now being presented. The birth of a child does not only represent a new mouth to feed. It also represents a new mind and a new set of hands capable of innovation if given the freedom to do so. The ability of the human mind to innovate in a sense "creates" new resources from worthless materials, thus reducing scarcity. The more minds added to the creative process, the greater the resource base (Persuasion at Work, 2-84, study available from The Rockford Institute, 934 North Main St., Rockford, IL 61103). The conclusions of Carlson's analysis are supported by the studies of demographer Alfred Sauvy. Sauvy argues that a moderate increase in population size actually serves to stimulate industrial development and may even be necessary for a ny social and economic progress. In his book The Economics ofPopulation Growth, Julian Simon presented solid quantitative data in favor of population growth. Beginning his research project in 1968, Simon sought to confirm Malthus' conclusion with the available empirical data. When all his efforts failed, he converted to an anti-Malthusian persuasion. â&#x20AC;˘

CONTENTS INTERNATIONAL Population Growth-A Healthy Sign Pages 1-2 Special Report on Central Amerk u Pages 5-6 Soviet Style Education Page 13 COMMENTARY Page 3 RELIGION Page 4, 6 AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CI VI LIZA TIO NS Pages 8-9 HISTORY Pages 10-11 A TALE FROM CHRISTENDOM Page 12 NEWS FLASHES Page 14 GENERAL NEWS Pages 7, 15 , 16

IRREDUCIBILITY AND CUNNING COMMENTARY

N A world wide report by the Ansa publications. Perhaps the limpid rigidity News Agency also published by several of this attitude was never manifested with Roman dailies, "comrade" Alessandro greater consistency and strength than in Nana, the new Secretary General of the the famous decree of 1949, approved by Italian Communist Party affirmed, in an Pius XI I, in which the Holy Office deinterview requested by Vatican Radio, that clared excommunicates and apostates he did not see the Catholic Faith as an from the Catholic Faith all those who "obstacle," but on the contrary, a "pos- profess, defend or spread communist sible point of support" for the "perspec- doctrine. tives" that, in his judgement, the Italian Nevertheless, even before John XXIII, Communist Party (PC!) and the Catholic in both Catholic and communist ranks a Church have in common. These perspec- simultaneous and parallel underground tives are: "the liberation of man and the work of "softening" had been going on peoples, the affirmation of the values of for a long time. And, let it be well underpeace and morality in their highest sense" stood, with exclusive advantage to the (II Messaggero, Rome, 6-30-84). communists. While the Catholic "softenOn that occasion, the interviewer ap- ing" gained in strength and expression pointed by Vatican Radio asked Natta if especially in France (Mounier, Maritain, "something new will arise in the relations worker priests, etc. all backed up more between the PC! and the Catholic world." or less implicitly by strictly religious proThe answer of the Italian politician was gressivism, Genebra, Taize, etc.) and evasive, but not devoid of significance: from there radi:ued over the whole world, it was in the PC! that the communist "softening" was defined with greater vigor and precision. The great ideologue of this "softening" was Gramsci. Its most recent promoter was Berlinguer. When the latter died recently, Alessandro Natta succeeded him. And behold that right from the Natta, the new Secretary General al the Italian Communist Party first steps of this new pontiff of " It would be timely and just to follow the atheism the way has been opened for him inspiration that began long ago, with to radiate all over the world his act of Gramsci and Togliatti, and to which "faith" in the serpentine policy of GramEnrico Berlinguer made a contribution scian "softening." That is, the Gramscian lullaby of a that I consider extraordinary." Now, the three leaders that Natta mentioned fought Catholic-communist rapprochement was ardently right inside the Party for the just given prestige before the faithful renovation of its line of conduct toward in an unheard of way by being broadcast the Church . The traditional attitude of on the Radio which is basically, to say the PCI in this matter used to be one of the least, the semi-official spokesman of total confrontation, that is, a fight o f all the successive Vicars of Christ on Earth. all communists against the Church as the It thus found a means of reaching lisresult of a total disagreement in thought, teners it wou ld ot herwise never reach, predisposing them to acquiesce due to the goals and methods. The position of the Church was analo- unparalleled religious prestige of Vatican gous. She spoke out with total condem- Radio. Oh , if Gramsci, if Togliatti, if nation of communist doctrine, prohibit- Berlinguer had had such an opportunity ing all Catholics from reading (without of making propaganda, how this alone proper authorization) communist books would have made them celebrated in the and from joining communist parties, and sinister annals of international comfrom giving any kind of support to the munism! continuation or expansion of communist And what a bomb, what a terrible

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PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA bomb, is Natta's interview in the Catholic camp! Yes, a bomb whose repercussions will resound until the end of time ... What was Vatican Radio's commentary on this unheard of fact? Our hearts rise up to Heaven, imploring from it a protest of holy indignation to explain with what heretofore unthinkable plots international communism could have set such a "record" of efficiency for its fallacious propaganda. Yes, a protest that would also enunciate a renewed condemnation of communism by the Holy See, in order to protect so many hundreds o f millions of faithful listeners against the effects of the ruse. What happened in reality? Ironically, the " bomb" exploded precisely on the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, June 29. On the thirtieth it was reported in the newspapers. The "Avvenire," the semiofficial publication of the Italian episcopate, published a concise report of it, unaccompanied by commentaries. The "Osservatore Romano," the semi-official organ of the Holy See, has kept complete silence ... Until when? Every day when I wake up, I ask myself, before reading the papers, if the Vatican has finally published its protest. And until now the only answer I get, that the faithful and Christendom get, is silence. Will this last until Just before this article comes out? If so, as soon as the Vatican protest is released, I will alter my article in order to share the joy of that good news with my readers. But until that happens - or if it does not happen - what will I do? Saddened, but unconditionally faithful, more than ever will I believe in the Holy Rom.. Catholic and Apostolic Church. More than ever will I love Her. So many other Catholics sca11ered throughout the world will do the same as I. May Our Lady help us to carry this faith and love to the very heights of intensity precisely at such a sad hour. I am certain that the irreducible fidelity of those who do so will constitute, in the eyes of God, a counter-offensive stronger and more glorious than the outrage that He suffered, with the momentary and blasphemous victory in which Alessandro Natta first appeared to the world, was hideous. Irreducibility of faith and love of God will thus conquer the cunning of revolutionary hatred. â&#x20AC;˘ Plinio Correa de Oliveira founded, in 1960, The Brazilian TFP. TFPs and similar autonomous organizations were founded since then in 14 o ther countries, inspired by his book Revolution and Counter-Revolution. He writes for the large daily newspaper Folha de

S . Paulo.

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ANEW WORLD CHURCH ".. .New myths, ,, new h eroes. .. ·" . . new symbols, rites, words and concepts. " • Left: The inestimable sufferings of Our Lord, the price of our Redemption, are beautifu/ly expressed in this traditional crucifix. • Right: A Marxist concept adopted by

HAT does the future hold for the Church as an institution and for society in general? A lecture given by Father Philip Murnion, director of the New York-based National Pastoral Life Center, to the Nationa l Federation of Priests Councils in San Antonio, Texas, provides a n insight into the plans that are being discussed in some "Catholic" circles to bring about radical transformations in both areas. According to Fr. Murnion, society needs a whole new way of thinking and acting, a truly revolutionary change that would be oriented towa rd a more human and just social order. Catholics, Fr. Murnion asserts, must realize that they are not exempt from this change which will call for a basic redirection of their efforts. While acknowledging the enormous creative capacities that were released by the '' American way of life,'' a new stage of development must be pursued on the basis of this achievement. The models must be changed. The Horatio Alger myths of individual success measured by money " are clearly irrelevant to the present context," Fr. Murnion declares. "A paradigm shift calls for new symbolic action, new myths, new heroes that serve to embody a new way of life." Who are these new heroes and what are these new myths? Though not really defined, they must clearly conflict with the principle "faults" of modern society. These basic "faults" are the real or supposed excesses of capitalism: radical 4

Liberation Theology advocates. This ' 'crucifix'' was recently printed in a bulletin linked with the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (NCBB).

indi vidualism, utilitarianism, materialism, separation of the private and public spheres of action, and the increased polarization of the classes. Fr. Murnion a rgues th at a new moral community is badly needed. This new order must not be individualistic but communitarian. Its values and virtues would not. be absolute but articulated a nd subscribed to by all. The State is subservient to these articulated values . ''The new order is one in which we recogn ize a common good in terms of which there can be a call to sacrifice. It is one that prizes communities of family, of neighborhood, of church and of voluntary organizations. Business life must be in support of the community life and accountable to such communities." "The new order is open and recognizes explicitly, not begrudgingly, the community of all life, the interdependence of all perso ns, the symbiosis of human life and the environment. lt also rewards relationships rather than acquisitions as the measure of success." Fr. Murnion calls to mind the Herculean task of c hanging a person's mentality to overcome individualism and recognize that his own identity and development depend on his relationships with others. The Church would play a essential role in developing this com munitarian order which would embrace all peoples. "What we are talking about is, of course, global in dimension, as drastic

a change as was that combination of the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment and the democratic revolutions that ushered in the modern era. It is, as I have said, a matter of a whole new way of life, a way of thinking and acting, of philosophy and policy, of law and business, of private and public life. And it is ultimately a renewed conjoining of worship and work" (Origins, 6-21-84). Fr. Murnion is not alone in affirming a coming radical change. J esuit Father Avery Dulles told a packed audi1 nrium of theologians at Georgetown Un ty in Washington that the Catholic Church has just begun to enter a major new epoch moving from a European Church to a "world C hurch." This radical change will be so extensive that the only comparable "abrupt cultural shift" the Church has faced in its history, Fr. Dulles said, was the Hellenization of Christianity in the age o f the Apostles ''when Gentile Christianity separated itself culturally from the J ewish mother Church" (St. Louis Review, 6-29-84). Father Dulles also spoke of the need to develop a common culture and "new symbols, rites, words a nd concepts.'' The new order with its formation of a new type of man, a leveling of social classes, the dissolution of the State, the creation of micro-communities and the interdependency of all people is actually not a new proposal, but has the same ring to it as the floundering idea of selfmanaging socialism. •

TFP SPECIAL REPORT

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VENEZUELA

Panama: New Faces-Same Direction N 1968, Panama began to live under the ofttimes brutal leftist rule of Omar Torrijos Herrera. His dictatorship failed to draw the attacks of both defenders of "human rights" - in spite o f his regime's grave abuses - a nd the American Government, a prime target of the Torrijos adm inistration on the P a nama Canal issue.

Torrijos's Panama: Pro-Communist and Anti-American

In the beginning, Panama's internationa l pos ition was clearly "third

Carter embracing Torrijos at the Panama Canal "giveaway"

world," pro-Cuba, s upportive of Sandinism a nd o ther forms of subversion in neighboring countries. It also favored the formation of a cong lomerate of na tions if not openly communis t , at least clearly hostile to the United States as a Western power. Paradoxically, the United States was precisely Panama's main economic support during those years, a fact which led

the Central American nation to become a n important financia l and commercial center. Credit extended to Panama by international financial institutions and ot her industrialized nations helped to make it o ne of the countries wi th the highest per capita debt on the American continent. Panama's greatest internal debate was obtaining sovereignt~â&#x20AC;˘ over the Canal Zone, which former president Carter aided by simultaneously showing condescendence toward the left a nd intransigence toward anticommunist movements and governments. Torrijos d id his part by mobilizing key sectors of the populace as well as the Nat ional Guard (the Army and the Police}, pushing traditional political currents into t he background and forcing not a few of their leaders into exile. Thus, for more than a decade Panama was under a leftist and anti-American dictatorship si milar to that of Peru, receiving from the po litical a nd economic establishment of the U nited States a reply not hostile, but tolerant and even accomodating. H owever, persecution of the opposition, socia list reforms, its position on the left of the international spectrum and the authoritarian promulgation of a new constitution prod uced pockets o f unres t which were mute at first , but later grew daring; th is fo rced Torrijos to feign a democratization of the country, naming Aristides Royo as President but retaining real control o f t he country. With the death of Torrijos in a p lane accident in 198 1 and the regime worn out by unpopular leftist reforms, the Royo government lost consistency and the National Guard gained the upper hand .

After a few months, a new "strong man," Gen. Ruben Da rio Paredes, a scended to power. Royo's resig natio n and the rise to the Presidency of Ricardo De la Espriella, then Vice P resident a nd linked to the banking system, was seen by some as a veer to the right. But a close examination of the events excludes this explanation, since many of Royo's leftist ministers stayed in their posts a nd D e la Espriella appointed two other politicians of the same ilk: former chancello r forge Ilueca as Vice President , and a new militant com munist to the Cabinet.

It must be supposed that all this was much to the lik ing of Gen. Paredes, since he himself declared that real power was 1 being wielded by the National ( President De la Espriella refrained , , v m contradicting him. In May of this year, Panama held its first presidential elections in 16 years. The contest was between Dr. Arnul fo Arias Madrid and Nicolas Ardito Barletta. Dr. Arias has been a key figure in

Old friends in Havana: Castro and Torrijos 5

,, Panamanian politics for over a half a century and was seeking his fourth term as ÂˇPresident. His opponent, Mr. Barletta who eventually won the election by a narrow margin follows in the Torrijos tradition. He served in Torrijos' Cabinet in the f970's but left the country before the charges of corruption and incompetence that enveloped the Government became public. Mr. Barletta, who quit his post at the World Bank in Washington to run for office in Panama is considered one of the country's leading technocrats. He became a key economic adviser to the Torrijos Government after the 1968 coup

and from 1973 to 1977 was Minister of Planning and Economic Policy. In I 978, he assumed his duties at the World Bank in charge of projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. What wi ll the regime do? It will probably fo llow the policies of Torrijos, initially with as few attenuations as possible, in order to be tolerated by public opinion. It is likely to continue to reap economic benefits by maintaining the extensive advantages enjoyed by the banks, in contrast with the nationalizations suffered by much of the region. Of course, things will change when the ti me comes to take new steps toward radical social-

ization and the State seizes control of the whole economy. It is therefore clear what lies ahead for Panama: a socialist regime with an anticommunist appearance, under the protection of the military and with the support of at least some political parties to keep up the fai;ade of democratization. Will the referred to "democratization" provide a real opportunity for authentically antisocialist forces to manifest themselves and show the people of Panama what has been hidden from them by their leaders, that is, the country's ceaseless march toward totalitarianism? â&#x20AC;˘

The Shroud of Turin-More Evidence A

DDING to the mountainous volume of evidence supporting the authenticity of the Shroud, two studies of other relics associated with the Passion demonstrate an amazing consistency. The Italian daily// Tempo reports that it was recently discovered that the nail venerated as one that pierced the hand of Our Lord and was later guarded in Rome's Holy Cross Church has the exact measurements of the wound shown in the image impressed on the Holy Shroud of Turin. According to information furnished by archeologist Maria Grazia Siliato, the blood on the left wrist of Our Lord spread near the wound in the shape of a small rose and was impressed on the Holy Shroud just like the other wounds. A photograph reveals that in the center of the wrist stain there appears an obscure Âˇ form but with its margins well defined in the form of a square which measures one centimeter on each side. After the nail was taken out, the flesh of the hand remained open without any retraction. Any coagulated blood was entirely absorbed by the li ne marking out the square. Mrs. Siliato affirms that the nail in Holy Cross Church is exactly 9 mm square at its widest point. This dimension is precisely what the nail would have to be to impress the form shown on the wrist of the Man of the Shroud. In another amazing " coincidence," a North Carolina university researcher announced that the apparent bloodstains on a cloth that may have been placed on the face of Jesus Christ shortly after his crucifixion came from the same person whose image was impressed on the Shroud of Turin. Dr. Alan D. Whanger, a professor at Duke University and a shroud expert, with his wife Mary, compared the Shroud with tbe Sudarium, a face cloth believed to have been placed on the face of Our Lord before burial. It has been kept in the cathedral in Oviedo, Spain, since the ninth century. Using a polarized image overlay technique they developed in 1981, the Whangers compared the two cloths by projecting one 6

Sixteenth century artist's conception of the Shroud. Above: The Holy- Face

photographic image directly over the oilier using polarized filters. By mea ns of a third rotating filter, the simila rities between the images were examined minutely. The researchers found 76 congruent stains over the face and 58 over the back of the head, thought to have been caused by the Crown of Thorns. " We feel this is hard evidence that both were in contact with the same person," Whanger said. He also claims that these findings support the authenticity of the Shroud. The Whangers said the 2-feet-9-inch by l-foot-9 inch face cloth was folded around Christ's face prior to the placement of the Shroud. They speculated tbat the face cloth was removed as the Shroud was folded over the face. As was the custom, the face cloth was left in the tomb near the body. "We believe that the face cloth was placed on the body shortly after death and before the entombment because it is much more bloody t_han the shroud," he said (Rocky Mountain News, 4-19-84).

Whanger also has new evidence about the nature of the Shroud itself. Along with Oswald Scheuermani1 West German physics teacher, he speculates that the image may have been created by a bolt of lightning. Scheuermann has produced images with virtually the same detail and physical and chemical characteristics as those on the Shroud by means of radiation from high-voltage and high-frequency electrical currents. As twentieth century science analyzes the most famous relic of Christendom, it appears that the so-called forgery scheme allegedly planned by medieval artists was of a much greater proportion than anyone had ever imagined. Not only did the incredible artists paint a picture that could only be discerned by a photographic process that did not yet exist but the measurements of the Shroud coincide perfectly with other relics in other cities, thus raising the unlikely hypothesis that several artists were involved in a grand conspiracy to fool medieval humanity.

ANIMAL LIBERATION

Traditional sportsmen-facing a new kind of obstacle: anlmal activists

A spokeswoman for the ALF claimed that the break-in was to protest "the callousness, inhumanity and arrogance of the animal experimentation industry" (Rocky Mountain News, 6-5-84). In Europe, the animal activists are increasingly targeting hunting and similar sports as the inglorious continuation of barbarous rites. The more radical groups have engaged in acts of sabotage. In Holland, anti-angling groups have gone so far as to walk along canal banks, "baiting" fishermen by handing them pieces of cheese in which fish hooks have been embedded. In England, outraged animal activists have mounted anti-hunting campaigns aimed at fox hunters , stag hunters, hare coursers and mink hunters . "If I saw a baby being beaten by thugs, I would have a moral duty to help the baby," said Ralph Cook of Exeter, secretary of the Hunt Saboteurs Association. "I feel exactly the same way about hunting" (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 4-2 1-84). The group has gone to great lengths to confound hunters, hiring helicopters to scare away rabbits, and spraying the countryside with a chemical to make it difficult for hounds to pick up a fox's scent. Horns and hunting calls are used to lure dogs awa y from the hunt. In the midst of the animal "rights" debate, no attempt has been made to bring the worst offenders to bay - animals themselves. With callous disregard for even the most fundamental rights, animals of a ll sizes prey upon one another, sometimes employing cruel measures before finally killing their victims. Since animals lack intelligence, they act by instinct in accordance with their natu re. Will the next step be a demand by a nimal rights advocates to cha nge the laws of natu re? â&#x20AC;˘

TTEMPTING to bridge the abyss dogs a nd mice who are unknowingly vicbetween human rights and so-called tims of human cppression. Last Decem" animal rights," animal activists are ber, a group called the Animal Liberaworking with increased radicality to pro- tion Front (ALF) claimed responsibility tect furry, winged and scaly cre;\tures from for the theft of dogs used in a cardiohunters, laboratory scientists and even vascular experiment at the HarborUC LA Medical Center in California. A the natural omnivorous appetite of man. The issue has given rise to an emo- group called Urban Gorillas took cats tional debate both in the United States from the University of California at and Europe. Activists are intent upon en- Berkeley. More recently at the University o f dowing animals with qualities that transcend their mere animal nature. H ence, Pennsylvania's animal research labothe humane and legitimate use of a nimals ratory, the ALF vandalized equipment for food, sport a nd for furtherance of and stole videotapes containing years of research on head-injury experiments with science has become a "moral issue." The "moral" questions involved in baboons. University o fficials insisted human domination of other a nimals (sic) that the animals were humanely treated make legislation of animal rights di f- a nd that the stolen information was exficult, claims Dr. Judith Ham pson of tremely valuable in studying cases o f England's Royal Society for the Preven- severe brain damage. tion of C ruelty to Animals (Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 6-24-84). Activists are particularly irate over the use of animals for laboratory experiments calling in to question whether man's need to learn supersedes concern for a nimal life. These advocates of the ultimate in egalitarianism claim that even earthworms have the capacity to feel pain. According to Michael Giannelli, a clinical psychologist and science adviser for the Fund for Animals, current U.S. regulations are " grossly inadequate." H e feels that some eighty percent of the rats, mice, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and farm animals used by laboratories are not being covered by the 1967 Animal Welfare Act. Anima l activists are lobbying for an a mendment to the Welfare Act that wou ld require a ll U.S. institutions to adopt internal review committees to handle the "moral" questio ns of a nimal care t hat arise during research. More radical elements of the movement have taken to " liberating" test Taking advantage of a pretty foxy maneuver

T HIS section has as its presupposition the fact that certain colors, certain lines, certain forms of material objects, certain fragrances and certain sounds have an affinity with man's states of mind for reasons that are not merely conventional. There are colors that have an affinity with happiness, others with sadness. Some forms we call majestic, others simple. We say a family is cordial, and the same can be said of a home. We can call someone's conversation enchanting; we can soy the same of music. We can find a perfume vulgar, and we can say the same about the person who likes to wear it. Ambience is the harmony formed, in this case, by the affinity of the component parts of various things united in the same place. Imagine a room of pleasant proportions, decorated with

cheerful colors and furnished with gracious objects, and in which many flowers exude a pleasant fragrance and someone is playing cheerful music. In this room, there is an ambience of happiness. Clearly, the more affinities there are among the beings and objects in the room, the more expressive the ambience will be. And, in addition to being happy, the ambience could be dignified, cultivated and temperate, if there were dignity, culture and temperance in the people and things found there. An ambience will be the opposite ofÂˇ all this - extravagant, ugly and vulgar - if the objects that compose it have these qualities. An example of this would be a room full of modern art. Man forms for himself ambiences in his own image and likeness, am-

biences that mirror his customs and his civilization. But the reciprocal is also true to a great extent: Ambiencesform man, customs and civilizations to their image and likeness. In teaching, this is trivial. But is it of value only to the art of teaching? Who would dare deny the importance of ambiences in the formation of adults? Formation is precisely what we mean for in this life man, whatever his age, must be committed to the struggle of forming and reforming himself in preparation for Heaven, the only place in which our march towards perfection ends. Therefore, a Catholic can and should make the ambiences in which he lives efficacious for his moral formation.

E HA VE proof of thL 1portance of ambience to the equilibrium of mental life and for the upright moral formation of man in the wisdom, beauty and magnificence that God put in the panorama of nature for us to contemplate. In the universe there is not one, but thousands upon thousands of ambiences, all suited to instruct and form man. This is true to such an extent that Holy Scripture has recourse to material things to make us understand and appreciate spiritual and moral realities. Man, with his limited power, forms his ambiences by making inanimate things - furniture, upholstery, etc., and making images of reality - pictures, sculptures, mosaics, etc. God, on the contrary, made reality itself, and as the Author ofLife gave distinction and richness to the am8

''BE WISE AS SERPENTS AND SIMPLE AS DOVES'' bience of creation by placing living beings in it: plants, animals, and, above all, man. We have proof in the Evangelists of how much power of expression these inferior beings, especially animals, have for men. Thus, in his beautiful sermon on the mission of the apostles (Mt. 10:16), Our Lord gave us the dove and the serpent as models for two high virtues: innocence and prudence.

THE

bot of evil, with all the sorcery and all the treachery of the forces ofperdition. ibis gives us a magnificent But in all this "malice", what pru- example of how the innocence of the dence! What astuteness! Prudence is a dove and the astuteness of the serpent virtue by which someone makes use of can be united in one single action. He the necessary means to reach the ends makes his nest in trees and protects his he has in sight. Astuteness is an aspect, offspring with vigilance and energy. and in a certain way, a requirement of He thus gives to man an example of prudence, which maintains every dis- serious and strong virtue. cretion and employs every licit guise A snake comes and swallows an egg, needed to arrive at an end. Everything threatening to devour the rest of them. in the serpent is astute and prudent, As clever and capable as the reptile, the from the penetration of his look to his ibis attacks it in a vulnerable spot, inlong, slender form and the terrible effi- capacitating its every means of aggrescacy of his essemial weapon - a venom, sion and defense. After some time of ARMONJOUS in form, simple which through a s fngle,tiny perforation this pressure, the serpent surrenders the in color, gracious in flight and in move- in his victim's skin spreads throughout egg, and weakened, falls to the ground. ment, "affable " with other animals, the whole body in a few instants. The ibis achieved his honest objecits whole being pure and innocent tive with the innocence of the dove, there is nothing in the dove that sugwith a way offighting that conquered gests an idea of plunder, aggression, the serpent with astuteness. injustice, intemperance or impurity. It is there/ore most fitting that, as in the words of Our Savior, it is the symbol of innocence. But it lacks something - the qualities that assure a being of his survival in the fight against adverse factors. His perspicacity is minimal; his combativity is void; his only defense is flight. Thus, the Holy Ghost Himself tells us of imbecilic doves without intelligence (Osee 7:11). This reminds us of certain Catholics deformed by romanticism, for whom virtue consists only and always in hiding, in submitting, in receiving blows, in retreating and in allowing themselves to be trampled underfoot.

H OW

different is the serpent aggressive, venomous, deceptive, perspicacious and agile. Elegant and at the same time repugnant, so fragile a child can crush him, yet so dangerous a lion can be killed with his venom. His whole form and way of moving is adapted for veiled, treacherous and fulminating attack. So bewitching that certain species hypnotize and at the same time spread an aura of terror. Well is it the sym9

HISTORY

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completely destroyed by the soldiers of Titus when the city was besieged In 70 A.O.

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM IT WAS with divine accuracy that Our Lord Jesus Christ f oretofd the destruction of Jerusalem. At that time to consider that of the mighty Temple no stone would be left upon another was unthinkable. But it is a historical fact: The destruction was complete. The tragic event had been hinted at time and time again: His laments over Jerusalem, its women and unborn children and the solemn warning to those on whom the stones were to faff. He made it clear to His listeners how the imminence of the event was to be recognized and what they should do when the warning signs appeared. Thus, before the city was besieged, the Christians fled and escaped the general destruction. History is filled with the follies and crimes of mankind - and with God's warnings! The following excerpts from Josephus's The Jewish War (Penguin C lassics, New York, 1980) may serve as a point of reflection for twentieth century man. had defied the power of Rome by attempting to cast aside its yoke IsinceSRAEL the year 66. The imperial armies, after conquering Galilee (to the north of Palestine), headed for Judea (to the south) where Jerusalem, surrounded by its famed walls, was situated. Inside the city, the immense edifice of the Temple, in bygone ages the religious glory of the people, constituted a true military fortress. While Titus marched toward Jerusalem, inside the city two Jewish factions, led respectively by Simon and John, fought each other for power. The struggle was often carried inside the Temple, and the huge rocks launched by the catapults sometimes reached the high altar, killing the priests and others in the very act of making offerings. Thus, when the Roman legions were yet far off, the Temple was full of death and profanation. Even the granaries that had been filled in preparation for the resistance against the Roman assault were severely damaged by fire during this incredible civil war. Day and night the shouts of the combatants and the laments of the wounded could be heard. Flavi us Josephus writes, referring to the faction of John: " Their passion for

footing was insatiable: they ransacked rich men's houses, murdered men and 10

violated women for sport, and drank their spoils washed down with blood: through sheer boredom they shamelessly gave themselves up to effeminate practices, adorning their hair and pu((ing on women's clothes, steeping themselves in scent and painting under their eyes to make themselves more attractive. They copied not merely the dress but also the passions of women, and in their utter filthiness invented unlawful pleasures; they wallowed in slime, turning the whole city into a brothel and polluting it with the Jou lest practices. Yet though they had the faces of women they had the hands of murderers; they approached with mincing steps, then in a flash became fighting -men, and drawing their swords from under their dyed cloaks ran every passer-by through. Those who ran away from John had a more murderous reception from Simon, and anyone who eluded the tyrant within the walls was killed by the tyrant outside the gates. Thus for those who wished to desert to the Romans every way of escape was cut off" (pages 267-268) It was Passover time when Titus besieged Jerusalem. The city offered protection not only to its inhabitants, but also to Jews who had come from all over the world to commemorate the feast a nd who were now unable to leave. T itus of-

fered them peace if they surrendered. They refused. Many times during the siege, which lasted almost five months , the Romans were frustrated in their attempts to take the walls, and their movable raised platforms were often set on fire by the Jews, whose factions had joined together and organized sorties into the Roman camp. But as the resistance continued, food ran short:

"For the wealthy it was just as dangerous to stay in the City as to leave it; for on the pretext that he was a deserter many a man was killed for the sake of his money. As the famine grew worse, the frenzy of the partisans increased with it, and every day these two terrors strengthened their grip. For as nowhere was there corn to be seen, men broke into the houses and rcm ,acked them. If they found some they 11, .lfed the occupants for say ing there wm none; if they did not, they suspected them of having hidden it more carefully and tortured them . ... Nowhere was a table laid - they snatched the food from the fire while stiff uncooked and ate like wolves . ... Thus it was that wives robbed their husbands, children their fathers, and - most horrible of all mothers their babes, snatching the food out of their very mouths; ... Wherever they saw a locked door they concluded that those within were having a meal, and instantly bursting the door open they rushed in, and hardly stopped short at squeezing their throats to force out the morsels offood! They beat old men who held on to their crusts, and tore the hair of women who hid what was in their hands. They showed no pity for grey hairs or helpless babyhood, but picked up the children as they clung to their precious scraps and dashed them on the floor." (pages 312-313)

"Then one of the soldiers, without The number of those who risked leaving the city at night to gather greens waifing for orders and without a qualm increased, and the Romans ambushed for the terrible consequences of his acthem in the dark and crucified them in tion but urged on by some unseen force, places where they could be seen from the snatched up a blazing piece of wood and walls. As the Romans caught as many as climbing on another soldier's back hurl500 or more per day, the surrounding ed the brand through a golden aperture hills were stripped of their trees and giving access on the north side to the could the ground be seen between the space in front of the city for raising new chambers built round the Sanctuary. As corpses, and the soldiers climbed over crosses became scarce. Titus then sent the flames shot into the air the Jews sent heaps of bodies as they chased the many prisoners back to Jerusalem, after up a cry that matched the calamity and fugitives." (page 347). Some priests tried to escape the flacutting off their hands. But still Jeru- dashed to the rescue, with no thought now of saving their lives or husbanding mes, others threw themselves into them, salem would not surrender. "The Jews, unable to leave the City, their strength; for that which hitherto committing suicide. Many gave themwere deprived of all hope of survival. they had guarded so devotedly was dis- selves up and sought clemency of Titus, but he answered that the time for clemThe famine became more intense and appearing before their eyes. "A runner brought the news to Titus ency had passed and that it was just that devoured whole houses and families. The roofs were covered with women and as he was resting in his tent after the bat- the priests perish with the Temple. He babes too weak to stand, the streets full tle. He leapt up as he was and ran to the ordered them to be killed. False prophets appeared at that time of old men already dead. Young men Sanctuary to extinguish the blaze. His and boys, swollen with hunger, haunted whole staff panted after him, followed in Jerusalem, promising deliverance. the squares like ghosts and fell wherever by the excited legions with all the shout- One of them, shortly before the burning faintness overcame them. To bury their ing and conjusion inseparable from the of the Temple, convinced six thousand kins/olk was beyond the strength of the disorganized rush of an immense army. people of the city that in it they would sick, and those who were fit shirked the Caesar shouted and waved to the com- receive a sign of divine aid. They all task because of the number of the dead batants to put out the fire; but his shouts perished. Flavius Josephus thus narrates the and uncertainty about their own fate; for were unheard as their ears were deafened many while burying others fell dead with a greater din, and his hand signals destruction of the upper city: "They poured into the streets sword themselves, and many set out for their went unheeded amidst the distractions of graves before their hour struck. In their battle and bloodshed. As the legions in hand, cut down without mercy all who misery no weeping or lamentation was charged in, neither persuasion nor threat came within reach, and burnt the houses heard; hunger stifled emotion; with dry could check their impetuosity: passion of any who took refuge indoors, oceyes and grinning mouth those who were alone was in command. Crowded to- cupants and all. Many they raided, and slow to die watched those whose end gether round the entrances many were as they entered in search of plunder they came sooner. Deep silence enfolded the trampled by their friends, many fell jound whole families dead and the rooms City, and a darkness burdened with among the still hot and smoking ruins of f u/1 of the victims ofstarvation: horrified death. Worse still were the bandits, who the colonnades and died as miserably as by the sight, they emerged empty-handed. broke like tomb-robbers into the houses the defeated. As they neared the Sanc- Pity for those who had died in this way of the dead and stripped the bodies, snat- tuary they pretended not even to hear was matched by no such feeling for the ching off their wrappings, then came out Caesar's commands and urged the men living: they ran every man through laughing. They tried the points of their in front to throw in more firebrands." whom they met and blocked the narrow streets with corpses, deluging the whole swords on the corpses, and even trans- (pages 345-346) "While the Sanctuary was burning, City with gore so that many of the fires fixed some of those who lay helpless but still alive, to test the steel. But if any looting went on right and left and all were quenched by the blood of the slain. begged for a sword-thrust to end their who were caught were put to the sword. At dusk the slaughter ceased, but in the sufferings, they contemptuously left There was no pity jor age, no regard for night the fire gained the mastery, and on them to die of hunger. Everyone as he rank; little children and old men, laymen the 8th of Gorpiaios (September) the sun breathed his last fixed his eyes on the and priests alike were butchered; every rose over Jerusalem in flames - a city Temple, turning his back on the par- class was held in the iron embrace of that during the siege had suffered such tisans he was leaving alive. The latter at war, whether they defended themselves disasters that iffrom her foundation she 'd first ordered the dead to be buried at or cried for mercy. ... The Temple Hill, had enjoyed as many blessings she public expense as they could not bear the enveloped inflames from top to bottom, have been the envy of the world; " . .ty stench; later, when this proved impossi- appeared to be boiling up from its very that deserved these terrible misfortunes ble, they threw them from the walls into roots; yet the sea of flame was nothing on no other account than that she prothe valleys. When in the course of his to the ocean of blood, or the companies duced a generation such as brought â&#x20AC;˘ rounds Titus saw these choked with of killers to the armies of killed: nowhere about her ruin." (page 358) dead, and a putrid stream trickling from under the decomposing bodies, he groaned, and uplifting his hands called God to witness that this was not his doing." (pages 319-320) by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira "Those who were able to flee to the Roman camp often died from the food 650 they ate. "They arrived blown up by * Published in five languages: $ starvation as if by dropsy, then stuffed English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian their empty bellies non-stop till they Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving burst - except Jor those who were wise forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has enough to restrain their appetites and been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism take the unaccustomed food a little at a time. ... But it was God who condemnand even more radical forms of anarchy. ed the whole nation and turned every means of escape to their destruction. " Direct all inquiries to: (Page 322) The American TFP â&#x20AC;˘ P. 0. Box 121 â&#x20AC;˘ Pleasantville, NY 10570 The siege lasted five months. Finally, the Romans took the city by assault.

". . . God condemned the whole nation. .. "

Revolution and Counter-Revolution I

A TALE FROM CHRISTENDOM

The Meaning of the Four Animals BOVE the great doors of the Gothic cathedrals frequently there can be seen four animals surrounding the figure of Jesus Christ: a man, an eagle, a lion a nd an ox. Are these animals placed there by chance, or do they have some unknown meaning? According to the old writings of the twelfth century, these figures symbolized three different things at the same time: the Evangelists, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the virtues of the elect.

The Evangelists

Initially, the four animals represented the four Evangelists. St. Matthew is represented by a man because he begins his Gospel with the geneology of the Our Lord's ancestors according to the flesh. The lion designates St. Mark, who in the first lines of his Gospel tell us of a voice crying out in the desert. The ox, a sacrificial beast, represents St. Luke, who begins his Gospel with the sacrifice of Zacharias. Finally, th e eagle is the figure of St. John, because from the beginning he ~eads us to the bosom of the Divinity, Just as the eagle, alo ne amo ng a ll the animals, dares to contempla te the sun face to face.

Our Lord Jesus Christ

The same animals symbolize Jesus Christ. He who meditates on the life of our Saviour will there find four great moments which correspond to four grea t mysteries. The man calls to mind the mystery of th e Incarnation of the Word in which t he Son of God truly bec~me flesh. The ox, a victim in the Old Law makes us think about the Passion, th~ sacrifice the Redeemer made of His life for sinful humanity. The lion, symbol of the Resurrection (the ancients believed that the lion slept with its eyes open) is a figure of Our Lord in the sepulcher: H e appeared to be asleep in death, but his Divinity was watching. And the eagle is th e symbol of the Ascension, when Jesus went up into Heaven as an eagle rises above the clouds. Our Lord was a man in birth an ox in death, a lion in resurrect ion ~nd a n eagle in ascending into Heaven. The Catholic Virtues

The four animals have yet another meaning: they express the virtues necessary for salvation. A Catholic treading the path of perfection, should be at the same time a man , an ox, a lion and an eag le. He should be a man because man is a rational being, and only he who follows the path of reason deserves the name man; he should be a n ox because the ox is a victim which is immola ted in sacrifices, as the true Catlw lic . renouncing a ll the riches of thi~ Id, immolates himself; he should be c1 11011 for th e lion is the courageous animal par excellence, and the just man , hav111~ renounced everything, fears noth111g, and of him it is written: "The j ust man shall be firm and fearless as the lion"; fin ally, he should be a n eagle, for the eagle soars in the heights ~nd gazes_ at the sun without lowering its eyes , JUSt as the Catholic should contemplate eternal things . This is the teaching of the Church about t he fo ur a nimals . Of these three explanatio ns , only that about the Evangelists survived the Middle Ages. The others had the sad fate of much of ancient mystical theology, and fell out of memory at the time of the Renaissance.

Translated from L' Art religieux du Xlleme siecle en France, Emile Mtile, Cathedral of Toledo (Spain)

pages 86-89.

Soviet Style Education OVIET ideologues are becoming increasingly concerned over a growing trend.among their country's youth to set up social distinctions based on education. Despite the leveling effects of the communist system, Soviet young people are attempting to enter the universities in the hope of later obtaining a higher paying position. They openly scorn echornaya rabota, the tedious and soiling work of the countryside. This anti-proletarian attitude is particularly embarrassing for the red sect that glories in convoking the workers of the world to unite. Beginning in 1986, the Russian educational system will undergo some reforms already approved by the Supreme Soviet to counteract this "dangerous" trend. The aim of the recent changes made in the school system, according to the communist press agency-monopoly Tass, is to combat "a dangerous tendency of becoming bourgeois" in sectors of Soviet

duct according to this morality. This is why it is necessary to develop the principles of self-management in schools. "The role of the school is great, but all t his should begin in the family. Success in teaching cannot be expected if one thing is ta ught at home, and another at school" (Pravda, 4-10-84). But the Soviet leaders have no scruples in choosing the methods to reach their sinister objectives. It is their principal goal that Soviet children be educated from their earliest years to become dedicated communists. Âˇ Pravda reporting on the speech of G.A. Alieva, a member of the Politburo, noted: "The perfection of developed socialism is curren tly the principal work of the party a nd the people. The perfection of mature socialism is linked to the perfection of the Soviet man. Here is the difficult task in the formation of the new socialist personality.

. necessary to develop the principles of self-management in the schools. "

youth, a nd to form "more qualified workers and give children a strong communist education." This reform had been demanded by the late Soviet leader Andropov, as a means of lessening the KGB's work of ideological repression. As a result, the Soviet educational system, which already worked as an auxiliary apparatus of the Communist Party in the ideological formation (or rather, deformation) of students, wiU now play a preventive role in support of the political repression of the KGB. The "educative" work being proposed goes beyond mere academics. It is aimed at transforming the whole of man and his mentality as we ll as implementing self-managing principles in society. Deputy V. M. Michir, in a speech to the first session of the Supreme Soviet, states that the Konsomol (Union of Communist Youth) organizations must play an indispensable role in regulating secondary schools and that the teaching of self-management must be clearly reflected in the lives of the students (Pravda, 4-13-84). Chernenko, himself, outlined the goals of the project in a plenary session of the Central C ommittee of the Communist Party: "Today, all teaching should be, to a great extent, the vehicle for a plan of the vision of t he universe. The vocation of the school is to form MarxistLeninist convictions in students and develop consciousness of their responsibility for the destiny of the socialist homeland. "It is necessary that communist morality not only be spo ken of in school but that children be taught to mold their con-

''This task is begun in the family and the school during the first years of childhood. This is wh y the plenary session of June (1983) stressed school reform as one of its primordial tasks. " This work should first of all be concerned with the formation of youth in the vision of the Marxist-Leninist world. "To accomplish this reform, it is necessary to energetically perfect the kind of work the Konsomol does in schools. To this end, it is indispensable to increase the a uthority of the Konsomol organizations and to develop the teaching of selfmanagement. Thus, the nerve center of the Konsomol should be principally in the schools" (4-13-84). According to Alieva, "each professor should be an ardent propagandist, who knows how to conquer (read: pervert) the hearts and minds of our children." Such a plan for education can only be qualified as a refinement of tyranny,

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Idealist Christians and Heroes for Freedom and Justice ~ or Instruments of International Communist Aggression?

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s1nce its principal aim is to trans form everyone, right from his earliest youth, into slaves of the Soviet state. In these days when just about any restriction can serve as a pretext for clamoring about human rights, where are the champions of the Russian youngsters who should have the righ 1 10 a n education different from the on, ..:ibly imposed upon them by the ath~1st ic communist regime? This right is denied them by the Soviet regime, which, based on Marxist-Leninist doctrine, clamorously violates both Divine Law and Natural Law. â&#x20AC;˘

Professor of propaganda

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NEWS FLASHES -

Fatima In Hiroshima Among the survivors of the atomic explosion at Hiroshima were a German Jesuit and seven of his colleagues. Their house was a mere eight blocks from the blinding center of the nuclear flash . While many around them were killed immediately by the intense heat or died later from the effects of radiation, all of the priests escaped. With the exception of Father Schiffner, who died of natural causes much later, all of them are still alive. Over the years, some two h-undred scienti sts examined the eight survivors trying to discover what could have spared them from incineration or the effects of radiation. Father Schiffner once recalled while speaking on American television that the group had very much in mind the words of Our Lady of Fatima, who foretold the catastrophic coming of the World War. ' In that house, the Rosary was prayed every day. In that house we were living the Mes• sage of Fatima" (Catholic Quote, 5-84).

NOW Nonsense The term "feminist" is an ambiguously defined label. It is implied to mean one who defends and enables women. Such a champion would be welcome especially today when the rights of women are being offended more than ever before by the deteriorating effects of abortion, pornography and the so-ca lled "gay rights" movement. However, today's feminists, rather than attacking these problems, have chosen to engage in a class-struggle involving social mores and structures. Not content with defending abortion, " lesbian rights" and similar aberrations, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the radical fringe group claiming to represent the mainstream of American women, has now gone on record in defense of prostitution. In an official memo of opposition to the New York Legislature, the vocal mediafavored organization argued that a bill providing mandatory sentences for persistent prostitution offenders was discriminatory. "Women need greater economic opportunities to make a living wage," the memo stated. " Prostitutes should not be penalized for their choice of profession (sic)" (Newsday, 6-11-84). NOW argued that the measure would d iscriminate against less-affluent prostitutes who would be most affected by the law.

From Russia with R~rets The Siberian pipeline deemed so necessary by European governments to meet future demands for natural gas is turning out to be an exceedingly poor investment. The Western European nations generously financed the 3,400-mile slave labor-buil t pipeline with some $10 billion in loans. Today, due to lowered local consump-

lion and increased production from the North Sea, Western Europe faces not a gas shortage but a long term glut. The decreased consumption wi ll make it very difficult for the Soviets to pay back the $10 billion in pipeline loans. Moreover, the Europeans with the exception of the Italians have already signed contracts for the high-priced Soviet gas and are hard pressed to get out from under them . Italy prudently delayed signing a contract in 1981 and has concluded a deal on much more favorable terms buying only one-third of the original amount planned (Rocky Mountain N(fws, 6-11-84).

Columblavskl The Soviet supersonic transport plane Tu-144 was dubbed by some aviation experts as the "Concordevski" because of its amazing similarity to the joint BritishFrench Concord project. Now the Soviets are busily working on a space shuttle which a former Defense Intelligence Agency official called " identical" to its American model. Thomas H. Krebs, a retired Lieutenant Colonel and former ch ief of the DIA's space systems branch said that the Soviet project, with some modifications, utilizes the blueprints that took American industry $7 billion to develop. Although the space shuttle was entirely unclassified, American military experts are not sure exactly how the Soviets obtained the plans. "We've seen the (Soviet) orbiter and it's identical to ours," Krebs reported. " I can't tell how far along they are, but •in a year or two , you can expect to see one launched" (Rocky Mountain News, 6-9-84).

European sociologists are noting a marked change in work habits and patterns. The change is partic ularly evident among the West Germans who for years have nurtured a work ethic that has produced an indu strial base as strong and healthy as the ir famous brew. Experts now c laim that Germans have become weary of the near obsessive pride in their work and are anxious to spe nd more time on leisurely pursuits. This trend was especially evident in the recent strike of German printers and metal workers who demanded a 35-hour maximum work week without a cut in pay. A shorter work week is already law in several European countries. The Socialist government of France reduced the mandatory maximum work week to 39 hours; most British manual workers are already on a 37-to-39 hour week; Italian printers work a 36-hour week; Spanish coal miners have a 35-hour week. Trade unions all over the continent are push ing hard to bring down the number of hours. Long considered t he "locomotive" of the Common Market , West Germany's economic health inevitably affects its closest trading partners and is indicative

of the direction labor will go in the coming years (Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 6-3-84).

St When the 13 TFPs (now 15) launched the Message by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira against self-manag ing Socialism in 49 of the world's largest newspapers, they pointed out that the influence of French self-managing socialism threatened not only France but the West as a whole. Apparently, some Americans have taken this threat seriously as evidenced by a recent Republican Senatorial Committee fund-raising letter stressing the dangers of French socialism. The appeal played a part in a successfu l effort that raised $31 million in 1983. Describing the state to which France has been reduced under the Socialists, committee treasurer Robert Perkins wrote, " I know France is a long way away and it's hard to imagine the same nightmare occuring in the United States ... (But) it's a chance we just can't afford to take" (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 6-1-84).

Following appeals by Church leaders in Namibia, South African authorities released thirty-seven members of the SouthWest Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), a Marxist terrorist-guerrilla group, just four days after they had been apprehended. The arrests took place on Catholic Church property in the Namibian capital of Windhoek during a barbecue picnic held to celebrate the release of fifty-four Namibians suspected of having links with the terrorists. The detentions were made under a 1981 anti-terrorism law which prohibits SWAPO from holding meetings in Namibir1 /The Long Island Catholic, 6-21-84).

Despite the universal recognition of pornograhy's degrading nature, most of the nation's "respectable" food and drug store chains serve as willing accomplices in channeling the deplorable material to the general public. Responding to effective consumer action, Eckerd Drugs, the nation's .second largest drug chain with approximately one thousand stores, became a notable exception when it announced that it is ceasing the sale of pornographic magazines at all of i ts locations. The firm publicly acknowledged its intention to proceed with this bold step in a letter to the National Federation for Decency. Michael Zagorac, Jr., Eckerd's Vice President of Public Affairs wrote, " Our divisions are now implementing this policy and we expect comp let ion by summer" (In tercessors for America , 7-1-84).

Third Congress of Brazilian TFP Supporters 2,000 Participants Include International Delegates N JUNE, some two thousand supporters of The Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property -TFP gathered in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Third Congress of TFP Supporters. Participants had the opportunity to hear lectures dealing with the primary aspects of the crisis of the contemporary world. In addition to representatives from 15 Brazilian states, delegations of the TFPs from the United States, Canada, Spain, France, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, as well as supporters of the TFP from Australia and the Philippines were present at the Congress. Also, representing their suffering nations were a Cuban and an Angolan, both in exile. The central theme of all the lectures was: the communist danger - and the action of the TFP in face of updated communist methods. Slides, music and diagrams were used to illustrate the talks, which the audience followed with great attention. On display in the large hall adjoining the auditorium were attractive exhibitions with books, documents, graphs and posters illustrating the association's major campaigns. The principal features of the program were three lectures in which Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira dealt with the TFP in light of contemporary problems. The world-renowned author and orator also focused on the dramatic perspectives for the TFP in Brazil as well as for the other TFPs and their kindred associations in dozens of countries on the five continents. The high point of the Congress was the closing session, attended by almost two thousand people whose enthusiasm was fired by TFP heralds proclaiming a report of the initiatives taken by the 15 TFPs since the last Congress in October, 1983. This was followed by the closing address of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira on the natural and supernatural reasons upon which the TFP and those who seek the same ideal base their hope of victory. Prof. Correa de Oliveira was interrupted m a ny times in the course of his exposition by enthusiastic applause. At the closing of the Congress, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira analyzed a matter which is an apparent contradiction: If it is true that today's world is in an accelerated process of revolutionary dismemberment, how can the TFP's growing receptivity by the public be explained?

"In face of this universal and chaotic disorder that is more terrible in many aspects than the disorder of the world before Our Lord Jesus Christ was born, in face of this disorder, what light of hope is there, what perspectives of action are there for the TFP?" - With this question Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

Professor Plinio Corr~a de Oliveira addressing congress participants

enunciated the theme of his exposition. "What would be necessary," he continued, "is a complex and subtle exposi-

tion on the psychology of man who fell into sin - or of the nations and the multitudes who fell even deeper - to explain how even in extreme circumstances and in the worst situations it is possible to speak to these souls; and furthermore, by virtue ofsomething void of contradiction but rich in paradoxes, it sometimes happens that the possibilities for the good to act are greatest when evil is reaching its apex. "And since we are speaking about evil, since we are speaking about men who run around and hurl themselves into the abysses of impiety and corruption," continued Prof. Correa de Oliveira, "the enchanting, profound and sublime parable of the prodigal son comes to mind." Making an analogy between that parable a nd "Western Civilization, so secularized and so depraved, though still having some luminous marks of its Christian origin," he asked: "Is she not precisely a prodigal daughter of the Gospel? How long it has been since she inhabited the paternal home. The paternal home, in this sense, the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church at the time of the Middle Ages." After calling to mind the story of the decadence of medieval Christendom in the Protestant, French and Communist Revolutions, a nd, in our days, the Anarchical Revolution which is a development of the Communist Revolution, Prof.

Correa de Oliveira asserted that "what happened to the prodigal son has happened to the modern world: /11 cities of sin and error, it squandered its inheritance. Everything it received became a weight it could no longer endure. Bowed over, burdened by this weight it began to suffer... "And so, bent beneath the weight of the events that oppressed him, for this reason, the prodigal son longed for the paternal home," co ntinued the distinguished orator. He went on to ask: "Does the receptivity being given to the TFP in so many places not represent a state n f reversal of opinion of the soul of We em man, in which he begins to suffer mo,< than ever from contemporary disorder?" After a nalyzing other aspects of the battle taking place inside the mind of contemporary man , a nd stressing that the mercy of God acts even when Divine Justice punishes, the orator read and commented at length on another biblical example, the fight of David against Goliath, in order to show how God ultimately grants victory to those who fight for the good cause. Upon reaching the end o f his exposition, Prof. Correa de Oliveira remarked that this "is the outcome of those who, at times of great difficulty, at times of great anguish, great affliction of the cause of the Good, that is, for the cause of the Church , go ahead, allow nothing to hinder them, confront anything, confident in the mercy of God, in the help of God, in the intercession of Our Lady."â&#x20AC;˘ 15

Family Forum III-Hot Issues, Cool Answers AMILY Forum III, a leadership

Phyllis Schlafly, President of the Eagle training conference sponsored by the Forum; Fr. Henrique Rueda, Senior Free Congress Foundation and the Contributing Scholar to the Catholic Moral Majority Foundation to help ad- Center of the Free Co_ngress Foundation; dress some of the major societal pro- Connaught Marshner, Chairman of the blems facing America today was held in National Pro-Family Coalition and DiSan Francisco during the second week of rector of the Child and Family ProtecJuly. This was the first of two such con- tion Institute; and Representative Newt ferences planned to run concurrently Gingrich(R-Ga.). These and a number of with the Democratic and Republican Na - other personalities presented a broad tional Conventions. agenda that provided for an interesting The first Family Forum was organized . a nd stimulating two-day event. in Washington, D.C. in 1980 as a "counter-conference" to the Carter Ad- Family Forum Ill's Resolutions ministration's White House Conference on the Family. In 1982, Family Forum In a ddition to reviewing the issues a nd JI with its theme "Traditional Values pla nning action programs, Family

Forum III also adopted twelve Resolutions that were presented to the Democratic Platform Committee. These resolutions covered: economic survival of the family, alternatives to the welfare state, tax policies and mothers, homebased business, education reform, medical ethics, abortion, alternatives to abortion, pornography, homosexual rights, AIDS, judicial reform and foreign policy . A repeat performance of this successful pro-family event will be held in Dallas, Texas on August 16 and 17 timed to let the voices of concerned Americans be heard also at the Republican National Convention.

E4J\4TJY

FORlJ~f

(Left) TFP "tabletalk". (Right) Some of the friends of The American TFP in between sessions.

W ork" was a lso held in the nation 's capi tal. This year, while the Democratic Conventi on delegates ha mmered toget her a platform of c;:inc ilia tory libera l views, so me three hundred Forum attendants mostly from California - hea rd a distinguished pa nel discuss such im port a nt moral issues as: the economic survival of tQe fami ly , parents '.,rights in educa tion , the homosexual movement, equal worth , child pornography and abortion. "I A m My Brother's Keeper"

TRADITION, FAMILY, PROPERTY Half a Century of Epic Anticommunism HERE IS the remarkable story o f fifty years in defense o f th e bas ic principles of Christian Civilization by the outs tanding Brazilian Catholic thinker and man of ac tion, PUNIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA. This 468-page book, amply illustrated, de tai ls the founding of the Brazilia n Socie ty for the Defe nse of Tradition, Family a nd Property (TFP) a nd the su bseque nt appeara nc e of 14 other autonomous TFPs around the world. Breaks the myth of the " irres is t ible" force of communis m and socia lis m. ORDER FROMÂˇ

Centering on the conference theme, "I Am My Brother's Keeper," conference participa nts had the opportunity to hear the viewpoin ts of various issue experts , religious and political leaders, scholars, professionals, activists a nd authors from all across America such as: Jerry Falwell, spokesman for the Moral Majority; 16

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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY AND PROPERTY P.O. Box 121 - PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. 10570

SHATTERED FAMILY WEAKENS NATION Educators and Researchers Warn

Sustaining the traditional family unit serves to nourish the country

MAGINE a nation where the family is the exception rather than the rule and where individuals live in a type of tribal atmosphere without permanent roots or bonds. Add to this, internal social problems, aberrations, crime and poverty and one has a picture of chaos. The picture is not fa r from today's American reality. The destruction of the family has long been an issue and area of concern for those who fear that the state of the American family reflects the actual state of the nation itself. Tragic consequences are now being felt as the family unit has been all but destroyed and the resulting vacuum is changing the face of America. With the number of unmarried cou-

pies growing at an alarming rate and nearly half of all U.S. marriages ending in divorce, city planners and urban specialists are becoming concerned. It is not the moral decadence, which so many of them think relative, that bothers them but the simple logistics of supporting the ensuing welfare state produced by these tragic conditions . The ratio of children b0rn out of wedlock in New York City, for example, is now more than one out of three - triple the ratio of twenty years ago. Of the 112,353 babies born in New York City, 41,578 (37 percent) were illegitimate. In some areas of the city, the ratio was even higher. The city's Department of Health figure for the

central-Harlem health district was a startling 79.9 percent. The phenomenon is nationwide and in many cases worse than that of New York. In 1981, the last year for which statistics are availabl ~ '\Jewark, N.J., ranked first in the ....iuuer of illegitimate births with 59.8 percent and Baltimore ranked second with 58.1 percent. Increases have also been recorded in Washington , Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia. " It begins to transform the ambience of the city itself,'' said Eleanor Holmes Norton, a former New York City Human Rights Commissioner and now a law professor at Washington's Georgetown University. "The city's most basic

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY AND PROPERTY

building-block institution, the family, is not functioning so as to guarantee a decent start in life to children" (The New York Times, 8-13-84). Broken Family Linked to Poverty?

Liberal thinkers have been quick to simplify the crisis by arguing that the root of the problem is the lack of jobs and not the breakdown of the marriage institution. Evidence has surfaced, however, showing a unified family is much less likely to be poor regardless of geographic area. According to Blanche Bernstein, former administrator of New York City 's Human Resources Administration a nd now a private consultant, 39 percent of the families headed by women are classified as poor, while only seven perce nt of "intact families" - those with two parents - are poor. Bernstein claims that the breakdown of the family and not unemployment was responsible for the surge in New York's welfare rolls during the 60's and 70's. On the other hand, officials have long noted that children of unmarried mothers are more likely to lead lives of poverty and experience empl oyment and educational problems. Moreo ve1, children born out of wedlock tend to have children of their own o ut of wedlock. Dire Consequences

All of this translates into increased spending for welfare, day care, police and other social services and a general decline in the quality of life. Researchers point to a host of consequent problems that accompany the fatherless family. Most of the children are doomed to lives of poverty, are likely to drop out of school and be victims of child abuse. If this trend continues, cities will soon find it hard to supply workers to fill new jobs. "Every city has to have some jobs, has to have a family institution which prepares people for education and for these jobs," says Mrs. Norton. "There's no way a city can maintain its viability if the basic sub-unit, the family, is not functioning at a standard level" (The New York Times, 8-13-84). Family in Crisis

The problem of the unwed mothers is one of the many factors contributing to what may rightly be called the famil y in crisis. The breakdown o f parental authority, abortion, promiscuity, and divorce have extended the crisis to the point t hat al most every family has felt the excruciating internal strife within its very nucleus. Outside the family, a veritable avalan2

Children of the '80s. Facing an avalanche of liberal ideas.

che "f liberal ideas has transfor med society fro m a healthy environment fostering the traditional fa mily to a confused ambience hostile to its very survival. The corrosiv~ innuence o f feminism, homosexual acti vism, permissive socia! mores , supported and promot ed by a sym p:ithet ic libernl media , have mad r inroads into the very fiber of America n society a nd succeeded in brand ing th e traditiona l family as an a nomaly rather than the basic and only real fo unda tion for a civilized society.

The Church Speaks Out: 90 Years of Papal Teaching on Economics. A hand-book for studying, discussing and debating the American Catholic Bishops' forthcoming Pastoral letter on Capitalism and the American Economy. Contains the essent ials o f Catholic moral teaching on economics as excerp ted from seven major statements issued by five Popes over the last 90 years. In fourteen chapters arranged by Sl'bjec t for easy reference. 40 pages. Contact: Edmund Haislmaier. Director, The Catholic Study Council.â&#x20AC;˘ 214 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., Suite 580 Âˇ Washington. D.C. 20002 Tel.: (202) 543-1286

Looking for Solutions

In his book Sexual Suicide, George Gilder made a n important point about family and its relationship to order in society. He wrote: "As we are increasingly discovering in our schools, prisons, mental hospitals and psychiatric offices, the family is the only agency that can be depended upon to induce truly profound a nd enduring cha nges in its members. The family is the onl y institution tha t works on the deeper interior formations of human cha racter and commitment. Thus, it is the only uncoercive way to transform individua ls, loose in social time and space .. .. into voluntary participants in the nurture of socie ty. " The high rate of illegitima te births strikingly demonstra tes that officials a nd experts concerned with the disintegration o f the family unit a nd its accompanyi ng problems would d o well to deal with the problem at its root, the sadl y neglected and besieged traditional fami ly, instead of proposing government programs a nd funds to subsidize the steadily sinking status qu o.

GENERAL NEWS

Pages 1-2, 16 INTERNATIONAL Promises, Promises ... Page 3 BraziJ: Toward Planned Chaos

Page 4 Soviets in the UN: Free Rein, Free Ride Page 13 Terror Tactics Sweep Zimbabwe Page 15 COMMENTARY

Page 5 TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Pages 6-7 AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS

Pages 8-9 RELIGION Pages 10- 11 A TALE FROM CHRISTENDOM Page 12 NEWS FLASHES

Page 14

The Warsaw Pact gets ready: Soviet soldier on exercises in anti-gas suit and mask; Hungarian troops training i n anti-gas warfare

Blackmail and Broken Promises T

HE em o tionally charged issue of chemi ca l warfa re is being manipulated to m a ke it a p pea r that the United States is guilt y o f fueling thi s frightfu l asp ect of the arms race. Lik e nuclear weapons, the admittedl y horrifying prospect o f c hemica l wa rfare is bein g publicized so as to leave the West defenseless in th e fa ce of Soviet blackmail. Th e So viets are intent upon main taining their indis put ab le chemical weapon stoc kpile super iority while alt ern atin g rounds of promises a nd th reat s to intimida te th e United States ' NATO allies . One such e ffo rt was a letter b y Soviet dicta to r Ko nstantin Chernen ko to Petra Kell y, a leading fi gure in W est Germa n y's leftist Gree n Pa rt y, in which he vowed the Soviet Unio n would never use W arsaw Pact arm s against any country tha t refuses to s ta ti o n chemical or nuclear weapons within its bo rders. Only countries tha t pose a clanger to the Warsaw Pac t natio ns a re und er threat from th e S oviet Un ion and its a lli es, C he rn enk o wro te . S hould West German y refuse to station suc h weapons o n its soil, " your country can be full y assured tha t no thing threatens it. It ca n be said that it will be ensured against a return strik e . " In aclcliti o n, he reiterated th e s tro ng Soviet oppositio n to a ll uses of chemical wea po ns as well as Moscow's pledge to reduce its chemical and nuclear weapo ns if the W est does the same . Ra rely are So viet p romises substa n tiated by facts. Wh ere are the fa cts a nd fig ures to demonstra te So viet abhorrence for chemica l war fare? Mountains o f ev idence have been compiled both fr o m governm en t and in dependent sources po inting to the fac t tha t despite "strong Sov iet oppositio n " to the use o f chemical weapons, the Soviets a nd their proxies have used these weapo ns indiscrimina tely on resistance fighters and civili an po pulations oppos-

ing communist reg imes in Laos , Cambodia, Afghanis tan, Yemen and Ethiopia. It is int t res ting to note that, exact ly contrary to C hernen ko's "promises" to W es t Germany the wea pons were used o n ly on nat io ns whi ch did not have chemical weapons or even the capacit y to produce them. In 1969, President Nixon declared a unilatera l disarmamen t in chemica l wa rfare in the h ope that the USSR wo uld follow s uit. Instead, the Soviets have used the opportunit y to d evelop a comprehensive chemica l, bio log ical a nd toxin warfare p rogram of immense proportions . Even the most patient pacifis t should d espai r after the fifteen-year wa it for the Soviets to respond to such a generous (and naive) a ct of good fait h. Meanwhile , America n chemical muni-

tions inventories have been a llowed to deteriorat e and are fo r the most part unusable, obso lete or undeliverable . Advocates of the restoration of America n chemica l warfare capacity point out that chemica l weapons have never been used against an opponent with the capab ilit y to retaliate in kind. Usage of poison gas stopped in World War I when th e A llies d eveloped their own chemical arsena l. It was never used ir World War 11 because the Germa ns feared Allied retaliat o ry capacity. Soviet actions h ave shown that they have-no intention of giv ing up their edge in the s tockpi ling a nd use of chemical weapons. Meanwhi le, the West has ch osen to defend itself with unfounded optim is m, unho nored promises and unilateral concessions.

''Trashomania'' in France

CCORDI NG to informatio n by A gence France Presse ( 1-25-84), a

new and baffling phenomenon has appeared in the southeastern French city of Toulouse. Police have been finding a number of apartment dwellers who have the extravagant habit of collecting huge quantities of trash in their very homes. On November 22 of last year, police discovered a family that lived amidst veritable mo untains of trash in their suburba n fla t. On the floor , refuse piled over six feet high ga ve o ff a pestilent odor that alarmed the neighbors. The bathrooms of the apa rtment, however, had a pparently never been used and were incredibly clean. The inhabitants of the apartment gave no indicatio n o f their living habits to those o utside their home. They were always properly dressed and differed little in appearance from the o r-

dinary ind ividual in the street. One of the city's sanitation department managers said that the number of " trashoma nia" cases has multiplied in the city. One such case was that of a property owner who had filled five rooms with trash. Old cardboard, plastic bottles and other materials formed piles over a yard in height which blocked the way to the furniture. Psychologists, sociologists and social workers have been called in to stud y the problem. Some specialists say that this type of co nduct is the mark of an obsessive self-destructive neurosis with an aggressive note and a "more or less confessed desire to avenge oneself on society." The problem has reached such proportions in Tou louse that the city council is studying several programs that would educate the adherents of this bizarre custom a nd repress its practice. 3

BRAZIL I

Toward Planned Chaos I

N THE June 1984 issue of its magazine Catolicismo, the Brazilian TFP publis hed an extensive report abou t the recen t agitations which have been taking place in the largest Catholic nation in the world. Titled " The Peril of Agitation: Is Brazil in Flames?" the 24-page special edit ion affirms that twentieth century Brazil has perhaps never appeared so laden with threats as it is at the p resent mo men t. Aggressive and well o rganized demonstrations of disco ntent are breaking out everywhere wit h demands for socioeconomic refor ms. Agitation in the cities and la nd occupations on the farms in several Brazilian states have accentuated the somber and dismal specter of class strugg le now being actively promoted. According to the picture presented by p ropaganda, this spontaneous agitation creates a volatile situation in which social injustice has reached a climax. The holders of economic power, the capitalist bourgeois ie, obstinately reject the demands of the hungry and helpless work ing classes, making a conflict inevitable. The Catolicismo report contends that this artificial pictu re of chaos does not clearly depict what is really happening in Brazil. Contrar y to newspaper reports that claim these reactions are spontaneous consequences of a natural outpouring of the Brazilian worker's angu ish a nd in d ignation, a ll these rebellio us movements employ u ni form and well d esigned techniques of rural and urban guerrilla warfare. Catolicismo presents a wea lth of documents and quotations to support its a nalysis , includ ing news items and eyewitness reports fro m many of Brazil's twenty-three states . A TFP reporter went to the several scenes of agitation to get a firsthand view of what was really happening. One of the disconcerting aspects of the present peril is the lead ing role of the so-called Catholic left. Through several organizations in the ecclesiastical hierarchy such as the Pastoral Commission on Land and the Basic Christian Communities, severa l bishops, priests and religious have openly su pported agitation, land occupations and social u nrest. P laying a smaller role in the agitation is Brazil's Workers Party, with the weakened and sq ua lid collaboration of the Brazilian Communist P arty a nd the Communis t Party of Brazil. The latter two have become notorio usly insignificant as far as promoting class struggle in Brazil is concerned. The TFP special report notes that a lthough the agitation seems to threaten the political and social stability of Brazil, the foci of agitation taken individually have much smaller proportions . According to Catolicismo, whose staff 4

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Brazil: Artific ial but volatile chaos (Red dots indicate areas o f con flict)

verified what actually happened at several sites of agitation, most of the news repor ts spread by the liberal press are a larmingly biased and imprecise. T he spec ial report unveils the well gauged action of the media and of influent ia l m embers of the ep iscopa te on public opinion. Much m ore than economic injustice, Brazil has been the vic ti m of a process of revolutionary psycho logica l warfa re. Ag itat ion is being used to set Brazil o n fire with class struggle o n the pretext of real and imagined grieva nces. Activists are trying to force the imp lementation of soc ialist re forms by fa lsely presenting them as a so lution to these grievances . Finally, through orchestrated maneuvers, they are attempting to bring the leading classes to capit u late. Th e Catolicismo report cites several concrete cases to illustra te som e of the best examples of revolutionary psychological warfare in our days . These examples include statements a nd actions of several prelates in favor of class struggle : His Eminence Avelar Cardinal Brandao, the P ri mate of Brazil, declared: "Anything may happen. I f we are not ca reful, the accumulation and fostering of tens ion may lead to a confrontation. So as lo avoid a period of confro ntation

or civil war ... " (Folha de S. Paulo, 5-6-84). Angelico Sandalo Bernardino , Auxiliary Bishop of Sao Pau lo, commenting on the stateme nt of Cardinal Brandao: "The Brazi lian people are capable of revolting against the d isgustin!l socioeconom ic oppression to which I re subm itted." (Folha de S. Paulo, 5-, , -1). Bis hop C laudio Hummes of Santo Andre: "(The C hurch shou ld) recognize the existence of class struggle and engage in it, see king not 10 incite it but to transcend the social co nfl icts and poi nt o u t the way to a new society in which labor has priority over capita l . . . We wi ll only attain justice, equa lity and fraternit y when workers have p riority over the profits of capita l" (Fol ha de S. Paulo, 6-7-84). His Excellency lvo Lo rscheiter, Bishop of Santa Maria a nd President of the Nationa l Com mittee of Brazilian Bishops, in his radio program "The Voice of the Shepherd" affirmed that one cannot waste any more time looking for solutions to t he Brazilian crisis a nd that explosions of violence, as those seen recently in different parts of the country, are occuring ever m o re frequently and are "signs that the patience of the Brazilians may be coming to an end "(Zero Hora, Porto Alegre, 5-23-84).

CLEARLY,FORCEFULLY AND SOON COMMENTARY

RAZ! LIAN newspapers have published abundant but scattered reports on the agitation, aggressions, and even seizures of land that have been taking place in our co untry in the last few months. Precisely because the news is scattered, the public at large has been absorbing it with indolence. But if one were 10 gather all the repons into an overall picture one would rea lize that, from one end to the other, Brazil is systematically being swept by a wave of "conscientization" the reformist revolution of confiscatory socialism - which is processively degenerating into armed conflict, that is, into an immense and bloody social revolution. Now then, in all of these news reports the action of some priest, nun or even bishop appears as an influential, if not predominant factor. All Catholics zealous for the identity of the Church with herself are sad a nd disconcerted at the fact that this is taking place without any cou ntermeasure by the Holy See in the country with the largest Catholic population in the world. Nevertheless, we all know that a forceful and adroit measure by J ohn Paul II wo uld suffice to stop all this. It is therefore understandable that not a few Catholics have welcomed with some hope the promise of Agnelo Cardinal Rossi that by September John Paul I I will take a decisive stand on Liberation Theology, which is at the root of this whole catastrophe. The readers o f the Fofha de S. Paulo probably had a similar reaction upon reading the news it reprinted from the Italian magazine Panorama about a project of John Paul II to follow a policy of containment toward Liberation Theology in Latin America. In me, such news causes a sad skepec "' ticism. I am not certain that these mea"" sures will be taken. If they are, I am ,-.: even less certain that they will have the N " indispensable degree of efficacy. For :!' one thing, I believe that the ecumenical < tendency that so extensively impreg·u2 nates importa nt sectors of the Church § will prevent any strong measure from :: affecting Liberatio n Theology. And if, ~ against a ll expectations, that measure ~ is taken, it will be neutralized by the ~ classic method of "smoothing over" its :c interpretation and execution. S:

PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA ists." The latter were precursors of the progressivists a nd leftist Catholics, and therefore forerunners of the promoters of Liberation Theology, in which both progressivism and "Catholic leftism" are deeply rooted. Thus, while the promised measures to alert the faithful do not come, it is better for us merely to analyze the events. To make an exact tally of the occupations of land that have taken place in the last three months it would be necessary to obtain a copy of every Brazilian daily newspaper, something just about impossible. If we judge only from the daily newspapers of the most important cities, during three months there were thirty-five major occupations of private lands. As if planned by one central machine, the invasions usually develop as follows: 1. In an area affected by agitation of leftist Catholics, there appear groups made up mostly of stra ngers unkown in the area. Well, sometimes their identity is known: they are professional agitators from the four corners of Brazil and at times even from abroad. These agitators are jcined by some local malcontents who usually have close links with the local parish priest or bishop. 2. Even though these people are often in the vicin ity of State-owned lands they could occupy, they threaten some private property. And after some negotiation (read intimidation) with the owner, they uninhibitedly invade the latter's property, usually with th e support of the local parish priest or bishop. In so doing, they trample upon two Commandments of the Law of God: "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods." 3. At the request of the owner, the law enforcement agencies, in charge of maintaining order, intervene. They do so, in general, softly and inefficaciously . "Negotiations" then proceed now led by the priest and the bishop and the owner gradually mak es concessions. 4. Several possibilities are now open: a) The landow ner abandons the place to save his own li fe and those of his loved ones, and waits for a better oppor-

the small bourgeoisie in some mid-sized or large city; b) Or, the landowner immediately capitulates and accepts that his land be confiscated for a vile sum that will buy him an obscure and secure place in urban society. In short , the landowner would be practicing the principle "give away some in order not to lose all." 5. It is not so rare that the landowner is simply killed by the "poor" invaders and his family is obliged to flee without any compensation in the near future. 6. However, cases begin to appear in which non-conformist landowners, unaided by federal and state authorities, are starting to prepare for armed resistance with their own resources. Will such cases tend to multiply? It is too early to make a forecast. If they do, the institution of private property will have a chance to survive for a while. But facing even this resistance the ecclesiastic agitators do not , take on pacifist airs. Instead , they prod on the pertinacity of the squatters and lead everything to the beginning of social warfare. Yes, class warfare, for I am certain that if such situations multiply, tension and hatred will become ever more exacer- ; bated on both sides: "Deep calls unto deep" (Psalms, 41 :8). And dawns of blood, with picket lines preven ti ng everyone, in the name o f liberty, from going to work, will multiply under the aegis of the parish priest or some local nun. Thus , the rule, with few exceptions , consists of turning ecclesia, into the torch-bearers of the Red 1, olution. In this manner, ministers of the Lord can be used to make the at heistic and , egalitarian revolution in the fields. Well, having elements to see as very black a situation that to some will appear gray at worst, I also clearly discern, in colors rosy or white, the other side of the coin. I repeat: if John Paul I I wants to bring all this agitation to a halt, it will take him only one word. Only one word ... The situation requires that the Pontiff spea k out clearly, forcefu lly and soon. If he does, contemporary Brazil will be saved from catastrophe.

Long gone are the days of Sain t Pius

tunity to vindicate his rights. Of course,

the Brazi lian T FP. TFPs and similar autono-

X, the Shepherd most sweet and most . h'mg h'IS E ncyc1·1ca1 s t rong w h o, b rand 1s Pascendi as an archangel would his sw_o_r_d ~~ire,~~ost~~~-d -t~~ '-'M _ o_d_e_ r n_-_

this will take so long that he finally will · h'1mse If to " se11·m g " for a pit· resign tance the lands that had once been his own and j oining the obscure ranks- ~

mo us organizations were fou nded since then in 14 other countries, inspired by h is boo k

Plinio Correa de O liveira found ed . in 1960.

Revollltion and Counter-Revolution. H e

writes for the large daily newspaper Folha de

~~~~:/o.

J 5

TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Guatemala: Struggling for Survival NE o f the examples of former President Jimmy Carter's campaign for 0 human rights that characterized his administration's tunnel vision on this subject was the targeting of Guatemala. The Guatemalan regime's response to his press ure was one of unequivocal resistance. United States m\litary aid to this Central American country was suspended and the economic assistance given to it was greatly reduced. During the first years o f the Reagan Administration this restrictive policy towards Guatemala did not change much, although a certain warming in relations replaced the previous administration's cutting aggressiveness towards anticommunists . So, the Guatemalan military regime continued to suffer a certain isolation. At the same time, the regime's reaction to the diverse forms of internal opposition from both the political and religious sectors, as well as from the media, was repressive, but only in relation to the extreme left. It ignored almost entirely the other a nti-govern mental forces at work. This partial reaction created pockets of discontent in different sectors of the country. To this general malaise were added the regime's opponents' ever increasing accusations of corruption in government a nd reports in the press that the government was also guilty of numerous other crimes. For years, several guerrilla groups had been disrupting rural life in Guatemala . They were, however, no m ore than small subversive nuclei, whose insiste nce on the classical Marxist leitmotiv of class struggle and total socialism deprived them of the indispensable support of the peasants and workers. Due to this lack of popular support, the guerrillas formed nothing more than errant mountain ba nds forever frustrated in their desire to gain new followers for the communist cause. As such , the cha nces of ever assuming control of the country were extremely remote. Then , something took place that cha nged all this. The linkup of subversion with the rad ical wing of the "Catholic" left condensed , fo rtified and then expanded the guerrilla phenomenon. Participation in the guerrilla struggle was depicted by an important sector of the local clergy as a rad ical and generous fulfillment of the Gospel teachings, of t he "option for the poor," in short, of Christian duty. Many priests and "involved" laymen, having become agents of subversion, gave it a much greater scope than it used to have as a mere lay movement. Subversion, almost unopposed because of its new pseudoreligious character, now began to advance aggressively towards the conquest of power. 6

Holy Week ceremonies: a pe ople faithf ul to their Catholic tradi tions

When the security forces realized th a t this ecclesiastical-subversive alliance had taken shape, they proceeded to confront it with a show of force. The ensuing censorship, investigations and detentions, as well as so me crimes committed against members of the clergy suspected of help~ ing the guerrillas, were used as "evidence" o f re ligious persecution and of the " martyrdo m" suffered by t hose defending the misnamed "popular cause." In th ese conditions, the presidential election o f 1982 seemed to be a key moment for a turnover of power - a change that wou ld once agai n lead to the victory of a n a nticommunist - but one more skilled politically. However, the e lection - which many claimed to be fraudulent

- of General Angel Anibal Guevara, former Defense Minister of President Romeo Lucas Garcia, precipitated a coup d'etat that removed both the outgoi ng president and the new one. Apparently, t he military conspiracy was inspired by the fear t hat the conditions described a bove would lead the cou ntry to commu nist subj ugation. But the presumed eagerness to obtain acertain national consensus led those behind the coup to bring in several other sectors o f the military that eventua ll y took over the leadership. T o make maners worse, the new president, General Efrai n Rios Montt, a former member of the government junta, abandoned Catholicism to join a Protestant group recently introduced in the country. l-iow could the new government, u nder such leadership, effectively confront the subversion preached by important sectors of the ecclesiastical left without being accused of carrying out, in a Cath olic country, a Protestant religious war against the C hurch? In brief, Guatemala underwent a p rocess similar to that of other countries fighting communism: an a nticommunist regime exercises its au thority in a simplistic way without due regard to public opinio n a nd, altho ugh holding all the rei ns of power , refuses to use the more subtle a nd efficient means of influence at its disposal. Consequen tly, the regime progressively isolates itself from the more representative sectors of the country, thus making its survival impossible. In August of 1983 , General Oscar Mej ia Yictores overthrew General Ri os Montl. General Mejia Yictores' handling of the guerrillas has led to conflicting a nd often undocu mented charges of human rights violations . H ,, ,~ succeeded in pacifying large a1 , ,f the country formerly infested with terrorists. His attitude toward the leftist clergy and

Palace plots and political interests threaten Guatemala

lay preachers who have a ided terrorism is similar to that of his predecessors: some leftist missio naries and catechists have been expelled or imprisoned. Despite promises of democratizatio n, the change of government has not brought closer relations with the United States. Guatemala has taken a n increasingly independent posture in the Central American panorama. Its military fo rces did not take pa rt in the recent joint exercises held by the United States and other countries in the area. Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in March with the nation's two centrist parties receiving the largest number of votes. General Mejia has promised presidential elections for 1985.

If General Mejia suffers the fate of former presidents, who will replace him? Another a nticommunist government that will repeat - to a greater or lesser extent - the process described earlier? An apparently centrist civi lia n or military government tha t will open the way fo r the left? A so-called people's government brought together by a n alliance of subversive factions with political parties with like affiliations? The future of Guatemala will depend, much more than on palace or barrack plots, on whether voices are ra ised showing public opinion that the socialist principles are contrary to Catholic doctrine whether they be defended from a university chair, in the pages of a newspaper

or from the height of a pulpit; whether they be imposed by violence, by the abuse of civil authority, or by a seemingly popular majority. If this solidly based truth were clearly expressed and spread throughout the diffe rent sectors o f the country, how could the faction of the clergy tha t favors a Marxist revolution subsist? How could the au thentic anticommunists continue being led to think that a country can be preserved from the Red threat merely by repressing subversion while neglecting principles? How could the political parties place their own interests above those of the country in an hour of such terrible danger as this one?

True Pacifism Requires Strength T

HE true pacifist arms himself well to prevent a n aggressor's attacks a nd, in so doing, keeps the peace. There are those, however, who claim that true pacifism consists of disarmament even if it be unilateral - as lo ng as one's good in tentions a re manifested.

Beneath the serenity: seriousness

A recent book by John McPhee, La Place de la Concorde Suisse, sustains

the argument of the well-armed pacifist by citing th e example of Europe 's quintessentia l neutral and pacifist country-Switzerla nd . The author spent a summer with the

army of that landlocked country which ed into a fortress . "One does not has avoided the two world wars fought have to be trained by the Central Inon the European continent. telligence Agency to see a irstrips like "The Swiss have not fought a war Band-Aids all over the Alps ... In fofor nearly fi ve hundred years and are rests are many clearings that seem to determined to know how so as not to," make no sense ... They are fields of writes McP hee. Rather than follow the fi re . Hidden in the rocks behind them example of the ostrich which are extremely modern cannons trained prefers not to look at the on something ... that might need the enemy, the Swiss employ instant attention of prepared fire. All wha t they call the Porcupine calculations are long-since logged and the Principle. In case of attack , shells are ready to fly." the country simply rolls itself The New Yorker staff writer claims up in a ball a nd brandishes that the Swiss are totally prepared its quills. with both an aptitude a nd appetite fo r For this reason, the Swiss war that is sublima ted and under close are armed to the teeth. Ten control. percent of the population is Perhaps it is for this reason that in the Army. Yet, profes- Switzerland has been peaceful for five siona l soldiers make up less hundred years and is armed to stay than one ha lf of one percent that way. of the total number. The majori ty a re volunteers who spend some time each year in training. This country of towering mountains, quaint vi llages and placid lakes ha rd ly gives an appearance of a fortified land. However, the law requ ires nearly a ll buildings to be built with shelters capa ble of withstanding a nuclear blast. The gove rn ment main tains a parallel system of vital services tested and ready to use in case of emergency. McPhee reports that there is hardly any pastoral scene that is not ready to be transform- Symbolic: A shepherd guards his flock 7

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS

TWO WAYS OF LOOK Ir

IS six o'clock in the evening. The toil of the day has come to an end. The noble tranquility of the atmosphere envelops the vastitude of the fields, inviting one to repose and meditation. Nature is transfigured by a golden twilight, making everything glow with a remote and suave reflection of the inexpressible majesty of God. Faintly, in the distance, one hears the ringing of the Angelus. It is the c,ystalline and material voice of the Church, bidding one to pray. The two young peasants begin the prayer. Their physique manifest. health and a long established habit of manual labor. While their dress is simple, in everything their bearing reveals purity, elevation, and the natural delicacy of profoundly Christian souls. Their modest social condition is, as it were, transformed

and illuminated by their piety, which instills respect and sympathy. Their souls reflect the golden rays of the sun, but a sun much greater in every respect: the grace of God. Truly, their souls' beauty is the center of the picture. The magnificent surroundings serve as a background for the beauty of these two souls united by the Son of God. Nothing in these peasants gives the slightest suggestion of disquietude or uneasiness. They are entirely in consonance with their means, profession and class. What oth'!r dignity, what other fortune could this couple desire? In this painting, Millet admirably brought together the necessary elements for one to comprehend the dignity of manual work in the placid and happy

ambience of truly Christian virtue. Not always is counfly life so. Millet captured, in a lucky stroke of his brush, the acme of moral and material beauty. His picture has the merit of teaching men to see, scauered about in the uneventfulness of rural, eve,yday existence, the genuine, frequem sparklings of this Christian physiognomy of souls in an environment enlivened by the Holy Church. Millet's state of mind, which he communicates to whomever contemplates his ma_sterpiece, is turned toward God and the reflections of spiritual and material beauty which He impressed upon Creation. To be exact, only some excess of sentimentalism could be regrelled if one were to make a critique of the painting from the psychological standpoint. Millet: Angelus

fG AT COUNTRY LIFE Yves Alix: Le Maitrc des Moissons

uLD the same

praise be made of the painting by Yves Alix, "Le Maitre des Moissons," also inspired by country life? The author Jailed to perceive, feel or accept in his view of agricultural work anything that makes ii worthy of being carried out by a son of God. In this painting ii is not the spirit dominating matter and ennobling ii, but rather the matter penetrating the spirit and debasing ii. Manual labor has impressed upon the people a certain brutality and, as it were, wickedness. Their countenances display a state of mind which reminds one of a concentration camp. If those in the background did not seem so hardened, if they were able to cry, their tears would be of hate; their moans, were they able to moan, would be like the grating of gears. The sadness, the evil, the cacophony of the colors, shapes and souls are manifested by the manner in which the main character shouts. One does not know whether he is making a threat or uttering a blasphemy. Yves Alix gathered, exaggerated and distorted to the point of delirium the aspects whereby work is expiation and suffering, and the earth a place of exile; he expressed with meticulous and, so to say, enthusiastic fidelity that in the human soul which is most heinous and low, presenting the ensemble as an actual and normal

aspect of the spiritual, professional and everyday life of the worker. Millet's work of art calls to mind a prayer, while the nightmare of Yves Alix belches forth a puff of revolution. If God were to permit the Angels to beautify the earth and life, they would go about it by making those aspects that

Millet sought to observe and assemble, more abundant, more beautiful and longer lasting. If He were to allow the demons of hell to disfigure men and Creation, they would do so by forming in mens' souls, bodies, and in the appearance of things, characters and environments such as those found in the painting of Yves Alix . 9

RELIGION LIMA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Saint Martin de- Porres--The Saga of a Miracle Worker -

Lima street scene: here Saints used to meet and perform miracles

is a country born of a long P ERU history of contrast in violence and fa ith that was characterized by the indomitable spirits of the explorers who conquered it for Spain and the missionaries who claimed it for God. The missionaries who came to evangelize the new regions were obliged to discipline the violence of the conquerors and remind them of the principles of the Gospel that should guide the formation of a new society. Slowly, the mentality of the conquerors changed a nd a society whose amb ience favored the practice of virtue was born.

At the times of the Viceroy of Miracles Lima, the center from which all the life of the country radiated, was naturally the city most benefited by this religious growth . In his work, Tradiciones Peruanas (Peruvia n Traditions), Ricardo Palma compared the city of Lima to an immense convent. He presented it with all of the grandeur a nd miseries of a city whose inhabitants fight so their souls 10

dominate their bodies and consequently suffer more violent temptations of the devil, against whom they were not always victorious. The profoundly Catholic population of the capital of the Viceroys obliged St. Francis Solano, who a rrived in Lima in 1589, to preac h in the public squares , si nce the churches were too small to contain the crowds that gathered to hear him . The streets of the city often saw the presence o f St. Rose of Lima, the first South Ameri can to be elevated to th e glory of th e altars, a nd o f a numbe r of other persons completely dedicated to the concerns of God. It is obvious that a city with suc h a li ving faith could no t be lack ing in miracles . Du ring the governm ent of Viceroy D. Gaspar de Zuniga y Acevedo, such a number of miracles were registered in the Peruvian chronicles that he was called the Viceroy of Miracles. It is in this a mbience that Divine Providence placed Brother Martin de Porres, who was inscribed in t he Book of Saints on May 6, 1962, by Pope John XXIII. The illegitimate son of D. Juan de

Porres, a knight of Alcantara, and of Ana Velasquez, a Panamanian slave, Martin de Porres was born in Lima on December 9, 1579 a nd baptized soon thereafter in the Church of St. Sebastian, the same church in which, a few years later, St. Rose o f Lima also received the Sacrament of Baptism. His father took him to Guayaquil, where he lived for a few years. Martin then returned to his native city and worked as a barber until he was fifteen, abandoning his profession to become a lay brother at a Dominican convent. His exceptionally gifted intelligence and the help of his father could have taken him to th e priesthood , but he always refused, saying he deemed himself "unworthy of wearing any other habit th a n the one he had chosen." The Saint spent his whole life serving at the convent, in charge of the most humble tasks. He would use his free time receiving or visiting the poor and the sick, among whom he practiced his charity in the most varied ways, always finding the most adequate ma nner of caring more for the souls of his protected ones than for their bodies . Helping the forsaken was his constant concern , a fruit of his ardent zeal for souls, in which he saw the image of th e God he loved above all things . The episodes of his life in which the virtue that meri ted him the title of "Martin of C harity" shone are countless. He was especially zealous for children who had been abandoned and exposed to the danger of perdition. He wou ld beg for alms a nd make all sorts of sacrifices for them. It was thanks to his pertinacity and example an orphanage was la ter founded i11 ,na, administered by an institut ion especially created fo r that purpose. Brother Martin's fr ui tful activity in favor of the poor ca n only be ex plained by the intervention of Di vine Providence since, human ly speaking, his work was beyond the possibili ties of a lay brother of a mendi can t Order. In His Apostolic Letter o f July 10, 1945, the Holy Father Pius XII proclaimed Brother Martin patron of all social wor ks of charit y in Peru. Another characteristic of St. Martin was the care he had for the sick, to whom he was a thoughtful a nd solicitous servant. Having received from God the p ower to cure t he sick, he was frequently called to the bedside of the dying, something he never failed to do even when he had to bilocate to get there in time. When he did not cure someone, he would prepare the individual for death so that the person would accept the will

Today's vi ew of the large Plaza de Armas in downtown Lima

of God with a C hristia n m ind. In general, he treated the sick of the convent by giving them something harmless mixed with water to drink and then dismissing th em completely cured. He knew the symptoms o f illnesses a nd the strengt h of remedies, which he had learned as a ba rber. At that ti me, ba rbers also worked as doctors and pharmacists. Such knowledge helped him hide the power he possessed , but the miraculous cures he performed were so amazing that he soon became know n t hroughou t the city.

Martin! " cried the unfortuna te ma n. Hav ing been forbidden by his Superior to perform mi racles, the Saint asked the man to wait a nd went running to the convent to as k for the necessary perm ission

to save him . The Superior naturally gave him permission, a nd upon returning to the place St. Martin fou nd the man suspended in midair, waiting for him. He had the man descend safe and sound and continued on his wa y. Soon after the death o f this servant o f God, the favors a ttained through his intercession multiplied to the point of throwing the life of the city into disorder and obliging the Superior to go to his tomb to order him to stop. And, the chronicle continues, never again did St. Martin perform miracles . A fter forty-five years in the convent serving God and his brothers, Brother Ma rtin died o n November 3, 1639. Du ring his last illness, when death was approaching, he sa w enter into his poor cell the Viceroy, Count o f Chinch on, who knelt and kissed his hand . Confused, Brother Martin tried to make the Viceroy rise, but he continued kneeling and asked Brother Martin to obtain fo r him the grace o f governing well and serving God on this earth as he should. The Saint answered : "If He, in H is infinite mercy, grants me the favor of receivi ng me into His glory, I will not fo rget, Sir, to pray for Your Excellency" . And thus, after receiving the homage o f the highest authority in his land, he expired .

When the saints of Lima would meet True friendship has as its fo unda ti on the love of God , a nd just as the evil immedia tely know each other, so also do the good. We can imagine the meetings of St. Martin with St. Toribio, St. Francis Sola no , St. Rose of Lima, the Blessed J uan Macias, and so many other Godfearing souls who lived in seventeenth eentury Lima, a sma ll city where everyone knew each other. The holiest of his contemporaries were filled wit h adm iration as they heard this la y brother who had only learned how to be a barber. His conversation made manifest the wisdom c haracteristic of the Saints, confounding the proud science of the wise men of t he world .

How brother Martin stopped working miracles Th e m iracles of Martin are so widely known a nd so abu ndant that legend has it that his life was a continuous series o f divine interventions. Once, it is told, he was walking down a street in Lima when he saw a man fall from the top o f a house. "Protect me, Brother

An artist's draw ing of the Rimac River and the old sto ne bridge

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

* Published in five languages:

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English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the M iddle A ges has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism and even more radical forms of anarchy .

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP â&#x20AC;˘ P . 0 . Box 121 â&#x20AC;˘ Pleasantville, NY 10570 11

A TALE FROM CHRISTENDOM

Our Lady's Juggler N THE days of King Louis there IBarnabas, lived in France a poor juggler named who traveled from town to town performing tricks of strength and skill. At first people would look upon his performance with indifference. But when, standing head down on his hands, he would throw in the air and catch with his feet six copper balls which shone in the sun, or when, arching back until his head touched his heels, he made his body into the shape of a perfect circle, and, in this position, juggled with twelve knives, a murmur of admiration would rise from the onlookers and pieces of money would rain on his carpet. One evening he met along the road a monk and saluted him. "Friend," said the monk, "how is it that you are

have you enter the monastery of which 1 am prior." This is how Barnabas became a monk. The prior, as his work, composed books which dealt with th e virtues of the Mother of God. Brother Alexander painted fine miniatures on them. There were also poets in th e monastery who composed Latin prose pieces and hymns in honor of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Witnessing such wealth of praises and such a rich harvest of works, Barnabas bemoaned his ignorance and a rtlessness. "Alas," he sighed. " It makes me very unhappy to find myself unable to praise worthily the Holy Mother of God." One evening he overheard one of his

dressed all in green? To play the part of the fool in some mystery?" "Father," replied Barnabas, "1 am called Barnabas and I am a juggler by trade. It wou ld be the finest trade in the world if it provided me with food every day.'' "Friend Barnabas," answered the monk, "take care what you say. There is no finer estate in the world than that o f the monastic. The life of a monk is a perpetual hymn to the Lord." Barnabas answered, "Father, I wou ld willingly abandon the art for w hich 1 am known in more than six hundred towns and villages to enter monastic li fe." The good monk, touched by the juggler 's simplicity, answered, "Friend Barnabas, come with me and I will

brothers telling the story of a monk who could o nl y recite the Ave Maria. This monk had been looked upon with contempt because of his ignorance; but when he died five roses grew out of his mouth in honor of the five letters in the name of Maria and his holiness was thus made manifest. On hearing this story Barnabas once more adm ired the goodness of the Virgin, and he wanted to celebrate the glory of His Lady. One day when Barnabas was closeted in the chapel, as was his habit, the prior came, accompanied by two friars, to observe th rough a crack in the door what he was doing inside. They saw Barnabas before the Holy Virgin' s altar, head down and feet up, juggling with six copper balls and twelve knives. He was performing his

A 1hirtccn1h centu ry M ado nna

tricks in honor of the H o ly Mother of God. The two old friars cried sacrilege. The prior knew that Barnabas was pure of heart but thought he had become insane. All three were about to drag him from the chapel when they beheld the Virgin descend from the a lta r and with the edge of her blue mantle wipe the sweat which poured from the juggler's forehead. Then the prior, throwing himself face to the ground, intoned these words: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they sha ll see God." "Amen ," responded the friars, kissing the ground .

Soviets in the U .N.: Free Rein, Free Ride N ITS May "Backgrounder" report, the Heritage Foundation presented a penetrating a nalys is of the strat egic advantages enjoyed by the Kremlin 's extensive United Nations representation. According to Mr. R. Jean Gray, chief of the FBI in New York, the Soviet U.N. offices provide "an excellent base for Soviet espionage.'' Gray est imates that of the I, 100 communist bloc delegates residing in New York, 250 work for the U.N. Secretariat. One thi rd of these arc noto riously known to be eit her KGB or other Soviet intelligence agents . Moreover, the privileges and diplomatic immunity enjoyed by th ese "diplomats" make monitoring th eir act ivities very difficult. In 1978, when the Sub-Secretary of the United Nations, Arkady Shevchenko asked for political asylum in the United States, the Soviet insider revealed so me precious information on the act ivities of th e KGB at the U.N., including the names of several Soviet agents holding key posts at the world body. Among the revelations were : • In the U.N. Personnel Department , Victor Elissejev, the Director of Political Coordinati o n, is one of the man y Soviet officials who ha ve access to the perso nal files of those worki ng in the Un it ed Nations. This makes it possible for the Russians to co nt ro l the promotion of U.N. employees who are rewarded or pun is hed accordi ng to the degree o f collaboration with the Soviets. Americans for all practical purposes, are excluded from this sector . • The Department of Public Informatio n is u nder the guida nce o f Anato ly Mkrtcyan, who according to Shevchenko, is a KGB colonel. All the informat ive mater ial sent to th e United Natio ns' o ffices in sixty-four co untries

U.N.: more spies than meet the eye

around the world must first be censo red by Comrade Anatoly. Thanks to him, for example, the Department shamelessly deleted any reference to the Soviets in its account of the shooting down o f the South Korean jet. • The Department of Political Affairs and of the Security Council is reportedly the stronghold of the KGB in New York. Direc ted by Yiacheslay Usti nov, the Department is charged wi th preparing the agenda for the Secretariat of the Security Cou ncil and its subsidiary bodies. Ustin ov's office offers th e Kremlin many possibilities o f innuencing the work ing mechanism of the U.N. • At the Dag Hammarskjold Library, head librarian Vlad imi r Orlov ma kes sure Moscow has access to any document published in the United States, including

those linked with American industry and technology. The worst of it is that the Soviets have secured all these positions at a bargain price. Theoretically, the United Nations is financed by its member nations. However, in practice things are different. In 198 1, fo r example, the Russians contributed in rubles a mere 4 percent toward the funding o f the United Nations. The Soviets also owe some $200 million to the world organization. In contrast, the United States shoulders some 25 percent of the budget. In spite of its small contribution, Soviet Russia is allowed to profit economically from its participation in the United Nations . All of its representatives are required to send a large portio n of their salaries to Moscow. Of the $22.7 million earned annually by the Soviet U.N. members, $ I 5. 7 million goes directly to the coffers of the Kremlin . The Soviets' manipulation of the United Nations is one more expression of their mysterious hypnotic power over the West which, although possessing the material and political advantages required to defeat the Red sect, apparently prefers to gradually allow itself to fall into the clutches of its adversary.

THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUTH SWAPO Idealist Christians and Heroes for Freedom and Justice? or Instruments of International Communist Aggression?

Update: TFP SWAPO Study

HE May publication of the American TFP's position paper titled, The Whole Truth About SWA PO is having excellent repercussion. Requests for th e 66-page analysis of the South West African People's Organization have been received not only from Americans interested in keeping southern Africa free from Soviet domination, but also from South Africa, Namibia, France, England, Germany, Holland and Zambia . Shortly after its publication, the American TFP received a letter from Mr . Jan Roodbol, secretary of the South African Catholic Defense League, a sta unchly conservative lay organization based in Silverton near Pretoria, asking the American TFP to make the study "available to the South African public to whom its contents are of vital importance." With the permission of the American TFP, the South African Catholic

Defen~e League has just published the position parer as a special issue of Candid11s, its official organ. The group has also arranged to have the study translated and published in German and Afrikaans. The Citizen, a Johannesburg daily, reported on the book , saying that "a powerful American civic-religious organization has taken up the cudgels in the United States against Swapo - and is publicly campaigning to 'awaken' Americans against the inherent danger of Swapo control of South West Africa" (7-27-84). "An indepth report by the TFP is being circulated throughout the United States following thorough research into Swapo by the body," the paper continued, "and copies are now in South Africa wit h intentions of widespread circulation here. "

This new study of the American TFP dispels the ambiguity and con• fusion surrounding SWAPO. It also sheds light on the passive role of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. 66 pages with photographs • Over 200 documents (mainly SWAPO's) Price: $3.50 (incl. postage). Order from: The American TFP • P.O. Box 121 Pleasantville, New York 10570

. . '

NEWS FLAS)I8ICES . '

Frenchmen in the Soviet Gulag? The Sunday Times of London reports that the French government has been bombarded with letters and pet itions from relatives seeking information about loved ones wt.lo they believe are still alive after nearly forty years in the Soviet Gulag. The campaign was prompted by the studies of French Kremli nologist Patrick Meney, who claims that thousands of Fre nch men disappeared in post-war purges in Stalin's Russia despite Soviet agreements that all foreigners found by t he Red Army would be repatriated. Mr. Meney suspects t hat several doze n Frenchmen may sti ll be languishing in Russian labor camps. One case that has drawn some attention is that of Pau l Catrain, a World War II soldier who was re ported k illed in Lublin, Poland. Three years ago, relatives of the unfortunate Catrain received a letter smuggled out of the city of Strikhovtsky in Ukraine in w hich he desperately asked for repatriation . The Russians have disregarded every request for a meeting with Catrain. In an apparent blunder, the Sovie t Novosti News Agency furiously attacked Meney's conclusions, inadvertently revealing that 348 French nationals are buried in a cemetery at Ki rsanov, 280 miles north-east of Stalingrad. The French foreign office has denied any knowledge of the cemetery but has requested permission to visit the graves (America - Ukrainian Ca tholic Daily, 6-25-84).

Whose Ally? Among the measures taken in Europe to assure the success of pacif ism was a declaration by the government of Swedi sh Prime Minister Olaf Palme that the Swedes wo uld att empt to stop any American nuclear counter-at tack targeting Russia's strategic Kola Peninsula by shooting down American cruise missiles pass ing over Swedish terri tory. To do th is, the socialist government plans to use a radar system called Falcon, developed by the American firm I.T.&T. Some twenty-four of these systems are being sent from the United States to Sweden. The first such system was delivered in January (Time, 3-5-84).

Strange Sightings Reports from Mexico claim that North Korean spy ships are operating in the Gulf of Cal i fornia and that North Korean "touris ts" may be involved in t raining revolutionaries. According to James Taylor of TransGlobal News Service, four North Korean communi cati ons sh ips have been operatin g in th e area for th e past year. In addiÂˇ lion. approximately 2100 North Korean commandoes are assigned to training schools for revolutionaries at two bases 14

in Mexico. Several tourists visit ing the area have confirmed these sight ings. Bob Nichols, a Phoenix businessman with a house on the Gulf described one of the ships in detail in an interview with Arizona Republic magazine. Both the American and Mexican governments have denied the North Korean military presence in the area, c laim ing that the North Koreans who are there are merely tourists and fishermen . Mexican fishermen. however, have noted a number of protruding antennas and a strange lack of nets and fish ing equ ipment.

Indoor Health Hazard Consumer advocates ought to issue a warning that modern offices may be hazardous to you r heal th. According to Ken Sexton. director of the indoor-air quality program of the California Department of Health Services. " Indoor air pollution may be a signi ficant public health hazard." Many contaminants cont ribute to what is being called the "sick building syndrome." The worst offender is said to be ambient ci garette smoke. Wet -process copiers give off odorless hydrocarbons, causing fat igu e and skin irritatio ns. Dryprocess copie rs leak ozone , an irritant to the eyes and respiratory tract. Computer screens emit low levels of radiation. Other causes of pollu tion are plasti c furniture, room d ividers and pressboard, which are known to emit formald ehyde and at least one hundred volatile organic compounds . Vinyl carpet - especially when new - and c leaning flu ids also release hydrocarbons (Newsday, 7-31-84).

Black Market for Medals

Vietnamese Tragedy Continues The trag ic pli ght of the Vietnamese fleeing the new communist paradise in flimsy boats continues while the West looks on indifferently. A dramatic example of th is was the case of a boatload of desperate Vietnamese recently rescued by Fil ipino fishermen afte r 68 of th e passengers had d ied of starvation and exposure. One of the sixteen survivors, Miss Dinh Xuan Hoa, 24, told of watch ing helplessly as the boat's passengers died. "We threw their bodies into the sea as soon as they died, but later on we were too weak to push them out of the boat and all I could do was cry as their bodies lay beside me." Even more disconcerting was the help refused to them. Miss Dinh said that more than forty ships sailed by and ignored the group's entreaties for help (China Post. 7-27-84).

Immoral Education A former guidance counselor at a Roman Catholic School in Montpelier. Vt.. is seeking applicants for the country's first nudist school. James Cunningham has al l the perm i ts necessary for the school to open and in no way finds himself ac ting contrary to Catholic teachings. In fac t, among his many perplexing statements, Cunningham declares that he is a "traditional Catholic." "We want to provide a moral education as well as an intellectual and academic one. One moral thing that needs to be addressed is our attitude toward our bodies." Even more incredible is Cu nningham's affirmat ion t hat nudism promotes chastity. This is one of t he tenets of his schoo l and of the g roup "Altoget her Christians"(sic) that he helped fou nd (San Francisco Chronicle, 7-20-84).

The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reported that a highly decorated adm iral who once commanded the Soviet Paci fic Fleet was kill ed last year by thieves dealing in black Dutch to Legalize Pornography market m ilitary medal s. The admiral and his w ife were blud T he Dutch government has announced geoned to death in th eir Moscow apart- its intention to legalize pornog raphy for ment in July of 1983. The on ly thing miss- adults, a move that is sparking protests ing from the scene was the admiral 's from women 's groups and some polit ical uniform and the two dozen high state and parties. military orders on it. Sources estimate Justice Minister Frederik Korthals Altes that such medals, which in cluded the said that he wo uld introduce a bill this solid gold star of a "Hero of the Soviet year that would lift a ban on d istributing Union." would yield more than $20,000 on pornography to people over 16. The plan the black market from collectors. won immediate backing from the Labor Only recent ly did Sov iet prosecutor and Liberal parties which together are sufSergei A. Emelyanov reveal that Vice Ad - ficient to assure the bill a majority in m iral Georgy N. Kho lostyakov had been parliament. a victim of medal th ieves. The prosecutor As in other countries, the degrading also admit ted t hat thi s is not the on ly material is being defended to "protect" case; detectives have uncovered forty Âˇfreedom of publication and freedom of the si mil ar crimes in more than ten other individual. Despite evidence that the Soviet cities. nefarious trade often incites vio lent crime, Accord ing to press reports , families its advocates c laim that the government someti mes se ll a deceased relative's me- should not be the moral judge of society dals on th e black market to raise cash - even when the common good is in (Newsday, 7-26-84). question (New York Tribune, 7-25-84).

Terror Tactics Sweep Zimbabwe W

ITH the proclaiming o f one-party rule in Zimbabwe, the unfortunate African country moves yet one ste p closer to dictatorial communist rule. Using classic terror tactics to silence the opposition, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe has succeeded in laying the groundwork for establishing what his party constitution calls "a socialist state in Z imbabwe based on Marxist-Leninist principles but firmly based on our historical, cu ltural and social experience in which the political order is based on adult universal suffrage under the vanguard leadership of the workers, peasants and intellec tuals" (The New York Times, 8- 12-84). The adroit Prime Mi nister was able to establish a powerfu l Soviet-style politburo Lo carry out this poli cy without scaring away precious foreig n aid dollars or scandalizing Western governments. Press reports have helped ease the painful transition, carefu lly pointing out that given the delicat e political situat ion in Zimbabwe one-party rule was almost inevitable and avoiding any volatile reference to "Marxist dictatorship." The t: Âˇtics employed in Zimbabwe are hardly n, v. For months a po licy of terror and cen ., ;hip has been leading up to "pcacefu ' transition. A systematic si lencing of the opposition took plac, when the Mugabe government troops cut off food supplies to nearly a half-million people in the southern province of Matabeleland in a three-mon th q ua rantine from February to April. Four brigades, or 16,000 troops - more so ldiers than the Rhodesian army deployed throughout the whole country at the height of the bush war - were used for the Lask. The inhabitants of the four-thou sand square mile region were labeled " dissidents" for their stiff res istance to Mugabe's attempt to impose a one-party state dictatorship under his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). A s a result, a series of measures were taken to virtually seal off the region from the rest of the world. Roads were closed. Buses were halted. A dawn-to-dusk curfew was imposed and it was prohibited to send food into the area. Reports filtering out say that a number of "mercy food runners" were shot d ead trying to get food through. Villagers who ned have given accounts of executions, torture, beatings, arrests and starvation. Unauthorized press correspondents are forbidden to enter the a rea to verify such claims. According to a report in the newsletter of the Rhodesian Christian Group, an informant who fled Z imbabwe told how dozens of villages, particu larly in the Lupani and Tsholotsho areas, were left in smouldering ruins by the government 's British-trained (formerly North Koreantrained) Fifth Brigade. Seven church leaders in the region sent an appeal to Mugabe asking him to ease the restrictions because of the imminent mass starvation. The Swiss-born Catholic prelate

of Matabeleland , Bishop Henry Karlen issued a four-page repo1t listing names and places of alleged atrocities by government soldie rs. Cases of army comma nders who threatened the population were cited in the report. " A policy of starva tion became clear," the report stated, "when the commanders told people they (the residents) would first eat their c hicke ns, then their goats, after which they would eat their cattle and then their own children. The soldiers said the people must first bring dissidents before they get any food supplies" (The Tablet, 4-25-84). Even J oshua Nk0 mo, Mugabe's former comradc-terrorist-in-:,~ms, has decried the nation's plight. He cla im ~ that anywhere from 3,000 to 20.000 Zimbabweans have died at the hands of government troops since the coming of "democracy" to Zimbabwe. Mugabe has been far from apologetic. In a sharply-worded Apri l 14 statement cri ticizing Roman Cat holic officials, the terrorist prim ~ ministe r, who claims to be both a Marxist and a Catholi c, praised his troops a nd told reporters that missionaries should "stick :o their prayers and leave the running o f the country to me" (Newsday , 4-15-84). Only in May, when the news of Mugabe's terror tactics scandalized even the most apathetic Western governments and threatened to sca re away the fore ign aid so precious to Marxist dictators, did Mugabe fin a ll y announce that he had eased restric tions a nd allowed the press to enter the area to question it s inhabitants at will , thus break ing the three-month-old quarantine . True to his word, a convoy of buses carrying investigative journalists was escorted by a n even larger contingent of police and milit ary to find out the "truth" in Matabeleland. Several of th e guests who had

Mugabe: a crumbling lavade

come from South Africa were immediately invited to leave. The tour guide was Gen. Rex Nhongo, commander of the Z imbabwean Army and t he very man whose troops were under investigation. The first day of the fact-finding tour was spent circling in the bush as the convoy apparently lost its way, the maps having proved inadequate. On the second day the party arrived at Minda Mission , in the heart of the bush land where the army has been operating. Most observers believe that the way was prepared by security men who warned residents to keep silent. Despite protests by the journalists, every interview was made with the police and military present, complete with cameras. One courageous soul did however break the barrier of silence. Alfred Muthlalu, 52, led the visitors to two mo unds where he said six victims shot by soldie rs were buried. One o f these was his brot her. "I will say the fact and shame the devil. T hese people of this country, they fear the government. I know because I have crucifi ed myself by making such a statement" (Rocky Mountain News, 5-24-84) . . When the mission priest , Rev. Gabriel Kleinlerchcr, asked Nhongo for a n assurance that witnesses wou ld not be harassed, his req uest was promptly refused . Fr. Kleinlerch -r fears that the heroism of Muthlalu may resu lt in his death. Other wi tnesses included Boyd Devee, an American m ission doctor. who claimed that he trea ted more than I 00 patients after beati ngs by soldiers. Iylissionaries in the area also believe that evidence of widespread atrocities has been erased. Graves have been opened and victims' bodies doused with gasoline and burned. Other reports have it that bodies were dug up and transported to other less conspicuous places and that mine shafts used as dumping sites were dynamited. Apparent ly the farcica l "fact-finding" tour was too much even for the handpicked journalists to swallow; instead of squelching the rumors of widespread atrocities, it has added f uel to the fire. Mugabe has since adopted another tactic, a tactic not unlike that used by the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland . The government has announced that it will use its emergency powers to prosecute correspondents who write "distorted or twisted" reports about the cou ntry. " In order to cope with undesirable journalists of this kind, we are going to prefer charges on them to substantiate their false a llegatio ns," said Informatio n Minister Mathan Shamuyarira (The New York Times, 6-5-84). Meanwhile, as the artificial famine and oppression in Z imbabwe continue, the West looks the other way. Human rights verification in Matabeleland just seems to be of no importa nce to som e Western leaders and reporters. They apparently wish the same sad fate for other countries Like El Salvador and Namibia. 15

A merica, 1984a.· Good Manners Do Matter W

ITH the coming of the social revolution of the 60's, etiquette was discarded as an anachronism. The discreet and veiled formulas that facilitate social relationships were replaced with a "tell-it-like-it-is" impulsiveness that, to put it politely, often borders on outright rudeness. The result was a rampant lack of good manners all across America. A whole generation that eschewed civilized customs and genteel treatment is now finding it increasingly difficult to live peacefully in society. Although social graces have historically been connected with the elite classes, good manners never really were the sole province of the rich. According to Letitia Baldrige, author of the revised Amy

mality, courtesy and good manners. According to Judith Martin, author of the syndicated column "Miss Manners," the unschooled masses are becoming "desperate." Young people entering the work force are finding that the art of dealing with people is a necessary element for survival. The popular notion that one should be "honest" in a literal way all the time was translated into com-

plete freedom to insult people. When it became evident that some sectors of society still make severe judgments based on social behavior, the mannerless suddenly became frantically interested in the use of good manners. The swing of the pendulum toward better manners does not, however, mean a return to good social customs. Ironically, the "new etiquette" now being developed by writers and communications consultants includes a number of cosmetic changes to legitimatize the social revolution that brought about the downfall of good manners in the first place. While today's socialites are shown the correct fork to use for a certain food , they are also advised how to refuse cocaine at a party or function , how to address couples with different last names and how to organize one's second or third marriage. The rules for the treatment of men and women are far from defined and greatly influenced by corrosive feminist ideas and permissive sexual mores. The result of etiquette's new popularity has not really had an uplifting effect on today's social relationships. Rather, it forms a part of the mish-mash of customs, manners and ideas that add to the confusion plaguing modern society.

de Tenerife in the Canary Islanas, sent to the president of the Spanish TFP the following letter of encouragement: "Illustrious President of the Sociedad Cultural Covadonga-TFP: Just recently, one of your representatives visited me and during our conversation asked that I direct some words to you regarding the Sociedad Cultural Covadonga-TFP. It is with great pleasure that I do it. "The Sociedad Cultural Covadonga was born of the most profound roots of the history of Spain and of the Catholic Church. The ideals that make up the

motto that orients its activities - tradition, family and property - are vital principles for all Spain; they are vital principles for our history. ''The campaigns that have been carried out and those that are still taking place undoubtedly touch the Spanish heart. "Continue with them. I ask God and the Virgin that, for the good of Spain and its people, you may take them to the highest peak of splendor. " With affectionate gree tings and blessings, yours truly in the L0rd. Luis Franco, Bishop of Tenerife. •·

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Vanderbilt Complete Book ofEtiquette, "I've noticed in all these years of observing that the best-mannered people are sometimes the hardest up economically. Good manners are really good character and not your bank account" (Newsday, 3-20-84). Exe1.:utives in New York are paying as much as $300 an hour for personal instruction in corporate manners. Etiquette writers, after a long period of casual permissivism and me-first indulgence, now report an unprecedented interest in for-

BISHOP PRAISES TFP IN SPAIN S PART of its effort to foster the A values of Christian Civilization, the Spanish Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property-Covadonga has been actively promoting the Spanish edition of the work, Half a Century ofEpic Anticommunism. The book is a history of the Spanish TFP as well as of the first and largest TFP, the Brazilian TFP. After being visited by a member of the Spanish organization , His Excellency Luis Franco, the Bishop of Santa Cruz

Etiquette: coming back in style?

TRADITION, FAMILY, PROPERTY Half a Century of Epic Anticommunism HERE IS the remarkable story of fifty years In defense

of the basic principles of Christian Civilization by the outstanding Brazilian Catholic thinker and man of action, PUNIO CORR£A DE OLIVEIRA. This 468-page book, amply illustrated, details the founding of the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and the subsequent appearance of 14 other autonomous TFPs around the world. Breaks the myth of the '• irresistible" force of communism and socialism. OROERFROM:

The American TFP - P.O. Box 121 - Pleasantville, NY 10570

Bishop Luis Franco receives book from the TFP 16

Price: $12.95 (add $1.05 for postage)

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY AND PROPERTY P.O. Box 121 - PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. 10570

FEAST OF GLORY AND PEACE

, , Q LORY to God in the highest,

the desire for glory augment one's of the soul and would, if they could, and on earth peace to men of sou l? make the stars fall from the sky and good will" (Luke 2: 14). It is impossiThis question can easily be answered become potatoes, as Claude! wrote. ble for a Catholic to meditate o n by comparing a man who thirsts for According to many, human society's Christmas witho ut recalling, and al- glo ry with a nother who merely yearns only meaningful, tangible and authenmost hearing, the harmonious and for !IOOds of a different nature: to sleep tic end is to foster a life of abundance luminous words in which the angels many long nights in a soft bed, to dine and pleasure. All religious, philosophproclaimed to men the great tidings of abundantly upon delicacies, to feel safe ical, artistic and other issues have but the comi ng of the Saviour. from risk and uncerta inty and 10 live secondary importance, or none at all. It is on these words that we, in union without struggle or effort am id enter- And, since the world is divided into one with Mary Most Holy, sha ll make our tainments and pleasure. hemisphere that is communist a nd o ne Christmas meditation at the feet of the There is no doubt that material goods that is not, what is relevant in this diviInfant Jesus in the sion is not ideologicrib. cal discrepancy, but "Glory." How rather conflicting we ll the men of old economic inteÂˇrests. understood th is From the standword! How many point of material brilliant and upliftad vantages, what ing moral values matters most is to they saw in it! It avoid war, even if was in order 10 atthe world had to tain it that so many implicitly resign itkings increased their self to a gradual boldomains, so many shevizatio n. armies faced death, Thus, the West so man y wise men sho uld preserve took up arduous above a ll the peacestudies, so many ful relations between pioneers ventured nations. Peace must into t he fearsome be obtained at any wild, so many muprice, because the sicians composed cost of the damages their masterpieces, of war is incalcnso many poets lable. searched their souls It matters li tt k for the most intense if this brings us a ins piration and so life of ignominy. many merchants We sha ll be slaves carried o ut most of an omnipotent painstaking enterstate, lost in a huge prises. Indeed, in mass of anonymity, wealth they sought Adoration of the Magi: Affection and respect are not incompatible disfigured by a " culmore than just plenture" that a ims to ty, comfort and security; they sought in were created for our use, and that man eliminate personality and standardize it power, prestige, and, in a word, glory. may des ire them in due measure and men, that denies morality, the existence What were the elements of that no- under the proper conditions. But what of th e soul and of a just and merciful tion of glory? Some were inherent in could be said of him if he set them up God - but who cares! At least, we the person himself: a lofty mentality, a as the suprem e values of life? It could sha ll have kept ourselves and o ur sig nal virtue and the exercise of relevant be said that his mind is base, egoistic children from the devastations and actions. Others were linked to what to- and narrow; in short, that he belongs privations of war. In famy is little day is called public opinion. In this to the category of those whom the Holy enough to pay to avoid so many evils. case, glory is the visible, wide and Scripture stigmatizes saying, "their god This is why we ought to cease polemics outspoken acknowledgment of some- is the belly"(Phil. 3: 19). Minds like this with comm unism . one's high qualities. one understand only what pertains to Now, no C hristia n heart wou ld reWhat is glory good for? How does the body, ignore all the true goods fuse to give ardent assent to employing

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY AND PROPERTY

Adoration of the Shepherds

a ll possible resources of diplomacy, including summit meetings, to a vo id war. But, it wou ld be to tally unacceptable, in procuring s uch a result, to have everyone dis rega rd the communis t d a nger and thus afford Moscow the occasio n to promote the easy a nd e ffi cient ideol ogica l diffu s ion o f its errors thro ug hout the g lobe. H o wever, this is the supreme temptation to which milli o ns o f souls ha ve becom e ex posed as a co nsequence o f li ving in a world wh ere the word "glory" has p racticall y los t its meaning . Th o ug h still found in d ictio naries , it is, so to speak , a dead word. And with its fa ll ing into di suse, many other relat ed words , s uch as honor, p restige a nd d ecorum , are also disappearing . In contrast with this world tha t has exaggerated to d elirium th e impor ta nce of everythi ng that leads to a comfo rtable, easy and safe materia l life, at C hri stmas O ur Lo rd gives us a mos t opportune twofold lesso n . Let us consider the Hol y Family fr om the standpoint o f social sta tus. A dynasty that had lost its throne and its wea lth has in Saint Joseph a n o ffspring living in povert y. The Most Hol y Virg in accepts th is situ a tio n in per fec t peace. In t his poverty b oth endeavor to maintain a n o rderly and mo des t existence , yet their min ds are no t fi lled wirh pla ns o f econo mic ascension, of comfort and pleas ures, but with the thou gh t o f G od O ur Lo rd. The first dwelling the Ho ly Fa m il y offers its Son is a cave, a nd His crib is a ma nger. But the Son is the Word Incarn ate Himself, at whose birth the night becomes resplendent, the Heavens o pen and t he a ngels sing, a nd to Who m come , fr o m th e fa r corners o f the ea rth, Kin gs full of wisdo m to o ffe r go ld, incense a nd m yrrh. H ow much poverty, a nd yet wha t glory! It is true g lory because it is not 2

His " ra ting" amo ng th e pharisaic and merely uti lit a ria n men o f J erusa lem, who a ppra ise o thers according to their riches, bu t is rather the refl ecti o n of the o nly tru e glory: th a t o f God in the hig hest o f the Heave ns. It is commo nly sa id th at the pove rt y o f th e Ho ly Fa mily in Bethle hem teaches us d etachment from earth ly goods . This is tru e a th o usand t imes over. It is fi tting to a dd, however, tha t C hristmas cont a ins a high a nd clear teaching 0 11 the va lue o f the hea ven ly things, as well as o n the va lue of the mo ra l bene fit s whi ch are an earth_l y fig ure of th e form er. In this regard , there might be some con fusio n to clear up. God crea ted the wo rld for His extrins ic glo ry. For this reason, all irrati o na l creatures are entirely directed towa rds th e glo rificatio n o f Go d. A nd ma n, who is e ndowed with int ell igence a nd free wi ll, has th e o bligatio n to apply the fa culties o f hi s soul a nd of his who le being to the same end. His last end is no t to live a n enjoyable, bo untiful a nd ca refree li fe, but rather to give glory to God. No w, ma n achieves this by a lways a imin g h is int eri o r and exterior acts towa rd s the recogniti o n and proclamatio n o f the Creator's infinite perfectio ns a nd sovereign power. C reated to the image and li keness o f God , ma n gives Him glory in s tri ving to im ita te Him to the exte nt his na tu re as a m ere creature a ll ows . And , as th e likeness o f Go d increases in us throug h the exercise of His love, we a lso become pa r ta kers of His g lory . This expla ins the immense respect that the saints inspired , even in those wh o hated and persecu ted them. Saint Anna M a ria Taigi , a simple cook , im pressed the pa ssersb y with her respectabi lity a s she walked through the streets

of Ro m e. Our Lad y s hows H erself s upremely maternal, kind and condescending in a ll H er appa riti o ns, but a t the sam e time indescribab ly .dig nified, res pectable a nd rad ia nt with regal m ajesty. Bu t wha t can we say of Our Lord , Who is the source of a ll sa nctity? He was so condescending th at H e even was hed the feet o f th e Apostles! Yet H e was so infinitely m ajestic tha t with a s ingle wo rd He prostrated the soldiers who had co me to arrest Him (cf. John 18 :6). Now, J es us C h rist is o ur model. So a lso are the saints , who imitated Hirn so perfectly. Thus , every true C at holic mu st stri ve fo r g reat respecta bility , seriousness and firmness. He must strive

CONTENTS RELIGIO N Feast of Glory and P e.i, P ages 1/ 3

Original, Practical and Fruitful Pedagogy Pages 10-1 1 GENERAL NEWS Pages 4, 5 , 6-7, 13 , 15 AMBI ENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS P ages 8-9 INTERNATIONAL Page 12 NEWS FLASHES Page 14 TFP SPECIAL REPORT Nicaragua-Show-Biz and Threatening Reality P age 16

for the elevation of soul that distinguishes him from the vulgar, the sordid and the extravagant that are inherent in all that falls under the dominion of Satan. This does not refer only to the splendor thatÂˇ stems from the practice of virtue. All power comes from God (cf. Rom. 13: 1), whether it be that of kings and rulers, or that of nobles, parents, employers and teachers. Whoever holds a position of authority is, as it were, an image of God to those in his charge. All

dropping to the level of those below in order to attract their love? One of the most grievous errors of our times is the idea that respect and love are mutually excluding, and that the less respected a king, a father or a teacher is, the more he is loved. Now, the truth is precisely the opposite. As long as great respectability is imbued with true love of God, it can only attract the esteem and confidence of upright men; and when this dors not happen, it is not because respectability is great, but because it

The Flight Into Egypt

The Visitation

power has a n intrinsic dignity which is a reflection o f divine majesty. He who plays a relevant role in Christian society must respect himself because of his sta tion. He should instill this respect in those wi th whom he deals. ln doing so, C hristian temporal society shines with the glory of God and hails it in its own way. So also does the spiritua l society - the Holy Roman Catholic a nd Apostolic Church - with its ineffable praise. Man's life on earth is a prefigure o f the canticle of glory tha t he shall into ne in Heaven for all eternity. Bu t, some may wonder whether this love of one' s own glory is not pride. One ca n easily see that this is not so, provided tha t this matter is considered in its true light. There is pride in him who loves his own glory, but no t that of God. There is pride in him who does not love his own glory as a reflection of the glory o f God, bu t loves it because it is a means of being honored , of exercising his dominion over others a nd o f steering the course of events according to his own will. However, a man shows grandeur of soul a nd true humility when he wishes to be respected by his neighbor with the sole inten t t hat God be glorified. And what a bout kindness? Does it not consist in " democratizing" ourselves and

is not founded on the love of God. The solution is not to lower things but to consider them in the supernatural order. Dignity that is truly of the supernatural order reaches down without debasing itself. A selfish and vain dignity neither wants nor knows how to condescend while maintaining its integrity. When it feels strong, it puts others down; when it feels weak, it debases itself out of fear. Let us imagine, then, a temporal society permeated with this high, majestic and

sound nobility, which is a reflection of the sublimity of God. What tenderness, what sweetness, in a word, what order there would be in a society in which such nobility of soul was indissolubly linked to immense kindness, so th!!t compassion and kindness would grow in the measure that strength and majesty grew! Yes, what order and what peace! For, what is peace if not the tranquility of order (cf. Saint Augustine; XIX De Civ. Dei, chap. 13)? Stagnation in error and evil, concord

Presentation In the Temple

with the soldiers of Satan and the apparent conciliation between light and darkness only bring u1sorder and generate a tra nquility that is a caricature of true peace, precisely because they grant evil the right of citizenship. True peace only exists among men of good will, who seek the glory of God with all their hearts . And for this reason, the C hristn11~ message links the two: " Glory to God the highest, a nd on earth peace to mc1, of good will" (Luke 2:14). by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira * Published in five languages:

1$6501

English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the M iddle Ages has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism and even more radical forms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP â&#x20AC;˘ P. 0. Box 121 â&#x20AC;˘ Pleasantville, NY 10570 3

The NEA vs. We, the People OLLOWING the alarming Nation At Risk report, exposing the grave shortcomings of the American education sys1·em, the public has become clearly aware of the education problem and is looking for solutions. Several states have al ready fo llowed the report 's recommendat ions by institut ing longer days, student testing a nd increased emphasis on basic subjects. According to Chris Pipho of the Education Commission of the States, which monitors edu cation legisla tion, at least fort y states have increased the number of academic courses required for a high school diploma. Thirty-two have changed curriculum standards or adopted new procedures for choosing textbooks (The New York Times , 9/ 9/84). Many states have passed laws insisting that teachers r:iss competency tests. Other proposals ~ ·qgest merit pay for excellence in teachin!; Reformers are also moving toward requiring that wou ld-be teachers be tested for basic skills. The first such testing in Texas shows prospective teachers lacking ski lls in reading, writing and mathematics . Some 47 percent of the 2,687 prospective teachers taking the test failed. According to a new state law, only those that pass th e test will be a llowed to become Texas teachers. With so much atten tion focused on education, the f'loodgates of reform have

edition of the knowledgeable Washington newslener Family Protection Report, the teachers' lobbying group has proposed a liberal and rad ical agenda far beyond the three "R's" and occasionally at odds with the new reforms. For example, among the political resolutions of the NEA can be found sensitive issues that clash with the American mainstream. A resolu tion on abortion "supports the right of reproductive freedom for all women and urges all branches of governmen t to give high priority to making available all methods of famil y planning to men and women

methods to be used to influence national policy to achieve peace." Another resolution "condemns the government of El Salvador for its role in the assassinations and other acts of violence and injustice against the people of El Salvador." The Marxist terrorists plaguing the count ry are conveniently left out. In the field of education, the organization opposes any effort to compete with public education. Performance contracting, tax credits for private or parochial schools and voucher plans are labeled as "detrimental to public educati on. " Equally detrimental are the laws that restrict the selection of instructional materials - except, of course, those materials tainted with religious doctrine, such as creation science, wh ich the associati on feels is a violat ion of s1Udent and teacher rights. NEA's freedom to select educational material often corres ponds to its liberal platform . Some of this material shows an almost pa ranoic fear of Christian moralit y as if Christian moral teac hings were inherently detrimental to students and in violation of the separati on of church and state. One of the publications designed for teachers' use in the classroom and dis tributed by the NEA's professional library in New Haven, Conn., is titled Homophobia and Education: Ho 1v to

Going b ack to school : new emphasis on student testing and teacher competency

been th rown open with literally hundreds of new laws being proposed that ai m for excellence in education. Wh ile education officials and reformers are slowly clearing the rubb le left from years of liberal progressive education , some of the policies of the National Education Association (NEA). th e nation's largest teacher organization, appear to ignore th e uproar surrounding the education iss ue. According to a pre-publication copy of the Resolutions of the National Education Association of the United States, /984, published in the August 4

unable to take adva ntage of private facil it ies." The associatio n also calls for a freeze o n "the tes tin g, development, production, upgrading, emplacement and deployment of nuclear weapons." To get this message into the classroom. the NEA recommends that its affiliates "work with other organizations 10 develop age-a ppropriate materials a t all levels for use in school classrooms. These materials should show the effects of nuclea r weapons and demonstrate stra tegies for disarmament and appropriate

According to a recent John Lofton column , the publication con tains a "!'act sheet" that says it is a myth th at homoscxualit v is unnatural. · An editorial contained in the classroom packet insists that it is the responsibility of normal heterosexual teachers to help their homosexual colleagues by working to counteract "hererosexism" in the schools. Homosexual it y is called "a difference, like left-handed ness." A person identified as a Howard Universit y theologian is quoted as saying: "Our condition is as honorable as it Deaf With Na111ernffi11g.

is to be black or white, or a woman or a man. '' AIDS notwithstanding, the editor of Ms. magazine claims: " Homosexuality is neither uncommon, abnormal nor harmful to its practitioners or a nyone else." To counteract the offensive stereotyping of homosexuals in children's literature, it is suggested that "with ingenuity and awareness . . . teachers can use books at both elementary and high school levels to ... validate the same-sex preferences" (NFD Journal, July/ August 1984).

Food for Thought

AT ING habits have changed dramatically over the last few decades. Doctors and food marketing companies a re finding that many Americans no longer eat the traditi onal th ree square meals a day, but rather nourish themselves on impulse. The phenomenon is especia lly prevalent among young a dults who grew up on a fast food diet. The practice of impulsive eating has become so widespread that the food industry has even adopted a name for the misguided munchers: grazers. Analysts believe that the so-called grazers are largely si ngle people, sma ller households and two-income families. Most a re individuals who do not have ti me to cook a forma l meal. Industry specia lists a re finding that th e grazers, a lthough far from completely de fin ed, usually never eat th ree fu ll meals, but rather resort to snacks when they are hungry. Many a re weight co nscious but often do not make any con nect ion between their intermittent munching a nd calorie consumption. A recent paper prese nt ed by an execut ive of Uncle Ben's Inc. described the typical grazer. "Each individua l in the household goes th rough the kitchen at mealtime and grazes through the refrigerator a nd th e cabinets, pulling together va rious foods to make a meal. They 'll use whatever's on hand, spontaneous combinations, unusual combinations, but they want good food , not junk food"(The Wall Street Journal, 4/6/84). In the hustle and bustle of today's world, what is important to them is that the food be good , healthful and ... now. Food industry specialists have taken advantage of this trend and grazer items are flou rishing. In this hard-to-determine mark et based on impulse rather than reflection, high quality and out-of-theordinary items t ha t can be prepared quickly, if not instant ly, are selling well. Teenagers tend to follow the example of their elders. I n a recent su rvey of 681 Californians between th e ages of 12 and 19, researchers at the Citizens P o licy Center in Oakland , Calif., found that the teens eat 52 percent of their meals away from home-usually in a fast-food res-

Education: back to basics

taurant, snack bar or school cafeteria; 22 percent never eat breakfast, while 12 percent never eat a meal with their families. "It used to be that the family ate wlien the food was ready. Now you have people eating when they' re ready," said Leo Shapiro, a Chicago consultant considered by many as the first to describe the grazing society (The Wall Street Journal, 4/ 6/ 84).

A Poor Harvest... Again T a lmost isn't news a nymore when Imakes the U.S. Agriculture Department its a nnual a nnou ncement that the Soviets have suffered another grai n harvest failure . This year, the official blame has gone to hot dry weather in some areas and unusually heavy rain in others - a weather pattern that hardly differs from that of the American Midwest or the Canadia n prairies situated in the same cold northern latit udes . Even in the Soviet newspapers, some of the real problems facing their agriculture have been fil teri ng through. Bad weat her notwithstanding, compla ints o f poor equipment maintenance, inefficiency and poor management have been reported . Most Western ex perts see such problems as more or less normal. According to one of them, the weather either exaggerates these bu ilt-in problems or over-

American grain for Ru ssia

Lofton was told by Gordon Felton, manager of the NEA publishing division, that the publication, Homophobia and Education is "suitable" for teachers and students a nd that it is not incompatible with any NEA position on homosexuality. Education is more than just learning to read and write. I t also involves the moral formation of a person. The radical agenda proposed by the NEA and promoted by publications like Homophobia and Education suggests that the other side of education, the teaching of virtue, hones ty and morals, is sadly being neglected .

comes them when there is a really good year, such as 1978 when t he Soviets recorded a 235-million-ton harvest (The New York Times, 8/28/84). Whatever and whoever is to blame, the fact remains tha t the Soviets are facing their sixth crop disaster in a row. Soviet planners had optimistically set a utopian target of 240 milli on tons. American observers believe that the 1984 grain ha rvest wi ll be a mere 170 million tons, the worst figure since the 160 million tons brought in three years ago (Newsweek, 10/29/ 84). It is estima ted that this will mean the Soviets will have to import some 50 million tons of wheat, corn a nd barley (the highest figure ever) from the West, which is o nly too willing to increase its profits and provide the means of victory to its enemies . Unli ke other countries where a crop failure is really a disaster, the Soviet Union has a n insurance policy which seldom fails. W hen the time comes to a nnounce its a nnua l shortages, Western compa nies are ready '" sell at bargain prices. W ith the lifti ng of the embargo imposed in response to the brutal invasion of Afghanista n , it is business-as-usua l fo r American grain merchants. The U.S. government has already waived the 12million-ton limi t for 1984-85, expan ding it to a possible 22 million tons . Thi 14 .3 million tons of grain are bu11g exported to the totali tarian regim e. Arrangements are being made to o btain a similar waiver in a nticipa tion of next year's shortages. Of course, the yearly crop failures are seldom bla med on the inefficient a nd anti-natural communist system. Few recall that Soviet-annexed Ukraine was once known as Europe's breadbasket. T he non-nuclear "grain weapon" is ra rely seen as a bargaining chip by Wes tern pacifists. The undeniable link between free e nterprise a nd successful agriculture is only too obvious. The West is faced with a grain glut. Nearly 90 percent of 198 1 's grain exports, for example, came from industrialized countries where farmers are given incentives to prod uce. Despite a ll the talk of hunger and population explosion, incentives and better farming techniques have now put India, Mexico and Saudi Arabia in the league of grain exporting nations . 5

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DEADLY ETHICS T was once thought that euthanasia and the killing of the helpless were practices of an uncivilized society. Western eth ics, in general, hold that death s hould be natural and not induced. The cr iteria used fo r treatment is the presence of li fe in the patient. Huma n life is to be nourished and respected wi th out di scriminat ion. Over the past decade, this outlook has changed. W ith the sa me gradual strategy that led to the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision that "legalized" abortion , many med ical ethicists and professionals have been ca lling for the officia l imposition of euthanasia upon the o ld, handicapped and comatose. In many cases this is a lready happening. The most radical advocates of euthanasia have proposed even more drastic meas ures . In his book, The M ercy Killers, Dr. Paul Marx notes several shocking exa mples . England's Nobel P rize-w inning biolog ist, Dr. Francis Crick, has advocated compulsory death for all at age 80 as part of a "new ethical system based on modern science." Dr. William Gayli n of Columbia University s tated : " It used to be easy to know what we wa nted for our children , a nd now the best for our children might mea n deciding which ones to kill. We 've a lways wanted the best for o ur grandparent s and now that mig ht mean killing them." Dr. Franz Engelfinger has sugges ted ex perimentation on children and mental incom petents .

not change with the health of a person. Since a ll persons (including the unborn) have the right to life and dignity , it is forbidden to act in a way which could directly cause death. Medical personnel are required to use all medicines, treatments a nd operations which offer a reasonable hope of benefit without excessive pain or inconvenience. Though futile medical practices and difficul t extraordina ry means are not requ ired by medical eth ics, active and passive lethal acts are absolu tely fo rbidden.

This condemnation of euthanasia is backed up by medical ethicists, lawyers and Church moralists. Euthanasia, like abortion, has a lways been considered murder. According to David Horan, a contributing editor of the book Death, Dying and Euthanasia, "Every civilized legal system considers eutha nasia a crime ... Any unjustified killing is regarded as murder, no matter how kind ly the mo tive."

Immo ral Morality Emerging For the handicapped, the new ethics beckon a somber future

The new mora li ty emerging in patient care and treatment radically differs from the traditiona l respect for the essential goodness of human life at a ll its stages. The so-called quality-of-life mo rality claims human li fe is only g, ' ,· hen useful, a position similar to i of Colorado Governor Richard La mm,

Tradit ional Approach According to the traditiona l approach to the problem of caring for the a ging and terminall y ill , huma n dignity does

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who declared that the old "have the duty to die," in order to make way for the young. "Life is seen as only an instrument which is good as long as it is useful," writes Joseph Piccione in his monograph Last Rights: Treatment and Care Issues in Medical Ethics (1984). "Human acts are not judged by objective standards or on the means employed but on the results of the act and its success. When human health is irretrievably lost, the new morality would see the patient as worthless, because functional ability is no longer present. On this basis, the individual would be adjudged to have lost 'personhood ' and is as good as dead."

Today's counsellng: a "duty to die"?

Confusing Terminology

The blurring of the meaning of vital terminology has played an important role in the transformation of mentalities. Just like the abortion sophism that claims that an unborn child is not a person, so also the euthanasists have introduced a series of terms to accustom the public to accept with normality a position that once was looked upon with horror. Medical ethicists of the new school reduce personhood to mere functionability. Attitudes like.that of Dr. Joseph Fletcher are indicative of this attitude. In 1974, the former Episcopalian minister wrote that "any individual of the species homo sapiens who falls below the IQ 40-mark in a standard Stanford-Dinet

moralists employ the negative term "prolongation of life." Other phrases currently used include "right to die," "mercy killing" and "death with dignity." Although they can be interpreted to support the traditional approach to death, they are also vague enough to support the quality-of-life morality and prepare the way for its universal implementation. Similar confusion surrounds such medical concepts as the definition of death and the use of extraordinary means.

Is life good only when useful?

test, amplified if you like by other tests, is questionably a person; below the 20mark, not a person." Included in this classification are those with Down's syndrome. According to Fletcher, "true guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down's is not a person" (Life and Death with Liberty and Justice , Germain Griesez and Joseph M. Boyle, Jr., 1979). A number of other terms are now being employed. Instead of the medical imperative of "sustaining life," the new

with acuteÂˇillnesses may have their lives terminated by denying resuscitation and ordinary care. One such fatal case seems to be that of Eugene Seiffert. A federal citation was issued against the Methodist Hospital of St. Louis Park, in Minneapolis. The 41-year-old Seiffert suffered from Gardner's syndrome; yet, on March 4, 1981, he died of sepsis, a bacterial blood infection. Evidence points to the fact that Seiffert would not have died had he not been placed in the "no-code" designation. Worst of all, proper treatment and antibiotics were withheld without his knowledge or consent. Despite his professed desire to live, some family members agreed with the designation. Others were not informed and are now finding it difficult to prosecute those who terminated Seiffert's life. The "Baby Doe" case of Bloomingdale, Indiana, is another example. Rather than perform a common and simple surgery on the child's disconnected esophagus, the parents elected to allo\1 the infant to starve to death. The reason, or perhaps the baby's crime: the infant had Down's syndrome. The Los Angeles Police Department described as "mercy killings" the stabbing deaths of a 52-year-old paraplegic wife and an 85-year-old invalid motherin-law by a man who claimed that the situation was "too much for him" (Newsday, 8/10/84).

Today's Death Committees

Quality-of-life measures a re already being implemented in many health institutions. One of these is the growing practice of "no-coding," that is, labeling a patient without his knowledge or informed consent and subsequently withholding ordinarily expected measures of care necessary to sustain life . According to this classification , patients with chronic or serious illnesses or even elderly patients

Return to Barbarism

It was with the establishment of Christian Civilization that the various barbaric peoples gradually abandoned the savage practices of slavery, infanticide, euthanasia and cannibalism. Today, the abandonment o f Chri stia n morals by "enlightened" and "progressive" sectors of public opinion is leading the neo-pagan West to revert to its barbarian roots . 7

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS

Q UR present subject is a complex one. It deals with catechetical illustrations in three different stages, each with increasing distortions that grew out of the previous stage. The opera era exerted its sentimental i1i/luence upon the .first. The cinema era imprinted its worst marks on the comic book style which inspired the second. The third is a scandal in the .fullest sense of the word. It has all the symptoms of modern defects and the degeneration of art. Interesting as it would be to describe and analyze in depth the co11nection between these three distortions, the nature of this column does not permit it. We shall thus be content with a fe1\' remarks. Obviously, many f!.OOd things have been done in the field of catechesis since 1930 - that we are far .fi-0,11 denying . In this article, \Ve 1vould simply like to alert our readers to those deviations that , from our essentiallv catechetical standpoint, are especially dangerous.

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[ v the .first picture, taken from a Sacred Histo,y of 1930, Jesus changes 1Vater into wine at the 11·edcli11g f east of Cana. No thing of the great schools of Christian urt is present in this watered r/01\'n version. Ma,y 1\llost Hofv has just obtained an immense grace, for Jesus anticipated His series of miracles b_v doing a prodigr at Her request. In this seuing, the artist has portrayed the Virgin IVith the s weet, cold. indolent expression of a china doll. Our Lord appears to be a so111ewhat languid, dreamy y outh tl'h O receives the bystanders' tokens of admiration with indif-

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THEATRICS, THE ROM1 IN THE TEACHI: ference. The theatrical emphasis of the Apostles is ludicrous . . The ambience is utterly impregnated IVith a certain sentilllentality . One can tell that the artist wanted to represent Our lord and His Most Holy Mother as 111odest and kind in spite of the greatness of the triumph, the Apostles as enthusiastically ed(fied, and the 1Vedding feast as crowded and lively. But inspiration is completely lacking. The picture is urt(ficial and lifeless. A n air of romanticism marks several of its aspects. Nevertheless, the intention was good. The artist did his best to convey a dignified, beaut((ul, pious idea of the Gospel scene. And, however real his .failure may be, it cannot be said that the result is grotesque or caricature-like.

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1954 Sacred History in cartoon

strips. The level has dropped .- .. r>1·e1-r respect, whether "artistic t' put the IVOrds in quotes becaus~, artisny is absent in both cases), graphic or psychological. H ere is a case of a romantic cine111atographical idea of the te111ptation of Our Lord in the desert, or be/fer, a comic book conception - a deplorable by-product of the H olly wood sty le. The position of the head; the wa:1dering, dreamy gaze impregnated with sentimental melancholy; a certain romantic type of chiaroscuro; all muster in this figure the traits of the hero of a second rate movie whose title

fingers. The shapeless body; the legs of unequal length; in short, everything characterizes a being which is fundamentally ill formed. The presence of a method in all that deformity is worthy of note. Essentially, the deformity consists in a kind of organic disease which deprived the body of the strength to grow and develop normally. It would be beuer called the rough sketch of a body, and a rough sketch badly done, than one well drawn. The insertion of the hand into the arm , the latter into the body, and the lack of elbows and knees, gives the impression of a stiff being of ridiculous 111ovemenrs.

TIC AND THE HIDEOUS OF CATECHISM could well be, "Beau Geste \\landers in the desert, longing .for his distant homeland. " After the hero's c~fflict ion co111e the happy ending and the girls. Having overco111e the temptation, Jesus is served by angels. But il'hat angels! Fe111ini11e faces and bodies; bare arms; onf}1 the wings are "angelic. " We pre.fer not to na111e the magazine from ll'hich these two sad ex amples were taken. We will only emphasize that they also were intended to instill in children a notion of the Gospel. Probably the scene \Vas sty lized in comic strips to please them. And as alivays happens with such conceptions, all that remains of the Gospel is the label. The rest is pure comics. In contrast with the previous scene. the drop is noticeable.

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one more drop. And what a drop! It is an illustration of the Offertory from the Missel de Frere Yves (Brother Ives' Missal}, for children from 7 to 12 years of age. The face is asy metrica/. Only the left eye was given an eyebrow; onfv the left side of the nose has a nostril; the beard grows only on the left side of rhe face, a beard that could well be called straggly, forming extravagant and ridiculous rings that grow up instead of down. The hair, droopin?, without grace or nobility, looks like three strands of wire. The arms could be called cylindrical rubes. The sm all palms of the hands are out of proportion with the long

All this is at rhe service - or disservice - of a wretched mind that s wres dementedly (there is no other word f or if), at the 11â&#x20AC;˘orld with the serenity and unconcern of one who is unable ro perceive his own deformity , or the contrast between ir and the composure, harmony and dignity of nature and the universe. The nails of rhe ll'rist, shaped like so111e coar buuons, wen conceived by a person who /J ,. the most f oolis h ideas of tlze mauer. Ideas so .foolis h, realfv, rhar while one foot is nailed, the other dangles lazifv in rlze air. Tlze wound in the side squirts out three s rrea111s of blood as a kindergarten child would draw them. The artist ser>ms to be as f oolish as his drawing. One feels inclined to title the picture. "Se((-portrait." And this would pe,fectfv ex plain the figure to rhe side - a f eminine version of lzis o wn personality .

The column of the " Consolata," in Turin, erected in honor of Our Lady; in set, Don Bosco in 1887, the year before his death

THIS article, translated from the monthly Catolicismo of the Brazilian TFP, is based on a biography of St. John Bosco written by Fr. A. Au/fray, S.D.B. Its purpose is to show some of the principal aspects of the saint 's educational sty le. UST as so me men are born poets o r J painters, Don Bosco was a born educator. He devo ted his body and soul to this work at the St. Francis de Sales Oratory, developing a most o rigina l and profoundly human style of education to suit the concrete circumstances he had to deal with. H e never wanted to systematize th is style, perhaps out of fear that reducing it to a theory mig ht destroy its spirit. H owever, at the end of hi s life he did condense the more important results

of hi s teaching experience into short a nd crystalline principles, but he always refused to lay out a concatenated theoretica l system. 1n 1886, two years before his death , he received persistent requests from the rec tor of the Major Seminary of Montpellier as to wha t the sec ret of his teaching style was. Don Bosco answered the first lett er sayi ng: " I get everyt hing I wa nt from my boys thanks to the fear of God instilled in their hearts." This answer did not satisfy the rector , and he insisted: "But fear of God is only the beginni ng of wisdom .. . I would like Your Reverence to give me the key to your system so I may adopt it for m y seminarians." "My system! My system! " the saint said whi le foldi ng up the letter. "But I don't know it myself! All I have done is to fo llow what God has inspired

The " good-night" corridor, where the saint talked w ith his boys before bedtime

me to do and what circumstances suggested . " Âˇ The biographer comments: " His life itself was his book, for he lived according to his teaching style after it had become ingrained in him through experience. That was precise ly the pedagogy he offered hi s disciples. Whenever his clergymen left for the houses to which they had been assigned, they would ask him for a ru le to follow, and he would answer: " Do as you saw Don Bosco do."

Soul to Soul, Personal Relationship St. John Bosco called hi s style "preventive" in contrast to the "repressive" o ne, which is rather to the taste 0f the Jansenists. Instead of presenting -: as an arid ideal which one can only p, .t-:tice under constant fear of pu nishment, Don Bosco preferred to inspire the bo)Âˇs with great confidence in him by watching over them closely with paternal solicitude. He recommended his clergymen to keep them from the start under such solicitous and paternal care that they would not have the chance to sin. Once they had o vercome the tria l of adolescence under this protection , they would be prepared to keep to the ways of God throughout their lives. Perhaps not a few a mong them wou ld even feel called to the priesthood and become part of the Salesian Society. The liberty enjoyed by the students of the Oratory in class and at recess was very great. Their talents and gifts a lways found ways to develop within the limits of morality and good sense. Of course, one could not imagine a liberal Don Bosco, contrary in principle

to any form of coercion like some socalled pedagogic schools of this sad epoch. In Don Bosco's establishment one studied, and studied seriously. Indispensable punishment was never dispensed with, but it was not permitted to play a predominant role in education: it had to be employed as a necessarily exceptional expedient. In this way the saint established a personal, soul to soul relationship with each of his pupils, and it was in this relationship that they found strength to overcome the temptations of their decisive age. The Admirable Fruits of this Style

Fae:~ proved the success of his style. Its fruits surpassed all expectations. According to Fr. Auffray, the St. Francis de Sales Oratory sheltered dozens of boys, whose virtue Don Bosco said was equal to that of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. "I assure you that some of our boys will rise to the glory of the altars,'' confided the saint to some Salesians one evenin g in 1872. In fact, two already have: St. Dominic Savio, who died in 1857 before his fifteenth birthday and was canonized in 1954; and Blessed Michael Rua, St. John Bosco's first successor. And it is to be expected that, according to the Founder's prediction, still others will be canonized. Numerically, the results were also good. "Our style is effecti ve 9007o of the time," Don Bosco affi rmed. " And as for the other 10 boys in whom it see ms not to have worked at a ll, it produces at least a modest but real effect: it makes them less dangerous." The text quoted belov, gives an even more vivid idea of the foregoing. It

"Doubtless, not all the rules of civilis a charming account of the soul to soul relationship that the boys had with ity were observed in this impetuous the venerable founder of the Salesian manifestation of their hearts; but none of those boys was lacking in affectionOratory. "In the first days of the Oratory, every ate respect for Don Bosco. When he evening after supper one could observe indicated that he was going to speak, a truly moving scene in the room where all the noise would immediately cease Don Bosco and his assistants ate their and, amidst the general silence, the modest meal. Since he usually arrived good Father would tell a beautiful story, late, Don Bosco left a little after the call to mind an interesting historical others. The boys were aware of this and episode, propose a quiz, or ask quespressed together forming two groups, tions, and they would listen to his voice in enchantment until the one on each side of the bell for bedtime prayers door. As the Superiors rang and obliged them walked through the door, to take their leave in rethe boys waited for the gret." smallest opening to rush "This," the Salesian into the dining room. The biographer concludes, "is lively lads would fill the how the saints teach." room and assume the An excessively formal most varied positions that person may be puzzled would allow them to enby such a scene, and joy the presence of their wonder what became of Father. discipline, "It goes without saying Fr. Auffray himself ofthat the first ones to enter crowded around him so Mamma Margaret, St. John fers an answer: "One night, right after vacaclosely that their heads Bosco's mother, at 67 tion, it was impossible almost touched his shoulders. Some stood right behind him, to keep the boys silent for Don Bosco resting their elbows on the back of his to speak after the prayers. Without chair. A good number of them auda- becoming upset, the saint waited a minciously leaped upon the tables and planted ute, and then another. .. but the chatthemselves there in triumph. Some sat ter continued. So he said a few simple with legs crossed, others knelt, and still words to them: "I am not pleased with others stood. Meanwhile, some of them you! Go to bed. Tonight I shall tell climbed upon chairs they had placed next you nothing." From that time on, it even to the walls. Those who arrived last filled became unnecessary to ring the little in the gaps between the tables and bell that helped to catch the audicrn.:e's chairs. One might think it impossible to attention !'' Don Bosco was thus admirably able get any closer to the gentle master. Not so! The little ones wiggled their way to immediately restore order without under his table, and their little heads sud- crushing his liste~ natural vivadenly popped out of the darkness right ciousness. As the Salesian said, "This is how the next to Don Bosco, who could not help but smile at this bold apparit ion . " saints teach.''

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Don Bosco among his boys. Confession, a powerful means of education. The first monument to Don Bosco, erected in his home town

A Breach of Human Rights by the Chilean Human Rights Commission against the penetration of socialist and - reprisals for signing the declaration THE bias sometimes shown in state- communist ideas into the Church - a in question. If there was intimidation, it ments by organizations claiming to be penetration that Archbishop Piiiera, was precisely the other way around. (The guardians of human rights is deplored by President of the Chilean Bishops Con- leftist clergy pressured them not to sign.) Who can believe that "complaining" ference, acknowledged and considered people in a number of countries. good (cf. La Tercero, 2/14/83). Does the in an elevated and respectful way is a The regret they express is heightened by the fact that this bias especially fa- Commission consider it illicit to warn breach of human rights? Furthermore, vors leftist personalities, currents of against the subversive activities of priests the declaration of the mothers of Puand religious, against porno-revolutionary dahuel was simply a filial request to their opinion and governments. The Chilean Human Rights Commis- publications sponsored by organizations bishop. Concerned about the subversive sion's last report for 1983 is a typical ex- of the Archdiocese of Santiago, and so connotation of the religion classes and ample of this. In response, the Chilean on? (cf. Reverent and Filial Message to the changes they noted in the minds of Society for the Defense of Tradition, Archbishop Juan Francisco Fresno in El their innocent children, who were causing divisions in their families, these Family and Property (TFP) published a Mercurio, 12/8/83). mothers approached their archbishop to If this were the case, the Commission communique at home and abroad. In this country it was placed in The ought to change its name from Chilean ask him to take measures that would Human Rights Commission to Commis- remedy the evil, or, if they were in erWashington Post. Below we provide our readers with an · sion to Abolish the Right to Oppose ror, for "an explanation that would abridged version that will certainly be of Socialism, Communism and Immorality. enable them to understand." Isn't such Further on, the report points out what a request a sacred human right of every interest to all. it sees as another "violation" of human mother? Who would dare deny mothers rights: "A public declaration by 300 the right to make sure that their children HE Chilean Human Rights Com- Catholic mothers from poor neighbor- are being properly educated and to mission (CHRC) is an organization hoods who complained about the teach- manifest their concerns to their pastors? If the Commission believes that the founded in 1978 to publicly denounce ings of priests from Pudahuel'' (a large suburb of Santiago where the internamothers of Pudahuel committed a crime, violations of the fundamental guarantees established in the Universal Declaration tional airport is located). "The Vicar of and that the crime was aggravated by the of Human Rights and in the interna- the Western Zone of the Archdiocese" assistance that the TFP is proud to have tional agreements that complement that - Msgr. D' Argouges - "said that this given them, then the Commission conwas a campaign organized by the Socie- siders that there are organizations and declaration. Its leading members include university for the Defense of Tradition, Family currents of thought that ought to be ty professors, former diplomats, former and Property (Fiducia) in a maneuver to completely silenced, wiped out and forcabinet members, writers, lawyers, doc- divide Christians, and by means of in- bidden any participation in national aftimidating the poor people of the area fairs. For communism, however, the tors, etc. A group of about thirty members with the fear of 'losing their jobs in same Commission demands all kinds of issues reports that are circulated by a the Minimum Employment Program guarantees and complete liberty. Whom, then, does the Chilean Human Rights broad and well financed network of (PEM)' " (page 60). Once again, an unfounded accusation. Commission want to proscribe, and related organizations spread throughout The alleged intimidation is purely and whom does it want to free? the world. These unproven accusations made by In its last report for 1983, the Chilean simply a calumny. The poor people of the area were indeed afraid of reprisals the Chilean Human Rights Commission Human Rights Commission, notwithstanding all of its titles and credentials, denounces some human rights "violaA BREACH OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY THE ~f tions" that will make Chileans laugh, even many of those who do not agree CHILEAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION i• ,,.,,,..,,.,, cMi"'•"I ,,, ~ rw· :-;~~~;::"'J~',.~~'~.!r 1:.:~~;: ~;',~~ d•• with the TFP. d'°'1",::::./,:;:;.r;r.:;~::,~7:;1,:;,~;;:,::,::::,:;.•;:;;:~, ,~,..,,~ft ~~~!•:,~=lh~~•~~•,;•:..: h-.1:.;J~. '!'::t~l•~r t!c'::::.~:: In the subheading "320 - Church" the following violation is pointed out: "demonstrations against the bishops with n. of Famd:r • • Pro~n, c.-i1nn the participation of Fiducia members" T"F <••::,~~:·'.......,..,<= ....................................... ~::!'~:.:·:= !:::~.~.:;:·".' :,:,;,::.,~~:~-:::'~:::.':'::-"""" ::~:i::,!:":;·':,::-~"~~1.;:;.~:.. (page 60). This is absolutely false. Everyone knows that these are not the methods of the TFP. Furthermore, the accusation itself is unsubstantiated. What weighty and serious consideration can be given to a charge so vague and generic that it fails even to specify what type of demonstrations it refers to, how many there were, when and where ;~~.;::::.:·:-:;.~, ~.:;~.:::. ::·::.: =.:;:;-;,•::.~·=:;,~~:'.: ~::·::~~;;~.-:.-~·.~. :::.:i:".::~. '::1:.·.'i::; ~:;;;~-:::,:~ ;.:.:~~:~'2.::r:~;~.:.;-:~::.:; they occurred, and against what bishops they were directed? (Not to mention that the allegation contains no proof whatsoever that the accused is indeed guilty.) l'IMN.....,_,._~(....... If the CHRC refers to declarations c ........ ......... ""Vt,,c,,,... , ..._..__...,•• c-.,_ Q~"•t•'ld,-..,..,~..:C....""""~.l~ .. .t.!h•••~• published by the TFP, we must remark ....,_,0..C,.-.,..~t"-ff'l1...,_J..,_.._ that even our opponents acknowledge that the observations the TFP makes are ~~-"--•-always serious, proper, respectful and in r·-.~·'·~·~ .......... - - - 11'1.,••~•-,,. accordance with human rights. Or does the Commission consider it illicit to warn Facsimile of the publication in The Washington Post

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constitute, in fact, violations of the human rights of the mothers of Pudahuel a nd of the TFP. Indeed, if there is any fundamental human right, it is that of being treated with justice. Now, justice demands that no one be condemned wit hout a prior hearing. We ask, therefore: What member of the TFP and which of the mothers of Pudahuel was heard by the Chilean H uman Rights Commission before it published these accusations? The above mentioned points are sufficient to raise grave doubts about the impartiality of the Chilean Human Rights Commission. Above all, the Commission has no right to interfere in religious matters as though it were some sort of a lay "Vatican" whose judgment is final. It should be noted that, in the cases mentioned here, religious freedom was not a t stake. Quite the contrary, the very existence of this request by the mothers of Pudahuel and the fact that the TFP was able to wri'e its Reverent and Filial Message to Archbishop Fresno evince re li gious freedom. It is rather in totalitarian o rganizati o ns - whether Nazi or communist - a nd not in the Ca tho lic Church, that subjects are prevented from making any statements. In the fina l analysis, what the C hilea n H uman Rights Commiss io n is judging is the ort hodoxy of the above mentioned declarations. And it decrees that those who combat progressivism, socia lism and communism in the realm of ideas, as well as those who wa nt to protect their children from the atheist ic and antiChristian doctrine of Marx ism, are guilty.

For now, their punishment is to be pu t on the list of vio lators of human rights, which is also distributed abroad. Whi le in Chile itself these ca lumnious accusatio ns are either ineffectual or even counter-productive, they can be harmfu l abroad. In other countries, people will be mis led by the expression "violatio ns of human rights" and imagine actions that deserve such a label. I f t he ideological cu rrent represented by the Ch ilean Human Rights Commission shou ld come to power some day, what sanctions will it impose on those who disagree with it or do not fit the mold of its peculiar orthodoxy? Consequent ly, the Chilean TFP denounces a t hom e an d abroad this setti ng up of the Chilean Human Rights Comm ission as a kind of Ho ly See that ponti ficates on doctrine and mora ls - a grotesque, lay and biased "Vatican," prone to impassioned verdicts, which turns traditional Catholic doctrine upside dow n b y exonerating Marxism and condemning anticom muni sm. Once more we emphasize: The question ra ised by the Annual Report of the Chilean Human Right s Commission is neither the case o f the mothers of Pudah uel no r of the positions of the TFP. \.\/hat is in question is the authenticity of the strugg le waged by the ChileaA Human Rights Commissio n . Is it really working for huma n rights? This question cou ld also be asked about other human rights organizations. Let the reader judge. Sant iago, October 7, 1984. Leaders of the Chilean Human Rights Commission: whose human rights?

Rock and Revolution ICARAGUAN radio stations, such as the pro-Sandinista Radio Revooften parrot revolutionary sloga ns between selections of the Rolling Stones or mix messages wit h M ichael J ackson . American rock music seems to be immune to the government' s fra n tic a nti American ism. Despite the incomprehensible English lyrics, American and British rock mus ic are popu lar th roughout Latin America, a nd in Marxist-Leninist Nicaragua young partisans of the revolution claim it has played a major role. "The revolution is the daughter of rock and roll," said Bayardo Arce, chief of political affairs for the Sandinistas. " I f we had not had the Beatles and E lvis when we were fighting in the mounta ins, the revolution might not have turned o ut the way it did" (Rocky Mountain News, 7/3 1/84). What other communist states have traditionally opposed as imperialist and decadent, the Sandinistas prefer to permit and even promote. " If Michael Jackson's music were not allowed, people would wonder about him and he would become a mystery. It's

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better that they know what he is a ll about," says Arce. In addition to Western rock and roll, the Nicaraguan governmen t promotes the creation of revolutionary music as part o f its effort to es tablis h a " new cu lture" in Mar xist Nicarag ua. "We are engaged in a rescue miss ion to rediscover our values and cult ural roots, " claims Hipolito Aguirre, chief of musica l affairs for the Ministry of C ul-

The C hil ea n Society for the Defense o f

Tradition, Family and Property (Tf'P) ture. Nicaraguan bands such as Grupo Libertad play rock and roll " but with stories of our r evolution." In one such song Grupo Libertad tells its listeners: "The world is cha nging. You have to change yourself." One o f Nicaragua's best-known performers is Luis E. Mejia. With his band, Mancotal, he sings of the " new cultu re'Âˇ Âˇ promised by the Sandinistas: "We a, , the new song of America, with a clenched fist and an organized voice, the su n defeating the storm. We are the center of America, we are the new dawn . "

Marx and rock: fam iliar bedfellows 13

N E W § FLASI8ICES • Building-up the Non-build-up The massive arms build-up supposedly taking place under the present Administration has been itself "built• up" by the press to make it appear that the United States is pursuing the policy of a warmonger. Amazingly, the defense outlays initiated by the Reagan Administration differ little from the budget proposals of Carter in 1980. Fo r example, the 1981 budget projection of the then-Democratic candidate was $161.1 billion. The actual 1981 defense budget for that year was $157.5 bi llion. For 1982, $184.4 billion was planned whi le $185.3 billion was actually spent. Since 1980, the amount spent on de• tense was $3.5 billion less than the total sug gested by Reagan's predecessor. The figures show that the average per• centage of the federal budget allocated to defense du ri ng th e Reagan years was 26.5 percent as opposed to the 24 percent spent during the Carter Administration - a "massive" 2.5 percent increase (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 4121184). Chavez and the Church Cesar Chavez, the leader of the labor union that orchestrated the nationwide table grape boycott from 1966 t o 1975, is urging a renewal of the effort. The president of the left ist United Farm Workers is striving for the passage of a new labor law in California. To insure the success of the boycott , Chavez is seeking the help of the Catholic Church, claiming that in the past "one of our principal groups of support was the Church ." "We are going to try again," the labor leader said (Texas Ca tholic, 7127/84). Torturous Path One more barbarous crime has been committ ed by Shining Path, Peru 's Maoist guerrilla group. According to police reports, about 50 terror ists took over the remote Andean town of Sanchabamba, 66 miles south of the state capital of Ayacucho and 300 miles southeast of Lima. The group shot to death 26 vil lagers including the wile of the district governor and 15 children between the ages of 10 and 12. Police report that the children's throats had also been slit. Observers believe that the cowardly act io n might have been taken because the villagers, inc luding the children , refused to join the movemen t. The terrorists have been known to " rec ru it" or rather kidnap pre-teens to swell their ranks . Around 4,000 police and troops are in the area lighting the Maoist guerri llas who idealize the genocidal revolution of Cambodia 's Khmer Rou ge and quite accurately consider themselves the true successors of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tse-Tung (Rocky Mountain News , 8114184). 14

Punishing Parents A Swedish lather was reported and l ined for the crime of spanking his 11 -year-old son. Under the provisions of a 1979 law that bans "physical punishments or other demeaning treatment " of children, a child may report any such incident. According to the complainant, his lather spanked him for breaking a house rule and taking a bicycle ride with his brother. He promptly marched to the police in Gallivare, an arctic mining town, and reported his lather, who was lined $12 (Newsday, 8115184). Haley's Comet

Crying Statue Shot At A statue of the Blessed Vi rgin that has reportedly cried five times since May 29 at St. John of God Church in Chicago was attacked by a gunman who shot it in the knee. The recently scu lptured statue, invoked w ith the t itle " Mystical Rose," was blessed in a shrine in Montich iari , I taly, and transported earlier this year to the Chicago c hurch. Father Raymond Jasinski and others said they were praying the Rosary nearby, fol lowing an afternoon Mass on May 29, when they saw tears in the statue' s eyes. It cried later that evening and on each of the next three days. On July 25, at around 10:30 a.m., 20 to 30 people were praying in the church when a laughing man walked into the main entrance. fired three shots and left (Rocky Mountain News, 7126184).

• Two scientists observing Haley's Comet have indicated that the visiting body speeding toward the Earth and the sun for a 1986 rendezvous may be irregular in shape, have a patchy surface and appear to be rotating. According to photographs taken through a Pink Hair 200-inch telescope at Palomar Obser• vatory of the California Institu t e of When a teenager from Marietta. Technology, the light reflected from the Georgia, went back to school with the comet varies regularly in intensity over latest in punk fashion, the ~rincipal a period of hours. Sci~ntists G. Edward ordered the 16-year-old sophomore to Danielson and David, Jewitt photo• change her exotic hairs tyl e - a dyed graphed the comet on January 7, when deep pink and black hairdo formed init was 800 million miles from the sun. to a Mohawk style. When the principal The pictures show the comet with a called Lory Marques into the office and reddish color when seen from afar, in- told her to go home and change it to dicating that it may have a snow-white something less "disruptive," Miss Marsurface. The massive comet is visible ques retorted that the order was a violafrom the Earth every 76 years and has tion of her rights. " It makes me feel a mass of one billion tons. When it good about myself and good as a perapproaches the sun it develops a tail son that I have pink hair,'' she said. several mill ion miles long (Rocky Moun- _Claiming th at her appearance was not tain News . 815184). bothersome to the teachers or slu· dents, Lory Marques asked for her transcript and swi tched to a school An Olympic Record that wo uld accept her (St. Louis PostAccording to a Ukrainian human Dispatch. 8125184). right s group, at least 59 Soviet athletes w ho took part in the 1980 Olympic Disorder in the Court Games, including 24 gold medal winners, have died - more than two and The International Court at Th e Ha a half times the rate among thei r U.S. like New York 's United Nations, is Sc. and German counterparts. The Ball i• posedly a forum where the grievancec more-based Smoloskyp Organization of the world community can be hea; d for the Defense of Human Righ ts in and reso lved in a civilized fashio n. Ukraine also revea led that the death Apparently, the world body that often rate for Soviet medalists over the most defends leftist causes is not exemp t recen t period studied (1976-82) has from its own problems in dispensing dramatically and inexplicably increas- justice. In one early September court ed by over 400 percent in comparison session dealing with claims arising with previous years, wh ile the increase from the Iran ian takeover of the Amer• in the U.S. rate has been only 9 percent. ican Embassy in Teheran in 1979. an IraThe organization received a list of dead nian judge threatened to kill a Swedish Soviet Olympians from Soviet athletes col league over a disagreement. During who claimed that the high death rate a preliminary session dealing with the was the resu lt of widespread drug use case , Judge Mahmoud M. Kashani and and physiolog ical experimentation in his countryman Judge Shaley Shalciei thei r country's government-run Olym- were said to have grabbed Swedish pic training and sports medicine pro• Judge Nils Mangard by the col lar, gram. " Th e Soviet Union is literally twisted his arm behind his back and sacrificing its Olympic athletes for the then beaten him up. When asked to sake of its own glory and in ternational apologize, the irate Iranian replied , " II prestige, " declared Smoloskyp spokes- Mangard ever dares to enter the tribuwoman , Mona Snylyk (America nal c hamber again, either his corpse or Weekly English Edition of Ukrainian my co rpse will leave it rolling down the Catholic Daily, 8120184). stairs" (The New York Times, 9/7184).

Human Sacrifice Today HE ritual murder of a Long Island youth this summer brought to light the pernicious partnership of Satanism wi rh crimes of horror. According to several law enforcement officials, the incidence of Satanistrelated crime is much higher than generally believed and is not limited to any one section of the country. For example, the shocking case of Richard Kasso of Northport, New York, who was accused of carrying out the ritual murder of Gary Lauwers, ste ms from a long history of drugs , devil worship and rock music. Authorities say that the 17-year-old Kasso was involved with the "Knights of the Black Circle," a grou p of perhaps 20 teenagers who a llegedly took drugs and tortured a nimals in satanic ritu a ls in a typical small American town. Despite later police reports that tried to ascribe the murder solely to the use of drug~. evidence has sur faced that suggests the strong influence of Satanism in the slaying. Kasso , who committed suicide after his arrest, was known to have composed songs about Satan a nd to have been involved in a grave robbing incident. Friends report that he believed so strongly in devil worship that he carried a pentagram meda llion - a five-pointed star supposedly used to su mmon the Devil. According to witnesses, the murder itself was committed with severa l references to Satan. Isolated cases of strange Satan-rela ted murders have appeared in other parts of the country as well. The most celebrated case is that o f self-professed mass killer Henry Lee Lucas, who says there are hundreds more like him who belong to a satanic cult known as "The Hands of Death." Lucas claims to have killed over 360 people over a nine-yea r period. According to Lucas, the c ul t kills by contract a nd perfor ms ritual crematio ns a nd crucifixio ns of ani mals and humans to promote "a reincarnation of the Devil."

Waiting for the next victim

Satan rewarding his servants: outburst of ritual murders takes a heavy toll

Lucas states that members exist a ll McCarthy a nd his partner Bill Wickerover the United States. Investigators say sham have worked with Denver police on his detailed descripti on of the ritual kill- a num ber o f bizarre cases involving ings has cleared up over 100 cases around juvenile Satanists. Some have ended trathe country. Police have not said whether gica lly in suicide or death. They claim they have uncovered any evidence to that the incidence of satanic involvement prove or refcte Lucas' Satan-link conten- among teenagers is on the rise, promoted ti on (The Victoria Advocate, 4/23 /84). by rock music a nd occult-oriented games However, the experiences of James such as "Dungeons and Dragons." The McCarthy, a former warlock in Boulder, two investigators have even established Colorado, seem to support the demon a libra ry on the subject in the Denver cult theory. Mr. McCarthy ma kes his liv- P olice Department. ing as a n expert in witchcra ft and cults. "Sata nism is psychopathic. It is never The num ber of calls he receives at Sanc- OK. It has no socially redeeming factu ary Inc., the non-profit company he tors," McCarthy warned (The Denver fo unded , has tripled over recent years. Post, 5/24/ 84) . McCarthy is a consultant to police The problem, largely hidden, is nadepartments, educators, clergy, menta l . tionwide in scope . .'. ~.::ording to Wayne health workers, fam ilies and teenagers. Yan Kampen , a minister a nd director of He teaches people how to recognize the pastoral care and education a t Bethesda signs o f satanic involvement and what Community Mental Health Center, teento do about it. agers are "without question" becoming He cla ims that Colorado ranks third more involved in satanic cults. behind New York a nd California in " I often hear about it through the satanic activity - a claim which is backed church grapevine. It seems to be a maby persona l ex perience and the number jor concern in the church com mu Âˇ Âˇ Âˇ '' of shops catering to the black arts. he said (The Denver Post, 5/ 24/c The growth of Satanism can be seen in the b risk sale of The Satanic Bible in mystic bookstores. Herma n Sla ter , owner of the Magicka l Childe Shop in New York C ity, reported: " It's the best seller in my store, probably over 100 copies a month . A lot of people who buy it aren 't necessarily into satanism. It's a classic they want for their libraries" (The New York Post, 7/ 10/ 84). T he book's author, Anton LaVey, is the fo under o f the Church of Satan in San Francisco. The "bible" provides practical advice in devil worsh ip and was reported to have been on sa le at a bookstore in Northport before the Kasso killing . Despite reports that devil worship as an organized religion is disappearing, the violent outburst of satanic-related crime reveals that black magic has not lost its spell among an undetermined number of people a ll across the coun try. 15

TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Show-Biz and Threatening Reality \

LTHOUGH the Sandinista government pretented to promote freedom by having electio ns on November 4, it canno t be denied that the current situa tio n in Nicaragua is deteriorating. There have been repo rts o f growing public discontent, aggravated by the loss o f personal freedo m. Neighborhood vigi la nce commiltees s py upon a nd deno unce cou nterrevolutionary neighbors. The d istributio n of ratio n cards is in the hands o f the Sandinista defense committees, who had been charged wi th getting ou t the voters on electio n day. At public schools, the day begins with the singing of the Sandinista a nthem. The press is censored: La Prensa, the only oppositio n newspa per still tolerated, must send photocopies o f its pages to the Interior Ministry's cens--,r before publica tion (The Economist, l u/27/84). Non-Sandini sta uni o ns a re persecuted : Alvin G uthrie, leader of the Confederaci6 n de U nidad Sindical, repo rted that whenever his union tries to register a new group with the Labor Ministry , inspectors a re sent to persuade the group to j oin the San din ista un io n (The Economis t , 10/ 27 /84). Nicaragua 's agricultural base has been devastated. The much-la uded la nd reform has trans formed productive private farms into impoverished Sovie t-style state fa rms . Over 3,458,000 acres have been confiscated - 82 pe rcent of wha t previo usly was in pri vate ha nds. Simila r reforms to confisca te urban properties a re in the work s. In the international sphere, A merican officia ls have often accused the Sandinista governme nt o f send ing arms to the Salvadoran g uerrillas. P residen telect Dan iel Ortega has denied these cha rges a nd unconvincingly declared he is read y to collaborate in a n interna tio na l effo rt to res train th e innux of weapo ns to the Salvado ra n guerrillas. In a recent report , the U.S. State Department affirmed tha t in less than fi ve years, the Sandinistas have developed the la rges t and best equipped army in Central A merica. T heir country has been transformed into a Cent ral American military power second only to C uba in the region. According to U.S. estima tes, Nicaragua, a nation the size of Wisconsin, possesses for its "self-defense" 150 tanks (at least I 00 Russian-made T-54s and T-55s); 200 o ther a rm ored vehicles; IO MI-8 helicopters a nd 6 AN-2 Ita lia nmade tra nsport aircra ft, p robably supp lied by Libya. T he a rmy has 40,000 troops, and by calling up the reserves can mobilize more than 100,000. In addition, 9,000 troops from Cuba and others from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Bulgari a, Czechoslovakia, Poland, H ungary and Lib ya act as Nicaragua's civi l and mi litary adv isors. A ll of this is made

Daniel Ortega with the late Brezhnev in Moscow; cartoon censored by the Sandinista government

possible by the generous s up port o f th e USS R as ev idenced by the recently publicized shipment of war materiel from the Soviets . After the trium ph of the revolutio n , most of the hierarchy enthusiastically applauded the Sandinistas as the realizatio n o f the te nets o f " Liberation Theology." In Novembe r 1979, the Nicaragua n Bishops Conference issued a Pastoral Letter that stated : " W e are certain that the revolutio nary process will be o rigina l, c reati ve, profoundly nationalistic and in no way an imitatio n of any o ther, for the majority o f the popula tion desires a process leading to a n authentically Nica ragua n society a nd no t a capita list , dependen t or totalitaria n o ne" (Jornal do Brasil, 7/ 12/84). T he "Ch ristian socia lism " utopia so much desired by the Nicaragua n ecclesiastica l hierarchy na tura ll y failed to materia lize. Instead, the Sandinistas consolidated ties with to ta li taria n Soviet Russia and Cuba. Despite the disappoint-

ing o utcome, a curious "theocracy " reigns. Recently, the Ma nagua n go vernment ex iled sixteen J esuits accused of opposing Sandinism . Meanwhile, o ther revolutio na ry priests hold hi-gh posts in the government: Fr. Miguel d 'Escoto, Minister o f Foreig n Relatio ns; Fr. Ernesto Cardena l, Minister o f Culture; Fr. Ferna ndo Cardena l, Minister of Education; Fr. Edgar Parra les, Ambassador to th e O rganization of A merican Sta tes; a nd F r. Javier Gorostiaga, Rector o f the Nicaraguan Institute o f Econo mic a nd Socia l Research. The authenticity o f the move towards freedom has been seriously questio ned o n the g rounds that it was merely a cosmetic o ne to impress Western public opinion. The Sandinistas claim to have caprured 68 percent o f t he votes in the elections, while the two opposit io n parties were far behind with 23 percent (The New York Times, 11 / 6/ 84). Political leaders had ex pressed , Âˇ, about the impa rt iality of the gover11 ,l and voiced their a nxiety over the fairness o f the voting process. Such fears were not unfounded. Soon a fter the announcement of the electio ns, Minister of the Interior Tomas Borge (acc used by American courts o f being involved in the cocaine mar ket) affirmed: "Whoever wins, there will be no drastic cha nges in the st ructure o f the State. The FSLN will continue to d irect the revolutio n . Wha t matters is no t the men, but the government 's program " (Falha de S. Paulo, 2/ 24/ 84). No wonder the " freedom" promised with the recent elections had a hollow ring.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMI LY AND PROPERTY P .O . Box 121 - PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. 10570

French president Franc,ois Mitterrand with his reshuffled cabinet. The pragmatists win a round against the socialist die-hards.

SOCIALISM IN DISARRAY T

HE Socialists' seizure of power t hro ughout the world, th is cry of alert myth a nd ideology that d ominated in France with the victory of Fran- denounced this new socialist ma neuver French intellectual life for nearly JOO <;ois Mitterrand in 1981 meant different that ai med a t bringing the wo rld to yea rs" (New York Times, 12/ 24/ 84). th ings to the various sectors of p ublic communism gradua lly. Many of France's leading o bservers, opinio n. T hree a nd a half yea rs la ter, no one Socialists included , are saying the To ma ny vo ters , the election mea nt doubts tha t the promises made openly sa me thing. a n ambiguous mela nge of jobs, equa li- by the Socia lists were no more tha n A la in Toura ine, a we ll-known ty and change. To the conservatives, idyllic dreams a nd crafty deceptions French sociologist, has gone so far as it mea nt a devasta ting defeat. a nd the French left has been plu nged to say tha t the most important event in H owever, to the euphoric Socialists, into a n ideological crisis unprecedented the period of socialist government in it mea nt an opportunity to execute a in its history. France has been the disintegration of meticulo usly devised progra m that According to John Vinocur, cor- socialist ideology. would affect every facet of French respondent of the Ne w York Times in Didier Motchane, a leading Socialist life, including industry, education and Paris, some of the Socialists themselves party theorist, believes that there is now socia l customs. acknowledge what he calls the " failure "a crisis in the left a nd the workers' Perceiving the radical goals of selfof a method, the abandonment o f a n mo vement of h istorical dimensions." managing socia lism spelled out in the economic theory and a crisis of the Andre Glucksmann, a political scienlittle-circulated " Protist who played a jet Socialiste," in 43 major role in the maj or newspa pers, Sorbonne revolution the TFPs p ublished o f 1968, sta tes that the six-page Message: the Socialists a re in"What Does Selfcapab le of reassertMa naging Socialism ing a single ideolog'( Mean for C ommu1..'-ical line. nism? A Barrier? Or ''The experience a Bridgehead? " by I . T he promise 2. T he doubt o f t he la st thr ee 3. The rea lity 4. T he deceptio n Pl inio C or r ea d e years," Glucksmann O li ve ira . Ec h o ing With the wilting of the rose (symbol of the French Socialist party) what is left? concludes, "means

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THE A ME RI CAN SOC I ET Y FOR TH E D EFENSE OF TRADIT I ON , FAM I LY AND PROPE RTY

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Newly elected French president Fran9ois Mitterrand is congratulated by supporters after his election in 1981. It seemed that the opportunity to carry out a program that would affect every facet of French life had come at last. Âˇ

that a certain view of fairness, an internal morality, a system of values that lasted a century is breaking down. The Socialists will leave power showing the emptiness of both their old a nd new ideas, and that, for want of something honorable to replace it, is catastrophic" (New York Times, 12/26/84). Retreat from Socialism

No one can argue that as far as policy is concerned, the Socialists have been following a course that has scandalized the more ardent leftists in their ranks. The promised establishment of a whole socialist culture has slowly been abandoned as the trend in all areasfrom defense to decentralization, from art to nationalization- has been to turn away from socialist doctrine in favor of a markedly centralist course. L e Monde columnist Pierre Drouin claims, "We know now that over three years, socialism 'a la fra n~aise' evolved from an ideology close to Marxism to very temperate neo-liberal practices" (New York Times, 12/24/84). From the administration's perspective, nothing seems to have gone right. Government nationalizations and economic policies have resulted in unemployment and successive devaluations of the franc. Efforts to abolish private education su bsidies and afford al1 Frenchmen a socialist education brought close to a million and a ha lf people into the streets in protest-the largest number in 50 years. Government efforts to muzzle a n increasingly aggressive press 2

have been discredited as a veiled attempt to censor opposition. The government has been forced to backtrack, espousing policies once considered anathema. Faced with questions like "What is left of the left?," the leading socialist economist Laurent Joffrin admitted: "What was socialist did not work, a nd what worked was not socialist" (New York Times, 12/24/84). Where Docs Socialism Go Now?

What has become increasingly clear is that the decline of self-managing socialism was not brought about by economic recession or govern mental scanda ls but by the discrediting o f socialist ideology. With in socialist ra nks, leaders are struggling to redefine socialism and keep order among those who want to make concessions to capitalism to save face

and those who want to introduce radical socialist reforms. Max Gallo, a former government spokesman, called the current period of the French left "its hardest hour, the time of realistic awakening." And a t a recent convention, the party's general secretary Lionel Jospin warned that if the current relationship between right and left does not change before 1986, the Socialists could face defeat (New York Times, 12/26/ 84).

CONTENTS INTERNATIONAi. Pages 1-2, 6, 10- 11 , 12-.

COMMENTARY The Fire Hose, a Wish, and Duty Page 3

TFP SPECIAL REPORT Better Red Than Dead? The American TFP Seeks Answers Pages 4-5

GENERAL NEWS Pages 7, 10-1 1, 13, 15, 16 AMBIENC ES, CUSTOMS, C IVI LI ZATIONS A Monument from a Ruin, an Institution from a C ustom Pages 8-9

The discrediting of the party's ideological base marked the end <?f the easy road

NEWS FLASHES Page 14

The Fire Hose, a Wish, and Duty COMMENTARY IVERSE circumstances have thus far prevented me from writing about the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the " Theology of Liberation," by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I am therefore taking advantage of the first opportunity to do so. Thus, it is with great pleasure that I fulfill a special duty that falls to me as a result of somet hing that must be remembered here. Ten yea rs ago, in 1974, the TFPs then in existence published a declaration on the Vatica n's "Ostpolitik" and Paul VI's policy towa rd communism, so different from tha t of his predecessor Pius XII. This declaration carefull y analyzed the subject and was significantly titled "The Vatican Policy of Detente Toward the Communist Governments-The Question for the TFP: To Take No Stand? Or to Resist? " It filled three qua rters of a page in the Falha de S. Paulo (4/ 10/74). Its tone was respectful yet, at the same time, very frank. I ts culminating point, which summarized the spirit in whic h it was written, said: "In this filial act, we say to the Shepherd of shepherds: Our soul is thine , o ur life is thine. Order us to do whatever you will. Only do not order us to fold our arms in face of the assailing Red wolf. To this, our conscience is opposed." The document was published in 73 newspapers a nd magazines in 11 countries, and no one, to my knowledge, has raised the slightest objection as to its orthodoxy or canonical integrity. From that time until now, there has been, to my knowledge, not one single Vatican pronouncement on communism that has really compensated fo r what could at least be called the onesidedness of the Vatican's "Ostpolitik." I just said, "to my knowledge." The reader should note that I a m not saying such a document does not exist. Postconciliar documents are so abundant tha t I strongly doubt that there is anyone-save within strictly specialized circles-who is so familiar with them all as to say that in this or tha t section of this or that document, some pronouncement clearly condemnatory of

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PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA communism cannot be found. However, this is so improbable that if someone were to point out that passage to me, it would give me satisfaction as well as much surprise. With the instruction of Cardinal Ratzinger, it could be said that something changed in this desolate panorama for the document alerts Catholics to the doctrinal deviations of Marxist inspiration that are widely ravaging the vastness of Brazil a nd all South America. And as I see it, those deviations are largely responsible for the veritable leprosy o f social agitation that has been spreading throughout Brazil with its obvious tendency of growing more radical and becoming an immense guerrilla movement. For those troubled by this tragic spectacle that could soon become apocalyptic, to see an organization like the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirm in black and white the incom patibili ty of Catholic doctrine with Marxism is comparable to someone in a fire suddenly feeling the spray of cool and saving water from a fireman's hose. Thus, to me, who as president of the National Council of the Brazilian TFP was the first signer of the already mentioned declaration of resistance to the Va tican 's "Ostpolitik, " falls the duty of ma nifesting here the joy, gratitude and, above all, the hope tha t I feel with the arrival of this relief amidst the fire. I know that brothers in the Faith outside the sphere of the TFP, especially outside Brazil, abstain from ma nifesting similar sentiments because they feel that just one hose is insufficient to put out the whole fire. 1 also feel that just one hose will no t put out the fi re. But this does not prevent us from ha iling that hose as a benefit, especially since we have no proof that it will be the only one. Wasn' t Cardinal Ratzinger's instruction unexpected? Doesn 't one unexpected step lead us to hope for others, also more or less unexpected, along the same line? Upon writing these reflections, my eyes naturally rest upon what could be called the aftermath of the hullabaloo made by the international press

over what it called the "RatzingerBoff" controversy. The whole world, from the communist to the most anticommunist media, was watching itfrom ''extremism to extremism,'' someone might say. At the very moment this is being written , I have in my hands a cane a nd I ask myself if it is possible to have canes without extremes. Someone could tell me, "Yes. All you do is cut off the two ends." But as soon as the ends a re cut, he would see that the cane still had two extremes, which before being trimmed perhaps could have been called center-right and center-left. Yet our poor man desperately continues to cut off the new tips. On a nd on he goes-until he runs out of cane. The relativistic battle to destroy extremes just because they are extremes would put an end to public opinion just as it would to the cane. Having thus chided the " enrages" (*) of centrism, I return to my topic. Public opinion is so weary of a ll kinds of manipulations that, as a result, it seems to be suffering from a tony. Friar Boff no sooner arrived in Brazil than the cameras stopped flashing, the loudspeakers became mute a nd the newspapers silent. To a large ex tent, the people avoided the suspense of this con troversy in order to still cling to the carefree trifles of daily life. But the Vatican, always exemplaril) informed, knows that this is no reason for " liberation theology" to cease smoldering here in South America, especia lly since its errors, to some of which the instruction made timely reference, are resuming their dynamism in the same measure that the curtain of forgetfulness falls on the instruction. All this fills us with a fo reboding of what must surely happen: According to the logic of the instruction itself, clearly it must be feared that these e rrors will spread if they do not run into doctrinal a nd practical obstacles. It is our duty to hope that these obstacles wi ll appear .

(*) A radical fact io n of revolutionaries during the French Revolution. Literal ~ :;, translation of t he term : rabid.-T RANS. :, o..,__ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ __ _ _ _ __ ___J 3

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TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Better Red Than Dead? The American TFP Seeks Answers FfER years of aggressive pacifist cam paigns, what Americans really think about the communist menace has become clouded. To clarify this crucial issue, the American TFP carried out a sidewalk poll asking the man-in-the-street for his opinion on the nuclear Damocles' sword supposedly hanging over the head of the West. Americans have been long bombarded by such scenarios as The Day After, accounts of nuclear winters and stockpiled cyanide pills, catchy little slogans and innumerable other artifices aimed at convincing us that principles, heroism and ideals are things of the past and that life, even though it be sperit in slavery, is the supreme value. This barrage has had its result and it could be argued that more people have been swayed by the psy atomic bomb than by any material explosion. The central question in this psy war has been expressed on a simplistic level by the saying "Better Red than dead, " which would limit the West's choices to either annihilation in a nuclear war or existence under communist tyranny. Better Red than dead? What do Americans really prefer? According to the American TFP opinion poll, 57 percent of the respondents reject the option of Red. Also, 57 percent of those surveyed believe that unilateral disarmament amounts to virtual surrender to the Soviets. The poll took into consideration the opinions of over I, 100 persons of different ages, professions and religions living in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and California. Carried out in the final months of 1984, the survey asked respondents 13 questions about the nuclea r war issue. The poll found that 49 percent believe that a world "..1 1 is probable at the present time and, of these, 58 percent believe it would be nuclear. The question of preemptive strike was also addressed. Vo lunteers taking the poll found that if Russia were to provoke a war, 67 percent believe that the United States should undertake a preemptive strike against major Soviet military targets. Seventythree percent of the youth in the age category 15-25 approve of this option as do 70 percent of all Catholics. When asked if in a world connict the U.S. should wait for the Russians to take the initiative of attack ing with nuclear weapons, 48 percent of the respondents answered that the United States should not wait for such a strike; the youth again led a ll other categories with 53 percent against waiting. Overall , 4 1 percent of those surveyed be lieve th at the U.S. should wait to be attacked with nuclear weapons before using its own. Those responding had little doubt about where a Soviet attack would be directed. Fifty-seven percent said they believe th e civilian population wou ld be the prime target of such an attack. Three out of five persons in the youth, persons over 60, and Protestant categories agreed. Twenty-six percent of those surveyed

believe such an attack would be confined to military targets. Forty-one percent think the nation' s capital would be an unlikely target in a world conflict. The passers-by were asked whether the na tions of Western Europe shou ld endure a war alone unaided by the U.S. or surrender if attac ked by Warsaw P act nations at the onset of such a conflict. Sixty-nine percent replied that those na tions should resist. The American TFP also addressed the question of unilateral disarmament. Fifty-seven percent equate it to virtual surrender to the Soviets; 37 percent do not, giving as reasons the " escalating arms race, " the need to "ta ke the first step" and the belief in the " good intentions" of the Soviets. The American TFP denies tha t the world is reduced to the alternatives of surrendering to communism or facing nuclear catastrophe. The TFP believes that communism's demise could be furthered by unused non-nuclear weapons in the West's arsenal such as boycotts, denial of economic aid and the cease o f vast technological transfers. However, since many people have a ttempted to reduce the available choices to two extremes, the poll included the rather eleme nta ry question: Is it better to be Red or dead? Significantly, 57 percent said they would rather die than submit to communism. Twenty-seven percent said they would rather be Red. Among the various categories, the resistance alternative was strong among th e youth, those over 60, women and Catholics .

Is It Better to Be Red o r Dead ? Group

Dead <1/o

Red %

No Opinion %

15-25 26-40 41 -60 61 + Men Women C atholics Protes tants J ews Moslems Other or no religion

63 51 53 66 56 63 62 55 48 62 52

29 29 27 16 28 24 24 28 35 23 30

8 20 20 18 16 13 14 17 17 15 18

Overall

An often disregarded aspect o f the nuclear question is tha t of religio n. Pacifists tend to portray t he arms race as a mere misunders ta nding between two equa ll y a mbitious superpowers. Ra rely do the Sovie ts' religious persecution and a vowed atheism enter into the debate. When as ked if a virtual submission to Russia would a mount to surrendering to a despotic and atheistic power, a n overwhelming majority of 7 1 percent responded yes. This a nswer was given by 67 percent o f t he youth a nd grew with each successive age group with 88 percent o f the over 60 group responding affirmatively. Americans as a whole had very strong feelings when questioned a bo ut Di vine Providence. Overall, 80 percent believe in Divine Providence with 90 percent o f th ose over 60 a nd 89 percent o f Catholics responding simila rly. On the role o f Di vine Providence in the East-West conflict, TFP volu nteers asked if God will defend those who are ready to fight to the end against the totalitarian Soviet regime. Fiftyeight responded affirma tively. Media a nd pacifist doomsday myths notwithstanding, the poll of t he A merican TFP demonstrates that a significant-yet not overwhelming-portion of the American public sees the threat of communist aggression with greater clarity and has much more resolve to resist that t hreat tha n is commonly believed .

The Cross, symbol of Christ and object of special respect and worship on the part of the faithful. Despite all the attempts of its enemies, the Cross endures through the ages.

''PENITENTIAL ACT'' HE radical extremes of Church elements imbued with the teachings of "liberation theology" found tragic and scandalous expression in a littlereported incident in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo ( 11 / l 7/84) reports that in the presence of the 21 bishops of Rio Grande do Sul, including Bishop I vo Lorscheiter, president of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, a group of nine priests, followed by 60 members of the C hristian Base Communities from the district of Lajeado, carried out a strange protest using the sym bol of Christianity, the Cross.

During an open-air Mass held in the Platanos Stadium at Santa Cruz do Sul, 89 miles from the state capital of Pono A legre and attended by 8,000 people, the priests presented the Cross as the "system" that is responsible for all the "injustices against the people." According to the newspaper, ''at a certain point they cast it to the ground and violently trampled on it lo show what they intended 'liberation ' from 'oppression' to be. The violence committed against the Cross-or the 'system,' as the priests presented it-was led by Fr. J oao Bernardo Linberguer of the parish of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Lajeado.

"After referring to 'today's ensuing struggle of the diocesan people'-the pastoral groups of workers and the youth, Agrarian Reform, Dwellers' Associations, the Diocesan Commission for the Laity and Christian Base Communities-he stated: 'With the people united in Base Communities, the system that crushes the people will fall.' Priests and representatives of the Christian Base Communities then proceeded to trample the Cross and to hurl at it hoes and other working tools that they were carrying. "Besides Father Joao Bernardo, who was in charge, the following priests took part in the manifestation: Zeno Graiss from Arroio do Meio, Reinaldo Reihner from the district of Santa C lara, Joao Wueilir and Marino Bohn from the parish of Santo Inacio, Vunibaldo Backer from the parish of Travesseiro, and priests identified simply as, Olivio from the parish of Cruzeiro, Joao from that of Moinhos, Luis from the parish of Capitao in Arroio do Meio, and Friar Luis from the parish of Sao Crist6vao in Lajeado. "Right at the beginning, Father Joao Bernardo, who was running the event, set the tone of protest by annou ncing on the microphone: 'Lord, mapy times in the 25 years of this diocese, the leaders of the Church did not lend their ears to the will of the people. Many confined themselves to the sacristies, siding with the elites and ignoring the people. They prized the spiritual and forgot the real life of the people, their problems and struggles. Because of this, let us all pray: 'We want a Church with the perfect people leading it.' " This was the second of a series of four symbolic demonstra tions at the beginning of the Mass, which was being said in honor of the 25th anniversary of the diocese of Santa Cruz do Sul and of its bishop, Alberto Edges. "The demonstration was called 'Peop le's Organizatio n-A Penitenti~l A.ct' and, according to information g ,y Fr. Joao Wueilir, it was carried ou t ,, 1th the knowledge of the bishop of Santa Cruz and authorized by the Pastoral Council. ' We Âˇwanted to demonstrate how the people can better organize themselves by peaceful means in order to confront unjust situations. The Cross symbolized the people's suffering and the necessity of removing suffering by uniting ourselves in order to be free.' "Bound with ribbons, several people paraded alongside the Cross. They symbolized, the priest explained, the oppressed people who needed to be freed. When the signal for 'liberation' was given, the Cross and the implements they were carrying were cast to the ground. A placard on the Cross descri bed it as the 'system' that had to be destroyed. Thus, as the Cross was being tramp led, ' un ited, we were freed' said Fr. Joao Wuei lir " (0 Estado de S. Paulo, 11 / 17/ 84).

Amsterdam canal view with the Church of Saint Nicholas in the background

Catholic church used as youth center

IN THE CITY OF TOLERANCE FTER strolling down a waterfront crowded with warehouses and along canals filled with boats, one reaches the historic medieval center of Amsterdam, the "city of tolerance." Inspired by the belief that everything should be tolerated providing that it be not a menace to another, brothels and antique stores peacefully coexist in this famed thirteenth-century quarter. During the last decade, however, the fruits of this false tolerance were felt. In an area known as the Zeedijk, the unpleasant sight of heroin addicts "shooting up" in doorways was not uncommon and the crimes committed to su pport such habits rose significantly , damaging business and tourism. " They were a menace to the neighborhood," said city hall spokesman Gijs van Stygeren. But of consideration and respect for the addicts' self-destructive "alternative lifestyle," a neighborhood council was set up to deal with the unpleasant problem. With the city's approval, a coalition of pornography merchants, brothel-keepers, small shopkeepers and respectable citizens decided that enough was enough and proposed a way to isolate the problem . The neighborhood council raised about 21,000 guilders ($6,500) to buy and outfit a barge where addicts could go to buy, sell and take heroin without being bothered by the police. The barge, called the "Junkie Boat," was approved by the city, which reimbursed the council for most of the expenses . The police have pursued a policy of tolerance toward those who frequent the barge, making no arrests for drug use or possession of moderate quantities near or on the boat.

Addict takes heroin with the help of a friend

"They don ' t bother us a nymore. They don ' t see it as a crime in this place," said Cyril Meriba, who was doling out heroin aboard the Junkie Boat. Meanwhile, tourists in sightseeing boats look on with curiosity a nd disbelief at this sight amidst the city's medieval marvels (San Francisco Chronicle, 11 /20/84). Between 200 and 250 addicts reportedly use the barge daily, while on shore dealers hawk their wares. Although forbidden by law, heroin is openly sold on board the craft, where addicts can be found sitting on benches or sprawled on the floor , heating heroin crystals on aluminum foil to release vapors for inhaling or cooking a solution of cocaine, water and bicarbonate of soda in

a spoon before inhaling the purified concentrate. The boat is being hailed by some officials as a moderate, pragmatic way of dealing with the problem. "We can't say that the problem has been totally solved by putting the boat there. But the situation on the whole is far better than it was before," said van Stygeren. Addicts on the whole like the idea , claiming that the barge is a service to both the community and to themselves. Meriba, a 32-year-old of Surinamese extraction who has been on heroin for the last six years, remarked: "When I'm at home, I can 't use it in front of m y children. If they closed the boat, everybody will go back on the street, and maybe they'll steal" (San Fra ÂˇÂˇ .;<ro Chronicle, l I / 20/ 84). In one sense, the program proved almost too successful. The small barge barely accommodated the growing clientele. No problem, however , is insuperable when handled with balance and reason. The city fathers worked out a solution. On January I, two new barges were commissioned where heroin addicts can watch television and play ping-pong between injections. Amsterdam community worker Willem Meurs said that the barges would a lso allow social workers and doctors to meet add icts (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/ 4/84). With Amsterdam 's policy of tolerance, which in reality is a poor disguise for radical moderation, drug abuse is actually fostered, pornography flourishes a nd moral degeneracy increases, while life goes on in the stupor of apparent normality . 7

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS second creation, and only one thing ONSIDER the diversity of the seems adorable to me and that is the Middle Ages: on the one hand, there is Church. And to work this great prodigy, the razing of cities, the fall of empires, God chose these obscure times, eternalthe struggle between races, the confu- ly famous both for the explosion of all sion of peoples, violence and lamenta- brutal forces and the manifestation of tions; there is corruption, barbarianism; human impotence. Nothing exalts the institutions fall and institutions rise; Divine Majesty and the divine grandeur men disperse and make nations; whole more than to have worked in this world, peoples are led to unknown destina- where men, peoples and races struggled tions; and yet still enough light remains in confusion while no one acted. On two to know that everything is out of place solemn occasions, God willed to show and there is no place for anything: that only corruption is sterile and that Europe is chaos itself. only virginity is fertile: God Our Lord "But amidst this chaos, something willed to be born of Mary and He stands; it is the immaculate Spouse of desired to espouse Himself to the Holy Our Lord; and one great success never Church; thus was the Church the mother before seen by mankind prevails: it is a of nations just as Mary was His mother. second creation, worked by the Church. "Then that immaculate Virgin, His In the Middle Ages, only one thing Church, sharing the solicitude of her seems astounding to me and that is this Divine Spouse to do good, lifted the

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WITH their elevated topics, forceful thought and distinguished language, the great debates so characteristic of the nineteenth century usually retained something of the nobility of European society before the Revolution. Thus do they contrast with our century where man conforms to everything provided it has no economic interest and where today's rare elevated debates do not interest a public hypnotized by movies and sports. Today we bring an echo of those high, fu lgent intellectual tournaments to the attention of our readers. Albert de Broglie, a liberal Catholic, published a n article in the Revue des Deux Mandes (11 1 l / 1852) claiming that the enthu-

siasm for the Middle Ages of certain Catholic writers was excessive. One of the targeted personalities, the celebrated Spanish thinker Donoso Cortes, Marquis of Valdegamas, wrote a reply to de Broglie. Although the author never sent it to the Revue des Deux Mandes, it was later published in his complete works (Obras Comp/etas de D. Juan Donoso Cortes, BAC, Madrid, 2:630). The text printed above, an excerpt from that reply, is a brief and brilliant analysis of the history of the Middle Ages from the theological point of view. Ct illustrates the elevated tone of the debate and, at the same time, makes a definitive reply to liberals who are disturbed at finding so much enthusiasm for that period of history among Catholics.

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spirits of the fallen and moderated the impetus of the violent, giving to some a taste of the bread of the strong and to others the bread of the meek. Those fierce children of the North, who had humiliated and mocked Roman majesty, fell conquered by love at the feet of this defenseless Virgin; and for many centuries the whole world watched in astonishment and wonder as the Church renewed the prodigy ofDaniel, who suffered no harm in the lions' den. "After having lovingly soothed those great w_raths and after having calmed those furious tempests with her gaze alone, the Church raised a monument from a nlin, an institution from a custom, a principle from an event, a law from an experience; to say it in a word, the ordered from the chaotic, the harmonious from the confused. Undoubt-

edly, all the instruments used for her creation, like chaos itself, were taken from that chaos; hers was only the enlivening and creating force. In that chaos there was, in embryonic form, everything that would be born and live; the Church, bereft of everything, possessed the being and the life; everything came into being and everything came alive when the world lent an attentive ear to her loving words and fixed its gaze on her resplendent beauty. "No, men had not seen anything like it because they had not seen the first creation; neither will they see it again for there will not be three creations. One might say that God, regretting that He had not made man a witness of the first, allowed His Church a second creation just so man could behold it. "-DONOSO

With masterly prec1s1on, he shows the difference between what was barbaric, weak and chaotic in that period and the order, strength and triumphal progress of Christian civilization. Thus, Donoso Cortes annihilates the accusation that so many Catholics-in his time and todayadmire those centuries of Faith with neither discernment nor restrictions. At the same time, he focu ses with admirable clarity on what in the Middle Ages deserves unrestricted enthusiasm: the vivifying and ordering action of the Church, the life and order she gave to institutions, laws and customs. The Gothic style was born of a society that was made up of the decaying ruins of the Roman world mixed with elements of

barbarianism and was swept by furious tempests. But through the work of the Church, which knew how to raise "a monument from a ruin, an institution from a custom, a principle from an event, a law from an experience; to say it in a word, the ordered from the chaotic, the harmonious from the con fused Âˇ' was born this admirable sty11. from this regenerated decay and barbarianism. And this style, more than any other, is able to express the gravity, strength and nobility of the Christian soul. The picture shows the cathedral of Burgos in Old Castile, one of the greatest marvels of Gothic architecture and an eloquent symbol of the Christian order generated by the C hurch in the Middle Ages.

CORTES

The Catholic Church in Malta Brutal}~â&#x20AC;˘ T

HE strategic island of Malta, situated in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Africa, has become the scene of an intense religious persecution. Malta has had a long and eventful history. It was governed by the Knights of St. John (Knights Hospitalers) from 1530 to 1798 and was the glorious scene of the siege of 1565 when the Knights successfully resisted and checked an Islamic threat to Europe. This island of 400,000 was evangelized by Saint Paul after he was shipwrecked there in 60 A.D. Its inhabitants pride themselves on being the only nation evangelized by the Apostle to the Gentiles who has always remained faithful to the Holy See. However, this fidelity is becoming increasingly difficult since for well over a decade the island has been dominated by the Labour party, an affiliate of the Socialist International. During his last three years in office, Dom Mintoff, who stepped down last Religious paintings that were trampled December, regularly instituted social- upon by the socialist mob ist reforms and closer relations with Russia. Opposing a Socialist Education The prospects presented by Mintoff's successor and heir, Carmelo MidsudThe socialist government has intranBonnici, are hardly more promising. sigently required the Catholic Church The handpicked Midsud-Bonnici has to offer free education to its 22,000 never been elected to office and owes ' students in order to continue operating both his seat in parliament and his Catholic schools, which educate one ministerial post to Mintoff. He is third of the nation's pupils. Malta's known to rigidly follow the party line. archbishop, Joseph Mercieca, contends As minister of education, he per- that the Church cannot maintain its sonally spearheaded the government schools unless it receives government program aimed at imposing restrictions aid or a minimum amount of tuition. Âˇ on the island's Catholic schools. In face of the prelate's position, the

CREATING MONSTERS HE unborn child, having been "legally" robbed of his natural right to life and protection, is now being used as living research material by science and industry.

The two latest trends in this infamous resea rch are experimentation with human embryos and their implantation into animals. So much "progress" has been achieved in these areas that several doctors have warned that the day is not far-off when an animal surrogate mother may give birth to a human baby. "I can foresee the day when a human baby is born to a chimpanzee. That might happen within 20 years," said Sir Ian Donald, emeritus professor of gynecology at Glasgow University, at a conference of the Order of Christian Unity 10

last September (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/30/84). At the same time, Sir John Peel, who served as Queen Elizabeth !I's surgeongynecologist from 1961 to 1973, complained that research is uncontrolled and unsatisfactory and that accelerating research into artificial reproduction of human embryos could lead to the creation of half-human, half-animal creatures born in the laboratory. While some doctors have scoffed at the idea, others are convinced that it is feasible and have even proposed acting on it. In London, Dr. Robert Edwards and Dr. Patrick Steptoe, the two physicians who delivered the world's first "testtube" baby, have suggested that human embryos be implanted in animals, osten-

Mintoff government ordered the closing of eight of the country's most important institutions of learning. Archbishop Mercieca then ordered the closing of the island's 72 Catholic schools. Parents of the parochial students supported this move by refusing to send their children to state-run schools, preferring to keep them home. Deputy Prime Minister Mifsud-Bonnici took a hard line by threatening a state takeover of the Catholic schools if the Church did not reopen them. "If the schools remain closed, it is our duty to requisition them to provide schooling for their 20,000 students," he told members of the ruling Labour party (New York Times, 10/5/84). The situation was further aggravated when the socialist regime confiscated a large part of the goods of the Church. The latter appealed to the Supreme Court, which declared the confiscation unconstitutional. Education: A Socialist Issue

The move to suppress Catholic education in Malta is similarÂˇto moves taken in other socialist countries. In France, the Savary bill- sent to parliament by Mitterrand designed to stifle private schooling in favor of socialist education brought hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen into the streets. Such was the uproar that the government was forced to step back. In Spain, the socialist government of Felipe Gonzalez sent an educational bill (LODE) to the Cortes where it has been approved. As in Malta, the Spanish

sibly in order to study their early development. While both doctors stressed thcll they had not actually performed or p cl such an operation, in a December 1, .. -.: rview to the London Times and the Guardian, they nonetheless admitted that it was a possibility and that lessons about embryo development could be learned by briefly implanting human embryos into sheep, rabbits and pigs. Disregarding the fact that all embryos -like every human being-are entitled to protection from unwilling experimentation, the doctors claim that research on human embryos should not be a criminal offense and that it should be permitted beyond the 14th day of development, the limit recommended by the Warnock commission to the British government (Kan sas City Star , 12/20/84). While some researchers are proposing the use of animals in human embryo research, others are already experimenting with the use of human living matter in animals.

Persecuted by Socialists bill's purpose is to suffocate Catholic educational establishments by entirely eliminating their autonomy. The measure has also caused widespread discontent there.

the demonstrators to fight in the name of the government " to keep the Catholic schools from breaking the law." Incited by his words, the demonstrators entered the city where some 800 of them sacked the Palace of Justice. Anti-Catholic Vandalism Another group headed for the archbishop's palace carrying red banners. The Church-state confrontation in This mob invaded the building and Malta has unmasked the real nature of destroyed chapels, altars, statues and socialism and Catholic resistance to the valuable paintings that had recently socialist educational reform has been been restored at great expense. The met with incidents of vandalism and archbishop's offices were also plundered. terrorism of a markedly anti-Catholic At least 15 valuable religious paintcharacter. Not only has the government ings were thrown on the ground and failed to take measures against the trampled upon; every depiction of Our instigators of these incidents but Lord's face was destroyed, showing government leaders have actually taken their intense hatred for the Faith. part in them. According to Malta's The ruling Labour party feigned conTimes (9/27 /84), vandals wrecked cern by issuing a statement that " unfurniture and equipment on the first equivocally condemned" the incident. and second floors of the Teachers' "The party is not going to shoulder Institute in Valetta, headquarters of the responsibility for those who unnecesMovement of United Teachers (MUT). sarily violate the law, " the statement A large statue of Saint John Baptiste read. The declaration was signed by De La Salle, patron saint of teachers, Carmelo Mifsud-Bonnici, who is was also seriously damaged. reported by witnesses to have ridden a t The same day, police found a bomb the head of the motorcade shortly on the doorstep of the archbishop's before the demonstrators attacked the Medina residence. archbishop's palace (Corpus Christi One of the most violent incidents to Caller-Times, 9/29/84). date was a demonstration last SeptemIncidents like those now occurring in ber 28 when government supporters Malta should serve for all Catholics as gathered to listen to a speech of Depu- a warning about the true nature of soty Prime Minister Mifsud-Bonnici. Ac- cialism-socialism invariably leads to cording to the official radio of Valetta, Church persecution. he called upon those present to support Today's ruling socialists are but the government, saying that the attitude bridgeheads for tomorrow's comassumed by the Church masked the munists whose aim is the total destrucintent to "remove power from the tion o f the Church, the family and hands of the workers." He also urged private property.

The Department of Agriculture's research center in Beltsville, Md., is carrying out experiments to produce ''super" sheep a nd pigs, perhaps twice the size of current livestock, by injecting them with human growth hormone genes. The researchers say that giant mice bearing human genes have already been bred using genetic engineering technology and that it is only a matter of time before they succeed with other animals. The research has prompted protests and a suit by two scientific watchdog groups who have rightly called this experimentation a violation of " the moral and ethical canons of civilization." According to J eremy Rifkin, a genetic engineering critic of the Foundation on Economic Trends, crossing genetic material of two different species poses a potential en vironmental threat with unknown agricultural consequences a nd is a "clear violation of the moral and ethical principles we share as a people." This organization, together with the Humane Society of the United States, has filed a suit in U.S. District Court to

halt the experiments (Newsday, 10/ 1/84). With experi ments like these, the abysmal distinction existing between the human race, which is endowed with intelligence a nd will, and the animal kingdom, which is endowed with instinct alone, is gradually being ignored. Fueled

AID TO MOZAMBIQUE CCORDING to Johannesburg's (1 / 15/85), the Reagan administration is proposing to provide military aid to the Marxist government of Mozambique, apparently to help it fight the anticommunist Mozambique National Resistance rebels who have been waging a successful guerrilla war since the country fell to communism in 1975. A State Department spokesman confirmed that the United States would seek a "limited military assistance relationship" providing "non-lethal" military equipment. Âˇ According to analysts, the move, which requires congressional approval, is being made to protect the government of Samora Machel and its Nkomati Accord with South Africa. (The Reagan administration reputedly regards the accord as an important achievement in the regional application of its constructive engagement policy.) Behind such a move is the rather naive hope that it will lead the Ma rxist government of Mozambique to loosen its close ties with the Soviet Union and adopt a more nonaligned position. Obviously, the optimistic hope that communism will disappear by unilateral gestures of good will lives on-despite all the evidence that such a n approach does not work. When will the lesson be learned?

A Star

by the erroneous notion held by many in the medical field that the unborn child can be sacrificed on the altar of sc a "genetic supermarket" mentalit y , ing formed that could have monstrous consequences and send modern medicine headlong into disaster.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira * Published in five languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has been destroying Christian Civilization and leading the world to communism and even more radical forms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP â&#x20AC;˘ P . 0. Box 121 â&#x20AC;˘ Pleasantville, NY 10570 11

The Union Buildings in Pretoria. With Its strategic position and mineral reserves, a pro-Western South Africa is essential for the security of the West.

SOUTH AFRICA ON TRIAL ITH all today's uproa r against South Africa, one could be led to believe tha t its government is even more totalitarian than many co mmunist regimes. World press coverage has been far from favorable to South Africa and Western leaders and personalities seem to be competing for the best invectives to describe the alleged horrors committed against that country 's blacks. For example, the outspoken J esse J ackson, in a visit with John Paul II, asked the pontiff to consider a visit to South Africa. Such a visit, said the black activist, would "cha llenge govern ments on their relations with such a n oppressive and immoral system" (Newsday, I / 4/85 ). Before a meeting with President Ronald Reagan, Nobel laureate Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu called the U.S. collaboration with the South African government "evil, immoral, and totally un-Christian" (Newsday, 12/7 /84). In a speech in London's Saint Paul 's Cathedral, he went even further in his declarations. "What I know is that if the Russia ns were to come to South Africa today, then most blacks who reject Communism as atheistic a nd materialistic would welcome them as savio urs . Anything would be better tha n apartheid" (Star, I I /20/84). The liberal South African press took advantage of Sen. Edward Kennedy's visit there to criticize the "repressive" government. Jeered by both the right a nd the left during his trip, the senator told

black businessmen in Africa's most prosperous country tha t "free enterprise can flourish only in a free society" (Newsday, 1/ 8/85) . In the United Sta tes, the anti-apartheid movement mobilized groups to stage protests against what is being de-scribed as the most oppressive regime since Nazi Germany. More than 300 major U.S. corporations with operations in South Africa are under pressure to sever ties with the government. At least 11 cities and fi ve sta te governments have passed South African disinvestment laws. Even conservatives have climbed on

Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Tutu: The Russians would be welco med

the a nti-South Africa bandwagon. In a letter to the South African a mbassador , 35 Republican congressmen expressed their indignation at his government's policies and threatened diplomatic and economic sanctions. Such acti ons are being echoed worldwide as the fashio n has grown in leftist circles to "sink South Africa," the only country who still resists the Marxist onsla ught in southern Africa. Of course, government efforts to liberalize the apartheid system are rarely mentioned. T he desegregati on of sports, hotels, resta ura nts a nd facilities a nd the eliminat io n of job J pay discrimina tion are simply ignored by critics who oversimplify the apartheid system as a black vs white issue. These critics fail to mention that South Africa is a complex mixt ure of 13 different racial groups who have different la nguages a nd cultures a nd who historically have not mixed. Ten of the 13 racia l groups a re tribal groups who , far from mixing in t he past, have historically warred a mo ng themselves. Peace between them has been maintained by the white South Africans. Clearly South Africa is o n trial, but it is being judged by a court that has b lown the evidence at hand out of proportio n. South Africa does n ot have the concentration camps tha t dot Soviet Russia; misery, fami ne a nd corruption are not rampant there as they are in the Marxist dictatorships scattered over t he rest of the continent. Indeed, why do those who loudly call

for radical social change and decry human rights violations in South Africa fail to show even annoyance at the misdeeds of Marxist regimes on the continent (or anywhere else, for that matter)? The standard of living of South African blacks, while lower than that of whites, can hardly be qualified as oppressive, miserable or enslaving. As a matter of fact, according to the Phoenixbased McA/vany Intelligence Advisor, South African blacks have a higher standard of living, own more homes, cars and businesses than any other blacks in Africa. Blacks pay no income tax in South Africa and their housing, medicine and schools are subsidized. Their wages are three to four times higher than those of blacks in other African countries. Unlike communist countries, where walls a re built to keep people from escaping, South Africa must limit the number of blacks who enter the country annually to 350,000. Over a half million per year try to enter, seeking a share in the country's economic wealth. By contrast, the economies of most other African countries have been reduced to shambles, very often by the implementation of disastrous socialist policies. Ethiopia is the most notorious example of this. Who dares to criticize the Russian, East German and Cuban neo-colonists who have helped bring about famine and whom Bishop Tutu wou ld welcome as liberato rs of his country? Of course, few think to challenge the legitimacy of U.S. relations with the totalitarian Soviet Union or to term them "immoral," "un-Christian" and "ruinous." Economic sanctions that would cause a communist regime's inherent deficiencies to swiftly destroy it from within are not even considered. Rather, the very opposite occurs. Take communist China as an example: It

opens a small window to the West and immediately its impoverished economy is boosted with torrents of capital without-needless to say-any embarrassing questions about human rights. With respect to religion, even South Africa's most rabid critics acknowledge that the country places no restrictions on religious practice. But in markedly unChristian Angola and Mozambique, Christians are not so fortunate as the two countries' Marxist governments pride themselves on being officially atheist and persecuting Christians. The government even allows church officials like Bishop Tutu to promote an African version of "liberation theology," which does not exclude armed struggle. Especially prominent in this line is the South African Council of Churches, which is headed by Tutu and claims to represent Christian blacks. However, according to a press statement signed by five Christian groups, including the South African Catholic Defence League, the majority of black independent churches are not part of the organization, which receives 97 percent of its funding from abroad. Though considered clean of guilt on the religious score, the South African government is accused of practicing repression against peaceful opposition by some of its critics. But this accusation seems to be unfounded. In spite of the country's stiff internal security laws not unlike those repealed in the U.S. in the sixties, even some anti-government sources admit that there were no more than 200 political prisoners in 1983. What is this when compared with the millions of political prisoners in Russia, C hina and other communist countries? Despite the striking contrast between the South African regime and communist regimes, the verdict of the international community has been an unfounded yet resou nding " guilty. "

South Africa is the most powerful and advanced country of Africa. The outcome of the international uproar against it could decide the fate of Africa-and the world.

UPDATE ON

DEADLY ETHICS ET one more step in the death Y march toward legalized euthanasia has been taken with a ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court. The January 17 ruling on withholding life support from terminally or chronically ill patients in the case of Claire C. Conroy has set a dangerous precedent in the courts. This ruling clears the way for a redefinition of the traditional standards of patient care by allowing the "termination of life-sustaining treatment, for persons who never clearly expressed their desires about lifesustaining treatment." Due to its broad scope, the Claire C. Conroy case transgresses consideration of the terminally ill and erodes the legal protection of the chronically ill. Life-sustaining nutritional care is not distinguished from other extraordinary treatments such as a respirator that replaces lost bodily functions. The new decision demonstrates refined cruelty, in that it allows death to result through purposeful neglect of care, including the denial of food or liquid. According to Joseph Piccione, author of Last Rights: Treatment

and Care Issues in Medical Ethics, the court's majority opinion has left no distinction between treatment a nd care as it establishes death as a legal and public good. "Essentially, the court's decicinn has established a death penalt) being old and incompetent. lt allows an individual to withhold care for a chronically ill or handicapped person and dehydrate and starve them to death," the a uthor declared. By allowing such lack of care for patients projected to die within a year, Piccione believes that the state is permitting a nursing home staff to assume the role of God by not allowing a disease to naturally run its course but instead by speedingup the process of death through denial of nourishment. Like abortion, the state ruling paves the way for a comprehensive national euthanasia ruling that will permit terminating the life of a person against his will when he becomes an "inconvenience" or " unproductive." 13

NEWS FLASlHCES â&#x20AC;˘ Vanishing TeenÂˇs For the first time in American history, persons over 65 outnumber teenagers. Moreover, estimates from the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment reveal that the elderly may lead in number by more than two to one by the year 2025. The Office's report says that the elderly population has grown from four percent of the total in 1900 to more than 11.5 percent today. The report attributed this trend largely to accelerating technological changes since 1900 that have resulted in longer_ life spans among Americans and lower mortality rates for the elderly. The effects of the growing number of elderly will soon be felt, as a proportionally diminishing labor pool will have to support its elders. Researchers also predict an increasing prevalence of chronic disease that can impair an older person's ability to function independently thus increasing the need for long-term care for chronic conditions and acute diseases (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/3/84). Meanwhile, the number of newborns that should replenish and revitalize the nation continues to fall.

Short-lived Life Sentences According to a study of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, half of the convicts who receive life sentences are released after having served only 51 months. The study, based on a survey of prison admissions and discharges for the year 1981, included information from 33 states and the District of Columbia. From the 840 cases studied, it was found that two thirds of the off enders served seven years or less. Researchers estimate that about 40,000 of the 101,943 criminals released had served 12 months or less while only one percent had served more than 10 years of their so-called life sentences. The median life sentence for those convicted of murder was 63 months. For rape it was 33 months, for robbery 25 months and for drug offenses 13 months (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/24/84).

Rejected Liberators Peruvian peasants in the remote Andean village of Misquibamba, 72 miles north of Ayacucho, decided that 14

they had suffered enough brutality from of Africa, the appalling extent of the the Maoist terrorist group Shining Path. infamous genocide of the Cambodian Armed with slingshots and spears, a and Afghan peoples or the staggering group of peasants killed 15 guerrillas, sum of Western aid now bailing out hurled the bodies down a ravine and faltering communist economies. then reported the incident to the police. The peasants said that they were tired Nuclear Myths of the guerrilla brutality in the area. Despite an enviable safety record, the nuclear power industry continues to suffer a bad image in the eyes of the According to a Gallup poll released public largely due to inflammatory by a conservative church group, 40 per- media coverage. One poll for college students, for cent of U.S. Catholics still want at least example, found that most of the the option of attending a traditional Latin Mass. The idea of the option was respondents considered nuclear power rejected by 35 percent and 25 percent as their No. 1 risk of death outranking highway accidents that kill 50,000 had no opinion. The report was based on a survey Americans annually. Most studies conducted by the Gallup organization indicate that no more than 10 deaths a for Fr. Ronald Ringrose, pastor of Saint year are caused by nuclear-related Athanasius Roman Catholic Church in accidents, radioactive waste and other Vienna, Va., who heads a group of some nuclear hazards. Another poll showed that 80 percent 250 Catholics who favor the Latin Mass. Although the 40 percent figure is of the public considered nuclear power down from the 64 percent who answered more dangerous than bur"ning coalpositively to a similar 1978 survey, even though it is estimated that the latFather Ringrose estimates that 21 mil- ter kills 10,000 Americans a year with lion Catholics would welcome the op- its air pollution. Bernard Cohen, professor of physics portunity to attend a traditional Mass. The survey also indicated that 53 per- at the University of Pittsburgh, notes cent would attend the Latin Mass if that after all the initial publicity given readily available. Thirty-seven percent the Three Mile Island accident, the said they would not and 10 percent had press virtually ignored the fact that all no opinion (San Francisco Chronicle, investigations determined that there had never been any significant danger 113/85). to the public (Medical Month, February 1984).

Many Catholics Like Latin Mass

Ideological Math Lessons The age-old problem of Jack, who had seven apples and later acquired five more that he had to divide among three friends, may no longer be part of math class in England. Education authorities in London are planning lessons where even a neutral subject like mathematics will be tailored with a marked slant to the left. Promoters of this latest tangent come from the leftist-controlled Inner London Education Authority. They claim that the old mathematics is void of content and that the new approach will help students to "understand" current events and fight racism. According to planners, youngsters will soon be asked to calculate profits made by Western multinational corporations In Third World countries. They will also be working out the relative earning power of black South African miners in comparison to whites (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/13/84). Absent from this leftist math are calculations like the drop in the standard of living in the socialist countries

Counselors and Teachers? Findings based on questionnaires returned in a survey sent to 950 cr 11 ~rie religion teachers and pastoral , selors chosen statistically at random from the Directory of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors reveal the permissivist morality of many of those encharged with religious instruction in this country. Only 40 percent believe that premarital relations are immoral; nearly 50 percent believe homosexual relations are not immoral; 16 percent do not think adultery is wrong. The survey found that 87 percent do not believe adultery should be a crime; AIDS notwithstanding, 91 percent believe the government should not regulate sex between homosexuals; only 53 percent thought the legal system should limit marriage to opposite sex couples; 71 percent would approve a male homosexual teaching elementary school (Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 12/30/84).

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"~ Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis. Ac.cording to Freud himself, his interest in philosophy returned via psychopathology.

WAS FREUD RIGHT? Psychoanalysis on the Couch MONG theo ries claiming scientific validity psychoanalysis has enjoyed a privileged place for over 70 years. Many scientists have dared not dispu te its credibility largely because of the fame of its founder, Sigm und Freud. But this privilege is now being contested and members of the scientific community are pressuring adherents of this theory to present their scienti fic proofs . Critics point out tha t unlike psychology, which can be considered a legitimate science si nce its theories are based on a body of empirical findings verified by studies, psychoana lysis is not based on recognized scientific methods but rather o n Freud's cli nical observatio ns and resu lting theories. The theories-madedogma were never proved by Freud or his successors a nd no one can be sure to what extent they are true. In 1957, Si r Karl Popper attacked psychoanalysis in an influential sta tement on the true nature of sc ience; he d ismissed it, a long with Marxism and astrology, as a self-confirming, nonscienti fie theory. The debate has rekindled with th e recent refutation of Sir Karl by Adolf Gri.inbaum, a philosopher of science at the Un iversity of Pittsburgh. C uriously, the refutation, far from deny ing psychoanal ys is' lack of fou ndat ion or veracity, con firms the fact that its scientific foundations are grossly inadequate. However, Grunbaum contends that attempts could be made to prove the theory by using scientific methods and calls upon psychoanalysts to do so. According to Dr. Frank Sulloway, a historian of psychoanalysis at Harvard Un iversity, Grunbaum 's defense of the art may well be a heavy blow to it. "If Gri.inbaum is right and psychoanalysts

including Freud have not provided a rigorous scientific proof, then the a rgument is really devastating. Other sciences have not taken 84 years to go nowhere" (New York Times, 1/ 15/85).

conclusions to patients that con form to their own expectations, which leads Dr. Gri.i nbaum to conclude that, for the most part, o nly evidence gathered outside the session can really test the theory. Dr. Marshall Edelson, a psychoanalyst Theory of Repression: at Yale Medical School a nd a uthor of a Unproven Cornerstone book on methods of documenting the theory, believes that psychoanalysts must Accord ing to Freud, the theory of work to prove their theory. "Some psyrepressio n is the cornerstone of psycho- choanalysts have tried to weasel out of the analysis and he claimed that it was demands that the discipline be scienti fic validated by evidence gathered "on his Âˇ by claiming that scientific truth doesn 't office couch and in his self-analysis ." matter, that only what makes sense to the Basically, the theory Freud proposed patient is importa nt. That's a dead end . was that repression of traumatic expe- Psychoana lysis makes claims about the riences causes neurosis a nd that neurosis mind a nd it has to j ustify them scienis cured when the repression is removed. tifically" (New York Times, 1/ 15/ 85). Sir Karl's attack on psychoanalysis was based o n the fact that "there is no Tragic Consequences conceiva ble human behavior that wou ld contradict" its principles and that a ny P sychoanalysis is not the first mu .. ._.rn behavior could be explained by it. Thus theory to be brought before the scientific psychoana lysis could not be tested tribunal. Freud is jo ined by Darwin with scientifica lly. his ever-evolving, never-proven theory of "Psychological th eories can be abevolutio n and Margaret Mead, whose stract, but they must have consequences misconceptio ns about li fe o n Samoa that are observable," said Si r Karl in a have recently been discredited. recent telephone interv iew granted to the This unproven theo ry of psychoNew York Times (1 / 15/ 85). analysis , wh ich claims that everyone harbors in their subconscious secret In Search of Missing Ev idence wishes, private hopes and imagina tive desires (that are suppressed by social Observable evidence is indeed lack ing t raining a nd mores), has already had since a great part of psychoanalytic tragic co nsequences upon society. To literature is based on sessions wit h mentio n bu t one example: with the pa tients. Dr. Gri.i n baum himself states gratuitous proclamation of psychothat evidence taken from psychoanalytic analysis as dogma by avant-garde socia l sessio ns is suspect because "casual reformers, the mere mention of Freud connectio ns between, for example, childwas sufficient to usher in and sanction hood episodes and adult neurosis cannot the permissiveness of the sexua l revolube established solely withi n the treatment tion of the sixties that had thitherto been setting, if at all." "repressed" by sound morals and cusMoreover, analysts might suggest toms and the Com mandments of God. 15

A Welcome Visit -from Morton Blackwell HEN people talk about the New Right, conservative politics and youth leadership, it is not long before the name Morton Blackwell comes up . His ability to unite a broad spectrum of conservative organizations and his knack for putting ideas into action have played a major role in constructing an assertive and respected conservative movement. Since his first visit in the fall of 1981, the American TFP has come to appreciate his well-founded opinions and timely advice and so was pleased to invite Mr. Blackwell to once again address members and supporters during his weekend visit last February. Mr. Blackwell was accompanied by his wife, Helen, who is also politically active, and his son William. A dinner was held in his honor al the headquarters of the Foundation for a Christian Civilization in Bedford, N. Y. Mr. Blackwell served as While House special assistant lo the president for public liaison for the first three years of President Reagan's first term. He was project officer of the White House working group on Central America and is coauthor of the president's voluntary prayer amendment. Since his early days al Louisiana Stale University in the sixties, his favorite field of activity has been youth politics. In his role as president of the Leadership Institute, he has been instrumental in training young men and women lo become active in the conservative cause. Mr. Blackwell also heads the Committee for Responsible Youth Politics, a political action committee which helps conservative candidates organize effective youth campaigns. He resigned from his White House post in order to put himself at the disposal of conservative candidates running in 1984. Since that time, he has been busier than ever organizing seminars and conferences. During his visit Mr. Blackwell had an opportunity to speak about his latest brain child, the International Policy Forum (IPF), a foundation designed to promote educational exchange between conservatives in the United States and pro-freedom leaders in other countries. Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, president of the National Council of the Brazilian TFP is presently on the board of governors. As president of IPF, Mr. Blackwell has just completed a successful conference in Athens, Greece, where he and his faculty instructed New Right Greeks seeking viable ways lo elect conservative candidates in the next elections. Mr. Mario Navarro da Costa of the Washington Bureau for the Representation of the 15 TFPs, in introducing Mr. Blackwell, commented on his political sense: "One of the surest signs of intelligence and agility of mind lies in discerning similarities and differences. And since ii is very rare in our lives to find them separate, that discernment is a powerful aid to wisdom in action . In other words, in face of the countless alliances and clashes that result from the coexistence of similarities and differences, it is especially helpful to know how to take positions with foresight and caution, yet with cordiality, a skill which is often preferable to a one-sidedness that loses s ight of reality. "In your dealing with the TFP, we have a lively appreciation for your well thought-out positions. Far from meaning that you have lost your own identity, those positions show real interest in everything we have in common and a respectful, cordial altitude toward aspects of us which you probably would rather were different. " Mr. Navarro da Costa invited Mr. Blackwell to " see everything, consider everything and hear everything" during his visit, and recalled with gratitude Mr. Blackwell's October 18 letter of support that he wrote on the occasion of the uproar against Resislencia, a kindred organization of the TFPs in Venezuela. In the letter, Mr. Blackwell wrote that in his three years with the Reagan administration he had been able to observe the TFP firsthand, that the TFP members had always acted with the utmost responsibility and that the frequent support given by the TFP in the

Mr. Blackwell chatting with TFP members and supporters

United Stales had prompted President Reagan lo write a letter of appreciation in early 1984 lo Mr. John Spann, president of the American TFP. Mr. Blackwell also slated in his letter: " I can assure you that the leaders of major conservative groups with whom I worked while on the While House staff share my respect for the achievements and high quality of your organization. This includes, of course, Catholic, Protestant , Jewish and secular leaders. "The American TFP is a valuable part of the wide-ranging, informal coalition which elected the President and so many other conservatives in our 1980 elections and which appears headed to another victory this year." As guest of honor at the dinner attended by over one hundred members and supporters, Mr. Blackwell spoke about what he knows best: ideas, actions and consequences. He observed that conservative intellectuals and would-be intellectuals have an almost religious reverence for the maxim " Ideas have consequences," which is taken from the title of an essay by the southern agrarian writer Richard Weaver. From conservative publications, talks and meetings, the maxim has been parroted ad infinitum and its unfortunate misinterpretation has been often detrimental especially among idealistic youth. "If ideas in and of themselves really do have consequences, then being right in the sense of being correct is sufficient, " Mr. Blackwell slated. "Thousands of young conservatives taken by the romance of Weaver's talismanic maxim fail lo see that th e efficacy of an idea is based on proper action lo implement it. "It would be fair to say that he (Weaver) held that actions based on the right ideas will have desirable consequences. He quite correctly gave absolute priority lo ideas by recognizing the duty of philosophically sound people to lake actions. "Our conservative, political and intellectual mentor Edmund Burke did not teach us 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that men have enough good ideas,' " Mr. Blackwell declared. "Quite to the contrary, Burke's most famous words were: â&#x20AC;˘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that enough good men do nothing.' " "Particularly in our day we cannot afford lo concentrn1 either ideas or actions to the neglect of one or the other. prideful conservative intellectual who avoids association with 1c~~ elegant men of action may doom his cause.'' "The reason for the increasing success of conservative ideas in recent years in our country is not that our ideals are much more correct than those we held, say, in the Goldwater era. We prosper in many ways because we have begun to study the political process and to work together to implement our new knowledge.'' "In our day, we need still more conservatives who are firs t philosophically sound and then technologically proficient and movement oriented.'' "Good ideas have desirable consequences only if we act intelligently for them," Mr. Blackwell concluded. " We owe it to our philosophy to study how to win.'' D uring the dinner the American TFP presented Mr. Blackwell with a sword, a symbol of the common fight against communism and a token of appreciation for his advice and kindness.

TFP NEWSLETTER is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). John Horvat II, Editor. Subscription complimentary in the U.S. (fourth class) and Ca nada (third class). Rates for foreign subscriptions and list of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests and inquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter wi th credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. 16

VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY: AN OPEN EPIDEMIC N physics, the atom is normally considered an irreducible unit of matter consisting of a dense, central nucleus surrounded by a system of orbiting electrons. When the unity of this small particle's nucleus is broken, the result is a violent explosion. This simple lesson in physics may help explain the breakdown of the family, a dismal phenomenon that has been studied and lamented for several decades. This breakdown is the source o f an astonishing increase of family violence that society is finding impossible to stem. Just as the atom is the basic unit of matter, the family is the basic unit of socie ty. The term "nuclear family" has even been coined by sociologists to designate its virtual indestructibility. Throughout history, the family has proven to be .the most change-resista nt social institutio n with its tremendous capacity to brave the most adverse conditio ns. With the onslaught of the barba rian invasions and the downfall of the Roman Empire, the social order in Europe for the most part vanished; however, people still found protection in the family. Families withstood what the rest of temporal society did not. In the midst of the storm, they grew stronger and, in the course of genera tions , went o n to develop their own traditions, histories and custo ms. Yet today, bombarded by modern socia l innovations, the family, which has alwa ys proven itself so resilient, has begun to show signs of wear, a nd ta lk of its dissolution has become ever m ore frequent. Like the spli t a tom tha t un-

A Californian boy, reportedly a victim of child abuse. His mother was charged by the welfare department for abusing him by beatings, neglect and burning him with cigarettes. She was put on probation.

THE A M E RI CAN SOC IETY FO R TH E D EFENSE OF T RAD IT ION, FAM I LY AN D PRO PE RT Y

leashes large amounts of energy, the broken family has exploded with a violence proportional to the forces that once united it. famil y life is becoming so violent in the United States that sociologists are concluding th at only street crime and war are more dangerous than the home. "You are more likely to get killed, injured or physicall y attacked in your home by someone you are related to than in any other soc ia l context," sa id Richard Gelles, a Uni versity of Rhode Island sociologist who claims that the family is society's most violent group. " In fact, if violence were a communicable disease, li ke swine nu, the government would consider it an epidemic," Gelles said (Rocky Mountain News, 8/21/84). Sociologists estimate that nearly 16 mi llion Americans are affected by so me form of family vio lence, and projections for the future indicate that this number wiII increase .

Sue Mihalik of the Texas Educa: tion Agency, training shou ld start in kindergarten teaching decision-making and problemsolving sk ills; the topic of suicide would be introduced later at age nine. "Students sho uld be taught when they are young how to deal with various situations rather than waiting until they get into a crisis situation," she noted (Corpus Christi Times, 2/ I 9/ 85). Uncertain Future

A recent report fro m Family Service America, a n umbrella group for the estimated 275 non profit fam ily service agenc ies in the United Stat es and Canada, paints a grim pictu re of the family in the future. T he repo rt forecast s more cohabitation, si ngle-person households, unwed single-parent families and homosexual couples. This wi ll be the result of today's sexual permissiveness caused by weakened religious, social and legal restrictions. In this light , the predict ion of Forms of V iolence a n increase of vio lence in the family as we ll as intervention by The future holds few happy endings for the children who According to a report released are caught up in today's epidemic of violence other social institutio ns and agenlast November by the U.S. Atcies should cause no surprise. torney General's Task Force o n Family director of the Chicago-based National In conclusion, the report says that Violence, shocking evidence reveals the Commiuee for the Prevent ion of Child over the next few years there will be epidemic proportions of the problem. Abuse, this figure probably represents widespread recognition of the redefi niIn panel hearings held in severa l only " the tip of the iceberg," since many tio n of the fam il y as an en tity "conmajor cities, the task fo rce consulted cases go unreported (Newsday, 2/ I 7/85). sisting of two o r more people joined toover 1,000 victims of and experts on Experts point out that in most moles- gether by bonds of sharing and intimacy." fam ily violence. Some disturbing data tat ion cases the offender is not a stranger It remains to be seen if the new definiwere uncovered. but a member of the fami ly. It is estimated ti o n fit s the violent tri bal-like famil y reFor example, 20 percent of all homi- that more than one mi llion chi ldren will placi ng the trad itional " nuclear fam ily."' cides are caused by one family member be victims of such abuse by the year 2000. who kills another. Suicide is growing as an outshoot of T here were a lso investigatio ns into fami ly violence. Without the support reports of sexual molestation of elderly and guidance of the family, toda y's GENERAi. NEWS women and of infants as you ng as six- yout h finds itself abandoned and unable Pages 1-2, 4-5. 10/ 12 to deal with the stress caused by modern mo nths by fami ly members. O ther items on the report included the day d ifficu lties. COMMENTARY Officials are concerned with th e large increasing occurrence of wife battering T he Month of Mar~ number of American youngsters who are and child pornography. Page 3 One essent ial characteristic of the true committing suicide. Many of them come fam ily is the parents' love for their chil- from affluent homes with supposedly RELIGION dren. It is natural for paren ts to have a every reason to li ve. Yet they die by Pages 6-7, 16 greater love for their own children and to their own hands. AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, earnestl y desire that they have a better Physicians, therapists and psycholCIVILIZATIONS education, a more stable life and a true ogists from the American Association of Sacred Ari and Na tu ralism ascent in the scale of all values, including Suicidology claim the youth suicide rate Pages 8-9 their social sta nding. Toward this end, has doubled in a generation. parents worked, struggled and saved. According to President-elect Pamela TFP SPECIAL REPORT Today much of this has changed. The Cantor, a clinical psycho logist, mandaNew Zealand, ANZUS, demise of the family has unleashed a tory menta l health classes are needed an d the Alliance Allergy veritable reign of terror, and young to help pull the United States out of Pages 12-13 children have often become the vic tims "an international suicide epidemic" among yo ung people (San Francisco of their parents or relatives. NEWS FLASHES During 1984, reports of child sexual Chronicle, 2/7/ 85). Page 14 Legislation already exists in Califorabuse increased 35 percent over the INTERNATIONAL previous year. This trans lates into mo re nia and Florida requiring suicide education programs. A similar measure is bePage 15 than 123,000 reports of such cases . According to Anne H. Cohn, executi ve ing considered in Texas . According to

CONTENTS

THE MONTH OF MARY COMMENTARY

PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA

UR ING the month of May-the not only the wretched and the luke- who live far removed from God and month of Mary-we feel a spe- warm, but sometimes even those of the groan of the just who live torcial protection of Our Lady tha t ex- whom greater constancy in the Faith mented by the evildoers. The more somber circumstances tends to all the faithful; we feel a is expected. Those who are tenaciously faithful become and the more excruciating special joy that shines and illuminates our hearts expressing the universal to the fulfillment of duty suffer from su ndry pains grow, the more we certainty of Catholics that the in- all the adversity they meet by their should ask Our Lady to put an end dispensable patronage of our heaven- fidelit y to the Law of Christ. Yet to so much suffering-not merely for ly mother becomes even more tender, those who transgress the Law also our own relief, but for the greater more loving and more full of visible suffer, for without Christ every pleas- benefit of our souls. Sacred theology mercy and exorable condescendence ure is nothing but bitterness , and says that Our Lady's prayers anticipated the moment of the world's every joy is a lie. during her month of May. Hearts suffer, torn by the revolu- redemption by the Messias. A t this Even after the month of May tionary psychological war, which is anguished moment in history then, let passes, a remnant of this remainsif we have profited from those thirty- so intense in our days. Bodies suffer, us turn our eyes to Our Lad y with one days especially consecrated to impoverished by work, undermined confidence, asking her to hasten the Our Lady. W e are left with an in- by malady, overwhelmed by neces- great moment we all await, when a new Pentecost will kindle beacons of creased devotion, a keener confidence sities of every kind. The contemporary world could be light and hope in this darkness and and, so to speak, such an increased intimacy with Our Lady that in all li kened to the time when Our Lord restore the kingdom of Our Lord the vicissitudes of li fe we will know was born in Bethlehem: Its tortured J esus Christ on earth. We should be like Daniel, whom how to petition her with respectful mouth opens with a loud and agonizinsistence, hope in her with invinci- ing groan, the groan of the evildoers Holy Scripture describes as the "desideriorum vir," that is, a ble confidence and thank man full of great desires. her with humble tenderLet us desire many great ness for all the good she things for the glory of does us. God. Let us always ask Our Lady is the Queen Our Lady for everything. of Heaven and Earth and, And let us, above all, ask at the same time, our her for that which the mother. We ent er the Sacred Liturgy beseeches month of May with this conviction, and it becomes of God: "Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et more deeply rooted in us when we leave it, strengthrenovabis f aciem terrae'' (Send forth Thy Spirit, eni ng our faith and inand they shall be created; creasi ng our fortitude. May teaches us to love and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth). We Mary Most Holy for the glory she rightly possesses should ask, through the mediation of Our Ladv. and for a ll that she represents in the plans of Dithat God once again se11 vine Providence . It also us the Holy Ghost with teaches us to be more conthe plenitude of His gifts stant in our filial union so tha t His kingdom may with Mary. be created anew and be Children are never purified b y a renewal of more sure of the loving the face of the earth. vigilance of their mothers In the Divine Comedy, than when they suffer. All Dante wrote that praying of mankind suffers today; without the patronage of all peoples suffer-and in Our Lady is like wanting every conceivable way. to fly without wings . Let Windstorms of impiety us then confide to Our a nd skepticis m sweep Lady this heartfelt yearning and desire. The hands through minds, and crazy o f Mary will be for our whirlwinds of all types of messianism devastate prayer a pair of pure wings that will carry it them. Nebulous, confused and rash ideas filter into w ith certainty to t he The White Virgin (Spain) reflects well Mary's innocence and purity throne of God. every milieu and mislead

Fourth Conference of Brazilian

TFP Supporters Prof. Plinio Corrl!a de Oliveira during one of his speeches to TFP supporters

EARLY 3,000 people from Brazil and abroad gathered in the modern metropolis of Sao Paulo for the closing session of the Fourth National Conference of TFP Supporters. The Conference, which took place January 25-27, drew participants from 17 of Brazil's 24 states. Seventy Americans and Canadians joined delegations from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Spain and representatives from France, Germany, Portugal, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Costa Rica, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The Conference was also honored with the presence of four

priests: Fathers Olavo Pires Trindade, Antonio Paula da Silva, David Francischini and Gervasio Gobatto. A Growing Ideological Movement

America's largest nation. With its many years of conducting street campaigns, issuing. public statements and taking well-founded doctrinal positions, the TFP has been able to unite, orient and strengthen like-minded people who adhere to Catholic and anticommunist ideals. Today the TFP has supporters in 414 Brazilian cities.

The four national conferences of the Brazilian TFP have brought to light a growing and active sector of the Brazilian public whose members have suffered ideological isolation because of Three Days of Meetings their steadfast belief in the values of Christian civilization. Over 1,500 people attended the threeIn its 25-year history, the Brazilian day Conference, which included numerTFP has established itself as one of ous lectures as well as slide and videothe poles of national thought in Latin . tape -presentations.

Friends of the TFP from all walks of life gather in the House of Portugal's auditorium for the closing address 4

In the opening speech, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, president of the National Council of the Brazilian TFP, focused on how the world situation had , changed since the previous Conference in June 1984. He also spoke about the significant expansion and numerous activities of the Brazilian TFP and the other 14 TFPs and kindred associations , around the world. Special attention was given to the media uproar and unjust persecution directed against Resistencia, an autonomous kindred association of the TFPs in Venezuela. Last November a decree of the prosocialist government of Venezuelaignoring due process and without any proof of wrongdoing-forbade the public activities of the Venezuelan group. The anticommunist organization has taken its case to the Supreme Court of Venezuela. In the course of the Conference, meetings were given by several officers and mem bers of the Brazilian TFP, including Mr. Antonio A. Borelli, author of the TFP's documentary book on Fatima, Mr. Joiio Chi Dias, aide to the National Council of the Brazilian TFP, and Prof. Gustavo A. Solimeo, coauthor of a book on Brazil's Christian Base Communities. The speakers, whose presentations were enthusiastically received by the participants, lectured on timely themes such as the devastation wrought by progressivism in the Church, new tactics in revolutionary psychological warfare and the important role of the TFP supporter. A special iss ue of Catolicismo magazine on brainwashing was distributed. The study shows how the term

"brainwashing," which was coined at the time of the Korean War and used by the media to designate a process the communists used against their opponents, is now frequently employed by leftist sectors to denigrate their rightist adversaries. Citing worldrenowned psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologis ts, the study affirms that "brainwashing" is a media sloga n without scientific worth. The second day's activities included a three-hour talk where Prof. Correa de Oliveira answered questions from the audience. Nearly 3,000 participants attended the closing of the Conference in the House of Portugal's auditorium. Prof. Correa de Oliveira dealt with

the crucial role of the TFP supporter in face of the uncompromising opposition and the deplorable moral and religious situation of contemporary society. The speech, which was translated simultaneously into English a nd Spanish, was interrupted repeatedly by the enthusiastic applause of the audience. During the closing session, supporter representatives from different countries addressed the audience, giving their impressions of the three-day experience. Mr. Earl E. Appleby, Jr., special legislative assistant to Sen. J esse Helms of North Carolina, represented the American delegation. Enthusiastic Response

''What can I do to help the TFP where I live?" "Is it possible to rent a hall in our neighborhood for meetings of the TFP?" "I was very impressed by the warmth and conviviality among people of such diverse social classes." ''The TFP answers a question I have often asked myself: What direction, what route should I follow in life?" These were typical reactions of those who attended the Conference, whose truly catholic tone was in part due to the participation and convivial interaction of people from the most varied backgrounds and nationalities. In the midst of modern day confusion, gatherings such as the Fourth National Conference of TFP Supporters serve to invigorate and encourage those who, like the TFP, are inspired and guided by the traditional Âˇ teachings of the Catholic Church.

Mr. Earl E. Appleby (above) addressing the audience during the c losing session on behalf of the North American delegation (below) 5

A Modern Example of Timeless Theology MERICANS are "spiritually hun- fundamental principles of Christian become fi re, but acquires properties of fire. So also, the man united with God gry," according to a recent survey spirituality. does not become God, but acquires charconducted by the Gallu p organization. Supporters of the American TFP ÂˇT wentieth-century society, promised traveled to New York from nine states acteristics o f God. so much happiness by modern-day to attend this lect ure series. Sponsored The Holy Trinity material a nd technological wealth, finds by the Fou ndation fo r a C hristian Civiliitself fraught with vio lence a nd disil- zat ion, the talks were held at the Estate Because of the vastness of the subject lusion . Supposedly enjoying complete of Our Lady of Good Success in Bedford of divine grace, Fr. Royo Marin dedicatedâ&#x20AC;˘ freedo m , it finds itself enslaved to its and were attended by 120 people. another talk to how the Trinity dwells most disorderly appetites; in the midst The a udience was impressed by the in the soul. of its unprecedented plenty, seeds of He explai ned how the presence of God discontent have been sowed everywhere. clarity and simplicity of the expositions, can be divided into five categories: the as well as Fr. Royo Marin's way of makModern society, ignoring man's thirst for the Truth , has failed to satisfy the ing th e loftiest theological subjects ac- hypos tatic presence, the Eucharistic presence, th e presence of mani fes ta tion , the greatest needs of man- those of the soul; cessible to a ll his listeners. the result: disappointments, worries a nd weariness. Fr. Antonio Royo Marin, O.P., theologia n a nd prolific writer, is a preacher who has taken to heart the words of Our Lord and who seeks to instruct modern man on the need to seek first of a ll the kingdom of God. The buoyant 72-year-old Dominican communicates a youthful enthusiasm for the Faith. As a professor in Salamanca, Spain, he developed a spirited a nd straight forward style of teaching based upon an encyclopedic knowled ge of the Scriptures a nd the works o f Saint Thomas Aqu inas; in addition , he richl y illustrates his talks wit h exa mples fro m C hurch history a nd the lives of the saints. Fr. Royo Marin leads an intense spiritual life in conformance with his teach ing that the Eucharistic li fe and devotion to th e Blessed Mother are the bases of The Dominican theologian Fr. Antonio Royo Marin expounding sadly neglected topics . . . a fru itful apostolate.

American Audiences

Fr. Royo Marin gracio usly agreed to give several lectures during his midFebruary tour of the U nited States a nd Canada. The Do minican moralist spoke to enthusiastic audiences on themes sadly neglected in these times when socia l activism is stressed much more than the interior life, a nd the recently censured "liberation theology" is often preferred to moral theology. Fr. Royo Marin spoke first in Montreal, Canada , where he lectured o n t he necessity of the lay apostola te; in Toronto, he spoke on the social doctrine of the C hurch . In the United States, he traveled to San Francisco, where he spoke a t the University of San Francisco on the nature and knowledge of the True Faith, and to Los Angeles, where he dealt with C hristian perfection a nd the means of obtaining it. The tour ended in New York with a five-day symposium on the 6

Theology of Divine Grace

The first ta lk dealt with grace as "a divine gift that makes us sons of God a nd heirs of glory." From th is definitio n , which says "so ma ny things in so few words, " Fr. Royo Marin developed a n inspiring ta lk o n the theology of divine grace. Beginning with the mine ral kingdom , he o utlined the marvels of the five levels of C reation ; he showed how man, made to the image and likeness of God, participates in divine na ture thro ugh sanctifying grace, which raises him higher than his own nature a nd allows him to proclaim wit h Saint Paul : "We are sons of God" (Rom. 8: 16). Using a metapho r of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Royo Marin expla ined that the effect o f sanctifying grace can be compared to a piece of iron that is placed in a fire and becomes red -hot : it does not

presence of immens it y a nd the presence of indwelling. The hypostatic presence is the I ial presence of God and is proper only to Christ Our Lord. Christ does not possess God bu t is God personally . C hrist has two nat ures, hu man a nd divine, but H e is o nly o ne person, a divine person. In the Eucha rist, God is present in a un ique a nd mysterio us way: C hrist Our Lord is glorious a nd present in H is natural size despite the small size of the sacra menta l species. In the presence of manifestation, God is everywhere, even though H e does not a llow Himself to be seen everywhere. T his manifestatio n is the light of H is glo ry , which is manifest in heaven. T he fourth presence is that of immensity. God's immensity has three aspects: essence, presence and power. By essence, God gives everything its being. By presence, H e sees everything a t every

instant. By power, a ll Creatio n is in His hands, either in the right hand of His mercy or the left hand of His j ustice. Fr. Royo Marin stressed, above all, the presence of indwelling whereby God dwells in u s not only as the Creator but as a fat her a nd a friend when we are in th e state of g race: " I f any one loves me, he wi ll keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we wi ll come to him, a nd will mak e our abode with him" (John 14:23). Fr. Royo Marin complemented his meeti ng on how the Trini ty dwells in the soul wit h a penetrating talk o n the gifts of the H o ly Ghost. Us ing a metaphor, he expla ined that the virt ues (according to Saint Thomas Aq uinas there a re 54 of

Jesus Christ and Christian Life "Noblesse oblige: We must pay Our Lord's love fo r us with love," said Fr. Royo Marin in his talk on Christian life. Ho lding a crucifix, he conducted a meditation on the Passion and the characteris tics of the love of Our Lord Crucified "who loved me, a nd delivered himself for me" (Gal. 2:20) and who is the abyss of a ll vir tues, the model of sweetness, humility, pat ience and poverty. His final lecture was a s ublime overview of the funda menta ls of Mariology, whose ultima te end is the thought and love of God Our Lord . Fr. Royo Marin, a devotee of Our Lady who prays the 15 decades o f the

By providing vivid explanations that were easily understood by a ll-regardless of age or education-the renowned preacher provided valuable insights into the universali ty a nd immutability of the Faith. The mem bers, suppor ters and fr iends of the American TFP are deeply grateful for these rare expositions on the sublime treasures of the Faith, a nd they await a nxiously hi s return.

A Short Biography

Fr. Antonio Royo Marin was born in Castellon de la P lana, Spain, on January 9, 191 3. Upon finishing secondary school in Barcelona, he began his studies for the priesthood. H e studied a t San Esteban in Salamanca a nd at the Angelicum in Rome . He received his degrees in theology and philosophy in Ro me and his doctorate in Salamanca. His doctoral thesis, " Theology of C h ristian Perfection," was later adapted a nd expanded to book length under the same title and was incorporated into the famous Library of Ch ristian Aut hors (BAC). Fr. Royo Ma rin was ordained a priest in Sala manca o n June 9, I946. From 1950 to I 970, he was professor of Dogmatic Theology, Mystical Theo logy, Moral T heo logy and Spir it ua lity in Sala manca. H e has lectured in France, Spain, the United States, Canada, Colombia a nd Puerto Rico. A well-known director of spiritual exercises and missio ns, his advice is avidly sought by the fa ith fu l. For 10 consecutive years, he directed the Lenten con... to attentive and receptive participants of the five-day symposium held in New York fere nces over Radio Nacional de Espana. The program had a large following that included ma ny of the nation's hig hest them) are like the keys of a piano placed Rosary dail y, expounded the C hurch's dignitaries. A P reacher General of the by Our Lord in our souls that can be teachings o n the Immaculate ConcepDominican Order, his eloquence and zeal played whenever we wa nt ; howeve r, the tion, the Annuncia ti o n a nd the Assumpfor the Faith have made him 0 ne of gi fts of th e H oly G host a re lik e the tio n of O ur Lad y. He demonstrated how Spain 's greatest contempora ry t ~ strings of a ha rp that can be plucked only the Blessed Virgin is a model o f faith, To date he has written 24 buut-. s, by the P araclete Himself. With th e help purit y a nd humility and exho rted his numbering 5 10,000 copies . His works of grace, we play the pia no, but we are listeners to a lways maintain an intense include Theology of Christian Perfecpoor pian ists. The Holy Ghost, knowing true devotion to the Mothe r of God of tion, Theology of Salvation, Theology this, helps us by playing the harp, which whom Saint Bernard said: "God Our of Charity, Theology of Faith, Theology is beyond our reach , with His in fin ite Lord collected a ll the water and called of H ope, Moral Theology for the Layperfection. A n electronic fusio n, so to it mare (sea), and all the g race of heaven man, Spirituality of the Layman, God speak, exists between His ha rp a nd our in a heart and called it Maria (Mary) . " and His Work, Jesus Christ and Chrispia no; when the H o ly G host plucks the tian Life, The Virgin Mary, The Reliseven s trings of His gifts, this music is Great Need for Spirituality gious Life, The Great Masters of the trans mitted to our piano, which we can Spiritual Life, The Great Unknown, then play almost effortlessly. This results During the ta lks, which were frequent- Doctors of the Church, The Mystery of in the performing of g reat a nd heroic ly interrupted by appla use, Fr. Roya the Beyond, The World of Today, deeds of virtue. Marin noted that today, mo re than ever, Cursil/os in Christianity, The Seven Taking exam ples from the li ves of the Catholics need to hear abo ut the prinLast Words, Let Nothing Disturb You, sain ts, Fr. Royo Marin ill ustrated eac h ciples of Ch ristian spir it ual ity. Modern A Splendid Prayer, The Prayer of the of the seven gifts of the H o ly G host: religious instructio n often ignores much Christian, We Are Sons of God, The wisdom, piety, counsel, knowledge, undero f the Chu rch's true wealth - her trad iSacrament of Forgiveness and The Faith standing, fortit ude a nd fear of the Lord. tions and timeless teachings. of the Church. 7

SACRED ART AND NATl UPON entering the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the first impression is one of vastness. The immense polished floor provides an open arena for the diverse pe,jormance of the filtering light. The length and height of the walls are enhanced by the tall, narrow arches. One row of arches opens to the expansive gardens; the other side is inset with mirrors, whose reflections add depth to the perspective. The vaulted ceiling depicts a multitude of mythical characters in abundantly rich colors, which even further accentuates the vastness of the whole. This first impression is immediately followed by another: that

of an admirable, harmonious pro- meated e very thing; it rules and portion between the heigh1, 111id1h orders, subjec1ing all forms, designs and length of the hall. The same and colors 10 one grand cen1ral could be said of the decorative theme, which reigns and shines in features of the wall at the far end: even the smallest derails. It is a the arch is in pe,ject proportion to theme abounding in grandeur, conthe curvature of the ceiling and sistency, strength, gracefuln ess to the width and height of the hall; and charm. In other words, it is the panels on both sides are exactly a fait/1/ul image of the temporal proportionate to each other and to order as envisioned by absolutism: the respective walls; the vases could a harmonious relationship of all have not been better chosen. The things, established and preserved by size of the chandelier in the room the rule of the strong, enlightened, beyond is pe,ject when seen through fatherly and always invincible will the arch. Similar observations of the king. could be made about each of the This harmony is not just triummany decorative features that em- phant, but also festive. This hall bellish the hall. 111as 111ade for glory and pleasure. It is as if the same vigorous- It bears the 111ark of a society that almost unyielding-harmony per- thought it had reached pe,ject

,ALISM stability by making the will of the king its absolure center. And through this s tability, they imagined that they had reached material abundance and a pe1fect earthly well-being. In fact, this well-being does possess a high spiritual tone. All the pleasures offered by this hall are primarily intended for the delight of the soul, touching, stirring and nourishing its most noble aspects. It is a dignifying environment that makes man feel like what he really is: the king of nature.

EARTHLY well-being, earthly glory, earrhly pleasure and natural order are all reflected in this hall with admirable clarity and skill. Nature was created by God, and it is good and beautiful in itself. The artist and the Catholic thinker must acknowledge this goodness and beauty of the purely natural side of earthly life. But should he be content with this alone? What about the idea of original sin, the struggle between good and evil and the need for penance? What about the notion of death and, beyond death, that of heaven and hell? What about the concept of a redeemer who suffered and died for us amids t an ocean of indescribable sorrow and pain? What about the many lessons in Divine Revelation and the Redemption, so visible and so wet/expressed in m edieval art? In a word, what about the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Chris t? One may find many admirable sp iritual values in this environment - but they are the very values that inspired the revolution of I 789. The

stamp of pagan thought conspicuously overshadows the mark of Holy Baptism when compared with the Gothic style.

natural propriety, order and proportion; nothing expresses mysticism (in the good sense of the word, of course) or supernatural fervor. It looks like a chapel for ''Y, self-s ufficient men who des11l onTHOSE who danced in the Hall ly a prosperous earthly life and of Mirrors prayed in the chapel of who come here to visit God out the Palace of Versailles. Couldn't of s heer courtesy. Nothing seems one say that this chapel is an exten- capable of providing an ambience sion of or a complement to the for the prayers of s uffering men hall? The paintings in the chapel who fight against the world, the have a religious theme, but the devil and the flesh and who long stances, gestures and expressions of for heaven. the saints more or less resemble These two examples show the those of the mythological gods in influence exerted by the naturalis t the Hall of Mirrors . The arches and trend of the epoch on not only the colonnade have a pompous, the temporal sphere-but on the festive air. Everything reflects spiritual sphere as well.

Mr. Howard Phillips, chairman of the ConservÂˇative Caucus, at the dinner given in his honor during a weekend visit

New Right Leader Speaks to TFP Supporters

Conservatives Must Set the Agenda

, ,F

OR a ll too lo ng, conservatives have not known w here they a re g oing." If th ere is a nything that cha racte rizes Mr. H oward Phillips, c ha irma n of the C onservati ve Caucus, it is his firm sense of purpose a nd his clear idea abou t w h er e the U.S. policy has led us in the past, whe re it is leading us now a nd wha t should be d o ne in the future. The o utspoken New Rig ht leader has a lways known wher e he was going a nd has never been afraid o f break ing, crossing a nd rede finin g party lines to get the re. In this way, he has been a ble to build a no n -partisan grass roo ts lo bbying o rga nizatio n with m o re tha n ha lf a millio n su pporte rs na tio n wide. It was with great pleas ure that the A merica n TFP invited M r. H oward P hilli p s to add ress its fri e nds and s upporters on March 16 a t the Esta te o f O ur Lady of Good Success in Bedford, N .Y. T he main pu rpose o f the event, which was a ttended by over 120 guests, was to ho no r Mr. P hill ips a nd h is wife o n the occasio n of the te n th anniversary o f his organ izat ion.

Veteran of the Right During his weekend stay, the American TFP learned a n d profited from Mr. P h illips' lo ng experie nce in the American rig ht , a poli tical life th at h as mad e him a veteran of the ma ny victo ries a nd de fea ts tha t h ave marked the m o de rn political era since the la unc hing of President J ohnson 's Great Society. Mr. Philli ps is a 1962 gradu ate of Harvard , where he was active in student politics a n d was twice elected president of the stu den t council. 10

In 1960, he helped fo u nd Yo ung A mericans for Freedom a nd served on its first na tional board of di recto rs. Mr. P hillips served in various capacit ies for th e organizat ion th rougho ut the 1960s , a lways staying acti ve in grass roots organizing a nd youth leadership . After becoming associate d irector of the U .S . Office of Econom ic Opportuni ty, he was named to head the agency in 1973. His stated objective was to persuade President Nixon to eliminate it b y veto ing a ll furth e r fu nding and a u thority for its programs. While at the U .S. Office of Economic O pportunity, M r. P hillips was asto nished to see fed eral funds being funne led in to o rganizatio n s tha t were promoting ho mosexua lity a nd aborti o n , th at were work ing aga inst n a tiona l d efe nse a nd su pporting the Vietcong, a nd th a t were even advocating the d issolution of the United Sta tes . Since the found ing of the Conservative Caucus in 1974, Mr. Phillips has achieved nation a l r ecognitio n as one of the key organ izers of the New Right. H e publishes the monthly Conservative Manifesto a nd the week ly Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin . He takes active stan ds on key issues like a rms control, the crisis o f accountabilit y in governme nt , the liberal c ha lle nge to religio us liberties and the High Frontier defense system.

Honors Given During th e cele bratio n din ner, Mr. P hillips was presented with a r ic h ly wrought hand-ill uminated parc hme nt

expressing the A merican T FP's recogn itio n of his unselfish dedicatio n 10 th e improvemen t of America,s polit ical a nd m o ra l e nvironm en t a nd his ma n y achievements ove r the years . "With great personal esteem a nd with apprecia tio n for his accom p lishments," the inscriptio n reads, "t he America n Society fo r the Defense of Tradi ti o n , Family and Property (T FP) h o no rs Mr. Howard Philli ps for h is ti reless effo rts agains t social ism a nd in defense of traditiona l values. May God grant that he continue his work for ma ny years to come." " I h ave been a grea t adm irer of the work o f the Society fo r the Defense of Tradition , Family a nd P roperty ever since I first became aware of it," M r. P h illi ps rem a r ked u pon receiving th e award. " The increase in my awa reness and k nowledge of your work has not dimiPish ed, b ut has greatl y increasl esteem fo r you and m y apprec ia 1io11 1101 only fo r the sacrifices you have made , but for th e contr ibu tions th at you are making and co ntinue to m a ke. I want to pay my respects to D r. P lin io Correa de O liveira a nd wis h him good healt h a nd lo ng li fe."

Premises of Society Changed In his talk to America n T FP fr iends and supporters, M r. P hillips outlined the development o f the American conservative movement over the last 25 years. O ne o f the most importan t c hanges during this period has been a sh ift in the poli tical p re mises t hat govern society, he said. T he liberal o nslaught of the 1960s un-

dermined the premise that the state's raison d'etre is to protect God-given rights rather than to limit , alter or redefine them. Disregarding this principle has turned the state into a kind of divinity. Misguided politicians have made efforts to politicize the non-political areas of life such as the family, medicine, religion, business and education, mak ing them subject to a false claim of sovereignty by the civil government. America has also seen the demise of accountabi lity: The control of political decision making has been removed from the areas where it could be watched and controlled. Power has been increasingly transferred from the local level not simply to the state level, but to the federal level. At the federal level, it has passed increasi ngly from elected officials accountable to the public to appoin ted officials confirmed by the Senate, then on to non-confirmed officials and career bureaucrats and, ultimately, to nonprofit corporate officials .

America Consistently Conservative Mr. Phillips presented a n overview of America n politics, illustrating how the majority of Americans have consistently supported traditional values in spite o f the vast governmental aid to leftist programs, as he reviewed the development of the conservative movement in the United States. After World War II , the conservative movement began to show promising signs of growth. It received substantial in tellectual sustenance in the 1950s. However, it "was an immature movement tha t made the mistake of placing its faith in men, in placing its fait h in political parties-rather than placing its faith in enduring principles a nd in the policy objectives that flow from the pursuit of those principles." This was to have disas trous consequences after. Watergate: The conservative cause had become synonymous with the cause o f Richard Nixon a nd because of this suffered a major defeat in 1974. This was not, however, the political reality of the I 960s, Mr. Phillips said. Despite the overwhelming defeat of Barry Gold water by Lyndon Johnson in 1964, "once the American people discovered what the Great Society was all about, they immediately began to reject it at the polls." In 1966, Republicans regai ned virtually all the seats in the House of Representatives that they had lost in 1964. "There has not been any significant c hange in the strength of the left-wing democratic forces in this country since the middle 1960s," Mr. Phillips explained. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey, the candidate of the Great Society, received 43 percent of the vote; Walter Mondale received the same percentage o f the vote in 1984.

vatism to appeal to value oriented voters of America." This mask of conservatism was gradually stripped away, a nd, in 1980, Ronald Reagan won those voters back.

Emergence of the New Right

Mr. Phillips explains the conservative agenda-no more white flags of surrender

" There has been that anti-li beral majority waiting to have political leaders keep the promises that have been made to them and that have not yet been kept. Richard Nixon capitalized on this antiliberal vote, and it swept him into power; but the Nixon administration, despite media claims to the contrary, was neither conservative nor a nticommunist. In fact, Nixon's landslide victory in 1972 resulted primarily fro m George McGovern's rad ical platform. Nixon received 61 percent of the vote not by defending his own record, but by running against the radicalism of McGovern: The anti-liberal majority was still making itself heard. There was no inconsistency in the victory of Jimmy Carter. " Jimmy Carter ran as the conservative candidate in 1976. He used the symbolism of conser11

In the 1970s, the conservatives faced a new problem: The liberals were setting the agenda for debate and undermining the general interest by creating a nd organizing special interest groups who presumed to speak for the different sectors of society-blacks, women , Hispanics, the elderly, etc.-using the federal treasury to defray the cost. Unfortuna tely, because of insu fficient opposition, this problem has grown to the point that 40 billion dollars a re divided every year among thousands of such organizations. The American taxpayer's money is being used to fund the leftist programs that he opposes! Mr. Phillips observed that the New Right, seeing the left working so industriously against the public good, began to step up work with the grass roots to foster the general interest. The goal was to recruit a nd train leaders who would set the agenda for debate, bring the people the facts about how they are actually being represented in Washington and lobby members of Congress from the grass roots level. Though the battle against the ratification of the Panama Canal treaties was lost, the conservative right built up strength, influence and resources during the fight. In 1979 a nd 1980, the New Right carried on a concerted campaign against the SALT II treaty in all 50 states . By the end of that period, the ra tification was forestalled and put on the back burner. " Then in 1980, with the ground prepared, the conservative flowers began to blossom," Mr. Phillips said. "Thirteen liberal U.S. senators hit the political dust," a nd Ro na ld Reagan was elected. Mr. Phillips stated it was then tha t things began to change. "Ronald Reag. by virtue of his no minatio n and electio1, to the presidency, became the repository o f conservative hopes a nd the symbol of conservative leadership." And with his election, the conservative movement entered a period of great danger and frustration.

Campaign Promises and Aftermath

A gracious Mrs. Phillips receives a bouquet of roses- our token of wa rm friendship

Mr. Phillips recalled hearing President Ford 's first speech to the American people on August 12, 1974. "I bring you a banner of consensus, compromise, conciliation and cooperation," he had said. "What he meant, 11 Mr. Phillips observed, "was: 'You have my surrender. ' And this has been the failure of su pposedly conservative Leadership in Washington and in the West. We have 11

offered the white flag of surrender all too often. We have offered consensus, compromise, conciliation and cooperation when our goal should be victory, when our goal should be to assert our principles, our premises, and to implement our objectives." The outspoken conservative leader said that the Reagan era has been somewhat disappointing since many of the policies of the current administration have been mere extensions of those from the preceding one. For example: "Although Reagan had campaigned against the ratification of the SALT II treaty, once in office, he adopted the SALT II treaty as his own, even to the extent of unilaterally dismantling one-third of America's strategic forces in order to comply with a treaty by which the Soviet Union has never abided." In Mr. Phillips' opinion, the United Stales should reject the treaty even if the Soviets were in perfect compliance. "The Polaris submarines, which cost billions to build, were destroyed at the cost of millions. A number of our ICBMs were unilaterally deactivated and destroyed with no reciprocal action on the part of the Soviets. A number of our bombers were likewise decommissioned." "I know that each of you in the TFP is a student of history," Mr. Phillips said, "and I know of no instance in the history of this century where the security of the United States has been enhanced by a piece of paper signed by a Soviet leader, whether his name was Lenin, or Stalin, or Malenkov, or Khrushchev, or Brezhnev, or Andropov, or Chernenko, or Gorbachev." Conservative Americans are now disconcertedly observing the resumption of the policy of detente and technology transfers, loans and credits to Soviet bloc countries and even military assistance to the Marxist-Leninist government of Mozambique, which is losing the war against anticommunist freedom fighters. Mr. Phillips also noted that the level of defense spending is less now than

what President Carter had recommended when he left office. Carter had asked for 200 MX missiles. Reagan is asking for I 00, and only 2 I have been approved.

New Zea]

Debt Menace Looming One of the most disturbing crises looming on the political horizon is the skyrocketing national debt, whose economic co nsequences, according to Mr. Phillips, wi ll have dire political consequences. In 1980, the total U.S. debt was $914 billion. For fiscal year 1985, it will be up to $1.84 trillion. By the administration's own projections, at the end of the Reagan term the United States may well be on the verge of a $3 trillion debt. This would mean paying a quarter of a trillion dollars in interest annually and would result in uncontrolled inflation and high interest rates. -As one possible solution, Mr. Phillips urges that America adopt a constitutional budget. "The goal of the federal government is not to redistribute resources or to achieve an equali ty of results in line with the utopian dreams of the bureaucratic left," Mr. Phillips affirmed. "The goal of the federal government is very simple: It is to establish justice and to provide for the common defense, and it is in t hose two areas that it has been most deficient."

Establishing a Pole Mr. Phillips concluded by stressing the need to put conservative principles into action even if it means forsaking party lines. He believes that conservatives must establish a refuge where people can turn in the hour of the coming economic and â&#x20AC;˘ political disaster. "Our job is to hold up a standard, just as the TFP has erected a standard, to which the wise and honest men must repair, recognizing, as stated by the first president of the United States, George Washington, that the event is in the hands of God."

The Book of Confidence

NOW AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH

by Father Thomas de Saint Laurent "This work has no other end than to incite you to the knowledge and practice of this virtue (confidence). Acâ&#x20AC;˘ cordingly, its nature, objects, foundations, and effects will be expounded here very simply. O pious reader, if this modest book should sometime fall into your hands, do not put it OUR LADY OF CONFIDENCE aside. It does not pretend to literary enc hantment or originality. It merely contains consoling truths that I have collected from the inspired books and th e writings of the saints. And this is its unique merit."-Father Thomas de Saint Laurent This spiritual class ic is now available at $1.95 postpaid from the Foundation for a Christian Civilization, P.O. Box 249, Mount Kisco, N.Y. 10549

TFP SPECIAL REPORT

HE recent mo ve by the New Zealand Labour governm ent to ban nuclear-armed U.S. warships from its ports has done more than just risk the ANZUS alliance. This unprecedented move sets t he stage fo r a scenario of flare-ups of this nature that could occur in NATO countries; it may also cause Mr. David Lange, New Zealand's prime minister, his biggest head ache to date dealing with the overwhelmingly pro-U.S. Kiwis. How New Zealand reached such a position is somewhat of a mystery. A wave of genuine anti-nuclear sentiment was incited by a minority of the- population who espouse a mixture of pacifism, neutralism, antiAmericanism and com munism. These "isms" became an election advantage for Mr. La nge, who had campaigned, in part, o n the antinuclear issue. Interpreting his victory at the polls as a "ban-thebomb" mandate, the new prime minister ran pell-mell into the ANZUS crisis while, at the same time, he attempted to pour soothing assurances into the ever-widening breach between his government's position a nd that of the Reagan ad ministration. Seemingly u nmindful of his country's past relationship w ith its natural allies-especially the United States and Australia-and of the stron g pro-West sympathy in his country, Mr. Lange took the final, fatal step of officiall y banning A me rican nu clear warships from New Zealand-a step that now seems like ly to upset the balance in the Pacific a nd elsewhere in the world. T he prime m inister defendeu .. ,, decision on the basis of h is popular support a t the polls . " If we hold certain values and o ne of them is democracy, then we yield 10 what the people wish. In New Zealand, the people have spoken , and it is no t for the United States or the Soviet U nion o r any other major power to say that they do not accept that democratic decision" (Auck/and Srar, 2/7 / 85). Some Kiwis apparently have not heard the voice of democracy expressed in exactl y the same fashion. A newly-founded organizationPeace Through Security-is seeking a national referendu m on the Labour governme nt ' s nuclear shi p

d, ANZUS, and the Alliance Allergy ban. The organization's leadership believes that such a referendum would prove the government policy's error in its assertion of brbad support from the people on this issue. Peace Through Security's founder, Dr. Jim Sprott, concedes little significance to the reported 10,000 people who qiarched through the streets of Auckland in February in support of the ban. He believes that the majority of the people had good intentions but had not really considered all the aspects of the issue. Further, he warns that strewn throughout the ranks of such demon-

Hot springs in New Zealand. We live in an

strators are "a few people who are going to use this (event) cleverly." A Dominion-McNair survey conducted in February showed that 56 percent of New Zealanders favor the government's policy. However, in a separate question, "Are you in favor o f or agai nst the Government's policy on nuclear warships?" only 48 percent were in favor; 42 percent were opposed. Moreover, 28 percent of those in favor of the ban said they would change their position if the policy resulted in damage to New Zealand's export trade; 21 percent sa id they wo uld change their minds if New Zeala nd were excluded from ANZUS. In the meantime, the Soviets are

slovakia, Prague's major daily said that the United States was afraid its other allies would catch the ' 'New Zealand disease" (ibid). Obviously embarrassed by such questionable support, Mr. Lange summoned the Russian ambassador to his offices in the capital to express his annoyance at Moscow's interpretation of the issue. Mr. Lange complained that "Tass was misrepresenting what was happening, and it was seeking to use New Zealand as some kind of lash for the United States, and that is totally unacceptable. It was also incorrect" (New Zealand Herald, 2/23/85). Some critics have claimed that all this fuss is much ado over nothing since, they say, the ANZUS treaty does little more than pledge the parties to consult together in event of a threat in tne Pacific and, should such an attack occur, to meet the common danger in accordance with each signer's constitutional process. Such are the trappings of legal exactitudes . However, alliances endure because of mutual interests and shared res po nsi bi Ii ties-not because of legal niceties. For instance, the parties to the ANZUS treaty " declare publicly and formally their sense of unity so that no potential aggressor could be under the explosive world-friends should stick together. illusion that any of t stands alone in the Pac11 ic cially emulated by other countries. area." Right now, New Zealand "ANZUS is effectively dead," the looks appallingly lonely. Hong Kong Sentinel declared, "killed For 40 years, the world has lived by David Lange who believes that a in a position of balance under the nuclear-free South Pacific is the best terrifying threat of possible nuclear defense the country needs" (Auckland war ... a balance that has, however, Star, 2/8/85). never swung toward the much-proEditorials in Indonesia and Singa- claimed nuclear holocaust. This is pore echoed warnings of the possible because the balance is more than just destabilizing effects of any ANZUS nuclear. It is also a balance of a llibreakup and stated that there was like- ances and mutual advantages as well ly to be "a great deal of support for as shared opinions and principles. New Zealand's stand" (ibid). Japanese Suddenly, New Zealand seems papers commented that New Zealand's prepared to upset the balance in the approach could cause Japan to re- Pacific for some unde fined princiexamine her own policy, which allows ple that will do nothing to prevent unrestricted access of U.S. vessels to nuclear war and may, to some small her ports. As far away as Czecho- degree, promote just the opposite. having a field day in the international press. The Soviet communist daily Pravda commented that New Zealand's ban on port access to U.S. nuclear armed or nuclear powered ships would set a precedent for European and Far Eastern allies. The communist Chinese mouthpiece, People's Daily, published a commentary endorsing New Zealand's stand. The article appeared the day before the announcement that Party chief Hu Yaobang would visit Australia and New Zealand; it added that New Zealand's position could be benefi-

NEWS FLAS18ICES Television Tragedies

Some viewers have become so addicted to their televisions that they remain glued to the screen even in the midst of the most tragic events. In Smethwick, England, for example, George Thurlow, his wife Nancy and their two daughters were in their house when it caught fire. The firemen who answered the alarm found Mr. Thurlow standing at the front door waving his arms. They rushed up the stairs through thick smoke and found Mrs. Thurlow and her two daughters sitting in a burning room, watching a television show through the haze. In an even more tragic case, a Yonkers, N.Y. postal worker with psychological problems shot and killed his wife and a son and wounded another son before killing himself. The surviving child, Jason Orgen, treated his gunshot wound with a Band-Aid, fed himself and watched television for a full day before the incident was discovered by a suspicious neighbor (New York Times, 3/6/85). World Drug Abuse Escalates

According to a United Nations report, drug abuse and related crimes reached unprecedented proportions in 1984, causing problems that threaten even the security of some countries. 11 An unprecedented number of countries and human beings are affected," the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board said. The report noted that "the abusive consumption of drugs remains a serious public health problem" in the United States. But it added that "overall percentages of new and current abusers" of some drugs are believed to be leveling off within some age groups. In Europe, the drug situation was described as "grim and deteriorating." 11 The number of abusers, involving even the very young, is growing," it said. "The number of drug-related deaths is increasing in many (West European) countries." The report was prepared by a 13member board of non-governmental experts working closely with the World Health Organization and other U.N. organizations (Rocky Mountain News, 1/18/85). 14

Supporting the Sandinistas

Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega recently admitted that Western nations supplied Nicaragua with $400 million in loans and credits in the 12-month period ending last June; communist countries, themselves recipients of Western aid, provided it with only $65 million according to Richard Pipes, Baird Professor of History at Harvard University. "That means that our allies are helping to keep the Sandinistas, Soviet allies, afloat," Pipes affirmed (Policy Review, Winter 1985). Abortion Statistics

Fifteen million babies have been aborted in the United States since 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand. Abortion supporter Dr. Irvin Cushner of the UCLA Medical School testified before a 1981 Senate subcommittee that only one percent of abortions are performed because of the mother's physical health problems. Over 12,000 abortions in 1980 were performed on unborn babies 21 weeks or older, an age when some babies born prematurely have lived. In 400 to 500 abortions every year, the "dreaded complication" occurs, and the baby is born alive. Âˇ Some 26 percent of all pregnancies end in abortions (NRL News, 2/14/85). Born Addicts

In Australia alone, at least 500 children are born every year already addicted to heroin while in the maternal womb. At the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, a special treatment program has been set up to deal with the problem. The mothers are placed on methadone, an artificial drug believed to reduce heroin craving, and the babies are sedated for up to three weeks to help them withdraw from the heroin they became dependent upon before birth. Special treatment programs are expected to be implemented in other parts of the country as well. The problem is so widespread that experts are not sure just how many babies are affected nationwide (Australian, 1/9/85).

Panama Canal Use Increase

In the period following the 1978 Panama Canal giveaway, Soviet-Cuban use of the strategic waterway has more than doubled. The increased use coincides with greater communist efforts to penetrate this hemisphere. Observers suspect that at least part of the $100 million in military hardware delivered by the Soviet bloc to the Sandinista regime in 1983 may have made its way through the canal. Even more alarming is that the United States can do little to stop such traffic according to the terms of the Panama Canal treaties. In the period 1974-78, Soviet-Cuban transits averaged less than 300 annually; in the post-treaty period of 1979-83, Soviet-Cuban use averaged 640 transits per year. According to the Panama Canal Commission, shipments through the canal are not subjected to serious inspection unless there are reasons to believe that some safety hazard exists (Human Events, 2/16/85). Japanese Youth Suicides

The breakdown of the traditional family and values, the disintegration of local community structures and the psychological pressure caused by a highly competitive school system are being cited as causes of a rash of youth suicides and violence in Japan. In Kasukabe, a 34-year-old woman strangled her daughter because she was doing badly at school and had lied about examination results (China Post, 2/4/85). A 13-year-old girl in central ,, hanged herself from a utility 1--' 01e because her classmates had told her that she was not fit to live. In 1983 alone, 657 youths between the ages of 8 and 19 took their own lives. A recent survey of school-age children showed that 26 percent of the elementary school students, 30 percent of the junior high students and 38 percent of the high school students polled had considered suicide. According to Hiroshi Azuma, professor of education at Tokyo University, "Society is changing from a welfare oriented community culture to a very competitive urban culture. The old values are gone and we do not have any clear new ones" (China Post, 2/27/85).

Sanctions, Anyone? NEW o utbreak of the political violence plaguing Zimbabwe's oneparty "democracy" is agai n ca using concern in W este rn nations. With the first elections since their indepe nd e nce sched uled for June , repo rts in Matabeleland claim that su pporters of the government opposition a re c on ve nientl y disappearin g and arc th ou ght to have bee n killed by govern ment death squ a ds . Churc h and opposi tion officials in Bulawayo, the provi ncia l capit a l, believe that nighllime squads operating in unmarked cars have kidnaped at least 56 people . Scores more have disappeared since mid-January. Diplomats not e that th e number of killings appears to have decreased fro m figures o f prev ious years . In 1983 and 1984, estimates o f dea ths were as hig h as 2,000 after government troops sealed off and "pacified" the province. Nonetheless, the use of te rrori st tactics serious ly c hallenges the va lidit y of the upcom ing e lect ions . Like the Sa ndinistas in Nicaragua, Mugabe hopes to use the elections to pacify W este rn nations who frown u pon th e recurring atrocities tha t have take n place under "democratic " rule and to allract the foreign a id dollars for the estab li shme nt of w hat he openly ca lls "a soci alis t s tate in Z imbabwe based on Ma rxist- Le nini st principl es" (New York Ti111es, 8/ 12/ 84). The serious ness o f the most recent outbreak of viole nce in Matabeleland has prompted th e rrime mini ster to cens ure those in volved. But fa r from justly punishing those responsibl e, Muga be only ve rball y reprim a nded the wayward ter rori sts, who he cla ims a re on ly unrul y part y yo uths invo lved in acts of u na uth orized vengeance for the earlier killing o f party fo llowe rs . " The re appear to be some groups of youths who, con trary to party disc ipline, are goin g abou t harassing innocent people," Mugabe d ecl a red in a February 16 speec h. " I wou ld rather have no members in the party than members who a re coerced" (New York Times, 3/8/85). According to New York Times repo rte r Ala n Cowell , however, most observe rs believe that the abductions were instigated by unidentified part y officia ls . A well-informed c hurc h official in Matabeleland said he believed the abductio ns were carried out by th e notorious North Korean -trained Fifth Brigade, which has been responsible for prior a trocities, and by members of the Youth Brigade. Tri bal politics have a lso been involved. A milli on an d a half Ndebelcs, descendants of Zu lu warriors a nd supporters of Joshua Nkomo, li ve in Matabele la11cl a nd have played a ro le in the scena rio of confusion and vio lence.

Yet w hil e the vio le nt march toward a soc ia list Z imbabwe goes on, the attention of human rig hts c hampions is concentrated further south. Sen. Edward Kenned y a nd other congressiona l c ritics a re impa tie ntly urg ing d rastic meas ures agains t South Africa. They arc heading a bipartisan drive lo ban U.S. loans, in ves tments a nd computer exports to South Africa until it dis mantles it s sys te m of racial separation. The senat o r a nd others on the "Sink South Africa " bandwagon undoubtedly wan t this stra tegic and prosperous na tion, which includes IO highl y compe titive tribal g roups, to adopt a system based on blac k majority rule . In their fervor, they ignore th e tragic lesson of Zimbabwe. Their headlong ru sh for a magical solut ion of black maj ority rule with the participation of terrorist groups in government will prove to be neither magica l nor a solution. One might even ques tion why the idea of sanctions against Z imbabwe did not occur to these defenders of human rights whe n the pla n lo establish one-party rule and abolish !)rivate property was anno unced by Muga be o r when the reports of a trociti es began to surface . ..

No Choice? A complaint of profess iona l misconduct agains t a young doc tor who refused to refer a patient to an abort ion consult a nt was recently upheld by the Medi ca l Prac titioners ' Disc ip linar y Committee of the New Zealand Medical Associat ion. When a 38-ycar-old married woma n co ns ulted her ge nera l practit ione r , whose name was withh eld by the com mittee, about an abort ion, he to ld her that his moral convictions would not al low him to re fer her for counseling and a possible abo rtion. He exp la ined to her his views about abortion, telling her that he cons idered it murder and comparable to the Nazis ' killing of th e Jews . The disciplinary com miltee found that it is a doc tor's res ponsibil ity to re fer any patie nt he ca nnot help to the appropriate authority regardless of his mora l convictio ns . The docto r's frank expla na tion of abort io n was judged "insensitive" and " unacceptable" and resulted in a censure and a fi ne of NZ$3696 (New Zealand Herald, 2/ 18/85). " It seems that doctors are no longe r a llo wed to exerc ise their conscie nce," said Mr. Pe ter Barry-Ma rtin of the Society for the Protect io n o f the Unborn C hild , whic h is protesting the action (New Zealand Herald, 2/ 19/ 85 ). Abort io n ad vocates refer to themse lves as "pro-choice" s ince they cla im that the dec isio n o f a borti o n is best left to a woman and her doc to r. It ofte n

BLASPHEMY IN FRANCE NEW fi lm is being promoted in France that should be creati ng an uproar in Catholi c circles because o f its blasphemous caricature of the life of the Holy Family. The sacrilegious film Hail Mary (le Vous Salue Marie), produced by director J ean-Luc Godard, depicts the Annunciation and Na tivity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in an unspeakably crass and outrageous way. Nothing is sacred in Godard's rendition. The Blessed Virgin is depic ted as the sensual teen-age daughter of a gas station a1tcnda111; Saint Joseph is a taxi driver, and the Archangel Gabriel, an alcoholic. Although a magazine poll indicated that 67 percent of the French public were shocked by the film, o nly two lay Cathol ic organization s protested and asked a Paris court to ban it. However , in spite of the movie's much debated art istic value, Magistrate Pierre Drai decided not to ban the film because of the" fundamental right 10 art istic freedom." Thus , he totally disregarded the affront to millions of Catholic Frenchmen. "Nothing in this film makes it po rnographic or particularly obscene,'' said Drai (San Francisco Chronicle, I /29/ 85) . Perhaps even more tragic than the film it self is the lack o f reaction by both the Frenc h clergy and laity. Weak pub lic protest must be held accou nta ble for the virtual plague in today's cinemas of "entertainment " tha t is especially horrendous to those who defend what remains of the sacred in the modern world. This grave affront to the Mother o f Goel, which is now pla ying in Parisian thea ters and enjoying widespread publ icity, illustrates well the sad sta te of con tempora ry socie ty.

ha ppe ns, h owever, that those w ho are "pro-cho ice " tolerate only those who c hoose abort ion.

Christian Schools Approximately 20,000 Christian schools are operating in the United States today, reports the l nrercessors for America Newsle((er (2/ 1/ 85 ). Informa tion from the A sso cia ti o n of C hris tia n Schools shows that three mo re Ch ristian schoo ls are o p ening every day . Today 74 percent o f American student s are in public educa tio n compared to 91 per cent in the 1950 s . 15

Key Themes of Christian Humanism

Fr. Victorino Rodriguez y Rodriguez, O.P., author of Key Themes of Christian Humanism

ODERN humanism tends to be non-theistic, emphasizing the need for man to work out his own solutions to life's problems. Although it claims to have a strong ethic code similar to that of the Christian, in actuality it is nothing but a desacralized Christianity without Christ. Amidst this confused notion of a man-centered world, Catholic theologians and Protestant scholars have sought to show that Christian beliefs embody humanism. ''The problem neither was-nor isto present Christianity in a humanistic form, nor even to outline its phenomenological aspects," notes theologian Fr. Victorino Rodriguez y Rodriguez, 0. P., in his latest book, Key Themes of Chris-

tian Humanism (Temas-clave de humanismo cristiano), published in Spanish only by Speiro of Madrid. "Rather, it is to discover all the profundity and dignity of not only being a human, but of being a Christian, made in the image of God and formed in Christ, and having eternal permanence." Archbishop Octavio N. Derisi, perhaps the most representative Thomist in the Church today, is arzobispo personal def Papa (a title that translates to "personal archbishop of the Pope") and founder and honorary rector of the Argentine Catholic University Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires. He was one of the orga nizers of the first World Congress of C hristi an Philosophy in I 979. Commenting on Key Themes of Christian Humanism, Archbishop Derisi wrote: "Fr. Victorino Rodriguez, the favorite

disciple of Fr. Santiago Ramirez, whose writings he has put much dedication and thought to publishing, is well known for his contributions to clarify the most current philosophical and theological topics in the light of the doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Church. He has brought together in this book an ensemble of writings that constitute a veritable anthropology. "To be sure, man himself is the central theme of these writings, a fact that confers unity on the whole. The ontological constitution of the person as a spiritua l sub siste nt subst a nce, his transcendent and di vi ne end, freedom and the conscience are the central topics of this book. From this nucleus is developed the study of the person's life

Archbishop Derlsi at an international congress commemorating Saint Thomas Aquinas

and scope, of the family and matrimony, of the latter's indissolubility, of the law, of political life and of the state. " The book also deals with cultureas the person cannot live without itand civilization, with the aim of defining their contents, relationships and innuence in the perfection of man. "Orderly, precisely and unequivocally, the author examines each topic from a sound philosophical and theological foundation . " This work deals with the most current questions in Western thought. Thus it contains a critique of the think ing of current theologians, such as Rahner, Schillebeeckx, Metz, Gutierrez and Fierro, as well as of orthopraxis (with its Marxist and Kantian connotations) visa-vis orthodoxy. The author's observations preda te, with not able erudition and critical sense, the denunciation o f Liberation Theology by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He has also responded to the very current problem of deeply expounding the arguments for the indissolu bility of marriage not only as a sacrament of the C hurch but also as a natural institution. "These ramifications of the different aspects of philosophical and 1 heological anthropology, both in themselves and in their relation to contemporary thought , are always dealt with in the light of Thomist doctrine and the documents of th e ecclesiastical Magisterium, which are opport unely and frequently cited a nd a mply developed. The resulting book is thus a work a t once doctrinal and sc holar ly. Its focus on the most timely issues renders it faithful to the motto Nova et Vetera of His Holiness Leo XIII in his encyclical Aeterni Patris. " The conclusion of the book, 'Saint Thomas , Christian Humani sm of Thought'- the same work presented to the first World Congress of C hristian Philosophy, which took place in Cordoba (Argentina) in I979-su mm a ri7es the scope and meaning of the , work. "In sum , Key Themes of Christia11 Humanism is not o nly what its title indicates, but much more: a profound, transparent treatise of philosophical and theological a nthropology that discusses the most current problems of man, his life and his world, and is brought to bear on the themes studied by contemporary authors. All this is expounded, developed a nd based upon the doctrine o f Saint Thomas a nd the Church."

TFP NEWSLETTER is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradi tion, Family and

Property (TFP). John Horvat 11, Editor. Subscription comp limentary in the United States (third class bulk) and Canada. Rates for foreign subscriptions and list of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests and inquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in th is newsletter with credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. 16

Courageous mujahedeen waiting for the Soviet air force, which wlil surely come,and for the Western aid that is desperately needed

According to a report by west ern diplomatic sources in New Delhi, Soviet troops recently massacred about 1,000 civilians in an eastern prov

ince of Afghanistan as punishment for their support of "rebels." The report identified a dozen villages in the Kargah district of Lagman Prov

to subjugate an unwilling population to

adversaries, and (2) to deceive and

communist tyranny. The heroic Afghan

slowly put to sleep irreducible neutral

resistance fighters, the mujahedeen, elements in society. have refused to be intimidated by the Be it by means of the terror of brute anti-natural, atheistic regime. They force or the sympathetic smile of a have overcome enormous odds to con pseudo-friendship, it is becoming increas quer seemingly insurmountable obsta ingly clear that the small yet heroic

cles; because of this, they have become

country of Afghanistan is a victim of a

a shining example for the West. by coldly explaining that the massacre Embarrassed by this example, the

psychological war of vast proportions

culminated a massive Soviet ground operation that had been launched in

Soviets are employing every possible

Terror and Savagery. Since the Soviet puppet government has totally

March.

domitable will to resist.

ince as the latest Soviet targets. It ended

means to stamp out the Afghans' in

Without emotion or commentary, In his book Revolution and Counterthe grim news appeared in a small Revolution, Prof. Plinio CorrSa de article in a major daily newspaper. Oliveira explains that when the com Tragically, no sign of public outcry munist revolution has difficulty in car appeared in its wake. It was as if the rying out ideological recruitment, it great human rights orchestra had transfers most of its energies to the missed a cue. No mass protests, sit-ins field of psychological warfare in order or impassioned headlines protested the to conquer its adversaries. deaths of these innocent and defense The distinguished Catholic writer

less civilians so brutally murdered. Psychological Warfare. For over five years now, the Soviets have occupied Afghanistan, and they are still striving

failed to win the hearts and minds of

the people, the Soviet army has un leashed a calculated reign of terror. According to the report "Tears, Blood

and Criesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Human Rights in Afghan istan Since the Invasion 1979-1984,"

almost every "conceivable human rights violation is occurring in Afghanistan, and on an enormous scale."

Published by the Helsinki Watch, a

observes that the two great goals of nonprofit organization that monitors revolutionary psychological warfare the 1975 Helsinki accord, the report are(1)to continuously and unrelenting gathers an abundant file of horrifying ly divide, disarticulate, isolate, ter rorize, defame, persecute and block its

evidence of Soviet atrocities.

Based on testimonies from refugees,

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

istan. For example, Khad, the dreaded equivalent of the Soviet KGB,is report

edly manned by Soviet agents. The Soviets are putting a major em

phasis on forming Afghan youth. They hope to raise a generation of good young

communists duly indoctrinated with Marxist ideas. Attendance at official establishments

of education is compulsory, and good students are offered better living condi

tions and university scholarships in the Soviet Union.

In November 1984, sobbing mothers watched as 870 selected children between

the ages of seven and nine were flown to

Russia for a 10-year course of study. According to some diplomatic sources, thousands of Afghan teenagers are an

The Hind Ml>24 helicopter is used by the Soviets against civilian and military targets alike

nually sent to the Soviet Union for political indoctrination and intelligence training.

the study reports "civilians burned alive, dynamited, beheaded; bound men forced to lie down on the road to be crushed by

smile of tolerance and are making some

Holding Firm. Despite all the sophis

Soviet tanks; grenades thrown into

strategic concessions to the resisting

ticated techniques of terror and indoc

rooms where women and children have been told to wait."

population.

trination, a ragtag coalition of simple

The people are asked to cooperate. After all, life under communist tyranny

Afghan countrymen, many without

more sinister maneuver is developing. The Soviets have put on a superficial

"From throughout the country come tales of death on every scale of horror,"

is really not that bad. Look at what hap

the report continues. Soviet officers

pens to those who don't cooperate .. .

routinely and savagely torture their

This psychological warfare has been

victims. Mothers are forced to watch

well calculated to make the people accept

their children being given electric shocks.

the very regime that is meanwhile mas sacring any resistance.

Husbands are forced to watch their wives

being tortured.

The Helsinki Watch report is being confirmed by Western reporters who

After more than five years of attempt ing to extirpate all Afghan traditions and

customs, the Soviets are now beginning

modern firearms, has managed to keep the modern "superpower" at bay. Their resistance demands the presence of 115,000 Russian soldiers.

Amid shortages and great suffering, the mujahedeen maintain their high morale and convictions. They control

nearly 80 percent of the countryside and enjoy widespread popular support. They are the terror of Russian and government

have infiltrated the countryside held by

to revive some of these traditionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but

garrisons and convoys. With ferocious

the mujahedeen.

to their own advantage. For the first time

tenacity and extraordinary courage, the

Indiscriminate carpet bombings of

since the Soviet invasion, the Kabul

villages, scorched-earth tactics and the

destruction of crops occur on a regular basis today. Other tactics include using

government has called a loya jirga, or a grand assembly of Afghan tribal leaders.

mujahedeen have become legendary war riors who are capable of attacking down town Kabul, air bases and major cities.

A loya Jirga was the traditional way for

Only during the day, to protect them-

chemical warfare and planting toy-like

Afghan rulers to settle complex disputes

mines that attract children.

The complex and ingenious irrigation

and political problems. Although the artificial council will

system has been ruined. Crop storage facilities have been destroyed. Nomad

to buy off enough tribal leaders so that

make no real decisions, the regime hopes

herds of camels, sheep and goats have

it can at least create the impression

been bombed by air. Famine and mal

that it is not a foreign regime.

nutrition are now well known among the

The Soviets are also now insisting that the Red Afghan flag be changed to reflect a more traditional design.

resisting Afghan population. This terrorization has taken its toll

upon the Afghans. Out of a pre-invasion

Even while it continues to bomb and

population of 15 million, as many as one Soviets and their proxies. Four million

desecrate village mosques, the govern ment now hopes to impress pious city dwellers by supporting some urban

million have died at the hands of the have fled the communist terror and live

mosques and offering a salary to sym

in neighboring Pakistan or Iran. An

pathetic mullahs.

estimated four to five million have been

In northern Afghanistan, the pro paganda being fed to the Uzbeks, Turko

driven from their villages into wretched makeshift shelters.

Press censorship inside the country has

mans and Tajiks places a special em phasis on their culture and traditions.

INTERNATIONAL

Pages 1/3 NATIONAL

Pages 4-5 RELIGION

Pages 6/9 SOCIAL DOCTRINE

Pages 10-11 TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Pages 12-13

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS

Page 13

prevented a full exposure of this policy of terror from reaching the West. None theless, it is certain that the Soviets are

border are selected and brought in to

NEWS FLASHES

give glowing reports about life under

Page 14

breaking every international treaty on

communism.

Fellow tribesmen from across the Soviet

human rights, yet they still maintain their

credibility with the world community.

Sovletization. Meanwhile, every phase of life is being systematically Sovietized.

The Extended Hand ... Amid this

An organ from the Soviet Union guides

policy of terror and genocide, an even 2

GENERAL NEWS Page 15 TFP NEWS

Page 16

each corresponding organ in Afghan TFP Newsletter

selves from overwhelming air power, do

they retreat into their mountain shelters. Even then, helicopter gunships are not

craft losses over the last five years are

Divestment and Investment assets in Asian firms in Japan, Hong WHILE liberal activists everywhere itsKong, Singapore and other countries are demanding divestment in

estimated at more than 600. But even

South Africa, Western businessmen are

marksmanship is no match for high

busy putting together investment schemes

altitude bombers and armored Hind

to exploit communist China's enormous

that are expected to benefit most from China's import binge. American and European companies will receive the

Mi-24 helicopters. With access to modern weapons and

market of one billion impoverished

remaining money. "We can't invest in

consumers.

Chinese shares, but we can invest in com

safe from the mujahedeen marksmen, who have shot them down using century-

old rifles atop high cliffs. Soviet air

The tactic of the pro-China lobby dif

panies that will profit from China's need

observers believe that the rugged mu

fers from that of the "Sink South

for modern technology during the rest

jahedeen would succeed in expelling the Soviets and toppling the puppet regime.

Africa" camp. "Stop communist op

pression: invest in China" might well

Even without this aid, the guerrillas, who

be its slogan.

of this century," explained Saumura Tioulong-Sam of the Paris-based Robert Fleming and Co. {New York Times,

have accustomed themselves to dealing

Profit-seeking capitalists reason that if enough money is pumped into com

5/20/85).

portable surface-to-air missiles, many

with impossible situations, are resolved

Western governments have also jumped

to continue the fight as long as it takes to expel the invaders.

munist China, the government might

on the invest-in-China bandwagon. The

open itself to Western capitalist influ

Local commanders are setting up

ences. After decades of East/West con

flict, the miracle of this new economic

May visit of U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige to Peking highlighted the Administration's optimistic belief

systems in anticipation of a long and

policy will supposedly bring about the

and confidence in China's display of

drawn-out war.

defeat of Maoist dictatorship.

Millions of dollars are finding their

good will toward the West. Leading a 31-member delegation of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on

schools, hospitals and even judicial

Abandoned by the West. Perhaps the

way behind the Bamboo Curtain despite

worst aspect of the Afghan psychological

recent evidence that widespread human

war is the lack of support from the West.

rights violations have not ceased in com munist China (see TFP Newsletter, vol.

The Afghans stand alone against the Soviet bear, and, instead of help and ac claim, they have received many promises and little aid.

IV, no. 13, 1985). Several investment

plans have already been unveiled. A syndicate of 10 Western banks, led

The liberal press portrays the resistance

by Deutsche Bank, West Germany's

fighters as "rebels" or "fundamental

largest commercial bank, has initiated

ists" while bestowing every title of legit

the first Eurobond issue ever guaranteed

imacy upon the usurping government. News analysts circulate the pessimistic

by the Bank of China. The seven-year, seven-percent bonds, worth $50 million, are being offered despite the Chinese

view that Sovietization is inevitable.

The Afghans also have a difficult time

government's refusal to honor nearly

understanding why the United States, in theory the world's defender of human rights, is allowing the extermination of a people without taking proportionally

$100 million of pre-revolution bonds still

strong measures.

Moreover, despite abundant evidence

of human rights violations comparable to those of the Nazis 40 years ago, the West continues to trade and negotiate with the Soviets. In fact, in the name of

relieving world tensions and promoting human rights, plans are already under

way to grant the Soviets a "most favored nation" trade status, which will give them access to both credit and Western

technology.

The Afghans have the right to expect the West to mobilize its immense cultural,

in default to Western investors.

Banks from West Germany, Great

Commerce and Trade, Baldrige sought

in this risk. Merrill Lynch International

was the only American-affiliated partner

to relax export controls on American high technology and to improve the

involved in the investment plan.

overall investment climate.

In the last year, the Bank of China has issued more than $150-million-worth of

because of the importance President

bonds in the Japanese domestic market. These moves, as well as several stock offerings inside China itself, are being

Reagan places on U.S. relations with China" {Sacramento Bee, 5/12/85

lauded as a concession by the govern ment that shows China's willingness to

use capitalist solutions to alleviate the country's economic woes.

A French brokerage house and a

military capability to oblige the Soviets

British investment bank have also come

to withdraw from their country. How

up with a novel plan. They proposed

ever, lulled to sleep with the illusion of a deceitful peace, the Free World is

can divestment advocates are demand

Afghan freedom fighters with cruel indifference.

How many Western nations fear,

the exact opposite of what South Afri ing of American universities. Their investment fund is placing money into foreign companies that are expected to

profit from China's growing appetite

vacillate, give in and retreat before Soviet

for imports.

Russia? Afghanistan is an example for these nations. Small in population, small

fund plans to invest about 80 percent of

in wealth, small in territory, it is none theless great in courage. yoL. IV, No. 14, 1985

U.S. Embassy officials said that the visit was given "presidential status

government-backed, yen-denominated

technical, economic and, if necessary,

repaying the heroic resistance of the

The Red Chinese monsterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;fed by the West

Britain, France, Japan and Switzerland have joined the business group involved

Known as Cambon Chine 2000, the

In spite of Peking's horrendous human rights record, Western liberals have not protested the Chinese invest ment craze now raging in business circles. Typically inconsistent, they instead demand divestment in pros

perous non-communist South Africa. The slow but sure dismantling of the apartheid system is not succeeding in

quelling this demand. Meanwhile, the tiniest opening by China's totalitarian regime is mis

takenly and optimistically interpreted as good will, giving Western business free reign to bail out China's crumbling economy.

I Due to their great Influence over the public, the mass media,and in a special way television, have been the main promoters of pornography NATIONAL ORNOGRAPHY has indiscrimi

nately invaded every sector of American society, breaking all barriers of age, sex and decency. It is on the newsstands, the streets and the television

cries of intolerance can or should deny

Shattering the Myths. Scott's report is

a society its right to defend itself against depravity. Pornography, with its degrad ing nature, has always deservedly been relegated to the gutter, where it belongs.

an exhaustive and demolishing reply to

and has played a major role in the decay of America's moral fiber.

A revealing new study has just been released that challenges this massive pornographic invasion. It shows that por nography is not harmless and is linked to sexual deviancy in disturbed and nor mal people alike.

Turning on the Faucet. However,

the pornography peddlers. His 50-page broadside pounds their whole philosoph ical view of man. Many of the cherished myths of Freudian psychologists are severed at their roots. With 331 foot

17 years ago, the Johnson administration

notes, Scott cites sociologists, psychol

created the Presidential Commission on that shocked the social-science research

ogists, market experts, lawmakers and feminists to substantiate his report. "Perhaps most important," Scott

community, the commission based its

says, "this study shows that pornography

research and report on a scientifically unfounded and unproven theory termed

not only affects the individual who uses it as an antecedent to deviai ual

Obscenity and Pornography. In a move

Titled "Pornographyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Its Effects on the Family, Community and Culture,"

the "catharsis hypothesis." This theory

behavior but also impacts the "lu .iial'

the study was released by the Free Con

claims that pornography serves the useful

gress Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-

purpose of relieving pent-up emotions.

person who uses it for so-called harmless enjoyment."

based public policy research foundation.

Psychotherapist and author David Alex ander Scott demonstrates how the in

crease in pornographic imagery in the media,coupled with the steady increase

Incredibly, the commission concluded

in its 1970 report that pornography (1) was harmless and even had a potential therapeutic and cathartic value;(2) had

no negative effects on adults or children; in violent and exploitative behavior (3) was not a social problem; and (4) its depicted in popular television programs, production and distribution should be

The antisocial impact of sexuallyviolent pornography is often censured, but the report indicates that repeated exposure to nonviolent, so-called soft

core pornography can produce bad ef fects as well.

has contributed to the steady increase in rape, child molestation, spouse abuse

free from any regulation or control.

and other related crimes.

Senate and President Nixon, media pro

generates monstrous consequences. Scott sustains four major contentions about its

motion of the unfounded "no harm"

effects; (1) it destabilizes marriages,

to human weakness, the depiction of

theory of pornography opened the fau cets of filth on the American public, who for the most part swallowed the

violent or anti-natural immoral acts too

commission's absurd conclusions whole

leading to a devaluation and depreciation of the importance of monogamy and to a lack of confidence in matrimony as either a viable or lasting institution;(2)

often induces others to practice them. No

and unexamined.

it desensitizes the minds of its adherents

In normal times, such a study would hardly seem necessary. Pornography is not an issue that can be defended. Due

Although soundly rejected by the U.S.

Horrible Outgrowths. Pornography

TFP Newsletteb

parts. A conditioning process often transforms well-adjusted men into cal

to the worst moral aberrations;(3) it is

addictive, initiates soon finding them selves seeking stronger and more violent

lous killers. Today, massive desensitiz ing may have similarly disastrous results.

materials that eventually lead them to the more unusual, bizarre and deviant ones;

a view of man in which deviance is not

PORNOGRAPHY-

Fighting Back. The pornography blight has not gone unopposed. Several anti-pornography groups have called for strict enforcement of existing obscenity

deviant and in which abnormal behavior is redefined to be normal," Scott claims.

Its Effects on the

against pornography sponsors or pro

"It markets a line of products which

Family Community and Culture

moters. President Reagan armounced the formation of an Attorney General's

and (4) it is the textbook for the sex offender.

"The pornography industry markets

supports that view: drugs, prostitution, pornographic materials and products and services that support sexuallydeviant lifestyles, lifestyles which are

laws. Others have advocated boycotts

David Alexander Scott

Commission on Pornography to study

the effects of pornography on society and to possibly recommend new ways of

aggressively marketed in the media and

controlling it.

even taught in our classrooms." Not to be forgotten are the unfor

Patrick F. Pagan, director of the Child and Family Protection Institute of the

tunate victims of "harmless" pornog

Free Congress Foundation, says: "The recent research is compelling. Scott's study leads to the inescapable conclusion that pornography affects everyone.

raphy. The $4-biIlion industry makes victims of hundreds of thousands of

A new study countering the 1970 report

adolescents. Child pornography has in volved an estimated one million young children.

Television: A Violent Teacher. The

vicious propagator of pornography is not so much the so-called adult movie theater

or the repulsive magazine publisher. Every day, 50 million Americans invite the worst pornography peddlers into their homes when they turn on their television sets.

According to Scott, acts of porno

graphic violence in prime-time and old

abuse already attests to the callous insensitivity of modern man. Scott warns that one of its long-term effects in society includes the "primi-

Given these findings, the new (Attorney General's) commission will not find it

hard to alert the country of the growing dangers posed by pornography to the

tivization" of emotional relationships in

public safety and to family life."

every social stratum, which will unleash the destructive psychological processes of depreciation, devaluation, sadism, cruel ty, invidious spoiling and shamelessness.

Pagan suggests, however, that the most effective remedies may not be legislative. For example, he says, "The joy and contributions of chaste and

Parallel examples abound in history, such as the Nazi mobile killing squads and their present-day communist counter-

mature love are incompatible with por

nography and its effects." In the con cluding chapter of the Scott study, he states that a chaste and mature love in

Hollywood films infect 25,000 hours of

a faithful marriage is "a great contribu

network programming each year. In

tion from that family to society and to the next generation. Such mature mar

dependent broadcasters and cablecasters

generate another 200,000 hours of such

riages stem from courtships built on the

programming.

same ideals. The contributions that these

Over the years, the television networks

relationships make to the common good

have realized a profitable business by

need to be recognized and asserted."

gradually offering programming of in

creasing violence and intensity, which "Pornography—Its Effects on the Fami ly, Community and Culture" by David

the American TV addict has readily ac

cepted. In the fall of 1984, Americans were offered the largest quantity of sexual

and

nonsexual

violence and

■OA

Alexander Scott is available for $2.00

sexually-explicit programming in the history of network television. All of this has an effect upon the

Early training will have a tasting effect

from the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, 721 Second St., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002.

viewers. Psychologists Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesmann found, in a

24-year-long television-violence study at the University of Illinois, that "the continued viewing of television violence by children can have a lasting effect on their character and personality, leading

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

to serious criminal behavior and anti

social violence of all types." The team even found a relationship between the television viewing habits of

a child at age eight and the seriousness of criminal convictions of that same per son as an adult at age 30, 22 years later. Return to Barbarism. It is unreason

* Available in four languages: English, Portuguese, French and Italian Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has been destroying Christian civilization and leading the world to communism

and even more radical forms of anarchy.

able to believe that the accessibility and degradation of today's pornography will

not end up affecting society as a whole. The steady and shocking increase in violent crime, child abuse and spouse Vol. IV, No. 14, 1985

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP • P. O. Box 121 • Pieasantville, NY 10570

In South America, BCCs Are Like

UFOsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Everyone Talks About Them, But No One -* Knows What They Are

'i 4 a

The BCCs play a leading role in the social strife rocking South America and make use of church buildings for their political rallies

RELIGION

Years ago, Fr. Jacques Loew,su perior of the French worker-priests of Osasco, in the state of Sao Paulo,

Brazil, cleverly compared the Basic Christian Communities(BCCs)to UFOs:

everyone talks about them, but no one knows just what they are. As a matter of fact, even today the

BCCs are still "unidentified objects" for most people. This is normal enough since

pastoral agents (bishops, priests, nuns, lay activists) who work throughout the country but concentrate their efforts especially in certain areas, such as the outskirts of major urban centers and the countryside. The motivation behind the formation

of BCCs is always religious: people join them principally for religious and not for educational, professional or political

one of the major exponents of the BCCs,

reasons. Even the nonreligious motives

Fr. Jos6 Marins, says that the nature of the BCCs is hidden if not completely secret and that they can easily assume

(the promotion of social services or associations, for example) that can

any name or even no name.

are effective only because they are initiated by persons or institutions linked

It seems opportune, then, to draw

them out of anonymity and identify them by exposing their true character.

underlie the establishment of some BCCs

with the Church.

The inspiration to create BCCs almost always comes from the clergy and other

How BCCs Are Born. Basic Christian

pastoral agents, who usually try to take

Communities do not sprout overnight in the ground like mushrooms after a rain.

advantage of the existing religious ac tivities and structures: Rosary hours,

Basic Christian Communities are also

widespread because in some dioceses, especially those in less important com munities, the individual must belong to

some BCC in order to participate in the local religious life, even to recc â&#x20AC;˘ 'he sacraments. This forces many pe>.

participate in these communal activmes. As mentioned above, established as sociations and movements (the Marian Congregations, the Apostolaie of Prayer, the Vincentians, the Legion of Mary or, farther left in some cases, the Cursillos, the TLC and the Christian Family Move ment) are reorganized by the pastoral agents and changed into BCCs,although keeping their former names. But, in reality, only the old labels remainâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

contents change considerably. What Are the BCCs? The BCCs are

small religious groups organized by the clergy and other pastoral agents in the

Neither are they born from spontaneous

novenas, confraternities, chapel and

generation. They are, on the contrary,

parishes and chapels.

the result of the long, systematic and

traditional associations and movements. These activities are restructured from

persistent efforts of nearly 100,000

a "liberating" perspective.

perhaps even more in the smaller cities

Each BCC has 10, 30 or 50 members, TFP Newsletter

on. Most of them, however, infected by

the egalitarianism permeating the move ment, reject these formalities. Instead, The religious moti* vation of the BCCs

they adopt some type of team leadership. Nevertheless, the leaders, be they in

gives the left a pos' sibillty of success

dividuals or teams, purportedly do

Lenin never had. Al-

will of the Community, wherein all

though communism

power and authority are said to reside, consistent with the principles of Utopian

'■'*

has made atheistic

^' . ^ .▼ ^ '

revolutions triumph, it has not managed to stamp out rellbetter chance, dis-

self-management. Ostensible leadership rests in the hands of well-trained monitors (also called "stimulators," "coordinators" or

religion and led by pastoral agents such

courses in leadership techniques, man agement, group projects and group

gion. Now it stands a

LV \ \ \

I\ \^

guised In the form of I

nothing more than interpret the common

as the nuns at left.

"leaders"), who work full time giving dynamics in diocesan training centers. But those who really orient and direct

and the countryside, where 100, 200 or more people gather on Sundays for Mass

wives, laborers, clerks, shop and service workers, a few small businessmen,

the BCC are part of a small group that "works behind the scenes," a group

or "services." In the latter case, the

perhaps a teacher, and retired people; in

that "plans and makes decisions but

people are divided into smaller groups

the countryside, they are composed of blue-collar workers, squatters, co-op dwellers, small landowners and their

never appears," as one reads in the Northeast Region-1 report of the Na

families.

(CNBB).

known as ''base groups," "prayer

groups," "reflection groups," "Bible groups" or other such names (the ter minology varies greatly).

The Communities are usually organ

tional Conference of Brazilian Bishops The work of such a group, which is

ized along geographical boundaries. At

called the "leavening group" (backed

once a week, while once a month there

times,

is a meeting of the whole Community,

grouped according to age, profession or condition and divided into groups of youths, domestic help, launderers, ser

by a priest, nun or pastoral agent, of course), is carried out very cleverly in

Each base group has its own meeting

the "assembly," "plenary" or "main group." The name itself, Basic Christian Com munity (BCC), usually designates this ensemble of the various base groups—

however,

their

members are

vicemen, shantytown dwellers, the men tally disturbed, prisoners and even prostitutes. (There have been precedents

order to create the illusion that the

members actually have a part in the comanagement of the BCC and that they

are directing the group without external

usually about 10 of them—gathered

for the latter set in the dioceses of

help; in other words, it is self-managed. Fr. Pascoal Rangel rightly observes that

around a chapel or a community center. However, each one of those smaller

Juazeiro, Rio Branco, Lins and Crateus.)

it is obvious that the members of the

There are also BCCs for Indians such as

groups can also be called a Basic Chris

the Xocos from the diocese of Propria,

BCC, having been disarmed from a critical standpoint, only repeat what they have been taught by clerics or welltrained agents. But after so much repeti

tian Community (BCC), which results in

in the state of Sergipe, who invaded the

confusion, especially when an attempt is

family lands of the mayor of Porto da

made to ascertain the number of Com

Folha not long ago.

tion, won't they eventually believe that they have reached those conclusions on

The Leadership of the BCC: A Small Group That Plans and Makes Decisions

their own? This is actually one of the major artifices employed in the process

Behind the Scenes. Some Base Com munities have an internal structure of a

of conscientization.

more or less conventional nature, with

The Major Goal of the BCCs: Consci entization. Most of the pastoral agents

munities in a certain area. Each parish

or chapel can include countless Com munities.

The several BCCs of a parish, neigh borhood or section of a city are assisted and coordinated by a pastoral agent or a pastoral team\ these provide a link with the Ordinary. In some cases, the BCC group adopts

a name (for example, Community of

a president, secretary, treasurer and so

The members of the BCCs are usually recruited from the more modest, more religious

levels of society. Misled by pastoral agents, they often Join the BCCs out of religious fervor.

Christ the Liberator and Community of Christ Risen are frequently used names).

But, in general, it is known by the name of the patron saint of the local parish church or chapcl (Community of Saint

Anthony, Community of Our Lady of Aparecida) or is known merely by the name of its location (Community of Cocaia Park). Members refer to their group simply as "the Community."

Who Belongs to the BCCs? In general, the BCCs are homogeneous with respect to the cultural and socioeconomic status

of their members, each group being formed by family members, neighbors, co-workers, those who live on the same

street or in the same neighborhood, or members of a parish or chapel. In the suburbs, they usually include houseVOL. IV, No. 14, 198S

^ ft ^ © L- -

BCCs in America

The Basic Christian Community phenomenon,so common in Latin American countries, is also becoming an

American phenomenon. The small cell groups that provide the nucleus for the Basic Christian Communities (BCCs)

are also being established in certain parts of the United States, especially among Hispanic Catholics.

In a paper titled "Building Basic Christian Communitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;The U.S. Ex

perience," taken from Developing Basic Christian Communities: A Handbook

by the National Priests Councils(1979), Fr. Frank Ponce describes the BCCs' mission.

Aspiring to a world devoid of beauty, entirely functional, lalclst and egalitarian, the BCCs are slowly replacing the churches as meeting places with community centers such as this one In Macapd, Brazil, very characteristically called Community of Christ the Liberator.

"It is happening powerfully among Hispanic Catholics in this country . .. denouncing those institutions and indi viduals who would keep barriers erect." Fr. Ponce claims that the primary motivation of the BCCs is justice as they strive to build a community embodying these characteristics:

1) a vision of a communal society; 2) a deep faith; 3) an acknowledgment of its culture;

jor objective and the primary purpose of

the problem raised and their "causes": this is to judge the problem. And what

the BCCs. Approximately two-thirds of

does God think about it? The Bible is

4) a sense of commitment and fidelity; 5) personal and communal sacrifice.

the efforts of the pastoral agents is

then brought out, and a passage relating or analogous to the problem is chosen and applied to it. Finally, the time has

praiseworthy, their real objective

consider conscientization to be the ma

dedicated to conscientization. All the internal and external activities of the

While these goals may sound quite

action meetings, neighborhood projects,

the problem or change the situation is agreed upon: the group decides to pool

often appears more materialistic than religious. According to Fr. Ponce, the BCCs are used to evangelize and "conscientize"

communitarian leisure activities, cam

its efforts in order to build a communi

the masses.

paigns and pressure drives directed at public authorities are all geared to

ty center, organize demonstrations at the city hall, form an opposition group

are not only culturally radical ... but

ward this.

to run in the labor union elections, or even organize an "Operation Grab-the-

also politically radical, because they intend to work directly to challenge and

Farmer."

change the social order in which we live

Communities, worship services and celebrations, meditation, discussion and

To See, Judge and Act ... As the

Pastoral Agents Want. The meeting places vary according to the circum stances: a church, parish hall, chapel, community center, day care center,

school or simply a shed can all serve the

purpose. In many places, celebrations and meetings are held in the members' homes on a rotating basis; in other places, they are held outside in the com fortable shade of a tree or in a hidden

forest clearing. The meetings almost invariably follow the see-judge-act pattern.

After prayers and songs, the monitor,

arrived to act. Concrete action to solve

It is not difficult to see how such a

simple people who have blind confidence in anything coming from a priest, a welltrained monitor or other pastoral agent. These are adept at directing the conversa tion in the line they desire, raising ques

region. Now, missionaries in Kenya and

perspective" that suits their objectives. (Veritable Biblical "recipe files" exist

there "have neither taken root nor ap

that cover the most diverse situations.) From discussing the shortage of water,

life; the participants then relate their

reigning sociopolitical and economic regime; this is no difficult matter for the clever, well-trained pastoral agents. This

community problem (land ownership or the lack of transportation, for example)

Africa made the establishment of

always having at hand a Biblical passage, which they present from a "liberating

enter the realm of rebellion against the

important subjects that come up are

IN 1973, the Catholic bishops of East Basic Christian Communities ("'^Cs)

week's home, neighborhood or work

chosen, and the meeting deals with them. At other times, the monitor selects a

BCCs in Africa

tions slanted to their own interest and

ticipants to share incidents from last various stories. One or two of the more

down to its very roots."

procedure facilitates the manipulation of

light, transportation or the high cost of living, it takes only one small step to

stimulator or coordinator asks par

"The Basic Christian Communities

their pastoral priority in tha

Tanzania are concluding that the BCCs pealed to the people." "The crucial need is to convince Catholics of the value of the Basic Com

munity, and this cannot be done except through the witness of lived experience," said Fr. Aylward Shorter, a member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa. Fr. Shorter believes that the failure

is why Friar Betto (singled out as one of

is in part due to the fact that the

the major spokesmen for the movement) says that the BCCs have a politicalpastoral character: they cause the emer

groups were organized by the bishops, not at a grass roots level, and he

questions whether a church with a

and invites each one to talk about his

gence of a "critical consciousness."

hierarchical base and a church based

personal experiences with it. This is done

To depoliticize them, he says, is to

on community needs could coexist(Tab let, 3/30/85).

in order to see the problem. The session

deprive them of this "liberating pas

goes on to discuss the "reasons behind"

toral" character. TfP NewsLETJeH

3,596 fewer converts. According to Thomas Walsh, who compiled the sta

"I'm shocked," said Msgr. Alvin

tell any Moslem in any country or cir cumstance that by converting,"he would lose his family and friends. I would tell him that by changing his religion, he

Illig, who directs the United States Catholic Bishops' Committee on Evan gelization. "It comes as distressing and

would change his life, he would lose his way of life. I would tell him that there is only one God and that he should try

tistics, these figures are "very, very accurate."

saddening news." Some of the findings reflect the sweep

ing whirlwind of changes and attitudes

to find him through the Koran"(Long Island Catholic, 5/23/85). How the Catholic apostolate has

in American Catholic life in the postVatican II period.

changed! Zealous apostles once took to

Baptisms are down for the simple

and teach the redeeming message of the

reason that Catholics are having fewer children. David Leege, research director have slightly smaller families than

Gospel to all nations and all peoples. Today, because of an accommodating policy of compromise and concession, many peoples and nations no longer have

Protestants—a dramatic reversal from

that hope.

of the project, found that Catholics now A trend in reverse? The figures were off.

side of Morocco. He said that he would

heart the counsel of Our Lord to go forth

•

past trends.

Fewer Catholics?

Catholic church membership is no longer growing in the United States according to a recent census of

Mixed marriage is much more com mon, and changes in marriage regula tions have resulted in fewer spouse conversions.

Pius X Returns

An interesting article titled "Pope

sion has changed," claims Rev. Tom

Saint Pius X Just Appeared in the Vatican" was carried on page 43 of

"The whole mentality toward conver

American Catholics compiled by the

Gannon, director of the Woodstock

the December 16, 1983 issue of the Ger

latest Official Catholic Directory. This fact brought with it other har

Center at Georgetown University."Some of the impetus to make converts has

item contained several statements by

Fr. Ludwig, S.J.

bingers of decline; the directory noted

declined as the Church has become less

that there are fewer priests and nuns,

militant in its posture" (USA Today,

fewer Catholic marriages, fewer baptisms

5/22/85).

and conversions, and fewer children in

This downturn in numbers should be a source of concern for the Catholic

parochial schools. As of January 1, there were 52,286,043 Roman Catholics in the United States,

constituting by far the nation's largest religious denomination. This number is based on estimates submitted by priests in the nation's 18,244 Catholic parishes. The Official Catholic Directory, published annually, reported that over the last year, infant baptisms were down by 27,349 and that church mar riages declined by 2,220. There were

middle of this century. Another cause for concern should be the growing numbers of "lost sheep" who have strayed from

their parishes. There are perhaps as many as 15 million people who consider themselves Catholic but are not included on the official Church rolls due to the

fact that they are not affiliated with •

Go Forth and Teach All Nations"

According to Archbishop Hu

students and workers. There are 63

bert Michon of Rabat, Catholic

priests and some 360 nuns in the nation's

primate of Morocco, Catholics should not try to evangelize Moslems but should rather encourage them to find

two dioceses. In 1984, there were only 144 baptisms, a reflection of the steady

God in Islam.

Based in part on his decision to never attempt to convert a Moslem to the Catholic faith, the 58-year-old Frenchborn archbishop maintains cordial rela tions with King Hassan II's Islamic state.

A tragic consequence of this policy is that no native Church exists in Morocco

today. The archbishop himself admits that there are no Moroccan priests and no Moroccan Catholics. The staffs and student bodies in the dozen Catholic

schools are Moslem, and no Catholic in

decline in Church numbers.

The non-conversion policy goes beyond the mere Islamic hostility in Morocco. In an interview with NC News Service, Archbishop Michon said that even a Moroccan who displayed a real desire to become a Catholic would be discouraged from doing so. Such a person would be treated with bishop, but he would be told that "if he searches hard enough, he can find God

in Islam." The Church would even help him in this quest.

"He would not be encouraged to look

know nothing about the Catholic Church.

for God in the Catholic Church," the

The estimated 65,000 Catholics in this

primate affirmed. Archbishop Michon would even apply his non-conversion policy in areas out

l^OL. IV. No. 14, 1985

"I met with a group of priests from the Jesuit Order, to which I belong; we were to be received by the Holy Father, John Paul II. We were waiting in an adjoining parlor.

"All of a sudden, there appeared before us Pope Saint Pius X, who every

one knows died in the year 1914. He said to us these words: 'These times of con

fusion are going to last for two more years.' And he disappeared abruptly. "We were all under the most strong impression of this supernatural atmo

sphere when we had to enter for our visit with the Holy Father. He perceived that something had happened since I was very nervous. Then, speaking for everyone, I told him what had occurred.

"John Paul looked at us serenely and said:'What is this? Was he here''

"We later learned that, in fac> pe Saint Pius X has appeared to several peo ple at the Apostolic Palace." •

The onlycanonized^^pesince Saint Plus V ..f

friendship and respect, said the arch

struction is offered. Most Moroccans

country of 23 million are all foreigners, largely made up of expatriates, tourists,

The Jesuit father recounts his De

cember 9 visit to the Vatican:

Church in the United States, which experienced vibrant growth around the

a parish.

man magazine Horzu Escucha. The news

[■A

SOCIAL DOCTRINE

Socialism:Illusions and Distortions

1 i^*

adherents and the public in general. Its false promises aggravate the world's problems rather than provide corrective , remedies. The result is contradiction, corruption and, in the end, tyranny. One of the main "problems" of socie- I ty

V ■

| V & LA R li ^ ^C > 1 1 Pi 1 ^ jBFlili&S

^ ,

all men are equal and all inequallty

to men. This outlook is a distortion of fact. All

men are indeed equal—in their nature. All men have the right to life, to suffi-

cient conditions for existence, to work

*Pv\

and, therefore, to own property, to con-

/"'• I | ▼ V j| _/ j . ' | Ai2 hV 'i ?

stitute a family and, above all, to the

knowledge and practice of the true w

However, per accidens, all men are

[['v

ly superior to others, whether it be in-

tellectually or physically. Talent, virtue, ^ beauty, family, tradition and innumerable

•^SPVA'-^r' '• .*3—•

' jffW

other traits distinguish one from another,

creating inequalities. These inequalities

are just and conform to the order of the universe.

The revolutionary spirit of socialism denies these inequalities. Socialism

preaches the hatred of all authority and superiority and seeks to impose a radical and metaphysical egalitarianism that ex tends to all levels and aspects of society. This egalitarian "non-solution" has

always led to disaster. Criminal Equality. The French Revo lution was one such disaster—a socialist

<666<Z*

Russian auto workers having a meai in their unfinished factory building, it does not seem that they have taken a iiking to the sociaiist "paradise" and its equal misery for most.

predecessor of today's wilting rose of

and eloquent propagators of the Fabian

self-managing socialism. The goods of the wealthy were confiscated, the

tactic employed by the socialist and com

equality of all citizens was decreed. The result: just inequalities replaced by un just inequalities. This, in turn, caused corruption, fraud and hypocritical, impracticable laws.

paigns. His method called for the gradual transformation of a given environment

using what he termed "a constitutional

History has recorded the shameful

movement in which more respectable

swindles of the charlatans who seized

citizens and families would be enlisted

power in the homeland of Saint Louis IX

without endangering in the least their

during the French Revolution. Eloquent

social or spiritual position" '"Sixty

and audacious members of tribunals, like Danton, amassed fortunes by means of surreptitious and demagogical crimes committed in the name of liberty and equality.

Years of Fabianism," in Fabtu Jubilee edition, London, 1948,

Fabian Equality. England's Fabian Society provides another example of

'i'5. -07).

For Shaw, equality of income did not mean dividing the total income of the country into equal parts to be distributed among the population. His "equality" consisted of subtracting from the total income a sufficient amount to insure the

socialist contradictory equality. Estab

well-being and favorable conditions for

lished in 1883, the Fabians sought to

the work of intellectuals, artists, inven

change society gradually. The Fabians

tors and statesmen, without whom

took their name from the delaying tactics of the Roman general Fabius Cunctator.

culture would disappear from the face of the earth. His conception of Fabian

They helped form the Labour Represen

socialism

tation Committee—a movement that

aristocracy," among which Shaw would undoubtedly include himself (cf. ibid., p. 218).

later became the Labour party.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was one of the leaders of England's Fabian Society

munist movements of infiltrating en vironments that normally would be hostile to outright revolutionary cam

The Fabian socialist George Bernard Shaw was a theoretical preacher of equality, above all, the equality of in come. He was one of the most intelligent

would have a "democratic

This new controlling class of the socialist state would be based upon privileges acquired by work rather than TFP Newsletter

those resulting from birth, tradition, family or inheritance. Shaw proposed substituting the merit system based on an organic society's system of values for a supposed social merit system founded exclusively on

one's capacity to fulfil a certain task. This transformation of function fails to

consider the elimination of important factors in the formation of society and elitesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;such as stability, without which social subsidiarity would yield to chaotic conglomeration.

Socialist Tyranny. Socialist equality makes liberty impossible. Nalgra! Law not only guarantees man the right of honest dominion over his goods but also to choose the career to which he feels

most inclined, without the interference of bureaucratic sectors created by the collectivist state.

Because of this, socialism is, properly speaking, a "liberticidal" regime. "They (the socialists) affirm that the loss of human dignity, which results from these socialized methods of production, will be

easily compensated for by the abundance of goods produced in common that will

St. Thomas Aquinas: his thirteenth-century argumentation is still proving socialism wrong hand, impossible and unthinkable with out the use of compulsion of the most excessive kind; on the other hand, it fosters a false liberty since in such a scheme, there is no true social authori

ty, which is based not on temporal and

that the outrages committed against freedom in the economic field have no

effect whatsoever upon the religious, social and philosophical fields.

The Ideal of Serving. Since the total

material advantages, but descends from God alone, the creator and last end of

itarian state attempts to substitute itself

all things" (Pius XI, Encyclical Qua-

for total equality contradicts the very order that God put into the universe.

benefit the individual who can utilize them for the comfort and cultural im

dragesimo Anno).

provement of life. Society, therefore, as

and totalitarianism are synonyms, al

conceived by the socialists, is, on one

though some try to reassure the unwary

Thus, one may affirm that socialism

Under an anti-naturai regime, it is not surprising that the shortages are never quite over

for Divine Providence, the socialist quest

In fact. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that "since the life of man requires not only corporeal but, even more, spiritual goods, it is also necessary for some men to devote their time to spiritual things for the betterment of others, and these must

be freed from concern over temporal

matters. Now, Divine Providence pro vides for this division of various tasks

among different persons, inasmuch as some people are more inclined to one kind of work than to another"{Summa

Contra Gentiles, 3:11, chap. 134). The same may be said of intellectual work. Those devoted to intellectual work

or religious life form the controlling elements in the various sectors of social

life. As a result, they have the privilege

of making use of manual work done by those situated in the lower ranks of socie

ty. In turn, those whose station in life

does not entail work of a higher ii tual nature benefit from the effo

" -f

others dedicated to such work. In a socie

ty founded on reason, the higher the social position of a person, the more he should place himself at the service of his neighbor and the less he should care about himself.

Thus, the inequality existing in human society is an unending fountain of privileges. Where just inequality is sup pressed by communism and socialism,

the endeavor to implant false equality results in a despotic dictatorship that, in

turn, always results in unjust inequalities. Behind man's contempt for this hierarchical order established by God and his attempt to pursue the socialist fallacy exists a hatred for the height of

inequality: the supreme inequality be tween God and man.

TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Forming a New Manâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;A Report fr The deteriorating state of public

based independent education consultant

X education has long been a source of

and former teacher, has reviewed many

the text reads. "The fundamental dif ferences between those with capital and

Australian textbooks and syllabuses. He

those without remained. The latter were

comments: "Most of the social studies, environmental studies, social sciences,

invariably obliged to sell their labor for wages. They were sold whole cultures appropriate to the process, and State

concern for many Australians.

At stake is more than just academics. A school's influence is so great, especial

ly among the very young, that a whole

system of values can be transmitted to the unsuspecting youngster.

even geography, English, and some science, history and economic curricula are hostile to the society they are designed

bureaucratic and military power pro liferated to service the needs of the

to serve. Their attitude to anything in the

ruling classes."

Not surprisingly, the popularity of "peace studies" as an integral part of the

vision that frontally attacks the fun

future displays an economic illiteracy and, often, cynicism that is having a seriously debilitating effect on our

damental values of Christian civilization

young people."

liberal-to-leftist environment.

upon which Australia was built.

Mr. McGregor accuses the education elites, the syllabus committees and the Education Department of being ideo

studies has been the teachers' union,

Many parents are concerned over the growing influence of those in education who foster a new vision of societyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a

In Australia, nowhere is the battle for the moral and economic health of the

school curriculum is increasing in this

The primary promoter of these peace which has played a major role in the expanding peace movement for the past

country more important nor more sub tly waged than in the classrooms. Among education elites, evidence

logical, illogical and ill-informed. In Australian schools, this prosocialist tunnel vision of the world is

three and a half years.

exists that adherents of a new "pro

most evident in the curriculum for peace

be gleaned from the nature of the Sam

gressive" conception of life are pro

studies and human rights. The principal

Lewis Peace Prize, which is awarded by

moting courses outspokenly hostile to

teaching source for this course is Teach ingfor Human Rights, a book produced

the New South Wales Teachers Federation

by the Human Rights Commission. This

South Wales Education Department. Its

the Australian way of life, to the United States and to free enterprise in general.

The tenor of these peace studies can

and is officially promoted by the New

Social science studies are distorting

book draws much of its inspiration and

namesake, Sam Lewis, was a longtime

students' ideas of Western civilization.

information from the United Nations'

Federation activist who was also involved

Outdated and deliberately inaccurate

Declaration on Human Rights and contains many leftist distortions.

in the peace movement. He was report edly a communist party member for

persuade them that the blame for the

For example, the book interprets the

decades and closely identified with the

world's social ills and her inevitable selfdestruction can be laid at the doorstep

industrial revolution through the typical

information is doled out to children to

of capitalism. Mr. Peter McGregor, a Melbourne-

Marxist vision of class struggle.

"European class structures were

reproduced in the most hybrid forms,"

pro-Soviet faction of the party. Recently, the New South Wales Teach

ers Federation distributed a pilot re source folder to schools on the subject

Portrayed as heroes in Australian schools, these pacifist demonstrators weaken the West and do not encourage Soviet disarmament

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CmUZATIONS

I Australia of peace education. In general, it asserts that military expenditures per se promote war. It even goes so far as to present a chart demonstrating how the United States and the Soviet Union have voted

on disarmament resolutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;giving the fallacious impression that the Soviets (despite their ever-expanding empire)are the peacemakers.

The folder provides a list of various peace movements, presumably so that the students, if they so desire, may ac quire additional and similarly biased information directly from them. This is a shameful and deplorable development in Australian education.

Left-wing activists who support policies

that have never been promoted by any major political party in the country have

managed to gain free access to the na tion's classrooms to pollute young minds with their false dogmas.

This new concept of life is naturally transposed into the field of social morality. In many Australian schools, for exam ple, the Christian traditional code of

ethics has been replaced through the use of ambiguous terms such as "values

clarification." This new teaching concept allows each student to decide the moral

right or wrong of a given position or ac

tion. Values clarification has probably had its strongest impact in the area of sex education. According to statements by educational spokesmen, Australia's sex education courses have adopted attitudes that clearly conflict with the moral standards of the majority of parents. Australia is already suffering the ef

fects of a recommendation made by the Royal Commission on Human Relation ships in 1977. This statement said that

"education should be given to children in schools, to parents and medical schools about homosexuals and that selected homosexuals should be involved

in such programs." The commission also recommended that "educational courses

should reflect a view of homosexuality as a variant of sexuality." In other words, this aberration should be con

sidered a positive type of alternative

lifestyleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a proposal that has only benefited Sydney's increasingly-radical homosexual population. With the Christian moral standards

and values that once provided the very foundations of Western civilization be

ing openly challenged in the schools, it is no wonder that people are increasing ly asking, "What has gone wrong with Australia?"

VoL IV, No. 14, 198S

ORGANIC SOCIETY AND URBANISM Thisis thesquare ofSanta Maria Formosa in Venice. At the right is a smallpalace, of which only a part can be seen. In front of it is a wooden platform, probably placed there for some open-air theater presentation. The personages in the scene, who appear to have been rehearsing, are slowly going their separate ways through the empty square, in whose center is a well.

bience with its lofty spiritual note. Marked by a note of intimacy characteristic ofsmall squares, this ceremonious and distinctive micro

cosm nonetheless reveals the spirit of a society where men have not been dissolved into anonymous multitudes. Rather, they tended to form separate, organic nuclei that escaped the anonymity, isolation and annihilation of the individual by the mass.

The square isflanked on both sides by residential buildings, some more distinguished, with an air of no bility, and others more simple; this square is!How well-structured some have shops on the ground it appears! There the different clas floor. It could be called a peaceful, ses all dwell together harmonious harmonious little world, to a cer ly. How typically sacral it is with tain extent closed to the rest of the radiating center of its small the world. In it, the various social church! How different it is from classes coexist side by side: nobili some oftoday's immense, modern ty, tradesmen and laborers revolve squares where man, lost in an around the church whose campa engulfing ocean of asphalt amid a nile in the background dominates sprawling, agitated mass, can see the whole picture with dignity no farther than the cyclopic sky and maternity, enriching the am scrapers that smother him.

How picturesque and human

WIBWS New Drug Feared Police In several cities across the

Titans Dismantled

For 22 years, the nation's 50 Titan

The Yugo Is Coming

On the battleground of today's

II missiles stood in their nine-story- "car wars," where growing foreign

country are becoming concerned over the appearance of a new drug so powerful that some abusers in

deep silos ready to defend the nation

imports are biting into the American

in case of a Soviet attack.

auto market, finishing touches are

California have died with the hypo

The 330,GQ0-pound intercontinen

being made on plans to market a

dermic syringes still In their veins. Known as Fentanyl, the deadly

tal ballistic missiles, each tipped

$3,995 subcompact imported from

with a single nuclear warhead, were communist Yugoslavia. The Yugo,as it is being called, will installed in underground silos in debut this summer in dealerships Arkansas, Arizona and Kansas during claim that it can be from 100 to 3,000 times more potent than morphine, the Kennedy administration and concentrated in the Boston-to-Washformed the oldest and most lethal ington corridor. from which heroin is derived. The car's importer, Brickiin Indus Seventy-seven abusers have already single elements of America's nuclear died of overdoses in California. Sur deterrence arsenal. Tragically, these tries, is expecting to sell 70,000 cars vivors have been afflicted with acute missiles were sacrificed at SALT I. this year and as many as 450,000

drug is sold as heroin, but police

Parkinson's disease, rigid muscles and other serious conditions.

Shortly after taking office in 1981, during the next five years. With typical communist originali President Reagan ordered the deactivation of the entire fleet.

Futuristic Wedding

Today, nearly half of the missiles

ty, the car is based on the design of the Italian Fiat 127.

have been removed. In accordance

At a science exposition in Tsukuba, with the SALT treaty provisions, the

Space and Taxes

Japan, a robot "officiant" presided empty silos will be left uncovered over the marriage of Katsuo Tomat- and untouched for six months to per suri, 31, and his 23-year-old bride, mit Soviet verification of our com Reiko Suzuki. Nearly 70 onlookers pliance with the disarmament agree

No matter where ond goes, it is

impossible to escape omnipresent taxation. American businesses that want to capitalize on outer space

witnessed the event at the exposi

ment. After that, they will be dyna

tion. Keeping with the often-pragmatic computer age look, the marriage part

mited, filled with rubble and covered

industrial potential have discovered

over.

a number of tax code barriers that

ners wore metallic silver wedding garments.

Outcry Forces Removal

discriminate against space related Demonstration Tactics

Not all the campus anti-apartheid demonstrators trying to resurrect the

enterprises. Confronted by antiquated tax codes written before anyone ever

envisioned the possible commercial

State officials In Boston, Mass., student activism of the 1960s are use of space, businessmen find that removed two brothers, ages 2 and 3, concerned or misinformed students. they cannot get the investment tax

from the guardianship of two homo sexuals who had been recommended

by clergymen as foster parents. The action was taken after city

residents became embroiled in a

According to an officer of the University of California at Berkeley

credits, accelerated depreciation, or research and development credits

police, a small band of radicals seek that are available for more down-toing "total disruption" Incited students earth projects. In addition, income to violent protest.

derived from such ventures is treated

controversy over the Department of

Police chief Derry Bowles said that

as foreign income simply because

Social Services' criteria for judging

a "well-trained" core of 20 protesters,

the activities are conducted in space

the parenting ability of the two men. many of them members of the Revo Although such placements are lutionary Communist party and other

rare, state officials point out that leftist groups, used "extremely so state regulations do not prohibit phisticated" tactics to spur protesters homosexuals from becoming foster

parents since such a practice would be considered "discrimination." "We can't discriminate based on

anything," said Social Services Com missioner Marie A. Matava. Moreover, one of the men had received a recom mendation from a Unitarian pastor and the other from a Catholic priest

into violence. Such tactics created a tense situation that resulted in mass arrests that made the headlines.

officially sanctionedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even as paren tal material for the proper formation of children. 14

Legislation is presently being stud ied to update the tax code to extend the same privileges enjoyed b^ i enterprises to the space indusi , Changing Stance

Chief Bowles cited examples of radicals who brush up against an of

According to the Nationai Federa

ficer or try to wrestle an officer's

tion for Decency Journal, Planned

pistol from his holster, followed by

Parenthood was not always pro-

shouts that they are being attacked by the police. The police department

abortion.

at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in documented on film three cases of Roxbury {Corpus Christi Times, radicals using this tactic. "When you deal with these peo 5/9/85). In the name of civil rights, a deviant ple," said Bowles, "they're totally behavior that only a decade ago was different from other protesters. There deemed anti-natural has now become

and not on earth.

In 1963, Planned Parenthood pro duced a pamphlet that stated; "An abortion kills the life of the baby after

it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child

is real anger, great anger, and they you cannot have it." However, 70,000 abortions were are very physical. I absolutely believe performed at this same organize this group wants total disruption" tion's abortion facilities in 1979 {San Francisco Chronicie, 5/2/85).

TFP Newsletter

GENERAL NEWS

The Fountain Is Dry IN 1513, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon led an expedition to Florida after hearing rumors that some where in that region lay the Fountain of Youth. According to legend, he who drank of the fountain's water would be young forever.

Ponce de Leon later attempted to colonize part of Florida, but the location of that evasive fountain was never found.

Quests for a magic formula that would guarantee eternal

youth or at least dramatically extend the human life span have not ceased since his histojic quest. Special diets, super-vitamins and invigorating exercises have yielded disappointing results, having no proven value in aiding longevity.

Public health practices and modern medicine, however,

have increased the life expectancy. Average life expectancy today is 71 years for men and 78 years for women. Nevertheless, aging and, eventually, death—be it sooner

or later—indiscriminately claim all men. According to Dr. Edward L. Schneider, deputy director

of the National Institute on Aging, there are no scientifically

valid methods that increase the human life span or slow the aging process. The maximum age a person can attain

is about 115 years; this number has not changed appreciably in the last century.

Dr. Schneider, 45, became concerned about the misleading claims for products that supposedly extend the life span and decided to investigate this medical quackery that has become a multibillion-dollar business.

After an extensive review of medical research, Schneider

published his findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Schneider found that although people can take steps to improve their state of health, they cannot be certain they are delaying the date of their death. Diet restrictions, for example, may extend the life of laboratory animals, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the same may be true for man.

The idea that exercise prolongs life is a belief of the late

twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, exercise was even thought to be detrimental to the health. While it has,

in fact, been proved to be beneficial for specific organ systems, Schneider noted that studies comparing college

A European farmer facing old age with faith, dignity and joy younger too," Schneider contended (San Francisco Chron icle, 5/16/85).

However, the truth remains: despite every attempt—be it new technology, modern medicine breakthroughs, health spas

athletes and physically active people with other less active

or exotic resorts—time always outruns man and ultimately wreaks its inevitable devastation on his vulnerable mortality. Vitamin dependency also is a futile means to a longer life. Efforts would be better spent preparing for what yet ^'^^ains

people showed no discernible difference in longevity.

Laboratory studies on animals given large doses of vitamins

when time at last stands still.

A, C and E show no consistent trend

toward increasing life spans. In fact, Schneider noted that vitamin overdoses

can cause illness and bodily damage.

The Book of Confidence

The expert on aging also cited studies

crease the life span, yet he found no Yet the quest for a "fountain of youth" is apparently never-ending. For

mX' 'j"'J• mff -'JUk-- ^9 Wf\ VI' 'L...

9|||^

^ St

example, every week a Boeing 747 filled with optimistic Americans flies to Ro-

mania, where patients spend a week at

a resort being treated with Gerovital, a compound containing a mild anli-

depressant and "life enhancing" drug. They reportedly return feeling younger. It you spent a wonderful weekend

at a resort and took a mild anti-depressant, you would come back feeling Vol. IV, No. 14, 1985

IN ENGLISH

by Father Thomas de Saint Laurent

on wonder drugs that supposedly in-

evidence to substantiate such a claim.

NOW AVAILA8LE

"This work has no other end than to If incite you to the knowledge and prac- // tice of this virtue (confidence). Ac- / / cordingly, its nature, objects, founda- // tions, and effects will be expounded / / here very simply. O pious reader, if // this modest book should sometime / /

-.f. '

11 // f I /h'TV' // dijl / / //

I fail into your hands, do not put it // oun LADY of OF confided CONFIDENCE it does not pretend to iiterary / / T/ /f li/>, ,I,» oun lady

enchantment or originality. It mere- // 'y contains consoling truths that I // have collected collected from frorr the Inspired books and the writings of the saints. And this is its unique merit."—Faf/ier Thomas —

(«

( )).

, ^

de Saint Laurent

// j

—I

This spiruual spiritual classic classic is now available from the Foundation for a Christian Civilization, P.O. ' Box 249, Mount Kisco, N.Y. 10549. Suggested donation; $3.00.

TFP NEWS

TFP Sends Telegram to Pope John PaulII opinion through persua

THE FRENCH TFP

recently carried out a mass mailing campaign vigor ously protesting thefilm

sion and other peaceful means of the growing

Hail Mary (ie Vous Sa-

threatens the existence of all nations and of all that still remains of Christian civilization and the natu

communist danger that

lue, MarieA a blasphe mous and obscene por

trayal of the life of the Holy Family that has sparked heated contro

ral order in the world.

In loving acknowledg ment of the Chair of

versy. In similar cam

Peter as the supreme bul

paigns, the Canadian and Spanish TFPs also voiced

wark of Christian civili zation and the natural

their protests in response

order, our societies see

to thefilm's recent release

this attempt to show such

in Montreal and Madrid.

a film in Italy, and espe

In early May,following

the report that His Holi

cially in the Eternal City,

ness John Paul II had

seat of the papacy, as

prayed a Rosary in repara tion for the recent show ing of the blasphemous film in Rome,Prof Plinio

a most grievous affront

against humanity as a

Fra Angelico's Annunciation: an atmosphere of moral and cultural certainty

whole. For this reason,

Correa de Oliveira, president of the Na

the showing of the blasphemous and

we present Your Holiness a fervent act of reparation for the show

tional Council ofthe Brazilian TFP,sent a telegram to His Holiness on behalfof

shameless movie Hail Mary, the members

ing of this film.

and volunteers of the 15 TFPs will whole

the Brazilian TFP and the other 14 kin

heartedly unite themselves with this holy act of reparation by praying the Holy

Kissing your sacred feet and asking for the apostolic blessing, on behalf of the

dred organizations. The textfollows.

PROFOUNDLY moved by the Ro sary that Your Holiness prayed on Vatican Radio as an act of reparation for

Rosary for the same intention.

Our civic organizations, inspired by

Brazilian TFP and the other 14 kindred organizations, I am, Plinio Correa de Oliveira

the traditional teachings of the Supreme

President of the National Council

Magisterium, aim to warn world public

of the Brazilian TFP

ON May 15, the American TFP was honored with the visit of Lady Olga Maitland (photo),

Visit of Lady Olga Maitland

a well-known columnist, lecturer and pro-defense advocate from the British Isles.

Lady Olga explained her recent efforts to restore

her country's proper footing in the defense debate. Alarmed by pacifist propaganda on the nuclear issue, she launched the Women & Families for Defence organization. This thriving grass roots

organization publishes a quarterly magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Defence Campaignerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;promotes books and semi nars and takes part in demonstrations anc

es.

Lady Olga's direct approach to the problem is underscored by her belief that the defense of the West is decided not solely by heads of state and

military strategists; it is the man in the street who ultimately forms the foundation for any policy. A strong defense can only be guaranteed by an informed and alert general public. While visiting the United States, Lady Olga ap peared on NBC's "Today" show. She also met with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and pro-defense leaders in Washington, D.C.

TFP NEWSLETTER is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). John Horvat II, Editor. Subscription complimentary in the United States (third ciass bulk) and Canada. Rates for foreign subscriptions and list of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests and Inquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article In this newsletter with credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. 16

TFP NewsLeTTEB

Despite record advertising sales and circulation numbers, the na

The American Pres on the Decline?

tion's newspaper publishers and editors are becoming uneasy about a lurking distrust in the mind of the public regard ing the press. Recent studies have revealed that a se

rious credibility gap is ever widening in the mind of the American public. Ac cording to one of these studies, threefourths of all adults have some problem with the credibility of the media, and one-fifth of all adults "deeply distrust" the news media.

This has fueled the growing concern in various news organizations that the public confidence is being lost. After the Story. Several events have

highlighted the issue of press prestige. The Westmoreland and Sharon libel

trials lent credence to the notion that

something is amiss in the media. The public did not react the way the

press hoped when the media threw a tan trum during the highly successful Grena da rescue mission.

Quite recently, the public was treated to a display of dubious press behavior as reporters grappled in a shoving match to attain better positions for photographing victims of the TWA flight hijacking in order to bring America prime-time ter rorism. The terrorists themselves had to

restore order before the humiliating in terviews with captive Americans could resume. Many observers believe the me

ffp

dia served only to satiate the Shiite te rorists' craving for publicity. Self-serving Institution. According to a report prepared for the American Soci ety of Newspaper Editors, press credibili

ty is low, public suspicions are high con cerning the conduct of the press and tele

vision, and the public generally feels that reporters care more about their story

than about people.

"The media are not always believed or trusted," affirmed the report by MORI Research of Minneapolis,"and the per ception that the press exploits people rather than serves as their watchdog is an important contributor to the credibili

ty gap between people and the press." In face of the credibility crisis, will the media report a breakthrough in self-scrutiny?

Many "feel that the press invades the

THE American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

II. U\|.|, s|i{|;K! -M UWl.

privacy of ordinary people—for instance, victims of tragedy or disaster."

The report noted that the public thinks that the press often shows disrespect for standard news sources, which,

in turn, creates a "them" and "us" relationship. This has created a situation "in which

the press is seen as a self-serving, pow erful and frightening institution."

hijack

Public Distrust. The study, titled

"NewspaF)er Credibility: Building Reader Trust," was based on a series of discus sions in selected "focus groups" around the country and included telephone inter

terror .n

views with 1,600 adults.

According to the resulting statistics,

only 32 percent of those polled placed high credibility in newspapers. For the most part, newspaper and television

Intematlonal terrorism plans its actions having in mind the coverage by the Westem press

news were viewed with the same level of

inaccuracy, unfairness and arrogance" papers could be trusted versus 48 percent (New York Times, 5/7/85).

confidence; fifty-one percent felt news

attack from watchdog groups such as the tenacious Accuracy In Media (AIM).

This group manages to find enough

for television, while only 39 percent Notoriously Dberal. Conservatives

inaccuracy in the media to publish a bimonthly newsletter, syndicate weekly

of those polled thought television was unbiased compared to 36 percent for

have long complained that the liberal

newspapers.

fare offered by the establishment media

newspaper columns and hold periodical

has proven too unpalatable to stomach.

seminars.

The study said that young people be tween the ages of 18 and 24 were more

It is no secret that the traditional view

negative about press rights than other

point has often suffered at the hands of

age groups.

the nation's editor-censors, and it is on

Reporters did not rate well in the public mind as being honest and ethical,

ly natural that conservatives should com

mation, it is hardly surprising that a

plain against the unofficial dictatorial

credibility gap exists.

ranking only one step above advertising

powers assumed by the Fourth Branch.

executives and used-car salesmen.

In another recent poll, by Harris/Na

tional Opinion Research Center, the answers were even more discouraging for the press. Only 18 percent of those sur

veyed expressed "a great deal of confi dence" in the press.

There is also the widespread suspicion

A survey released by pollsters Robert

Rather than fight the media colossus,

many people have chosen to simply ig nore what it reports. Cracks are thus be

Lichter and Stanley Rothman on the views of leading reporters and editors is

ginning to appear in the media monopoly

highly illustrative of the press' liberal

structure as its power and influence over

bias.

the public continue to steadily erode. And that is exactly what is worrying

Also, in a subsequent poll carried out

by the same pollsters, students at the prestigious Columbia School of Journal

that news organizations are prejudiced. One study showed that 54 percent of

ism revealed an even more pronounced

those polled felt that reporters' personal

whelming majority of the aspiring jour nalists were nonreligious, liberal and

biases were reflected in their articles.

Bias - Credibility Problem. With the

staggering quantity of media misinfor

the nation's newspaper publishers and editors.

prejudice. The poll showed that the over pro-abortion.

Victims or Victimizers? Instead of

These views, which openly conflict

NATIONAL

Pages 1/4

striving to remedy the lack of public con

with those of mainstream America, are

fidence in the media, some editors are

reflected in the stories written by these

searching for scapegoats for the facts

reporters. The coverage of the last presi

GENERAL NEWS

presented by the MORI report.

dential campaign was a typical example

Page 5

Since 42 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement "Sometimes

of this.

there is too much freedom of the press,"

According to a study by Michael Rob inson, director of the Media Analysis

INTERNATIONAL

Pages 6-7

Project at George Washington Universi ty, coverage of the event was three times

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS,

abuse their constitutional guarantee

of a free press," some of these editors

more critical of President Reagan than

Page 8

are conveniently placing the blame on

of Walter Mondale.

and 39 percent agreed that "the media

CIVILIZATIONS

what is called "a public hostility to

"We found 12 times as much bad

HISTORY

press freedom." Others are claiming

press about the Republicans as good press," said Robinson. "For the Dem

Pages 9-10

that the credibility gap is a mere fabrica tion of "ultraconservatives" who object

ocrats, we found a different ratio. In

NEWS FLASHES

to news that does not conform to their

fact, we've found something we've never

Page 11

opinions.

found before—a good press—more good

However, Larry Jinks, senior news

press than bad press. In a ratio of one

RELIGION

vice president of the Knight-Ridder Newspapers, is more willing to lay the

and a half to one, we found the networks

Pages 12/15

offering good press" to the Democrats blame where it rightfully belongs. The (Human Events, from Wilkinson County nation's press, he says, has a serious News, 6/20/85L The liberal press has also come under credibility problem fueled by "three sins:

COMMENTARY

Page 16

TFP Newsletter

t Responding to children's needs, educators are rediscovering the importance of the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic... and character

The Return of Character Education For years, many parents and educa tors fled from teaching fundamen tal moral values to children. Rather than

declare something good or bad, moral or

immoral, they skirted the issue by pro claiming that there is no right or wrong. The separation of church and state

serving as a pretext, children were taught "values clarification," which, in effect, made ethics a purely individual

regards as right or wrong have to be taught, he is innately prepared to be sen sitive to right and wrong.

According to Jerome Kagan, profes sor of human development at Harvard University and author of several books

Education in the School. Recent ex

poses of the educational system and espe cially of the National Education Asso ciation teacher's union have caused in

creased concern in parents and motivated serious calls for reform.

on child development, research shows

Researchers are finding that the mere

that at the age of two, all children de velop a moral sense. After age two, the

introduction of more homework, better discipline and rigorous traditional grad

child's experiences either help or hinder

ing will not, in itself, generate good stu

choice.

his ability to experience guilt or shame

In this way, education was rid of its religious overtones and became "value neutral." High moral standards were eliminated, and the concepts of honor, responsibility, honesty and justice were

for committing an antisocial act (once known as a sin).

dent character. Instead, a strong and growing values-oriented movement is afoot that emphasizes what educators are calling "character education."

lost.

It is hardly surprising that today's rash

of youth misbehavior and alienation problems has prompted educators to reassess the role of values in the life of the child and to reconsider the need for

teaching wholesome values both in the home and in the school.

Education in the Home. Character-

building begins at home, and a "values clarification" training is just what a child does not need.

Contrary to what many believe, the child does not have to be "taught" a

conscience. Although the specific acts he

"When children are two," Prof. Ka

gan explains, "they experience special

This trend was reflected in a 1984

emotion when they contemplate doing something wrong or when they actually do it. This emotion is not exactly what

Gallup poll where 68 percent of public-

school parents said that the development

adults describe as guilt or shame, but

of standards of right and wrong should be a major goal of schools, a rating sec

it's akin to it. It's an unpleasant feel ing, and that feeling prevents antisocial

ond only to the 74 percent in fa T teaching children to speak and . ..le

acts" {U.S. News and World Report,

correctly.

3/25/85).

Today, more than 15,000 elementary-

In this groundwork, the family is the

school classrooms teach various courses

most important factor for instilling and

on values using materials from the A-

reinforcing values in the child's con

merican Institute for Character Educa

science and shaping his beliefs and moral

tion in San Antonio, Tex. Moreover,

code. The example of a virtuous parent or relative fosters the development of vir

there are now more than 20,000 Chris

tue in the child. The breakdown of the

States that stress character education

family has obviously diminished this character-building capacity.

above all else.

tian schools operating in the United

TFP NEWSLETTER Is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). John Horvat ii, Editor. Subscription complimentary In the United States (third class bulk) and

Canada. Rates for foreign subscriptions and list of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests and inquiries to; The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission

is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article in this newsletter with credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. Vol. IV, No. 15, 1985

Values Through Stories. Although ex

The Recognition of Reality. While the

"You've got a bunch of parents who are busy with their own careers," says

tremely late in their "discovery," many educators are now saying that it is a

trend toward teaching moral values has

yet to permeate the liberal education

Detective Paul Bishop. "They react by

grave error to divorce learning from

establishment, the mere recognition that

moral values and discipline.

these values have a place in education

throwing money at the problem and money won't do any good" [Sacra

represents a departure from the relativ

mento Bee, 6/11/85).

They are also finding that children need heroes and prototypes, and a num ber of schools are using excerpts from literary classics to teach moral values. Which values should be taught is still a matter of controversy. School districts that did not hesitate to introduce sex edu

cation and other censurable programs in

to their school curricula strictly avoid la bels like "Christian" or "conservative."

In any case, they all seem to agree that values such as honesty, responsibility and compassion have a place in the edu

ism of the 1960s. It is a hopeful sign that one more sacrosanct liberal idol is being overturned by popular demand.

Concerned parents who have fought

AIDS Threatens

the tide of educational mediocrity to the

U.S. Navy

point of creating a parallel private school system can now at least point to a body of new evidence supporting their stand to build upright student characters. With the noteworthy support of inde

pendent educators, professors and schol

cational system. There is also a consen

ars, the character education trend may yet become a serious force to be reck

sus that stealing, lying and cheating are

oned with.

bad regardless of the circumstances.

Values Through Example. The realiza tion that the teachers themselves are both

instructors and moral examples for their students is also growing.

In Baltimore County, Md., for exam ple, 80 percent of the teachers felt that they should be acceptable role models for

California's "Rat Packs" LOS ANGELES police are reporting

children.

increased problems with affluent teen agers who are forming groups that are

Even Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, says

more like secret societies than simple teenage clubs.

that "without looking under every bed," many districts could be more careful to

These youngsters glory in anarchy and destruction, and steal from their rich neighbors to support their often

select teachers of good character.

This debate concerning selection has

become especially heated in several dis tricts where educators have tried to rec

oncile the incompatibility between the education of youth and homosexuality. Values Through Ceremony. Some re searchers are calling for an end to the unceremonious, easy-going nature that modern education has assumed. They

argue that schools should utilize fre quent, well-planned ceremonial activities

luxurious tastes.

Termed "rat packs" by police, these groups include youth from some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the west San Fernando Valley whose

parents have given them almost every thing money can buy. The pampered juveniles, however, prefer to steal their luxury cars, clothes and other items.

The groups appear to have some 50

veloping Character: Transmitting Knowl

members, who are described by police as incorrigible. The money they get from their crimes is usually spent on health club memberships, fashionable clothes

edge, 27 educators, professors and edi

and gourmet dinners.

as a means for transmitting values.

In a November 1984 study titled De

Qay "rights" are incompatible with defense

CITING policies that forbid homo sexuals in the military, the Navy is seek

ing to discharge two San Diego sailors who have contracted AIDS.

Diagnosed as having the incurable disease, the homosexual sailors face discharge and may not be entitled to benefits.

According to Navy spokesman Lt.

Stephen Pietropaoli, longstanding Naval policy states that "homosexuali ty is incompatible with military life and seriously impairs the accomplish ment of the military mission, such as mutual confidence, good morale and active recruitment" [Sacramento Bee, 6/13/85).

tors recommended ceremonies that stress

the importance of group cooperation and individual effort as a means for devel

oping good character in youth. Such activities, they claim, should also stress the theme of contribution. The oc

casions should be both imaginative and

in good taste. The adults involved should participate with enthusiasm and sinceri ty, which are basic requirements for good role-modeling.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Prof, Plinio Correa de Oliveira

* Available in four languages:

English, Portuguese, French and Italian

"Good ceremonies, which can attain

precious affects, require planning and ef

Revolution and Counter-Revolution is an analysis of the causes and driving

fort, the application of imagination and

forces of the revolutionary process that since the end of the Middle Ages has been destroying Christian civilization and leading the world to communism—

the recognition of the importance of af fective life," claims Edward A. Wynne, editor of the informative Character II newsletter. "Oftentimes, such ceremo nies do not reveal new information but

essentially clarify and heighten existing

and even more radical forms of anarchy.

Direct all inquiries to: The American TFP • P. O. Box 121 • Pleasantville, NY 10570

relationships." TFP Newsletter

GENERAL NEWS

Pollution Imperils the Stained Glass of Chartres TWENTIETH-CENTURY pollution has taken its toll on one of the world's most spectacular medieval sightsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the marvelous thirteenth-century stained glass windows in the Cathedral of Chartres in France.

The cathedral's 3,000 square yards of stained glass, which have awed worshipers and visitors for over 600 years, have now fallen victim to a modern-day disease termed "glass rot." While the windows still appear brilliant and flawless to the naked eye, French art conservationists have detected pitting in the glass and lead binding, as well as color loss and decay. This extraordinary "library of stained glass" depicts Bible stories in a glass mosaic whose intensity rivals the finest ru bies and sapphires of Cartier. In fact, the rich cobalt blue created by medieval glassworkers for these windows was termed

iSeSSi

"Chartres blue."

During both world wars, the precious windows were removed and hidden in mines and in the cathedral's crypt to avert damage. However, world renowned experts are saying that these sur vivors of time and war are imperiled by the air pollution of the city graced by their dazzling presence. Arthur Beale, director of Harvard University's Fogg Museum Conservation Laboratory, theorizes that acid rain has been damaging the lead around the windows. Madeline H. Caviness, a medieval stained-glass specialist from Tufts University, says that chemicals in the air are dissolving phosphates in the glass, permitting water to penetrate. She suggests that the windows be protected with the use of exterior plate glass.

The cathedral, known as Our Lady of Chartres, was built to house a piece of Our Lady's veil donated by Charles the Bald (823-77). The church was destroyed four times by fire, but the

relic was always saved. After each fire, a larger and more beautiful church was erected, culminating in today's marvelous edifice, which attracts thousands of visitors annually to the city. Chartres, the most magnificent example of the High Gothic in France, surpassed the proportions of Romanesque architec ture by such heights that flying buttresses were introduced to support the structure.

With its stained glass windows and sculptures of tall, stately figures depicting Bible stories and allegories, the cathedral is often called a "stone Bible." The cathedral's facade has hundreds of sculptured statues, and multiple scenes represent the killing of Saint Thomas Becket, the Last Judgment, the Nativity and other historical and Biblical events.

With contemporary corruption and depravity reflected in the

No effort was spared In the building of a church for Our Lady's veil

Church Diplomacy and Bible Desecration UNDER Western pressure, the Romanian communist gov ernment gave the Protestant World Reformed Alliance reluc tant permission to send 20,000 Bibles to the ethnic Hungarian affili

ate in Romania. The Alliance leadership considered this concession a triumphant outcome of patient and persistent church diplomacy. In his talks with U.S. senators and congressmen, the Roma

nian ambassador referred to the acceptance of the 20,000 Hungarian Bibles as a sign of his regime's magnanimity toward the large Hungarian minority in Romania. These talks occurred at approximately the same time that debates were taking place on the renewal of Romania's "most favored nation" status.

This "great gesture of magnanimity," however, never benefited the would-be recipients of the Bibles. After the government-

appointed leaders of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Romania received the 20,000 volumes, no more was heard about the gift. After a long silence, the great mystery was solved when the

Bibles' whereabouts finally surfaced. The people were ho,

very atmosphere in which this glorious cathedral stands, the glass

to find that the Bibles had been recycled in the form of bu.ii-

windows of Chartres may today be facing an ignominious de terioration of a glory that has survived 600 years.

room tissue.

This desecration was discovered when people noticed rolls of tissue paper appearing on the market that contained words and characters of Hungarian origin. Words such as Esau,

Jeremiah, God and verse appeared with frequency, providing the clue to the whereabouts of the missing Bibles. A further and closer examination even distinguished the exact location of words and numbers.

It is believed that the 20,000 Hungarian Bibles found their way to a paper mill in Braila, Romania. As often happens in com munist countries, the pulp mill did a shoddy job in the trans

formation process. The Western paper, which was of excellent quality, could not be recycled by the crude pulp mill. Shreds of paper with original words and letters remained almost intact on the finished product.

This sacrilege committed by the Romanian regime is yet one more indication of its leaders' contempt for God. And such a de

The Cathedral of Chartres Is an example of medieval CathoMcity Vol. IV, No. 15, 1985

liberately impious and cynical act as the use of Holy Scriptures to make bathroom tissue demonstrates a cruel refinement of infamy.

INTERNATIONAL

THE SWEDISH HOUSEWIFE AND THE E.R.A.

WHEN Monica Kullman,29, decid ed to stay at home to be a mother and housewife,she found herself at odds with Sweden's socialist labor system,

which discourages this honorable tradi tional profession. There are no laws in Sweden against

being a housewife. However, the coun try's economic and tax systems have dis

Sweden heads toward a nationwide co-op community where life Is government-planned

solved individual wealth to such an ex tent that most Swedes earn salaries at or

nate quest to make the sexes equal, many

level needed to attain even zero popula

just below the poverty line, which is esti

tion growth.

mated at 125,000 kroner, or $13,500 a

of the incentives to build a home life have been obliterated.

year. This means that a teacher or an

Sweden's Commission on Equality

average industrial worker cannot support

a spouse and two children on one s^ary.

enforces observance of the Equality Act, a law that all but thrusts women

Most households must have two wage

into the work force. Under the act,

women are realizing the devastating ef

earners just to keep their heads above

employers must seek to ensure:(1) that working conditions are equally suited

fects of their so-called liberation.

to men and women;(2) that both sexes

women would prefer to stay at home

apply for job vacancies and are pro moted through training programs and other appropriate measures; and (3)that

these, just like Mrs. Kullman, would be

water. Even then, Big Brother must sup

ply an array of government services and grants to support a family above the poverty line. Mrs. Kullman applied for government welfare funds to supplement her hus band's below-subsistence-level salary. She was turned down. Welfare officials told her that such aid would only be available if she found a job and put her

Despite its success, the feminist lobby is not without its opposition. The Kullman case has stirred up con

troversy in Swedish society, where many Public opinion polls indicate that most with their children. However, many of

within the different work fields and staff

forced to live below the poverty level if they did so. Women promoters of the socialist

categories is even.

two-income family have recently come

the distribution of men and women

With this, Swedish women left their

under heavy fire for not representing the

traditional household domains in droves,

views of Swedish women.

two small children in day care centers. She refused and appealed to the courts, who likewise refused her support unless

enticed by a job market where employers

"Most female politicians are careerists with no urge to stay at home," said

she put herself "at the labor market's disposal." "I did not have children to give them away," she said, affirming her right to be a housewife. The equal rights legislation passed in

ment-supplied child care services facili tated the exodus and consolidated the

pro-family organization Familjekam-

cradle-to-grave control of citizens. Today, Sweden has the highest pro

panjen. "They of course find it hard to

the 1970s has taken its toll upon the

the Western world. Nearly 80 percent of

Swedish housewife-mother. In its obsti-

were being forced to increase female par ticipation in their firms. Free govern

pared to the 61 percent in the United States. If the trend continues, some ex

cialist laws and abuses.

working-age women have jobs, com

housewife will terminate within a decade

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;an accomplishment lauded by Swe

The unofficial suppression of the housewife in Sweden confirms ' tentions of American women CO.

onned

"Families with one bread-earner have

about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Feminist advocates of the meas

almost disappeared in less than 20

ure have claimed that the conservative

den's political leadership.

years," Immigration Minister Anita

opposition blew the ERA completely out

Gradin proudly pointed out on Interna

March 8. "Two supporters per family

of proportion by labeling it as a threat to the traditional family. After all, they say, the amendment does not even men

has become the norm in our country." However, the results of this feminist

tion the traditional familyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;much less at tack it. But the tragic Swedish version of

tional Women's Day, celebrated on

victory are not welcomed by many. So

the ERA illustrates that the fears of

cial statistics in Sweden indicate a decline

ERA'S opponents are well founded. Al though mothers are not actually forced to work, the incentives and conditions necessary for the housewife to thrive have been taken away, and an unbal anced and unjust equality that denies women like Mrs. Kullman the right to practice the noble profession of full-time motherhood has been brought about.

in marriage, a disintegration of the fami

ly and a radical decline in the birthrate. The overall marriage rate for this coun try of 8.3 million people has reached the lowest peacetime level ever recorded in a modern nation. Over 80 percent of the babies born to teens are out of wedlock.

Day care centers replace Swedish parents

represent us" (News-Times, 6/23/85).

Familjekampanjen, which translates to "family campaign," has been particu larly active in defending the traditional Swedish family, so undermined by so

portion of gainfully employed women in

perts believe that the era of the Swedish

â&#x2013; >

housewife Catarina Runske, a leading member of the politically independent

The birthrate is only at 59 percent of the

TFP Newsletter

MOZAMBIQUE ON THEBRINK

Communism knows no borders. Black Rhodeslan prisoners at the Chicomo reeducation camp In Mozambique's Gaza province In 1979.

The case of Mozambique illustrates one of the cruel ironies of West

ern politics. On the one hand, human rights violations abound under Maoist

neighbors who are familiar with the perilous business of forcing communism on nations.

To the west, in Zimbabwe, socialist

de Vos, Mozambique is a number one priority with Washington, and the

American embassy, especially the eco nomic and commercial sections, has

been "humming" since the signing

dictator Samora Machel. On the other,

prime minister Robert Mugabe has al

Western nations give aid, credit and even military assistance to the regime,

ready had extensive experience along this of the Nkomati Accord between Mo zambique and South Africa {Citizen, line. Many perished in his brutal cam paign to eliminate opposition in the 6/10/85). province of Matebeleland. To the north,

ostensively to promote stability in south ern Africa.

Yet, all the while, the components for

in Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere

victory over this communist dictatorship

implemented nationalization programs

lay right at hand.

and other socialist reforms that turned

Anti-Marxist guerrillas have jeopard ized the relative safety of the capital-

North Korea: A Threat to Peace

Maputoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and practically paralyzed the

the once prosjjerous former German col ony into an impoverished land. During a June meeting between the

rest of the country. South Africa's Financial Mail says

lem of insurgency in Mozambique was

DURING a recent visit to South

that despite reported progress and a

discussed. According to sources who

Korea, Costa Rican president Luis

new, cordial relationship between South

were present at the talks, the three spoke

Africa and Mozambique, the latter's internal situation is still rapidly dete

of the possibility of sending Tanzanian

Alberto Monge accused North Kore. of taking aggressive action in Cen tral America by increasing the sup

riorating. Guerrillas of the Mozambique National Resistance (MNR) are still

que's countryside to help deal with the guerrillas. The leaders also reportedly

ply of arms to the region.

active and very successful in large parts of the country. It appears that the Marx ist government's administration is crum

discussed the amount of Western and

Central America is being seriously

Eastern bloc support that would be re quired for such a move. In a press interview, Mozambique's

implications of North Korea's in

minister of information, Jos6 Luis Caba-

patch of military advisers to the

Lisbon office claimed that MNR forces

co, did not rule out the possibility of ad ditional help coming from other friends.

violence-ridden area. Costa Rica was one of the few

in Mozambique had killed over 400 government troops between May 10

When asked if his government would

countries that severed diplomatic

ever consider asking for military help

relations with North Korea after

and 31.

from Cuba, Cabaco answered that "any

The Marxist government, anticipat ing an even worse state of affairs, has decided that it is unable to cope with

country whose security and integrity

the regime was found to be in volved in the October 9, 1983 bomb

the situation alone. Not only has it ap pealed to the U.S. government for help,

friends."

but it has also sought aid from friendly

ambassador to Mozambique, Peter Jon

bling outside the two major cities of Beira and Maputo. In a recent communique, the MNR

Vol. IV, No. 15, 1985

three heads of state, the growing prob

and Zimbabwean troops into Mozambi

were being damaged by foreign forces

had the right to ask for support from Meanwhile, according to the U.S.

Monge pointed out that peace in threatened, and noted the grave creased weapons shipments and dis

ing in Rangoon, Burma, which killed 17 South Korean government officials including four cabinet members.

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS

The People and the Masses:

Simplicity and Vulgarity Dignity and distinction are considered at tributes exclusively for the higher classes by contem porary man, child of the modern-day process of "massification," which is the transformation of a people into an immense inorganic, proletarian and

anonymous mass. Vulgarity, lack of taste, and ab ject, sterile ambiences are associated with the masses. And since the higher classes seem destined to disap pear, dignity and distinction share in their decline.

The world, henceforth, will be more and more im mersed in proletarian vulgarity. One need only consider a photograph of Nikita Khrushchev or Fidel Castro, personages symbolic of communist nations, to understand to what extreme

vulgarity can go. >»t

•t • I

! *«»•• I

' <•4 •.«

contrast, our pictures show how much dignity as well as temperate and pleasing composure can imbue an ambience belonging to the poor—poor in

money, but rich in soul. In the first photograph, we see the poverty of an

obscure but immortal family—the family of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the seer of Lourdes. The room serves as both bedroom and kitchen. The large

draped bedstead is poor, but it gives an impression of repose, stability and dignity. This impression is conveyed throughout the room, accentuated by the

pious pictures common among the people and the spacious hearth around which the family members gather to warm themselves on winter evenings. The Soubirous moved into this house in 1863. Saint

■■■

Bernadette, who entered a boarding school in I860, never lived in it. •

>■

,/^FTER the domestic poverty comes the noble voluntary poverty of religious life. The sci. photograph shows part of the infirmary of the Sauu Gildard Convent, and the chair upon which Saint Bernadette died.

Naturally, the ambience is different. But the pover ty is indisputable. Nonetheless, the curtained beds, the spacious room, the statues, in short, everything, expresses

composure, dignity and recollection. Thus, this ambience is a thousand times more restful and at

tractive than that of many luxurious cubicles in today's "palaces."

Such is poverty when illuminated by the light of Christ and the smile of Mary Most Holy; it is calm, dignified, recollected, pleasant and discreetely happy.

MARX, THE CLA Y-FOOTED IDOL rWO years ago, tyrannical com

this idea in his thesis on plus valia. Yet

munist governments the world-over

Marx was exactly the kind of employer

made an attempt to celebrate the centen

he unjustifiably considered aU employers

nial ofthe death ofKarl Marx (1818-83),

to be. For a short while, he set himself

the principal ideologue ofthe communist

up in business in Germany as a publish

revolution. The effects of his nefarious to spread throughout the world like a

er. Dissatisfied with the low pay they received for their work, his pressmen went on strike almost daily because

horrible epidemic. Idolized by communists ofevery cast,

ploiters" of the workers, refused to in

recognized by progressivists as the inspi

crease their salaries.

deeds still live today as his ideas continue

Marx,acting just like the abhorred "ex

ration behind the subversive principles of "liberation theology"and celebrated by the pro-leftist mass media, the real Marx

Author of Obscenity. Before the revo lution of 1848, which shook the institu tions of many European nations, Marx

is nonetheless unknown to the general public. Particularly obscured are some curious traits ofhis mentality and works that have been disclosed in writings of

was editor in chief of the Neue Rhein-

ische Zeitung, a small, extreme left news paper that attacked the conservative poli

European intellectuals.

cies of the Prussian government. The

We would like to take this opportunity

lampoon was the very embodiment of the moral corruption of its editor, who,

tofamiliarize readers ofthe TFP News letter with the de-mythicized, real Marx, drawing upon solid documentation. He Blackmaiis His Mother. Marx's

father, a German of Jewish origin who converted to Protestantism solely to fur

Karl Marx In 1667,the yearof publication of the first volume of his verbose Das Kapltaf

far from being a disinterested defender of the "oppressed masses," boasted of his contempt for multitudes and individ uals, often calling them "human gar

bage" in his publication (cf. ibid., p. vived—he lived in London almost com

248). It was said that the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was "such an infamous

ther his career in the Prussian civil serv

pletely dependent upon the sporadic help

ice, gave his son a Voltairian education.

given to him by the bourgeois Engels. He

Young Marx's mind was crammed with

himself wrote of his miserable condition:

the impious doctrines of the eighteenthcentury French writer, as well as with

"At present, my economic situation is so bad that my wife is being sought by the

every manner of insult abound in Marx's

Hegelian philosophy. To meet his growing financial needs, the young student did not hesitate to

creditors. . . . If I do not find help, I am

correspondence. Woe be the man who dared to deviate from his "infallible"

blackmail his mother. He writes of the

lost because my family is here with me, and the last gift I received was taken in payment of a lien" (ibid., p. 251).

incident in a letter to his friend Engels: "So I wrote to my mother and threatened to draw a bill of exchange in her name;

Was this state of poverty only tem porary? No. Prof. Konrad Loew, of the University of Bayreuth, says that Marx

if she didn't pay it, I would go to Prussia and get myself imprisoned. .. . I gave

lived in a state of permanent penury that

my old lady until March 20" (Konrad Loew, Die Lehre des Karl Marx, Deutscher Instituts-Verlag, Cologne, 1982,

p. 238).

paper that most of the citizens would not touch it with a pole" (ibid.). Obscenity, licentious expressions and

ideas! Marx brooked no disagreement with his advice—even from his friends, upon whom he heaped abuses whose mildest forms include "idiot," "scum" and "oaf."

As a matter of fact, Marx even applied such epithets to himself. He described

can be traced throughout the nine vol umes of his correspondence, fruit of the

Das Kapital a.s a "nightmare,""a dam

long and indolent days of reading at the

nable work," "a filthy book" and other

library of the British Museum. Consistent with revolutionary anti-

transcribe.

terms that decency does not allow us to

Thus, it is not surprising that Engels

morality, which abhors conjugal fidelity,

refers to Marx, in words steeped in Sa tanism, as "the black boy of Treves." Communism has always striven to

Marx seduced his maid, and the bastard

she bore him was adopted by the compla

cent Engels. Not surprisingly, Marx bore

Engels works refused to even translate

eliminate the social classes. However,

little affection for his wife. On one occa

them.

the egalitarian madness that poisoned

sion, he wrote, "(she) gave birth on the

Marx's revolutionary mind did not pre

28th. It was an easy delivery, but she is in bed and very ill—for reasons more

though he termed himself a libertarian

bourgeois than physical" (ibid., p. 250).

and, in his Communist Manifesto (1848),

Of course, these hated "bourgeois"

called on all the workers of the world to

vent him from marrying a noblewoman. His wife, Jenny von Westphalen, was a maternal descendant of a high Scottish noblewoman, and her paternal ancestors

A "poet" whose lines are repleti filth, Marx wrote French verses so so that the German publisher of the Marx-

Defender of Military Dictatorship. Al

reasons were inconsequential when,

unite in order to overthrow the reigning

brother rose to become a minister of

years later, upon the occasion of his daughter Laura's marriage to French

order, which yet contained some whole some Christian traditions, Marx envisi

Prussia in the Manteuffel cabinet.

socialist Paul Lafargue, Marx inquired

oned the realization of his messianic

into the suitor's education and his fam

dreams through an iron dictatorship led

belonged to the German nobility. Her

A Remiss Husband and Father. From

a bad son, Marx went on to become an

unfaithful husband and negligent father, attitudes quite consistent with commu nist philosophy. With a numerous proge ny—of which only three daughters surVoi. IV, No. 15, 1985

ily's financial background. According to Marxist propaganda, employers are no more than thieves, who

exploit their employees by paying them salaries that do not correspond to the real worth of their labor. Marx defended

by himself. This curious contradiction is

attested to by Engels: "He was a real prophet, completely convinced of his personal mission as the predestined lib erator of the German proletariat and, as such, a direct pretender to political

farevitch, Le Phenomdne Socialiste, Edi

has not occurred. The free enterprise

tions du Seuil, Paris, 1977, p. 350).

system benefits both employers and em ployees, and the workers' class has en joyed a significant rise in standard of living. Concurrently, the peoples of east ern Europe "liberated" by communism are plunging ever deeper into the blackest

Here is an incident that illustrates how

Marx's mind was detached from reality.

While on a "research" trip to Man

chester with Engels, Marx did not even bother to set foot in a factory. He pre

ferred to bury himself in books. Sombart, the well-known sociologist,

misery.

wrote: "Marx never had a realistic view

work must be emphasized. He himself

of life, not even of economic life, which

shamelessly admitted his semantic swindlings in a letter to Engels: "If I were to foresee all the objections, I would ruin

he later studied so extensively." Marx â&#x2013;

' I

himself acknowledged his ignorance of the industrial world: "If people only Âť

The intellectual fraudulence of Marx's

my whole dialectic. On the contrary, this

knew how little I know of all this ..."

method has the advantage of laying traps

(Werner Sombart, Der proletarische Sozialismus, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena,

step by step for these gentlemen, forcing

1924, p. 61).

stupidity." He also reveals the duplicity

them to acknowledge their boundless

Engels, in turn, openly stated that

of the label "scientific" on his works:

Marx was not an erudite person eager for

"The content is still incomprehensible in

objective knowledge, but actually "a

spite of this varnish. The problem is how to mystify the reader" (Chafarevitch,

political revolutionary whose work obvi In 1843, an Inconsistent Marx married Jenny

ously tried to justify his political goals" (Werner Blumenberg, Karl Marx, Rein-

von Westphalen,a woman of noble descent

beck bei Hamburg, 1962, p. 7).

op. cit., pp. 240-41). For this reason, a

discouraged Engels said that it was "ex tremely difficult to explain the dialectic method of the Revue Socialiste to the

power and, in no less degree, to military dictatorship" (ibid., p. 339).

Confused, Prolix, Incomprehensible

English readers"(Loew, op. cit., p. 222).

Doctrine. Truth is like the purest of crys

tals through which shines the light of the

Failure As a Writer. In the Old World,

Apriorism Masked by Science. In light of this perspective of Marx's character,

intellect. But this is not what we find in

works that deal with important ideologi

the works of Marx. A servant of the Rev

let us now turn to his doctrinal work.

olution and an enemy of light and truth,

cal issues are usually widely distributed under several printings. Das Kapitai, however, did not receive this endorse

In the nineteenth century, the indus

his thoughts lack clarity and flounder

trial revolution and ensuing wave of new

amidst darkness. Marx's doctrine is un

ment and was an undisputed failure in

inventions opened the era of modern

intelligible, and very few have been able to digest his prolix and tiresome exposi

every country in which it was published. Engels described the repercussion in

science. Science became a word that

worked an almost magical attraction over minds. Anything that was "scien

tific" carried the seal of objectivity and incontestable veracity. Obviously, "sci

tions. Even leftist intellectuals beyond

France: "This bulky, erudite, thick work

suspicion attest to the obscurity of Marx's theses. For example, the Jesuit

. . . did not cause the slightest impres

Fr. Oswald von Nell-Breuning, former

220). In Germany, five years after its publication, Das Kapitai had just barely

sion on the volatile French" (ibid., p.

entific" doctrines became the fashion.

editor of the German Socialist party

Fourier had already taken advantage of this in the first quarter of the century,

magazine. Die Neue Gesellschaft, says that only a small circle of specialists is capable of understanding Marxist doc trine, which, for him, is a secret science

sold 1,000 copies.

other wonders, the changing of seawater

whose key he does not possess (cf. Loew,

that the most impious and enslaving

into lemonade.

op. cit., p. 17). Marx could never provide proof for his affirmations; thus he employed tau

despotism of history has been built!

using this term as wrapping for his Uto pian socialism, which foresaw, among Marx did not hesitate to follow this

same path; thus appeared the theories of so-called scientific communism, which

were presumably solidly based on reality and proven by practice.

But Marx's empiricism was no more than mere pretention. "Scientific" com munism was based only on the gratuitous affirmations of Marx and Engels, undoc umented grounds that presumed to jus tify preconceived theses.

On this point, the Russian dissident Chafar6vitch comments: "The example of Fourierism forces us to doubt the

scientific pretentious of Marxism. The

'criterion of praxis,' an index described as fundamental by the founders of Marx

ism themselves, provides us with a clear answer. According to this criterion, all

And yet, it is upon the theses of Marx, so infected with these and other sundry errors and so ineffectual in his own time,

tological language, constantly repeating the same arguments. Prof. Loew claims that 95 percent of Das Kapitai could be eliminated without jeopardizing the con tent of the work. This means that the

book's 750 pages could be reduced to 37! A fruit borne from the secret meetings of the League of the Just, conversations

with Engels and his studies in the British Museum, Marx's theories, which he claimed were based on German philos

ophy allied to liberal French thought and English political economics, widely devi ated from tangible reality. One of these theories is that in the free enterprise system, "the poor become poorer, and the rich become richer," an idea that has

endured for over 1(X) years, uninhibitedly

scientific theory should be verified by concrete applications. However, almost all the predictions of Marxism have been proven false. A higher percentage of

inevitably produce an unprecedented

proven predictions could probably be

social revolution in the industrialized

Engels provided the money Marx needed to

obtained by mere guessing" (Igor Cha-

countries of the West. But, in fact, this

devote himself to the writing of Das Kapitai

preached by the "Catholic left." Ac cording to this theory, this situation will

TFP Newsletter

WI^A. The Real Desmond Tutu

Despite the media's trumpeting of

Nicaragua Triples Soviet Imports Even before the U.S. trade embargo

Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu as an "forced" Nicaragua to Improve rela advocate of peace, people would do tions with the Soviet Union, trade be

Computer Hospitality One of the world's first computerized hotels, the Shinjuku Washington, re cently opened In Japan. In this hotel, the guest Is greeted not

well to take note of some of the not-so-

tween the two Marxist countries had

pacific statements of the outspoken critic of the South African govemment. For example, the Anglican bishop of Johannesburg makes no secret of

reached record levels.

American nation ranks second only to

seconds.

his Ideological leanings. "I am a so cialistâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I detest capitalism," he has been quoted as saying. "Capitalism Is exploitative and I cannot stand

Cuba as a recipient of Soviet goods In the region. Brazil previously held that position. The Soviet Union appears to be Nic

that."

aragua's main supplier of chemical fer

Inside the room,a bedside computer console controls the lighting, radio and television. A refrigerator Is also linked to the computer, and It automatically adds the price of whatever Is removed

The Zurich-based Committee for

South Africa (ASA) has condemned statements by Tutu as provocations for violence In South Africa.

According to ASA, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said during an Interview with a Dutch reporter: "Isn't It mi

NIcaraguan Imports from the Soviet Union tripled last year. The Central

the task.

Live rats are being sold for human

consumption in some rural areas of

up by black resistance? If you want to create panic among whites, you would find an easy target In their children." He was also quoted as saying,"What would happen If 30 percent of all black housemaids were to poison the food of their white employers?"

According to the official Englishlanguage newspaper China Daily, this practice Is being hailed In the Guangxl Zhuang Autonomous Region of southem China as a solution for dealing with the problem rodents. The newspaper reports that rats are being sold for

ASA claims that Tutu's statements

about 50 cents a pound, almost as much as chicken.

for violence (International Christian

Given the dire poveily In rural areas of China, where per capita Income Is often less than $100, the real mo tive behind the move may not be pest control.

Like the leftist guerrillas In El Sal vador, who have all but lost the military battle but are still trying to win the propaganda war, the South West Africa Peoples Organization(SWAPO)Is hav ing recruiting problems. Security forces In northern South

West Africa report a new outburst of violence and abductions as SWAPO

steps up Its recruitment drive. For example,five guerrillas recently abducted six Ovambo youths and fled to their sanctuary In Angola. Three of

In addition to rat eating, cremation Is being urged as another solution for China's problems. Consistent with the government's

purely materialist Marxist philosophy, stipulates that cremation should be made a standard practice In cities and towns,as well as In densely populated rural areas.

The late Marxist dictator Mao Tse-

tung, himself burled In a coffin, con demned burials and the rites and tra

ditions associated with them, saying

group of nine children was also ab ducted, but four of the children

"smashed." His successors are not

Force reports that the abductions are part of a coerced recruitment campaign by SWAPO to reinforce Its dwindling numbers.

The forced enslavement of youth Is also a tactic the guerrillas in El Sal vador use, the Marxist Ideals having failed to attract the youth needed for the communist war machine.

Vol. iV, No. 15, 1985

Widespread Industrial espionage by Soviets In the United States not withstanding, American export controls on what can and cannot be exported to the despotic regime are seriously hampering the U.S.S.R.'s ability to over come the United States In an arms race.

According to a study released by the

Pentagon, our government's export control policy has deprived the Soviets of access to defense technology worth billions of dollars.

Prepared by a private firm, the study says that the Soviets will need to spend from $6.6 billion to $13.3 billion more from 1985 to 1997 If the West continues

to deny certain export licenses.

Bogus Riots In Kentucky

a recent decree by the State Council

the victims later escaped. Another

escaped. The South West Africa Territory

Export Control = Arms Control

communist China.

were "ambiguous" and an Indirect call

SWAPO Recruiting Problems

him with a room key card In about 30

tilizer, machinery and motor vehicles, from It to the customer's bill. The Impersonal hotel experience ends as well as arms to support the country's disproportionate military force. with a computer checkoutâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;although an optional desk clerk, a minor conces sion to the human touch, may perform Life and Death In Red China

raculous that so far no school bus with white school-children has been blown

Network, 5/26/85).

by a receptionist but by four machines that register him, bill him and present

that these "feudal relics" should be

Ignoring his advice. Coherence In the Court

The veritable torrent of misinformation

that the Russian peopie receive c

the United States recently InciudL d report of riots In Cross Roads, Ky. In the Soviet youth newspaper Kom somol Pravda,a picture was published showing police in gas masks confront ing black demonstrators. "Residents of Cross Roads, Ky., treated like In sects," read the caption under the picture. However, in the small western Ken

tucky community of modest homes, tobacco fields and cows, none of the

The Massachusetts Supreme Court

town's 200 residents can figure out

has ruled that goldfish cannot be awarded as prizes in games of chance

where, why and when the riots took place. The great Cross Roads riots of 1985 were apparently only a fabrication of some over-Imaginative Soviet news

since the practice tends to "dull hu manitarian feelings and corrupt mor als." The same court upheld the man datory funding of abortion.

gathering agent.

RELIGION

In South America, BCCs Are Like UFOs—±

Everyone Talks About Them, But No One Knows What They Are (II) A S announced earlier, the TFP News-

letter is publishing a series of arti cles on the Basic Christian Communities

(BCCs) of Brazil for the benefit of its readers.

In the last issue ofthis newsletter, the formation and leadership of the BCCs, and their major goal—conscientization —were dealt with.

ration for the sacraments, etc.); those of a social character (collective work,

courses in reading and writing, sewing, law, etc.); and those of an economic character (communitarian pharmacies, communitarian purchasing, common funding, etc.). This exaggerated effort to effect a

strong communitarian spirit is charac

In this number, we will continue to

teristic of the BCCs, whose goal is that

study the process ofconscientization. We suggest that the readers refer to "South America: Dangers and Opportunities" ^TFP Newsletter, vol. IV, no. 13, 1985) forfurther information on this process.

the participants' lives revolve only around the Community; everything from their religious, social and economic con cerns down to their family matters and very leisure should be lived in common.

Even the most intimate and personal Replacing Me With an Us That Is Invoiving and Conglomerating. The week ly meetings of the BCCs are of vital im portance to the Community; they guar antee the cohesion of the group, the in terrelation of its participants and the ex change of information and experiences. In short, they are what makes the com munitarian spirit arise. An important role also falls to the convivencias, which are social activities that

help integrate the individual into the Community and unite the Community participants. These social events include luncheons, outings, picnics and dances. The short mimeographed newsletters and bulletins also help maintain the BCCs internal life and communication with other BCCs.

problems should be presented, debated and resolved in the Community. This goes so far as to include cases of adul tery, as has been outlined by Friar Clodovis Boff in his book about the BCCs of Acre.

As one author writes, it is necessary that the individual "give up a part of his ME and replace it with an US that is in

volving and conglomerating."

Word, which can consist of the reading of a Biblical text, a letter of protest to the authorities or a subversive poem

by Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, or the discussion of the "problems of the people," has a preponderant if not ex clusive role.

In the "Celebration of the Eucharist," the sacrificial character of the Holy Mass

is relegated to a secondary plane, when it is not implicitly or explicitly denied. The Mass is reduced to a simple repast, a mere meal (the "Love Feast" or "Lord's Supper"); it is referred to as a

"dinner" in the answer to the question contained in the title of a small book by the BCCs of Sao Felix do Araguaia,

Cocoa, Coffee, Fish, and Manioc Flour Instead of Bread and Wine. Litur

Mass: What Is It? which was published by Editora Vozes of Petropolis and wide

gical celebrations and worship form the

ly distributed throughout Brazil.

heart of the life of the BCCs.

According to the spirit and doctrine of the movement, the liturgy of the Com

munity must reflect the everyday life of

Further on, this book teaches: "The Mass is a meal. Jesus selected bread and wine for this meal because this was the food that was available in all

its members.

the houses of his people, which is the same as the rice, flour and coffee that

able other communal activities of various

Consequently, the choice of liturgical texts and songs and the organization of the celebrations are being confided more

natures: those of a religious character

and more to the Community members.

(catechesis, Bible courses, liturgical teams, singing groups, classes of prepa

"act." The so-called Celebration of the

In addition to the regular meetings and gatherings, the BCCs organize innumer

The result has been the liturgical

we have here."

If the Mass is a simple meal, and if bread and wine were used by Our Lord only because they were the food of His

people, then why not use the food ol people—which happens to be rice, flou. and coffee—in the "Celebration of the Eucharist"?

This, in fact, is exactly what is done. In liturgical celebrations in the north

ern part of the state of Espirito Santo,

the Eucharistic species were replaced by cocoa, coffee, fish and flour, depending upon which product was predominant in the region. In Parai'ba, an African dish

called "cuscuz," made of steamed rice, was divided to symbolize the breaking of the Host.

The liturgical texts themselves always have a "conscientizing" and "liberat ing" character saturated with the spirit of revolt and class warfare.

An abundance of clenched fists, a well-known communist gesture, at a May 1 gathering of formerly peace-loving workers and housewives in the Santa Maria School In SSo Paulo

The Vast Peripheral Base of "Sym

pathizers," "Allies" and "Maneuvering TFP Newsletter

Mass." In many parishes—especially in

Commission on the Land, the Workers'

neighborhoods that are on the peripher

Pastoral Group, the Commissions on

ies of large cities, in small towns and in rural areas—the local religious activities

Justice and Peace, the Centers for Hu

man Rights and others. It is the BCCs

serve to extend the action of the BCCs.

who furnish the activists with grass

This is because it is the members of the

roots, without which these organiza tions, as a general rule, would be no

BCCs who prepare and conduct the cele brations, novenas, processions, com

more than mere labels.

BCCs: A U.S.

Experience? IN the United States, the concept of the collective community spirit is

memorations of the patron saints, and other regional religious customs. These

With all this, the BCCs sow discontent and revolt in the ambiences in which they

being promoted in parishes following

events provide an excellent occasion to

move. They transform the Marxist doc

ica's Basic Christian Communities.

recruit and "conscientize" the faithful.

trine of "liberation theology" into the

Toward this same end, the BCCs also

nuts and bolts of a praxis, thus reaching sectors of the population that would be refractory to direct communist preaching.

Some of the methods used have been outlined in a manual called The Minis

usually organize and utilize the courses

of preparation for Baptism, First Holy Communion and Matrimony.

The most important external activities of the BCCs are the campaigns of popu lar mobilization to promote some de mand; all the people who dwell in the neighborhood, slum or rural area are

gathered together in the church, chapel or community center in order to discuss some local problem (such as water, light

ing, sewage, land ownership or unions). Then,around the discussion of this prob

lem, begins the conscientization of the population. The result is that some actually join

the BCC,others become "sympathizers" or "allies," and the majority, without re

alizing (or often even desiring) it, become the important "maneuvering mass" for

Making Use of a Naive Confidence. By their religious character and their pe culiar makeup, the BCCs are able to in fluence a number of people—and espe

cially a certain type of person—who would normally be adverse to any kind

of political militancy. Thus, they are able to mobilize peaceful heads of families, tranquil housewives, law-abiding work ers and simple farmers to overthrow the existing structures of society. This occurs because of the unrestricted

confidence these people have in their priests, a confidence that characterizes the ordinary Brazilian. However, this

much the same pattern as Latin Amer

tering Parish—Methods and Procedures for Pastoral Organization, written by Robert R. Newsome and published by Paulist Press. This book, which has

been used in many American Catholic dioceses, describes ways to transform a "routine 'dying church'"into a "pur

posive 'corporate people of God.'" Throughout his book, Newsome em phasizes organizational rather than ex clusively individual and personal renewal. "We hold that the word of God is re

vealed through the experiences, reflec tion, choices and actions inherent in the collective C:imstian endeavor. Therefore, we believe that systemic change is more important than solely personal conver sion because systemic change, properly

accomplished, wiU encourage and en able individual growth and conversion."

the BCCs.

confidence, which in itself is praisewor thy, has unfortunately been deformed by

In this way, the movement builds up a vast peripheral base or crown, of which

an inaccurate understanding of pontifi cal infallibility, which has been inor

Newsome also points out; "At this '

the BCCs are the nucleus or hard core.

dinately extended to the bishops, the

The BCC "Machine." The BCC

movement thus has at its disposal a

priests and even the nuns. For the ordinary Brazilian Catholic, the priest is the incarnation of the

time of broad and deep renewal in the direction and expression of our fidelity to the gospel in the modem world, there is little wonder that we experience an ur gent need to rethink, refine and perhaps even formulate our theology of the local

powerful "machine" of action made

Church herself. The Brazilian takes the

church. Renewal does not mean new la

up of the outfits created or infiltrated

priest's attitude and words—however

by it. These include such organizations as clubs for mothers, music and theater

shocking and heterodox they may be— as an indisputably faithful, authentic and complete expression of the thinking of

groups, welcome wagons and neighbor

the Church.

hood and rural movements that are de

bels but new thinking and new living, a change of mind and heart, not simply as individuals, but even more importantly as a people involved in a collective en deavor. For we transcend the weightless ness of our isolated selves precisely in the measure that we express our collective history and the collective meaning of our individual experiences and actions." At another point, Newsome reiter

health and child care centers and protec

And the members of the clergy who are engaged in the BCCs, which deny all infallibility and all authority, know how

tion against development interests.

to exploit this deformation to the advan

The BCCs have also inspired ecclesias tical movements such as the Pastoral

the Church and of society.

manding water, lighting, transportation,

tage of the Revolution in the bosom of

'.it

ifmkd

ates his beliefs on the transformation

process of an egalitarian communitai ian church. "The 'community' image most frequently used to describe today's local church is in sharp contrast to the 'institutional' image. This image, em phasizing collegiality, defines relation ships entirely in the context of fraternal bonds, embracing a familial image in which relationships are founded on mutual love, respect and appreciation,

negating the need for authority. Within this image, there is an explicit emphasis on shared responsibility which frequent ly is translated to presume equal respon

sibility and, therefore, equal authority." Newsome feels that one way to pur sue the development of these pastoral plans is through small-group faith-shar ing opportunities such as those provided The BCCs often resort to absurd rituals at liturgical services like this "Celebration of the Eucharist"(without a priest) In the Community of Barro do Vento, Taud, state of Cear^ Vol. IV, No. 15, 1985

I by the Renew program in Newark, N.J.

THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF GENAZZANO

On the Feast of Saint Mark,

at the Hour of Vespers ... appearance of the miraculous painting

ly risen three feet when construction

that would introduce Genazzano into the

came to a halt due to lack of resources.

annals of marvels in the Church, Prince Pietro Giordan Colonna, whose family had acquired lordship of the city, as

signed the most ancient church of the city and its parish to the care of the order of

Her friends and neighbors began to ridi cule her, and detractors accused her of imprudence. Others severely repri manded her in public. To all of them she would say: "My dear children, do not

the Hermits of St. Augustine. The faith ful would thereby have the necessary

ent misfortune. I assure you that before

pastoral assistance, and repairs could be made on the old church.

Although the prayers of the faithful

With unbounded confidence, Giorgio and Oe Sclavis walk on the waves of the Adriatic

A FEW miles from the city of Rome lies Genazzanoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a city rich in his

tory and blessed with the presence of a miraculous painting of the Blessed Virgin

begun by me." On April 25, 1467, the feast day of the city's patron. Saint Mark, a solemn cele bration began with a Mass said with the customary grandeur and pomp. It was Saturday, and the crowd began to gather

the necessities of men chose a Third

in front of the church of the Mother of

Order Augustinian, Petruccia de Nocera, to carry out a supernatural prodigy that would bring about the much-desired

in the celebration was the unfinished

restoration. Petruccia had been left a modest for

the afternoon, everyone heard the chords of a beautiful melody that seemed to

tune following the death of her husband

come from heaven. The people looked up toward the towers of the churches and

in 1436. Living alone, she dedicated most of her time to prayer and services in the church of the Mother of Good Counsel.

fervently that they would be restored. Finally, she resolved to take the initi

city was chosen by many patricians and

ative. After obtaining permission from

imperial courtiers as a site for their coun try villas. The vast gardens surrounding these villas often served as the stage for

the friars, she donated her goods to ini tiate the restoration in the hope that others would help complete it once it was

perverse feasts, pagan games and hea

commenced.

then rituals in honor of the gods to whom the Romans attributed the fertility

A plan was drawn up for the build ing of a magnificent church. However,

of their fields.

once that arduous undertaking had begun, Petruccia, who was already eighty years old at the time, found that

every April 25 in honor of the goddess

my death the Blessed Virgin and our holy father Augustine will finish the church

intensified, financial difficulties pre vented the necessary and urgent resto ration of the ancient temple. But the Mother who gives wise counsel in every circumstance and attentively provides for

that has an amazing story. The origins of Genazzano date back to the times of the Roman emperors. Because of its proximity to Rome, the

One of these celebrations was held

put too much importance on this appar

It grieved her to see the deplorable state of the sacred premises, and she prayed

her generous offering was scarcely

Flora or Venus. For this event, people of all social classesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;freemen and slaves,

enough to complete the first phase of the

patricians and plebeiansâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;gathered to

new construction. To make matters

gether for a great feast. This practice worse, no one came forth to help her as gradually dissolved and the temples fell she had hoped. To her dismay, the building had hardinto ruins as the life-giving breath of

Good Counsel. The only discrepant note work of Petruccia. But at about four in

saw a white cloud that shone with a thou

sand luminous rays; it gradually neared the stupefied crowd to the sound of an exceptionally beautiful melody. The cloud descended on the church of the Mother

of Good Counsel and poised over the wall of the unfinished chapel of Saint Biagio, which Petruccia had started. Suddenly, the bells of the old tower began to ring

by themselves, and the other bells of the town rang miraculously in unison. The rays that emanated from the little cloud faded away,and the cloud itself gradual ly vanished, revealing a beautiful object to the enchanted gaze of the spectators.

It was a painting that represented Our Lady tenderly holding her Divine Son in her arms. Almost immediately, the Virgin Mary began to cure the sick and grant countless consolations, the memory

of which was recorded for posti

the local ecclesiastical authority.

Christianity regenerated the peoples of Europe. In the third century, an order was

given to build on the ruins of the Roman temples a shrine dedicated to the Mother of God under the tender invocation of Mother of Good Counsel.

As the years went by, the city became

more populous and the shrine grew in fame. During the Middle Ages, the Fran ciscans and the Augustinians founded

VSiM-A^. 1 nc-*.. y v;

.1' 1- "

monasteries nearby. Through the course

of the years, the primitive temple erected in honor of the Mother of Good Counsel

began to show signs of disrepair. More over, as the shrine was small, the faithful built larger and richer churches for their solemn functions.

In 1356, about a century before the

A view of the town of Genazzano,the resting place of the miraculous painting of Our Lady TFP Newsletter

The news of the painting and its mi racles spread throughout the province and beyond, attracting multitudes. Some cities formed enthusiastic processions to

see the picture that the people called the

this prospect, those who wished to prac tice their faith in Christian lands began

their sad exodus. Giorgio and De Sclavis

also studied the possibility of fleeing, but something kept them in Scutari; it was

lestial entrance into the city. Numerous

a small church, considered the shrine of the whole Albanian kingdom, where a

aims were donated as an answer to the

picture of Our Lady was venerated. The

unwavering confidence that Our Lady

painting had mysteriously descended

Madonna of Paradise because of its ce

had inspired in Petruccia. Amidst the general enthusiasm caused by the painting, Our Lady wished to divulge the true origin of the marvelous fresco to her devotees. Two foreigners

named Giorgio and De Sclavis entered the city among a group of pilgrims that

from the heavens two hundred years before.

According to tradition, it had come from the east. Having poured out innu merable graces over the whole popula tion, its church became the principal cen

ter of pilgrimage in Albania. Scanderbeg

had come from Rome. They wore strange clothes and spoke a foreign tongue, say

himself had visited this shrine more than

ing they had arrived in Rome earlier that year from Albania. While most people

tle. Now the shrine was threatened with

once to ardently ask for victory in bat imminent destruction and profanation.

had refused to believe their story, it had

The two Albanians were torn by the

a special significance for the inhabitants

idea of leaving the great treasure of

of Genazzano.

Albania in the hands of the enemy in order to flee the Turkish terror. In their

perplexity, they went to the old church January 1467 saw the death of the last

great Albanian king, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Brought up as a Moslem at the court of Sultan

Murad II, to whom he had been given as a hostage by his father, an Albanian chief, he broke away to place himself at the head of his own people and embrace Christianity. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish

to ask their Blessed Mother for the good counsel they needed.

That night, the Consoler of the Af flicted inspired both of them in their sleep. She commanded them to prepare

The Madonna, miraculously suspended In

to leave their country, which they would never see again. She added that the mi

domes of Rome. Upon reaching the gates

raculous fresco was also going to leave Scutari for another country to escape

the air for over 500 years. Is housed herein

of the city, the cloud suddenly disap peared before their disappointed eyes. Giorgio and De Sclavis began to

profanation at the hands of the Turks. Finally, she ordered them to follow the painting wherever it went.

search the city, going from church to

With the king's death, the Turkish

The next morning, the two friends

army, finally free from the Fulminating

went to the shrine. At a certain moment

painting failed, and the Romans incredu lously regarded the two foreigners and their strange tale. Shortly thereafter, amazing news came

army and occupied fortresses all over Albania.

church asking if a picture had descended there. All their attempts to find the

Lion of War, poured into Albania, occu

they saw the picture detach itself from

pying all its fortresses, cities and prov

the wall on which it had hung for two

inces with the exception of Scutari, in the

centuries. Leaving its niche, it hovered

north of the country. However, the city's capacity to resist was limited, and its capture was expected at any moment. With its fall, Christian

for a moment and was then suddenly

to Rome: a picture of Our Lady had ap peared in the skies of Genazzano to the

wrapped in a white cloud through which the image continued to be visible.

sound of beautiful music and had come to rest over the wall of a church that was

The pilgrim painting left the church

being rebuilt. The two Albanians rushed

Albania would be defeated. Faced with

and the environs of Sciitari. It traveled

to find their country's beloved treasure miraculously suspended in the air next to the wall of the chapel where it remains to this day.

slowly through the air at a considerable altitude and advanced in the direction of

the Adriatic Sea at a speed that allowed the two walkers to follow; after covering

Although some inhabitants found the

some twenty-four miles, they reached the

strangers' story difficult to believe,

coast.

careful investigation later proved that the

Without stopping, the picture left the land and advanced over the waters while

two were telling the truth and that the image was indeed the same one that

the faithful Giorgio and De Sclavis con

graced the shrine in Scutari.

tinued to followâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;walking on the waves much like their Divine Master had done

on Lake Genesareth. When night would fall, the mysterious cloud, which had

â&#x2013; r-::

protected them with its shade from the heat of the sun during the day, guided

the Adriatic and two faithful Albanians

them by night with light, like the column

on the other, transported her mysterious

of fire in the desert that guided the Jews

fresco from the unhappy and unfortu

in their exodus from Egypt.

nate Albania to a little city very close to

They traveled day and night until they reached the Italian coast. There, they

the heart of Christendom. Beginning her

continued following the miraculous pic ture, climbing mountains, fording rivers and passing through valleys. Finally, The altar of the Mother of Good Counsel

Vol. IV, No. 15, 1985

Thus it was that Mary Most Holy,

with the humble participation of a pious Third Order Augustinian on one side of

they reached the vast plain of Lazio from where they could see the towers and

historic journey from that small Alba nian shrine, which she had not chosen by chance, she traveled across the sea to

pour on the world a new torrent of graces under the invocation of Mother of Good Counsel.

Pray for Us in This Century of Confusion,0 Mother of Good Counsel PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA

COMMENTARY

Does the devotion to the Mother of Good Counsel have any signif icance for our times?

Undoubtedly, innumerable souls in our disturbed and afflicted times are in need

of good counsel in some way or another. They could do nothing better than to implore the help of her whom Holy Church invokes as Mater Boni Consilii

in the Litany of Loreto. One should bear in mind that the greater the importance of the question at issue, the greater is the value of the counsel given. This is the first premise that

However, the effective, complete rejec tion of such an immense sin presupposes

dorous era of Faith be born. This is the

an immense contrition—and an immense

good counsel par excellence that the devotees of Mary must ask for themselves

desire to perfect the virtue against which

and for all men of our days.

one sinned.

Thus, the modem world finds itself at

It may appear excessive to some readers that we call this the most confused cen

the crossroads of a dark, gloomy future, tury in history. Nevertheless, among the faced by either the final capitulation of many proofs of this assertion, we need the West before the extremes of evil or emphasize only one to justify our affir an enthusiastic embracing of the plenitude of truth and good. The problem is how to move humanity—which is so deeply embedded in a historic process that has

allows us to state that the

devotion to Our Lady of Ge-

nazzano is especially necessary in this century, which will

mation; indeed, it would be difficult to

prove that the confusion in Catholic circles has ever been greater than it is today. Certainly, there were times when the Church appeared to be en gulfed by greater confusion. But those crises were struggles that either involved personal matters rather than principles

or jeopardized only some prin ciples—albeit basic ones—of

perhaps go down in history as the century of confusion. Moreover, if we broaden our horizons beyond our in

Catholic doctrine.

Today, on the contrary, there is no error, no matter how crass or total, that does

dividual lives and consider,

from a historical perspective, the crisis through which the Church of God is now pass ing, we cannot help but con

not seek to clothe itself in

more or less new clothing in order to gain free admission

clude that, now more than

into Catholic ambiences. One

ever, mankind needs the good counsel of the Virgin of vir gins. Today we find ourselves at

can say that we are seeing in

the apex of a historic process

unwary, superficial Catholics

that began in the Middle Ages

who have but little love for the Faith.

our midst an open parade of all errors, disguised in sheep's

clothing and deceiving many

with an explosion of pride and sensuality. Humanism, the Renaissance and the Protes tant Reformation were born

How many concessions, how many acts of false prudence, how many criminal courtships with heterodoxy take place in view of these

from that explosion in the fif teenth and sixteenth centuries. The tidal waves of these

maneuvers! The confusion is

so great that more than a f

movements overflowed from

the philosophical, cultural and

In these troubled days,0 Lady, we turn to thee In our affllctloni

religious spheres into the po litical and social spheres, generating the

been under way for so many centuries—

impious and egalitarian French Revolu

toward the path taken by the prodigal

tion in the eighteenth century.

son who returned to his father's house.

From that point, atheistic, laicist and revolutionary movements developed

throughout the nineteenth century, cul minating in the emergence of the socio

This is impossible without the powerful help of grace speaking in the interior of countless souls. And what better way is

zealous Catholic circles are u

garded with derision or suspi cion, while this horde of disguised errors reigns confident. Describing this scene, we affectionate ly but apprehensively consider the many souls whose circumstances of life do not

permit them to undertake comprehensive religious studies. How necessary it is for them to have the good counsel of

economic communist revolution that

there to obtain this good counsel, which must be intimately present in hearts for

threatens to engulf the entire world. In the vertex of this process, a choice

the salvation of humanity, than to implore the Mother of Good Counsel to convert,

imposes itself; either the world succumbs to communism as Albania did to Islam-

through a new grace, the "super-civilized" barbarian of the twentieth century?

for our lips to plead a supplication to

ism, or it completely renounces pride and

Only in this way will we be able to

the Mother of God: Our Lady of Good

sensuality by uprooting—be it in the reli

"burn that which we adored and adore

Our Lady to overcome this confusion! It is natural, then, for us to affirm that our century is a century of confusion and

Counsel, pray for us and help us to re

gious or temporal sphere—all their effects, that which we burned," as did the sub- main faithful to the Way, the Truth and of which communism is the supremely logical and malignant consequence.

civilized barbarians of the fifth century.

the Life in the midst of so much rebellion,

Only then can a new and even more splen-

so much deceit and so much destruction)

TFP Newsletter

\ > â&#x20AC;¢/;

Outono de 1985:

Correspondenles da TFP V(

New Croion Lake, Millwood, N.Y.

Edificil descrever com brevidade o Encontrc da TFP Americana em 1985, pois foi um acontecimento que excedeu largamente a serie de conferencias anunciadas no programa. Com efeito, o Encontro simultaneamente teve uma atmosfera festiva, tratou de assuntos elevados e revestiu-se de esplendor catolico,

do movimento anti-abortista. Falando contra o filme blasfemo "Ave

Maria" de Godard ("Je vous salue, Marie"), os conferencistas sugeriram meios para suster a crescente escalada de blasfemias desse genero.

0 segundo debate apresentou um detalhado balanijo dos resulta-

tendo participado dele pessoas com a mesma fe, as mesmas esperan-

dos de uma campanha de "massmailing" promovida pela TFP Ame

gas e os mesmos interesses. Patrocinado pela Sociedade Americana de Defesa da Tradi?ao, Fami'lia e Propriedade—TFP e pela Foundation for a Christian Civi

ricana — "America Needs Fatima" (America precisa de Fatima). Especialista nessa modalidade de propaganda, o Sr. Peter Gemma

discorreu sobre as tecnicas usadas na campanha com o objectivo de

lization este 4°. Encontro da TFP Americana foi realizado no Estado de Nova York, nos dias, 12, 13 e 14 de Outubro.

alagar a difusao do livro recentemente lancado pela ei\tidade — "Our Lady at Fatima: Prophecies of Tragedy or Hope for America and

Os participantes vieram de quase todas as partes dos Estados

the iVorld?"("Nossa Senhora em Fatima: Profecias de Tragedia ou

Unidos, do Canada e de alguns outros paises. 26 Estados america-

de Esperanca para a America e para o Mundo?").

nos estavam representados, sendo mais numerosos os grupos de Nova

York, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Florida, Texas, Colorado e Cali fornia. E tambem do Alaska pela primeira vez vieram representantes. Membros da TFP canadense e varies dos seus correspondentcs, pro-

venientes dos Estados de Quebec, Ontario e Alberta, igualmente estiveram presentes. A esta delegagao estrangeira, somou-se a presenga

de amigos da Africa do Sul, Franfa, Belgica, Irlanda, Brasil, Portu gal e Espanha. "Custa a crer como pode tanta gente estar unida na mesma causa",

Verdade Libertadora. 0 Pe. Victorino Rodriguez y Rodriguez, famoso teologo da Universidade de Santo Estevao de Salamanca, dou-

torado pela Universidade Sao Tomas de Roma, fez uma brilhante exposifao sobre "A Verdade Libertadora". Facultando a palavra ao auditorio, o insigne sacerdote respondeu a varias perguntas, possibilitando assim um melhor entendimento do alto tema teologico por ele tratado.

nolou um dos participantes. "Nunca estive num lugar onde tantas

La Macarena. Um dos mais brilhantes pontos altos do Encontro

pessoas participam dos mesmos pontos de vista acerca da Fe Catolica", comentou outro. E de fato viam-se catolicos americanos dos mais variados graus de cultura, ocupados em discutir, com seriedade,

foi a cerimonia de recepcao e entronizaeao de uma imagem de Nossa Senhora da Esperaiifa Macarena. Entre as aclamacoes do publico a imagem, de tamanho natural, foi levada em procissao ate ao lado

entusiasmo e resolugao, assuntos da atualidade e acontecimentos que podem ocorrer no futuro.

esquerdo do altar onde permaneceu durante toda a missa solene. Foi

depois conduzida, tambem em procissao, para um lugar de honra, onde ficou ate ao ultimo dia do Encontro.

A America na Tempestade. O tema principal do Encontro foi sobre

"Os Estados Unidos na Tempestade do Mundo Contemporaneo". Debatido por dois membros da TFP Americana, Srs. John Spann e John Horvat, esse tema versou principalmente sobre os inquietan-

"Nossa Senhora da Esperanc;a Macarena tern agora um irono no

coracao dos americanos", observou um participame dt "Jamais esquccerei as impressoes da chegada de Nossa Senho.

as. .ca-

rena", comentou outro.

tes rumos da napao americana.

O Dr. Mario Navarro da Costa, representante do Bureau da TFP em Washington e o Sr. Walter Thomas Camier, um dos novos con-

Enccrramento. Os Diretores da "Fundagao para uma Civilizagao Crisia", Sr. Raymond Earl Drake e Eng. Luiz Antonio Fragelli, encerram o Encontro com a apresentacao de um video-tape que levou a todos OS participantes a mensagem — espccialmente gravada para

ferencistas da TFP Americana, discorreram sobre o papel e os deveres dos Estados Unidos no mundo de hoje. Ao Sr. Juan Miguel Monies, do Bureau de Roma para a represen-

a ocasiao — do Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira. Presidente do Con-

tafao das 15 TFPs, coube a exposicao do tema "Visao Atuaiizada

selho Nacional da TFP Brasileira.

dos Processos Revolucion^io e Contra-Revolucionario" — uma expli-

Concluindo o programa, o Pe. Victorino Rodriguez dcu a bencao

cagao dos fatos na situacao confusa da atualidade.

a todos OS presentes e lembrou o fato de Nossa Senhora ser realmente

Para completar o panorama das conferencias foi apresentada uma peta de teatro,"Em Busca do Tesouro", que ilustrou o modo como foram mudando os "tesouros" (da civilizacao) procurados pelo

a "Nossa Esperanca" e o motivo de todos os nossos empreendimentos. Alem de terem sido tres animados dias de convivio, o Encontro

grama. No primeiro, sobre "A Crescente Mare de Blasfemias" tomaram parte os conferencistas convidados, Dr. James McKenna, co-

de 1985 da TFP Americana, foi tambem uma oportunidade tinica para OS participantes ampliarem seus horizontes e consolidarem suas convicydes a respcito da Causa catolica. Vindos de quase todas as partes do pais — e muitas vezes com grande sacrificio pessoal — todos demonstraram claramente, pela sua presenca e pelo seu entusiasmo. que os valores da civilzacao crista nao estao apenas vivos. mas prosperam e dao grandes sinais de espe-

nhecido advogado de Washington e o Dr. Earl Appleby, ativo lider

ranca para o futuro.

homem atraves dos seculos.

Debates. Dois ctarificadores debates conduzidos pelo presidente da

TFP Americana, Sr. John Spann, fizeram igualmente parte do pro

TFP Newsletter

Custos, Quid de ]\octe? O Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira

dirlge'Se aos participantes do Encontro

I LUSTRE Presidente, ilustres membros da Diretoria, prezados socios, caros

cooperadores e correspondentes da TFP Americana:

-eis com firmeza, com coragem, sem pusilanimidade, olhando de frente o futuro diante do qual quis a providencia que vos o vivesseis, ate onde ele vos conduz e qual

OS resultados do vosso Encontro, os quais serao benfazejos para o vosso grande pais. Ja este e um grande fruto. Mas, alem disso, tambem esses resultados serao benfazejos

nesie

e o vosso dever. Nao cedereis, estou certo

para todo o Mundo, em virtude da irradia-

momento da abertura do vosso grande Encontro durante o qual devereis debater temas tao imporiantes nao so para vos e

disso, porque conhego vosso pensamento

gao que a influencia norte-americana tem

e conhego vossas obras; nao cedereis a nenhum pessimismo vao e doentio, nao cede

sobre as tres Americas e sobre o resto do

Saudo-vos

calorosamente

para o vosso grande e be!o pai's, mas tambem para o destino de toda a humanidade.

reis a nenhum derrotismo, evitareis com

mer uma visao geral dos enormes proble-

todo o cuidado essas omissoes veladas que tantas vezes, ao longo da historia da Revolugao e da Contra-Revolugao, tem marcado as derrotas dos bons. Vos quereis saber onde estao os problemas porque quereis estar presentes. E e para ir para o campo do Dever que a vos perguntais: "Gustos,

mas com os quais a TFP tem de lidar na sua missao especi'fica de lutar contra o

se passa durante a noite?

Estudarels a crise contemporanea, tal como ela e nos Estados Unidos; depois vereis como e essa crise no resto do mundo. Finalmenie estudareis o relacionamenio

entre esses dois aspectos da crise para for

quid de nocte?"6 guarda,6 guarda, o que

Mundo. Serao para o vosso pais fecundos em frutos de seriedade, de resolugao e de firmeza, no momento em que por ai, como tambem por toda a parte, a guerra psicologica desencadeada por Moscou — e a

qual nos chamamos Guerra Psic'oldgica Revoluciondria — tem feito, no seio de

vosso prbprio pais, tantas tentativas para vos levar a concessoes, a bem dizer suicidas.

Tendes a dois passes de vos o caso da

Nicaragua. E tendes tambem o caso perene de Cuba. Vos presenciais, 6 Norte-

comunismo e de defender os valores da

Que Nossa Senhora vos ajude com a Sua

civilizagao crista e da Igreja — a iradi?ao,

celestial e omnipotente intercessao junto a

a familia e a propriedade — tendo em vista o cumprimento desta missao dentro da grande borrasca que cada vez mais se

Deus, Que dEla recebe sempre, com

Americanos, a continua tentativa de infil-

agrado, todos os pedidos. Que Ela vos

tragao dos comunistas russos na America do Sul; e ja nao tao longe da Nicaragua, na vizinha Colombia, vedes o perigo de

acentua.

Felicito-vos por havcrdes demonstrado profundidade de espi'rito, verdadeiro e desinteressado desejo de servir. Na prosperidade dos Estados Unidos, no estilo de vlda facil do norte-americano, na frui?ao

desse poder universal que a Providencia

ajude e que Ela vos assista nesses trabaIhos. Que Ela vos favorega com aquele espirito de valentia, de garbo de dedicagao, de coragem e de constancia que deve caracterizar os verdadeiros catolicos apostolicos romanos. Uma coragem que hoje nao precisa de ser, pelo menos no momento atual, uma coragem de corpo, mas sobretudo uma coragem de alma, uma coragem para

uma transformagao brusca da situagao e de

uma agressao violenta do comunismo por meio de uma guerrilha que se vai transformando numa guerra mas que de vez em

quando desaparece, eclipsa-se e toma ares de paz.

em proporgoes maiores do que em qualquer outro pais no passado — em circunstancias

ver tantos desabamentos, para ver que, no

Enquanto isto se passa, na Venezuela — banhada pelas mesmas aguas do Caril

proprio interior do Santuario, do Lugar

que banham o vosso litoral — tendes uu.

tao favoraveis que vos podem adormecer,

Santo — e-se tentado a dizer — nao esta

embalados pelas vantagens da prosperidade

longe de se sentar a abomlnagao da desolagao. E at, olhar com coragem as circuns

governo que vai cada vez mais claramente manifestando os seus objetivos esquerdistas. Tendes depois, pelas vastidoes da Ame

colocou nas maos de vosso pais — talvez

material, prccisamente nesie momento vos juntais para perguntar uns aos outros;

"Gustos, quid de nocte?" Cada um de vos desempenha o papel de uma sentinela da Causa Sagrada a qual se dedicou e que percorre o vasto sistema de muralhas, cuja defesa esta a seu cargo, para perguntar o que acontece durante a noite. E assim vos encontrais uns aos outros, vos

traiais como guardas e vos perguntais, nesia nolle que baixa sobre o vosso pais, nesta "boa-noite" do mundo coniemporaneo: "6 guarda, meu colega, meu amigo, meu irmao,6 guarda o que ha de novo nestas trevas?" Ao fazerdes uma anaiise detalhada da

situagao do mundo de hoje, perguntar-vosSi'i-t i.\i Isst 1 . 1985

tancias e lembrar a promessa de Deus, de

rica do Sul, incluindo o meu querido Bra-

Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, que nada podera desmentir: "Tu es Pedro, e sobre

tra Ela". Certos, portanto, da indestrutibilidade dessa Igreja, que e corroida ate por germes internes, em pontos e em propor-

sil, tantos e tantos outros fatores que levam a pensar nas duras provas que toda a Ame rica vai enfrentar este ano, e no dever que cabe a vos e a vossa Nagao de ajudar todos aqueles que nessas provas lutarem pela Igreja e pela Civilizagao Crista. Os dias que se aproximam igualmente

goes tragicas, nunca conhecidas em circuns tancias anteriores, vos tereis essa coragem que se chama humildade, confianga na

tambem de agao. Joao Paulo II vai convocar, das eminencias do Vatican©, um

Providencia Divina, vontade de dar-se e de

Consistbrio de todos os Cardeais do mundo

esta Pedra Eu edificarei a minha Igreja, e

as Portas do Inferno nao prevalecerao con

sacrificar-se, de imolar-se e de cumprir o dever total, pelo desejo de servir a Deus e a Nossa Senhora.

De antemao, portanto, me regozijo com

convidam a outro tipo de reflexao, mas

para deliberarem sobre o regime da Igreja. E, pouco tempo depois, ele fara a reuniao augusta do Sinodo representativo de todos OS Bispos para deliberar a respeito dos 20

anos de pratica do Conci'Iio Vaticano II. Rezemos para que, nessas circunstancias,

NOSSA SENHORA DA ESPERANgA

o Ponti'fice e todos aqueles que com ele rezarem e estudarem, sejam iluminados de modo especial peio Divino Espi'rito Santo, pois que — virem-se as coisas como se virarem e aconte?am como acontecerem —

mals do que qualquer potencia terrena, o

MACARENA

destine do Mundo depende do Trono de Sao Pedro.

E dali, daquela altura, que partem as ordens, partem os lances de sabedoria e de santidade, partem as disposifoes acertadas

DIZ o povo de Sevilha, na Espanha, que de todas as estatuas da Sanfisslma Virgem nenhuma a representa melhor que a estatua de Nossa Senhora da Esperanga Macarena.

La Macarena, como ela e chamada, e uma estatua que representa Nossa Senhora

que podem salvar os homens. Infelizmente

como rainha em toda a sua gldria, adornada com uma coroa magnifica, um belo ves-

tambem podem partir as omissoes, podem

tido e um manto real.

partir todos os coeficientes de miseria

Mas, observando mais de perto, percebe-se que ela e uma rainha que chora. Veem-se lagrimas nas suas faces, lagrimas de tristeza e de profundo sofrimento. Entretanto, mantendo toda a sua dignidade e majestade, ela bem se poderia chamar de rainha

humana que Deus conseniiu e que, sem abalarem o Divino caracter da Sua Santa

Igreja, nem a existencia dEla, entretanto

podem pontilhar com pontos escuros alguns episodios da sua Historia. Rezemos,

destronada, privada do seu trono, dos seus siibditos e do seu reino.

Esta imagem figura a situagao do mundo contemporaneo, o qual atraves da indiferenga, dos pecados c das blasfemias, almeja o destronamento de Deus de Nossa Se

meus caros, para que nessas circunstancias

nhora e da religiao. Por esta razao, a TFP americana foi honrada, para alem da medida, com a presenga de Nossa Senhora da Esperanga Macarena presidindo ao Encontro

o Divino Espi'rito Santo assista especial-

Nacional de 1985.

Histdria da Imagem. A estatua original de Nossa Senhora da Esperanga foi venerada durante seculos no bairro de Macarena cm Sevilha.

Embora os habitantes da cidade leinbrem os nomes de muitos dos artistas cujas obras embelezaram as suas igrejas, a identidade daquele que fez La Macarena e incerta. Alguns afirmam que e obra do grande escultor Pedro Roldan, nascido em Sevilha

no ano de 1624 e tambem la falecido em 1700. Outros dizem que "os anjos a fizeram", talvez por os impressionar a extraordinaria beleza da imagem. Mas, qualquer que seja a sua origem, o fato e que La Macarena tern sido objeto de entusiasmo e piedade popular ao longo dos tempos.

Seguindo um costume que vem do seculo XVII, na Semana Santa a imagem e carregada em procissao solene atraves das ruas de Sevilha, numa ccrimonia tipica, cheia de beleza e tradigao. A devogao dos fieis manifesta-se especialmente na Sexta-Feira Santa, quando uma imagem de Nosso Scnhor, no momento cm que era condenado

por Pilaios, e conduzida na frente de La Macarena. Acendendo grande quantidade de velas na frente dcsia, os fieis desejam assim ofuscar os olhos da Virgem para que Ela nao veja os sofrimentos do seu Divino Filho. ApresentaQao da mensagem do Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira em video-tape

Durante a procissao, as imagens de Nosso Scnhor e Nossa Senhora sao frcquentemente paradas pelos fieis que, em estilo tipicamente .sevilhano, cantam miisicas por

eles mesmos compostas e com o flm de consolar os seus divinos Soberanos pelos sofri mentos da Paixao do Redentor.

mente a Santa Igreja Catblica Apostolica Romana.

A presen?a entre vos de um personagem ilustre, cujo talento eu admiro, de cuja virtude eu tenho noti'cias bem exatas por um

amigo comum que nos e muito caro, chamado Joao Cia Dias, a presenga do grande Teologo Pe. Victorino Rodriguez, me e especialmente cara e a disiancia eu Ihe presto a homenagem da minha admiragao e da minha simpatia.

Aproveito tambem para saudar aquele Sacerdote, aquele Conego, aquele modelar diretor de almas que, na sua juventude, eu acompanhei certa vez ao Altar. Que dia de alegria, que dia de satisfagao aquele em que eu fui padrinho da sua Ordenagao Sacer dotal! Quantos anos transcorridos de la para ca, numa colaboragao harmoniosa, conti'nua e tao fecunda em frutos e resul-

tados! Como nao apresentar a ele — que e. Junto com o Pe. Victorino Rodriguez, um ornamento da reuniao que fareis — OS meus cumprimentos e as minhas homenagens!

A vos todos, meus caros, sobretudo as senhoras cuja presenga realga em brilho a

Na face do lado direito da imagem, pode ver-se distintamente uma contusao. Diz-

-se que, durante uma dessas procissoes de Semanan Santa, um bebado p6s-se em frente da imagem e comegou a insulta-la. Na sua furia, acabou atirando um pedago de vidro que atingiu a face do lado direito. Para que todos vissem, do impacto rcsultou essa contusao.

Mas quando esse homem voltou ao estado normal, deu-se conta da grave ofensa que cometeu contra a Mae de Deus e, em sua angustia, resolveu fazer penitencia. Desde entao, sempre que a imagem saia em procissao pelas ruas, o penitemc expiava os seus pecados caminhando na frente dela com os pcs acorrentados e carregando uma cruz.

Depois que morreu, seus descendentes continuaram a carrcgar a sua cni nservando essa piedosa pratica que se mantem ate aos dias de hoje. Embora grand. .^as tenliam tentado apagar o dano feito por esse homem, nimca os seus esforgos deram resultado, pois logo que o irabalho de restauragao se concluia, a contusao voltava como se tivesse sido feita naquele insiante.

No periodo da Gucrra Civil espanhola, os comunistas, por odio a Fe caiolica, destrui'ram muitas imagens, crucifixos, conventos e igrejas, entre elas a de San Gil onde La Macarena era venerada. Para proteger a imagem, tres fieis colocaram-na numa caixa, levaram-na para uma casa nas ruelas de Sevilha e ai a conservaram durante alguns meses, ate que a paz voltasse a cidade.

Jdia do Encontro. A Foundaiion for a Christian Civilization encarregou um dos mais renomados artistas espanhois, Luiz .Alvarez Diiarte, de fazer uma copia exaia de Ui Macarena, espedalmeme para o Encontro Nacional de 1985. Embora esta copia nao tenha sido feita pelos anjos, como dizem os sevilhanos da imagem original, e

fora de diivida de que se traia de um trabalho inspirado. Noti'cias solTre a sua prcparagao e destino ao Estados Unidos, circularam na imprensa espanhola, nomeadamente no diario ABC de Sevilha.

Como Rainha. La Macarena reinou nos coragoes dos que estavam presentcs. Pois as.sim como na oragao "Salve Rainha", Nossa Senhora e chamada de "Esperanga nossa", assim tambem a vinda da imagem de Nossa Senhora da Esperanga Macarena

vossa reuniao, a vos todos as minhas me-

para o Encontro da TFP Americana, foi um fato profundamente simbolico, que comu-

Ihores saudagoes!

nicou esperanga a todos os participantes. TFP NE\vsi,ErrER

Os Srs. John Horvat e John Spann denunciam a doutrina comunista-estruturalista baseada no tribalismo

Razoes de Vigilancia,Ora^ao e Esperan^a NA sua palestra sobre "O Panorama Nacional: Razoes de Vigilancia, Ora?ao e Esperanta", os Srs. John Spann, presidente da TFF Americana, e John Hor vat, editor da TFP Newsletter, discorreram

rao em desgraga, sublinharam os conferen cisias. E isto e o que acontece hoje. Em Busca de Outro Parai'so. Cada vez

vida pela principal corrente de opiniao da sociedade. Isto ocorre sistematicamente, por mais estranha e irracional que seja a nova tendencia.

sobre as origens da crise psicologica que

mais as pessoas sentem desconforlo no paraiso naturalista que o homem criou.

esta conduzindo a desintegrafao da socie-

Incapazes de lutar contra as crescentes pres-

sigao sobre o avango do tribalismo na reli

giao, foi mencionado o bispo Pedro Casaldaliga, do Brasil, que sustenta o tribalismo

Tribalismo na Esfera Religlosa. Na expo-

dade americana rumo a um estilo de vida

soes, os americanos procuram refugiar-se

tribal, diretamente oposto ao da civiliza-

em alternativos estilos de vida e em subcul-

gao crista.

turas, das quais a mais radical e o movi-

nativo. De acordo com suas teorias missio-

mento punk.

narias, os indios selvagens deveriam ser considerados modelos para a sociedade e

Em seu todo, os Estados Unidos nao tem

"Onde conduz tudo isto?", perguntou o Sr. John Horvat. "Estamos no preliidio do tragico momento em que as pessoas comegarao a abandonar os grandes centres do capitalismo para adotarem o estado de

problemas de fome, de desemprego, de epi-

vida tribal."

Sensagao de Seguranga. Esta crise baseia-se parcialmente na imensa necessidade de seguranga que tern de sentir a maior parte dos americanos, disseram os conferencisias.

demias devastadoras e outras dificuldades

comuns as nagoes pobres. Compreensivel-

mente, os americanos sentem-se mais segu-

O Idea! Triballsta Indio. Nao surpreende que o movimento punk americano tenha

ros quando vivem num sisiema que os poupa as incertezas e aos problemas da

uma caracteristica marcadamente india.

vida.

mentores intelectuais (as vezes encorajados por elementos da "esquerda catolica") criticam abertamente a colonizagao britanica, espanhola e portuguesa nas Americas e a

Este sistema, porem, nem sempre existiu. Os pioneiros da colonizagao enfrenta-

ram fome, secas e epidemias, mas como

De fato, o movimento punk e os seus

eram genie vigorosa, venceram estes problemas.

evangelizagao dos indios. Eles sustentam

"Em si, nada ha de errado em querer

fcito modelo para o qual a sociedade

acabar com estes problemas", nolou o Sr. John Horvat."Mas nao por uma via naturalista, nao dirigida para Deus, como acontece aqui. Com efeito, quizemos fazer um paraiso na terra, de tal modo que fosse desnecessdrio pensar em Deus, em que a meIhor coisa seria bani-Lo, acabar com a Sua

existencia ou pelo menos confina-Lo as

que o primitive estado dos indios era o permoderna deveria voltar.

A vida tribal dos indios, porem, nao e aquilo que tantas vezes os seus apologislas dizem ser. Usando slides para ilustrar esta afirmagao, os conferencisias mostraram que as religioes animistas, os rituais maca-

bros, a moral permissivista e a vida desolada, reinam na maioria das tribes pagas.

igrejas so para atender as necessidades espirituais daqueles cujas almas fossem irreme-

A Nossa Sociedade em Transformagao.

para os evangelizadores. Nos Estados Unidos, esta tendencia e

glorificada nos circulos radicals do progressismo catolico, o qual esta na vanguarda do movimento tribalista. A tal proposito, o Sr. Horvat citou publicagoes e movimentos que advogam a transformagao da estrutura hierarquica da Igreja Catolica numa rede descentralizada de pequenos grupos que nao tenham doutrina oficial, moralidade ou estrutura.

O Desmantelamento da Civilizagao Contemporanea. Uma das mais importantes observagoes que os conferencisias fizeram, foi a de que o tribalismo e efectivamente um estagio avangado do comunismo. <" efeito, dizia Marx que a sociedade sc lista deveria evoluir ao ponto em que o estado seria abolido e substituido por pequenas comunidades autogestionarias. Conceitos comunitarios como este, estao largamente difundidos nos Estados Unidos onde a contra-cultura dos anos 60 foi refor-

mulada para ser mais f^cilmente aceite.

Assim, as alternativas socialistas de politica educacional, social e economica que hoje sao apresentadas, estao recebendo um status de respeitabilidade.

diavelmente fracas."

Baseando-se em

Alguns foram ao ponto de considerar a religiao como forma de psiquiatria ances

imprensa, o Sr. John Horvat mostrou ate que ponto a sociedade moderna se desviou

tral que utiliza uma vaga nogao de deus

da civilizagao crista, fazendo notar a semeIhanga chocante entre os estilos de vida contemporaneos e certas praticas tribais.

ricana apoia-se na esperanga dada ao

riiaria e sem Deus, faz lembrar uma passagem das Escrituras; "Rireis deles, Senhor". Pois aqueles que confiam apenas

Sempre que a Revolugao gnostica e igualitaria apresenta uma nova e mais descarada tendencia para depor o status quo â&#x20AC;&#x201D; explicaram os conferencisias â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ela e lenta

mundo por Nossa Senhora de Fitima que, apos ter chamado a atengao para os castigos e sofrimentos que viriam, profetizou que finalmente o Seu Imaculado Coragao

nos recursos humanos, inevitavelmente cai-

mas certamente aceite pela maioria e absor-

triunfaria.

como valvula de escape para disturbios nervosos.

Uma sociedade assim constituida, secu-

Special Issue, 1985

recentes

noticias da

Estamos testemunhando o desmantela

mento da civilizagao contemporanea. Em face da crise hodierna, a TFP Ame

A Crescente

Mare de

Blasfemias

sJ OS grandes teologos catdlicos ensinam que a blasfemia consiste em atribuir a Deus(ou aquilo que e sagrado e, por-

Os filmes blasfemos — explica o Sr. James McKenna — nao tern fins-lucrativos... "E quando o objeto da afronta e a incomparavel Mae, que esta para alem de todos

Rosario — e tambem no dia seguinte,

os louvores — Maria Santi'ssima, Rainha

membros da TFP Americana uniram-se a

Nesse dia — festa de Nossa Senhora do

tanio, indiretamente a Deus)o que nao Lhe

do Ceu e da Terra — o insulto nao pode-

manifestagao que foi organizada pelo Grea

e proprio. Em face da blasfemia, o catolico fiel nao pode silenciar. Per causa da exibigao de filmes blasfemos como A ve Maria, a blasfemia e precisamente o assunto com o qua! os caiolicos hoje se confrontam. De fato, Ave Maria

ria ser mais difamatorio ou calunioso." Este filial sentimento atraiu uma multi-

ter New York Chapter of the Catholic Lea

coln Center de Nova York, no dia 7 de Outubro de 1985, para protestar veemen-

sengas, o diretor executivo daquela enti-

temente contra a esireia do r\\x\\Q Ave Maria

"muitos catolicos permaneceram em ati-

e uma versao moderna e caricata da Mae

e para oferecer ora(;6es em reparafao.

tude passiva cm face desie fanatismo

dao de pelo mcnos 8 mil catolicos ao Lin

guefor Religious and Civil Rights. Embora se tenha registrado um bom mimero de predade, John Puthenveetil, observou que

anti-catolico".

de Deus e do Misterio da Encarnacao. Foi

Ao comefar o protesto, a policia colo-

produzido na Franca e esia agora sendo

cou OS manifestanies a distancia da entrada

exibido nos Esiados Unidos.

do cinema, limitando-os a uma area barri-

Em vista da gravidade desia ofensa, a TFP Americana protestou por meio de manifestafocs piiblicas e de uma campanha de mass mailing que di.stribuiu um mani festo intitulado An Expose ofa Blasphemy.

cada, ao longo da rua. Mas como a multidao foi aumeniando, toda a rua ficou blo-

queada e os manifestantes acabaram '■■or invadir a praipa em ("rente ao Lincoln n ter's Alice Truly Hall. Entao a policia i ormou um corredor para dar passagcm aos que liaviam comprado bilhete, alguns dos quais escarneccram dos que protestavam.

Baseado niim estudo especial da TFP

Francesa, o manifesto refere-se a total depravagao do filme que ate inclui varias cenas pornograficas. E lembra que Sua

credita o seu sienificado espiritual e valor

Estes, por sua vez, gritavam "Vergonha!" aqueles que entravam no cinema, mesmo depoib de eles ja estarem dentro. "Cremos que o filme Ave Maria e uma

historico."

blasfemia total, anti-crista e anti-catolica,

Assim pois, o Encontro Nacional da TFP Americana apresentou um quadro

bem como um insulto aos catolicos de todo

Saniidade Joao Paulo II condenou o filme,

classificando-o de obra que deforma realidades fundamentals da Fe crista e "desa-

0 mundo. Compraz-nos o fato de que pessoas leigas e outros grupos estejam exteriorizando suas preocupacdes e objev'des de modo tao categorico", comentou o Pe. Peter Finn, diretor de comunicac'oes da Arquidiocese de Nova York. Um dos grandes cartazes exibido pelos

assustador da crescente mare de blasfemias

e da necessidade do.s catolicos a ela se oporem em todo o pais. Proteslo de Catolicos. "Nao e necessa-

rlo explicar a um filho por que motivo ele

membros da TFP Americana dizia: "Voce

deve ficar indignado quando ve a sua mae

injustamente insultada", le-se no Expose.

Campanha contra o filme "Ave Maria

tern alguma honra? Como pode voce TFP Newsletter

passar sem ficar indignado, quando sua querida e veneravel Mae e insultada e ridi-

AND DEFENSELESSLY

cularizada? Nao se levamara voce para

SUBJECTED IN THIS BUILDING TO THE GRAVEST INSULTS. OUTRAGES

defende-La, para proclamar sua indigna-

gao tao alto que chegue aos ceus? Nao tole-

^""oSuTHORITIES DO NOTHING IN FACE OF THIS BLASPHEMY.

raremos este iratamento injusto e brutal,

ao qua! o [\\m^ Ave Maria submete a San-

They wash their hands in the basin of Pontius Pilate.

ti'ssima Mae de Deus e de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo".

The AMERICAN TFP.

Outro cartaz da TFP tinha os seguintes dizeres: "Se voce acredita em Jesus Cristo,

nosso Deus e Senhor, proteste em voz alta as autoridades competentes e pega-lhes que

proibam o blasfemo e ultrajante iWrntAve Maria'''.

Painel dc Debates. A campanha contra o filme "Ave Maria" foi levada ao Encon-

tro com um painel de debates sobre a mare de filmes blasfemos feitos e distribuldos nos

Estados Unidos e noutros paises. Ficou dolorosamente claro que A ve Maria nao se

limitava apenas aos cinemas de Nova York e que os seus promotores estavam sendo solicitados a espalhar o filme por todo o pai's. Orientado pelo Presidente da TFP Ame ricana, Sr. John Spann, o debate tambem contou com a colaboragao dos Srs. Earl Appleby, James McKenna e Luiz Antonio Fragelli.

Abordando os aspectos morais do problema, o Sr. Appleby lembrou que Ave

Em cima e em baixo: outras imagens da campanha — os fi^is protestam.

HAH MAHY ^ TiyPAYFD vli?

YORK STATE , SUPPLIED FUNDS ANTI-CATHOLICISM' thisUPON vicious """• I ATTACK THE

^ ^ CATHOLIC CHURCH/

Maria vai alem da detragao e da caliinia,

uma vez que ataca Aquela que foi concebida sem pecado e que, sob o glorioso titulo

• si

de Imaculada Conceigao, reina como

padroeira dos Estados Unidos. O filme foi

qualificado como "o mais victado de calunias contra a mais perfeita e mais pura das criaturas humanas".

"Quantos e quantos ouvidos ouvirao a sua santidade ser insuliada?", perguntou

0 Sr. Appleby. "Quantos olhos verao a sua pureza ser envergonhada?"

Depois de ter falado sobre os succssivos ataques contra a Divindade de Nosso Se nhor e contra a Divina Maternidade atraves

da historia, o Sr. James Mckenna obser-

vou que os filmes mais blasfemos nao sao produzidos com fins lucraiivos pois, na verdade, costiimam ser fracassos comerciais. A finalidade da sua produgao, muito mais do que o dinheiro, deseja a destruigao da Fe catolica.

"O que representa isio?" — o Sr. McKenna levantou a pergunta. "Repre senta algo muito mais importante do que um mero insulto contra a Mae de Deus.

Representa um ataque direto aos beneficios que atraves dEla foram concedidos a civilizagao e a devogao que desde ha dois mil anos OS catolicos tem por Ela". Pessoas do auditorio manifestaram o seu

desejo de impedir a exibigao do filme em suas areas de residencia. Sugestoes e perguntas foram levantadas no fim do debate, tendo em vista a mais iirgente e a mais ampla difusao possi'vel do "Expose", bem como a adogao de ouiras medidas que almejem a reversao dessa mare de blasfemias e de tendencias anti-catolicas.

Special Issue, 1985

Em baixo: os manlfestantes protestam levantando os rosarios e copias do "Expose"

cima. Durante o

Encontro Nacional de

1985, Nossa Senhora da Esperan^a Macarena, foi entronizada como Rainha na sede da TFP Americana.

A direita. No dia 13 de

Outubro, festa da ultima

aparl9ao de Nossa Se nhora em Fdtlma, foi celebrada

uma

missa

solene, pelas intengoes dos que tomaram parte no Encontro.

Em baixo. Os particlpantes do Encontro aplaudem uma das conferencias.

TFP Newsletter

Em cima. A delegagao canadense que velo para o Enconfro, em frente da

imagem de Nossa

Senhora da Esperanga Macarena. A direita. O Coro da TFP cantando

em gregoriano du rante a Missa solene.

Em baixo. Aspecto de uma das conferencias.

0 alto. Durante o cafe,

) iniciar-se

mais um

a de reunides, alguns vans aproveifam

:asiao para conversar.

n cima. A imagem de

.a Macarena", escol-

da por uma procissao

3 tochas, e conduzida ) lugar de honra, na

;de da TFP Americana.

esquerda. Apos um a cheio de conferen-

as, OS participantes )roveitam o agradavel

ima de convivio do jan-

r para trocar suas

ipressoes.

Special Issue, 1985

As corporagoes evoluiram para sistemas destituidos de iniciativa privada. A vida perdeu o seu caracter vibrante e juvenil.

A Imagem Atual da America. Embora o American of life nao seja atualmenie tao enfatizado, ele ainda e fonte de grande prestigio para os Estados Unidos. A ima gem de uma America exuberante ainda permanece em muitos subconscientes e o

Mundo tem saudades daquilo que os Esta dos Unidos foram e representaram. "Infelizmente nos, os americanos, nao levamos em consideragao estes fatores em

Os Srs. Walter Gamier e Mario Navarre da Costa falam sobre o potencial dos E.U.A.

nossa agao politica e, por esta razao, estamos perdendo enormes possibilidades para atuar em escala mundial," notou o Sr.

O poteneiul dos Estados Enidos — sua influenciaf poder e recursos AO Sr. Mario Navarre da Costa, do Bureau de Washington para a Representa?ao das 15 TFPs, e ao Sr. Walter Gamier coube uma exposigao do tema"O Panorama Internacional: O Potencial dos

cios passou a estar onde se pudessem fazer ou perder fortunas de milhoes de dolares. Tudo isto inebriou a Europa e o Mundo, sacudindo a sociedade humana de um dia para o outro.

Walter Camier. "Usando nossa popularidade de outrora — concluiu o conferencista

— nos ainda podemos reunificar o mundo nao-comunista."

Esta agao, entretanto — lembraram os conferencistas — nao deve ser empreendida

com base na promogao dos erros do liberalismo, mas na reafirmagao dos aspectos

licitos do capitalismo, mais combatidos pela Revolugao: a livre iniciativa e a propriedade privada.

Estados Unidos — Sua Influencia, Poder e Recursos — Nosso Dever e Nossa Missao

Apogcu e Crise da America. Depois da

Poder inexplorado. Tambem foi discu-

Historica como Na?ao, em Face da Igreja, da Civiliza?ao Crista e de Nossos Vizinhosl' Os conferencislas focalizaram especial-

Primeira Guerra Mundial, a Europa comegou a perder o seu poder e a sua influen cia. Enquanto isso, os Estados Unidos e o Japao cresceram, tornando-se jovens audaciosos que passaram a ditar o futuro. E entao fez-se um esforgo para sepultar as

tido o poder dos Estados Unidos. Domi-

mente o modo como o mundo tem olhado

para os Estados Unidos, tanto no passado como no presente, para mostrar como as

nada pelo espirito de Yalta e pelo pacifismo, esta nagao prossegue avidamente sua politica de "boa-vontade" em relagao a todos OS paises. E daqui-tem resultado

a expansao do imperio comunista. O pro-

aparencias muitas vezes tem mais peso do que a realidade. Pois os Estados Unidos sao frequentemente avaliados nao pelo que efe-

velhas tradigoes da Europa, promovendose uma campanha de propaganda que satu-

cedimento dos Estados Unidos — comen-

rou 0 mundo com novas ideias e costumes

tivamente sao, mas pelo que parecem ser.

provenientes dos Estados Unidos. A Esta-

relagao a Mogambique, Angola, Cuba e Nicaragua, nao e senao o prosseguimento dessa politica.

tua da Liberdade era o simbolo dessa

O Velho e o Novo. Ate a epoca da Pri-

campanha.

meira Guerra Mundial, a Europa era o

Esie ilimitado prestigio da America con-

padrao cultural para o mundo. O Imperio Britanico tinha um poder universal e desfrutava de grande presli'gio. A Franga e a

tinuou ate ao fim da Segunda Guerra Mun dial mas comegou a minguar quando ela

Alemanha eram

consideradas

nagoes-

-modelo para outros paises, que tentaram imitar uma ou outra de acordo com as suas

preferencias. Entretanto, fora da Europa maturavam

duas na^oes destinadas a alcangar grande poder. Uma era os Estados Unidos; e a outra era o Japao que, devido a fraqueza da China, comegou a destacar-se como lider no Extremo Oriente. Estas duas

nagoes eram adolescentes, enquanto os pai ses europeus eram como espertos e ativos sexagenaries que souberam transformar as tendencias em ideias e costumes. Mas ate

quando os Estados Unidos estavam rapidamente a atingir a posigao de igualdade nos pianos economico e politico, os euro peus ainda eram incontestavelmente os lideres do mundo.

As Consequencias da Guerra. O fim da Primcira Guerra Mundial e a queda dos

imperios Aiistro-Hungaro, Alemao e Rlisso, deram lugar a novas ideias e costu mes. E assim, os brilhanies aspectos conira-revolucionarios da velha Europa foram substituidos pelos novos aspectos do estilo de vida americano.

A "cientificagao" da vida alterou pro-

fimdamente os costumes e a sorte dos nego10

resolveu procurar a coexistencia pacifica com o comunismo, espalhando o espirito capitulacionista de Yalta e facultando a Moscou a possibilidade de conquistar o mundo pela guerra psicologica revolucio-

tou 0 Sr. Mario Navarro da Costa — em

dois conferencistas concluiram

dizendo que o prestigio internacional e o poder dos Estados Unidos nunca foram explorados no sentido dc servir a civilizagao crista. Assim como a TFP faz com os circulos conservadores, tambem os ameri canos deveriam fazer com a America e com

o mundo. isto e, denunciar o pacifismo, desmascara-lo, oferecer-lhe resistencia e

naria.

incentivar os lideres da nagao a tomar ati-

A partir de entao, o estilo de vida ame ricano — the American way of life — comegou a desvanecer. As grandes fortu

tudes mais definidas.

nas deixaram de se fazer com a mesma facilidade de anteriormente. A burocracia e a

linhou 0 Sr. Camier — gradualui deremos tudo e o nosso prestigio

intervengao e.statal tornaram-se excessivas.

cional nao valera nada."

"Se nao mudarmos a nossa politica ecumenica em relagao ao comunismo — sub-

-wfi.i-

0 simbolo dos correspondentes da TFP (ao fundo) no auditorio das conferenclas

VERDADE LIBERTADORA O Pe. Victorino

Rodriguez y Rodriguez O.P expoe principios sublimes 0 Pe. Victorino Rodriguez e o Sr. John Spann, que fol o interprets da conferencia.

REVERENDO Conego, Senhoras e Senhores da TFP:

Creio que ja todos nos saudamos cordialmente, uns de palavra e outros

rencia, variagao e intermutabilidade da

ordem metafi'sica e ontologica. Existe

verdade e do erro, ou seja, se o erro de hoje pode ser a verdade de amanha

logica. Existe a verdade de fe. Existe a

e se a verdade de hoje pode ser o erro

pelo menos de olhar quando nao foi possi'vel falar. Nao seria necessario

de amanha.

dizer que me sinto feliz entre vos, nao so per ouvir muitas coisas agradaveis

A Verdade e suas Formas. O que e a verdade? Esta pergunta fez Pilatos a Jesus, mas Ele nao respondeu porque

e por poder comunicar o que me e pos si'vel comunicar, mas tambem por este ambiente de amizade autenticamente

a verdade estetica. Existe a verdade teo-

Verdade que e o proprio Deus. Estas verdades, com estas gradagoes, nao se podem conhecer todas do

viu que era fn'vola e ma! intencionada. Mas Cristo deu testemunho do que era

mesmo modo ou com a mesma facili-

dade, nem tem todas o mesmo valor.

Estas verdades contemplativas ou teoricas prestam-se a diferentes qualificagoes quanto a sua utilidade e quanto

crista que se vive aqui, como talvez

a verdade: "Eu sou a Verdade e para

em mais nenhuma outra parte.

isto vim ao Mundo, para dar teste

a sua necessidade, mas as que mais interessam para a vida, especialmente

Quando no mes de maio ou junho

munho da Verdade". Foi por dizer a

a vida do comportamento religioso, sao

fui convidado a tomar pane nesta reu-

verdade sobre a sua condigao divina

as verdades praticas morals.

niao de outubro, pensei num tema que, por um lado me e muito caro, e por

que O mataram. Bem, o que e entao a verdade, numa nogao geral aplicavel a Cristo?

outro lado deve servir muilo bem a

TFP, a seus programas e suas realiza-

Numa nogao elementar, de diciona-

Qoes douirinarias. Esse tema e a

rio, podemos dizer que a verdade con-

Verclade.

Sabeis que minha Ordem, a Ordem Dominicana, tem Verilas (a Verdade)

siste na adequagao dos nossos jui'zos com a realidade das coisas. Quando os nossos jui'zos correspondem a reali

Valor da Verdade. Se Cristo disse

que Ele era a Verdade â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "Eu sou o Caminho, a Verdade e a Vida" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; e que o Espirito Santo viria depois de Pentecostes para reforgar o conhecimento da verdade, se Sao Joao Evangelista dizia que o seu maior prazer estava em saber

dade, e verdade. Quando nao corres

que OS seus filhos procediam de acordo com a verdade, compreendemos que na ordem teologica e a m'vel humano. a

que a Igreja ou o catolicismo hoje,

pondem, e erro. E,sta nogao tem duas grandes formas que sao a verdade contemplativa ou

principalmente, necessitam conliecer, e a verdade Integra, sem hesitagoes e sem

especulativa e a verdade pratica. A ver dade especulativa e a acomodagao dos

ser truncada. Pois, o fato de ter a cons-

conceitos e dos jui'zos da nossa mente com a realidade das coisas que nao dependem de nos. A verdade pratica e a adequagao dos nossos conceitos com

fica. Como e valioso ter a perfeigao do conhecimento e cultivar a inteligencia!

as realizagoes que dependem de nos,

por lema, desde o seculo XIV. Por isso escolhi este tema no qual, alias, o Papa muito icm insistido iiltimamente. O

ciencia de uma aiitude clara ante a ver

dade Integra e tomada como certa, e o grande recurso para fazer frente aos problemas da nossa epoca. O que aqui vou fazer, sera ressaltar e sublinhar pontos fundamentais deste tema que sera dividido em sete panes: primeiro, a verdade e suas formas; segundo, o valor da verdade; terceiro,

verdade e um valor supremo. ^ somente na ordem teologica, mas laiubem na ordem antropologica e filoso-

Como e vergonhoso uma pessoa dizer-se ignorante! Que prazer quando se

plativa tem diferentes subformas que

encontra a verdade procurada! Que degradante ser tornado por mentiroso! Sao Tomas de Aquino dizia que a verdade e o que ha de mais divino neste mundo. Tem ate mais valor do que a

sao importantes para julgar a verdade.

amizade. Amicus Plato, sed maxis

Assim, existe a verdade de ordem expe

arnica verilas ~ Amigo e Platao, mas mais amiga e a verdade, dizia um lema amigo. Suponho que nao seja necessario

das nossas obras morals ou das nossas

produgoes arti'sticas. A verdade especulativa ou contem

o poder de conhecer a verdade; quarto, OS efeitos dignificantes da verdade; quinto, o dever-direito de conhecer a

rimental ou fi'sica. Existe a verdade de ordem fisico-matematica. Existe a ver

verdade com certeza e de dize-la com

dade de ordem antropologica. Existe a

claridade; sexto, as rai'zes do erro e da

verdade de ordem moral, da ordem

esclarecer este valor da verdade. Mas

mentira; setimo, a questao da interfe-

moral dos valores. Existe a verdade de

entao â&#x20AC;&#x201D; este sera o problema que

Special Issue. 1985

e assim tao apeteci'vel e lao boa, por

de unidade de todas as inteligencias. A forga pacificadora reside nao

que ha gente que ama o erro e a

somenle no fato de que a verdade,

mentira?

como uniao, e paz e e ordem, mas tam bem porque a verdade e fonte de um

levantaremos no final â&#x20AC;&#x201D; se a verdade

amor unitario. Disto vos mcsmos ten-

O Poder de Conhecer a Verdade com Certeza. Podemos conhecer a verdade,

des experiencia. Aqui sentimo-nos

mas e difi'cil conhecer toda a verdade.

muito unidos porque lemos a mesma

Especulativamente, e difi'cil conhecer as verdades que sao arduas, que sao muito elevadas, que estao acima do nosso

fe, temos o mesmo amor, temos a

mesma esperanga. E o efeito unificador e pacificador da verdade. E se a verdade leva a unidade e a ordem aos

mundo palpavel.

E diffcil conhecer a nossa propria

coragoes, daqui resulta a concordia e

alma. E difi'cil conhecer as verdades de ordem metafi'sica. E difi'cil conhecer as altas verdades de ordem fi'sico-matematica. E difi'cil conhecer as verdades reli-

a unidade dos coragdes, que e a paz no

giosas. E muito difi'cil conhecer as ver

gao dos homens.

sentido mais profundo, a tranquUitas ordinis , a tranquilidade da ordem, que tem a sua primeira realizagao no cora

dades de ordem moral em todas as suas A

consequencias e implica^des. E, tratan-

Verdade

Libertadora.

Outro

E difi'cil conhecer toda a verdad e! E

aspecto dignificante da verdade esta no

dificuldades nascem tambem das dis-

mais difi'cil para uns do que 'ara

seu efeito libertador. Isto e o que quer

posi?oes subjetivas de ordem afetiva.

outros.

indicar o ti'lulo da conferencia: "A Ver dade Libertadora".

do-se de verdades de ordem etica, as

Por outro lado, reconhecem-se facil-

A verdade nao e democratica. E aris-

mente as verdades que nao comprome-

tocratica. Creio que no nosso mundo

tem a nossa vida com programas de

moderno dos inqueritos, da democra-

Este efeito libertador da verdade tem

estes aspectos que aponto:

renuncias e de mortificagoes. Mas

cia inorganica e da questao quantita-

Primeiro, a verdade de Cristo, que se

quando as verdades nos limitam e nos

tiva, isto e muito importante. Em nosso

define como verdade, tal como esta no

atam aos preceitos de um determinado comportamento, entao a reagao e de

Parlamento espanhol, como em tantos outros, votou-se a "verdade" do aborto

prologo do Evangelho de Sao Joao. Era a luz que existia em Deus, Que veio

defesa em face dessas verdades.

... pela maioria absoluta. Grande

iluminar os homens para submeter

mentira!

todas as coisas a ordem divina. Jesus e a verdade iluminadora de todas as

No que se refere as verdades especulativas do conhecimento de Deus, Sao

Tomas, no primeiro artigo da Suma Teologica escreveu esta observagao

Efeitos Dignificantes da Verdade. A

outras verdades. Tem este efeito de

m'vel antropologico, o efeito mais

libertagao das inteligencias de todos os

sobre a conveniencia de uma revelagao

dignificante da verdade esta no seu valor personalizador, pois a pessoa se

divina: "Conveio que a verdade sobre Deus fosse revelada porque, se assim

descreve como rationalis naturae indi-

nao fosse, ao conhecimento dela poucos homens chegariam, depois de

natureza racionai. De modo que a

vidua substantia, como substancia de

homens e de toda a sociedade, efeito

fundamental de libertagao da verdade. Segundo, a verdade, tanto especulativa como pratica, e libertadora dos nossos erros e das nossas ignorancias. A ignorancia limita-nos e o erro ata-

mistura!' Esta afirmagao de Sao Tomas

racionalidade, a inteligencia, e o mais proprio da pessoa humana, e por isso

passou literalmente para o Concilio

o conhecimento da verdade, que e o

-nos e contraria-nos. Por isso, o efeito imedialo da verdade em nos, consiste

Vaticano I.

cultivo da inteligencia e da razao, e o

em libertar-nos do erro e da ignoran

No entanto, podemos conhecer a verdade, porque o homem esta naturalmente ligado a ela. De fato, "todos os

que mais personaliza o homem enquanto tal. O segundo efeito dignificante da ver

cia, e todos temos prazer nesta liberta gao. E a alegria do "eureka": "Encon-

homens desejam naturalmente saber",

dade esta no fato de que esta e a norma

diz em seu comego a metafi'sica de

objetiva da boa moralidade e da ma. O bem moral que nos aperfeigoa e o mal

muito trabalho e com muitos erros a

Aristoteles.

Pode-se conhecer a verdade, mas isso

trei a verdade!" Efeito libertador da VcrdaÂŤ

Vida

Social e Poli'tica. A paz tem

lato-

moral que nos degrada, provem respec-

res previos fundamentais, um posiiivo e outro negative. O fator positive da paz e a amizade

nao quer dizer que todos a possam

tivamente do bem ditado pela reta ra

conhecer com a mesma facilidade e

zao ou deformado pela razao erronea.

prontidao.

Dai a grande transcendencia do conhe cimento da verdade, especialmente da verdade pratica. Por isso, nao se pode

e o amor entre os homens. Nao ha

culdades que OS objetos apresentam para serem reconhecidos; de outro lado estao as grandes diferengas entre os individuos. Ha pessoas mais capacitadas e pessoas menos capacitadas. Ha

ser honesto e moralmente bom sem o

entre eles.

conhecimento da verdade pratica. Outro efeito dignificante da verdade reside na sua forga unitiva e pacifica-

O segundo fator de paz, mais propriamente negative(no sentido filoso-

pessoas que foram educadas para o

e uniao. E a uniao da inteligencia com a realldade, com as coisas conhecidas; e e a uniao das inteligencias entre si, em relagao a um objeto comum. E sobretudo a forga unitiva do conheci mento que se projeta sobre Deus, ponto

Nesta contingencia entram dois fatores: de um lado estao as diferentes difi

conhecimento da verdade e pessoas que nao tiveram essa possibilidade. Ha pes

soas que tern um coragao limpo, que procuram a luz e a verdade, e ha outras que nao sao assim. 12

autentica paz entre os homens se nao houver lagos de amizade e de amor

fico da palavra), e a justiga. Se ha

dora, porque a verdade, por definigao, injustiga nao ha paz. Para que haja paz autentica e preciso apagar a injustiga da sociedade. Dizia Isaias que Opus justitiae, pax, que a obra da justiga e a paz. E quando Sao Tomas comenta isto, diz ele que este e o fator condicio-

nante negative. 11-P Newsi.etter

O fator mais positive da paz como

aos falsos profetas que apostataram da

diversos de si mesma, como e distor-

tranquilidade da ordem na vida pes-

verdade.

cida, como e silenciada quando con-

soal, familiar, social e politica, e a concordia dos coragoes, que significa con-

Ja no Antigo Testamento o Profeta Ezequiel recebeu este mandato do Se-

se comentava ontem a proposito do

cordia de amor. Por isso, numa das

nhor:''Predica e advene os im'quos do

filme blasfemo "Ave Maria".

bemaventuran^as evangelicas, chama-

mau caminho que levam. Se eles se

-se venturosos aqueles que trabalham

converterem, salvarao sua vida e tu a

A Existencia do Direito de Enganar-

pela paz, porque eles serao chamados

tua. Mas se tu, por calares, permitires que OS outros se percam por falta de

-se e o Eventual Dever de nao Dizer a

advertencia, eles se condenarao pelo seu pecado e tu pelo teu silencio".

enganar-se? Nao! Nunca!

filhos de Deus. Ai esta a autentica paz. E quando isto nao existe, a paz e ficti-

cia, e superficial, e aparente.

vem, para insultar com mentiras como

Verdade ou de Oculta-la. Direito de Antes e durante o Concflio Vaticano

Se nao ha guerra entre dois povos

Joao Paulo II, num discurso profe-

II, alguns teologos peritos, ao falar do

por medo mutuo, nao ha paz verdadeira. Se hainjustifas intoleraveis, cri

rido em Puebla de Los Angeles, em

direito da liberdade religiosa para os

1979, aos bispos da CELAM (Confe-

protestantes, insistiram muito nisso,

mes piiblicos, pecados coletivos, mas

rencia Episcopal Latino-Americana),

se as pessoas coniinuam a viver assim

advertiu-os que tinham de ser, antes de

como se o direito do homem ao equivoco fosse um axioma. Naturalmente,

por motives pacifistas, tambem nao ha paz. Os pacifistas nao sao paci'ficos. Esta paz de ordem politico-social

tudo, mestres da verdade, da verdade de Cristo principalmente, que nao

essa posicao nao surtiu efeito. Sobretudo, tratando-se de direito natural, a

deviam confundir o reino de Cristo

expressao e contraditoria em si mesma,

tem que nascer da verdade... da verdade e da justiQa.

porque o direito e uma retidao. Direito ou direto sao palavras que significam isso e portanto o direito ao erro e um

A justiga — que tambem e a adequa?ao entre deveres e obrigagoes — tem que ser medida pela verdade: a verdade

termo contraditorio nao so nas pala vras como tambem no conceito, o que

sobre a vida social; a verdade sobre

e mais grave.

OS direitos do homem; e, acima de

No entanto, ainda que nao haja direito ao erro ou ao equi'voco, ha por

tudo, a verdade sobre os deveres do

homem, que sao anteriores aos seus

vezes direito de omitir a verdade em

direitos.

face de uma pergunta capciosa que visa abusar dessa verdade; ou entao quando ha uma obrigacao de silenciar,'da parte

Nao e paz e tambem nao e autentica

libertacao, aquilo que nos propdem os erradamente chamados "teologos da libertagao", porque essa suposta Hberta?ao nao nasce da verdade nem da ortodoxia, mas da praxis revolucionaria que e belicosa. Nao e uma liberta cao verdadeira, mas falsa e mentirosa. O quinto efeito libertador da verdade

do interrogado.

A respeito do primeiro caso, temos

o exemplo dos Magos. Quando Herodes Ihes perguntou pelo Menino, para poder mata-Lo, os Magos nao disseram

tem lugar depois da morte, quando no

nada, nao responderam, esconderam a verdade. E as amas do Egipto — recusando-se a cumprir o preceito de

Ceu os bem aventurados conhecem todo o Bem e toda a Verdade. "Sere-

denunciavam os nascimentos. Estavam

mos semelhantes a Ele, porque O veremos tal qual Ele e", disse Sao Joao.

matar os meninos israelitas — nao

no seu direito e Deus abencoou-as por com o reino do homem e que a auten

Essa e a maxima libertacao e por isso

tica libertacao tem de estar baseada no

a suplica da liturgia dos defuntos —

conhecimento da verdade de Cristo e

"descansem em paz" — esta cheia de sentido teologico: na paz total, na tran

da Igreja. Isto vale especialmente para OS bispos que sao os principals responsaveis pela realidade religiosa. Em diversas ocasioes, aos teologos da Universidade de Salamanca, de Lovaina ou de Washington, tambem o

quilidade total, no conhecimento pleno da verdade e na fusao de todo o amor com o amor de Deus.

O Dever-Direito de Conhecer a Ver

isto.

As vezes imp6e-se que a verdade nao seja dita, quando se interpoe uma obri gacao de silencio por parte do interro gado. Um caso bem evidente: ao sacer-

dote que confessa, ningiiem pod-^ nerguntar o que conhece das conh

O medico, o advogado, o estadisia, tambem tem obrigacao de nao dizer a

Ponti'fice insistiu nesta fidelidade ao

verdade sobre os seus segredos profis-

dade Com Certeza e de Proclama-la

compromisso que eles tem com a ver

sionais. Creio que esta excecao a obri

com Ciareza. Pelo que ficou dito, e

dade garantida pelo magisterio da Igreja. Vejam se respeitam isto os "teo

clara.

obvio que todos os homens tem obrigacao de conhecer a verdade e tem

gacao de dizer a verdade, tambem esta

logos" da libertacao, se atendem ao

direito a que nada os impeca disso.

magisterio da Igreja, a Ratzinger ou a

Mas essa obrigacao tem graus diferen-

quern seja...

As Raizes do Erro e da Mentira. Erro e mentira sao coisas distintas. O

tes, de acordo com a caiegoria e a res-

Outro grupo de grandes responsaveis

erro e um jui'zo contrario a verdade,

ponsabilidade das pessoas e dos gru-

da verdade sao os meios de comunica-

que diz que e quando nao e, e diz que

pos humanos.

Cao social: a imprensa, a radio, a tele-

nao e quando e. O erro e um jui'zo equivocado.

Em primeiro lugar, a grande respon-

sabilidade da verdade religiosa. Sobre

visao e o cinema.

Pensem no grande poder da impren

isso, Sao Paulo foi muito claro na carta

sa — em espanhol diz-se que e o quinto

a Timoteo: que vigiasse sempre pela

poder — e vejam quanta falha ha nesta grande responsabilidade com a ver dade, como ela e utilizada para fins

verdade, a tempo e a destempo, que instrui'sse, que insistisse, etc. em relacao

A mentira e o erro proferido, dito e comunicado aos outros. O contrario do erro e a verdade. O contrario da

mentira e a veracidade, que e uma virtude.

Special Issue. 1985 13

que dai derivam, que estao mais dis- conhecimento das verdades consisten tantes dos principios evidentes, e mais tes pode ser evolutivo. Isso e outra facil incorrer em erro, sobretudo tendo

coisa.

em conta que as verdades de ordem

De fato, se se traia de fazer juizos sobre coisas que nao tem permanencia,

moral, de ordem pratica, estao essencialmente condicionadas pelas dispo-

si?6es afetivas do sujeito. Assim, uma pessoa que e dada a luxuria, nao pode

a realidade e evolutiva e mutavel. E entao o realismo do conhecimento consiste em se adaptar a mudanga das

ter um procedimento correto no que

coisas. Isto nao e cair em relativismo,

diz respeito a pratica da castidade em

pois conhecendo hoje uma coisa como

seus ultimos detalhes. Uma pessoa

ela e, se amanha eu a mudar, ja nao

ambiciosa, dominada pelo Deus do

posso opinar da mesma maneira a res

dinheiro, nao pode emitir juizos equitativos sobre a justiga comutativa ou

peito dela.

distributiva.

da ordem moral, quando se trata de

Se a Verdade e o Erro sao Intermutaveis. O Pe. Schillebeeckx afirmou

julgar todas as pessoas da mesma

Tambem, por exempio, na realidade lidar com as consdencias, nao se pode maneira.

Por que se comentem erros? For que ha ignorancias? Geralmente, a causa das ignorancias

taxativamente que a ortodoxia de hoje

Por isso as vezes um penitenie

sera a mesma de amanha, e o que

comete a imprudencia (o que tambem

ontem era ortodoxia, continua a se-lo

pode acontecer enire confessores) de

esta na incapacidade ou na falta de

hoje. Nesta questao ha um mal de

dizer ao outro: "o padre confessor disse-me que fizesse isto e portanto a ti ele dira o mesmo." Na verdade, ele deve tratar a cada um de acordo

meios para conhecer a verdade. Todos nos ignoramos muita coisa. Pode haver ignorancias culpaveis, por serem intoleraveis, quando uma pessoa nao

conhece coisas elementares que deve conhecer. Mas ha muitas outras igno

rancias pelas quais nao somos responsaveis, pois nao podemos conhecer tudo.

O erro e outra coisa; e urn juizo

positivamente falso, o que muitas

fundo que e o problema do relativismo da verdade e do gnosticismo mental a respeito dela. Num sistema realista do conhecimento — como e o de Sao Tomas e o

com 0 que conhece de sua situagao

da Igreja em geral — pensa-se que

E adaptar-se as coisas eomo elas

quando os objetos e as realidades nao

sao.

real. Isto nao e relalivizar a verdade.

mudam, tambem sao imutaveis a sua verdade e o conhecimento de sua verdade.

Por exempio, os argumentos de

Por mim, terminaria por aqui a conferencia.

vezes pode acontecer involutariamente. Por exempio, o caso de um investigador que acaba acertando em suas bus-

Sao Tomas para provar a existencia

Quero dizer-lhes que fiquei muito

de Deus — as famosas "vias" — e-

bem impressionado pelo interesse que

ram validas no seculo Xlll, sao vali-

nela haveis demonstrado e por vossas

cas, depois de se ter enganado varias

das hoje e serao validas nos seculos

intervengoes. Penso que vale bem a

vezes. Tambem nas ciencias historicas

futuros. Sao verdades consistentes,

pena vir aqui para partilhar convosco

se pode errar sabre determinado fato,

permanentes, em sua realidade obje-

estes momentos, nao somente pelo que

a respeiio do qual aparece depois um

tiva. Se a realidade e consistente (per-

eu ensine ou diga, mas tambem por

manente), tambem deve ser consistente

este ambiente cordial de aceitagao da

o conhecimento da verdade. Mas o

verdade.

documento que deita por terra com

tudo o que se pensava antes. Estes sao erros de ordem especulativa, mais ou menos desculpaveis. Os que nao sao

desculpaveis, sao erros ou juizos falsos — ainda que de ordem especula tiva — por falta de consideragao, por

precipitaeao, ou por afirmar levianamente que e verdadeiro o que e falso. Isio e um pecado de inteligencia, ainda que seja de ordem especulativa ou cientifica.

Os erros mais faceis de comeler, e

pelos quais ha mais responsabiiidade, sao os erros de ordem pratica, etica e moral. For vezes estes erros dependem

da dificuldade de certas verdades moralmente dificeis. De uma maneira

geral as pessoas nao erram sobre as verdades elementares do decalogo ou

sobre os principios elementares de ordem etica. Mas sobre as verdades 14

0 auditorio seguiu com vivo interesse a conferencia do Pe. Victorino

A Campanha 'America Precisa de Fdtima No comego do seculo XX, eram muitos OS homens que viviam na convicfao de que nao precisavam de Deus. Esta ideia, porem, logo foi severamente abalada por um acontecimento calamitoso: a Primeira Guerra Mundial.

Foi precisamente nesta epoca que Nossa Senhora apareceu aos tres pastorzinhos,

plares vendidos. A campanha "America Needs Fatima" foi criada com o fim de dar

a edigao inglesa a mais ampla circula?ao possivel. Neste empreendimento a TFP Ameri cana apoiou-se largamente na experiencia e no conselho do Sr. Peter Gemma, especialista de Washington em tecnicas de mass

nhora de Fatima e(3)a doa?ao do livro de Fatima a cada seminario diocesano do pai's. Mas, acima de tudo, a campanha "Ame

rica Needs Fatima" pede aos seus correspondentes, esclarecedores e amigos que rezem pela conversao da Russia ... e da

America. Com esta a?ao, Ja se totalizaram promessas para a recita^ao de mais de 50

perto da entao desconhecida vila de Fatima,

mailing. Presidente da "Associated Direct

mil rosarios.

em Portugal, para deixar uma mensagem e para pedir oragao e arrependimento. Mas as mudangas que depois disso se verlficaram, foram todas para pior ao ponto de se poder dizer que uma nova

Marketing Services, Inc.", diretor executivo do "National Pro-Life Political Action Committee" — considerado como um dos

"moral" veio substituir a moral crista. E

bem colaborador da reda^ao de alguns jor-

Alem destas realizagoes, tambem foi anunciada pelo Sr. Gemma a publicacjao de um suplemento de 4 paginas, em formato tabloide, durante a semana em que se celebrava mais um aniversario da liltima aparitao de Nossa Senhora em Fatima — dia

a mensagem nao so tem passado desperce-

nais, lais como USA Today, Human Events e Conservative Digest.

bida como tambem tem sldo ignorada por

mais eficientes grupos antiabortistas de Washington — o Sr. Peter Gemma e tam

TFP, 0 Sr. Peter Gemma discorreu sobre

as tecnicas da indiistria de corresponden-

por mais de 750 mil catolicos americanos.

cia direta usadas nos Estados Unidos e sobre como elas foram usadas na cam

em enviar o livro a mais de 9.700 bibliote-

muitos.

Fatima e a TFP. Desde sua fundagao, a TFP Americana tem se empenhado em difundir a mensagem de Fatima nos Estados Unidos. Esta enorme tarefa, entretanto, muitas vezes tem sido dificultada por

13 de Outubro. Circulando em varios jornais — no trimestral Idea Ink, no semanario The Wanderer e nos orgaos diocesanos Today's Catholic de San Antonio (Texas) e Catholic Lifetime de Tucson (Arizona), calcula-se que o suplemento tenha sido lido

Programa de Expansao. Convidado a faiar aos participantes do Encontro da

0 proximo passo da campanha consiste

falta de meios materials e humanos.

panha "America Needs Fatima". Estas tec

cas de escolas primarias, colegios e univer-

Mas, apesar dos numerosos obstaculos, a TFP Americana pode iniciar recentemente um ampio programa destinado a espalhar toda a verdade sobre Fatima, como e.xplicaeao e forma de cura para a crise contemporanea. Este programa foi langado com base na

nicas — notou o conferencista — tem sido

sidades dos Estados Unidos.

muitas vezes usadas por conservadores como meio de sobreposigao a imprensa liberal e esquerdista. "Isto confere-nos a possibilidade de evitar os manipuladores da imprensa nacional e de levar diretamente

Rca^ao do Publico. Nesta conferencia, coube ao Secretario da TFP Americana, Sr. Preston Noell, comentar a rea^ao do

publico a esta campanha, lendo partes de

uma mensagem aqueles que estao interes-

publica?ao de uma edigao em ingles, meIhorada e aumentada, do livro do Eng.

algumas cartas escritas por aqueles que

sados naquilo que nos defendemos e naquilo em que nos acreditamos".

foram mais sensibilizados.

Antonio Borelli Machado,"As Aparigoes

Atraves destes metodos, a TFP tem

e a Mensagem de Fatima conforme os

alcangado exito na difusao da mensagem

manuscriios da Irma Liicia". Saido a

de Fatima. Com efeito, mais de 650 mil publica(;6es diferentes ja foram despacha-

nhora da California.

das,0 que resuliou em milhares de pedidos

sagem de Fatima; farci o possivel para

para aquisi?ao do livro de Fatima, muitos deles provenientes de membros do clero.

almas", disse uma senhora de Nova York.

publico no dia 25 de martjo de 1985 — Festa da Anunciafao — sob o titulo Our

Lady at Fatima:Prophecies of Tragedy or Hopefor America and the World?("Nossa

"Acho que os Srs. foram os que tiveram ate agora a melhor ideia para conseguir a conversao da America", escreveu uma se "Agora sei exatamente o que e a men difundi-la e para mante-la viva nas outras

Senhora em Fatima: Profecias de Tragedia

O livro, porem, e apenas uma parte do

ou de Esperanea para a America e para o

programa de expansao, pois a este tambem

Mundo?"), o livro inclui um prefacio do

se soma a distribuieao de publicaeoes que

Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira.

A obra original foi inicialmente publi-

visam dar aos americanos uma ideia com plete e atualizada do assunto Fatima. As-

cada no Brasil, sendo posieriormente edi-

sim, o programa inclui (1) a publicagao do

tada noutros paises, em quatro linguas, e

propaganda, a mensagem de Fatima esta

"Boletim America Precisa de Fatima",(2)

ultrapassando ja um total de 700 mil exem-

realmente se espalhando pelos Estados

a disiribuieao de um postal de Nossa Se

Unidos.

Encorajados pelos resultados iniciais desta campanha, os conferencistas reafirmaram o fato de que, atraves das oragoes e do apoio do publico, simultaneamente com a aplicagao de modernas tecnicas de

0 Sr. Peter Gemma anuncia a publica9ao do tabloide "America Needs Fatima". Special Issue, 1985 15

Esta edigao especial da "Newsletter" da Os preparativos para a a^ao pedem oragao e estudo. Os correspondentes encaminham-se para uma das conferencias(em cima) e recebem a Sagrada Comunhao (em baixo).

TFP Americana,

devido a importancia

Aspecfo do jantar do ultimo

dia(em cima)e do registro da chegada dos correspondentes

no primeiro dia (em baixo)

dos assuntos nela

abordados, foi

publicada em 6 Imguas e enviada aos leitcres do

Boletim das 15 TFPs.

0 Encontro anual da TFP Americana foi a ocasiao ideal

para coordenar a a^ao dos correspondentes

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF

TRADITION. FAMILY AND PROPERTY

P.O. BOX 121, PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. 10570, U.S.A

In Spain

'The Whole Nation Is Stained' A Pastoral Letter

Against the Legitimation of Abortion

Toenlighten thefaithful, the Boletm Oficial del Obispado de Cuenca (the official bulletin of The See of Cuenca, Spain)published a pastoral letter written by the Most Reverend Guerra Cam pos, Bishop of Cuenca. The document analyzes the

situation created by the recent passage ofthe abor

tion law in Spain in the light of moral law and of the doctrine of the Church. The legitimation ofabortion continues to be hotly debated in our country; therefore, we consider this pastoral let ter of interest to TFP Newsletter readers.

We beseech God tofree our countryfrom the scourge of abortion, which is so effectively

described and denounced in the Bishop of Cuenca's weighty pastoral letter. His text: An Immoral Law. The Chief of State and

King of Spain has just sanctioned and pro

mulgated a law—approved in the General Cortes, at the proposal of the govern ment—by which induced abortion will be

permitted in Spain in certain situations

{Boletm Oficial del Estado, July 12, 1985, A Dark Day in the History of Spain).

Thus, despite the highest moral arguments, the legitima

with which Our Lord

Jesus Christ lashed out at those

tion of aggression "against the life of the most defenseless

who justified themselves while leading the

and innocent human being" (the Spanish Episcopate)— "an abominable crime"(Second Vatican Council) "that

people into errors and at those who scandalized the

can never and in no case be legitimated"(Pope John Paul II)—has been consummated.

innocent.

Pope John Paul II, speaking solemnly to Spain and

referring specifically to the authorities and to the type of

In the Boletm Oficial del Obispado de Cuenca of

law just promulgated, said; "He who denies defense to the

January, February and March of 1983, we made a docu mented exposition of the moral law and the doctrine of

most innocent and weakest human person, to the human person already conceived although not yet born, commits

the Church as applied to the situation in Spain. This is not the time to reiterate that doctrine, but rather to point out the most grave situation that has arisen and to interpellate the aggressors with the force demanded by Justice and by the blood of the innocent—with the implacable severity

a most grave violation of the moral order." The public The Slaughter of the Innocents by Fra Angelico (XV Century). The killing continues in our days.

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

means. For this reason we are not deal

Opposition to the Law Must Not Cease. Opposition to other laws ceases at the moment they are promulgated; they are respected even when they are not satisfactory. However,this should not be

ing merely with de-penalization. We are

the case for this law. The worst and the

Powers in Spain, contrary to their

Our Readers Write

primary duty, deny protection to the life of the weakest. Furthermore, they

facilitate this homicidal act with public

facing the legalization of a crime. simple manifestation of opinions as if all

of beliefs nor to conform oneself with a

"After telling those ... that are near and dear to me what a wonderful

periodical I have fallen heir to, they have also expressed the desire to receive it. I can't begin to tell you how much

were an amiable literary discussion.

demanded.

Because, according to the pontifical teaching,"the life of a child prevails over all opinions." It prevails over all con stitutions. It prevails, a fortiori, over all

People and institutions that wage noisy,interminable battles in defense of lesser interests show themselves very

propagandistic subtleties. It prevails over all diplomatic simulations.

complices in the conspiracy of silence, as

Sr. M.S., Louisville, Ky.

To say that the law is only permissive, and not obligatory is a cruel fallacy, for it is a permissive law that permits the kill ing of innocents and deprives the victims of the unjust aggression of defense. It legitimates a crime.

"Please accept my most sincere thanks for all the good work you are do

conditions does not modify its moral standing, for in no case is voluntary

I look forward each month to receiving

such good, informative and truthful material. May God bless you and the wonderful work you are doing."

ing to stem the tide of indecency and vulgarity. Your efforts to spread Chris tian culture are extraordinary. I love to read your ... newsletter, and, be assured,that, as I always was,I am and will always be all the way with you in all your endeavors." Mrs. E.G., Ventura, Calif. "The TFP Newsletter has been

especially helpful to me in clearing away the mental cobwebs of Disinformation

and Disarticulation assaulting our logic systems from many media sources, which seem so eagerly receptive to com munist and socialist propaganda with a self-destructive appetite. Until TFP, I often discerned media misinformation

with vague unrasiness, but was unable to articulate pr cisely why and how such data was false, and wondered: Was I

alone with an unpopular perception? Your most important accomplishment

may be ending the sense of isolation felt by normal,conservative,common sense people in an age somewhat gone mad with illogic. However, now, when we look around and become politically ar ticulate and active, we Hnd we are not

only in the majority, but always were the majority; our sin of omission was foolishly remaining quietly in the background." Mr. W.W., Fountain Valley, Calif.

"Because of all the changes in the Church over the last few years, I had

begun to feel isolated, rejected and ter ribly alone. It is gratifying to know that there are others out there who believe in the traditional Church as we

do. ... So you can realize that your newsletters are a breath of fresh air to us.

Mr. G.G., Santa Maria, Calif.

most intolerable effects will begin after

its promulgation. For as long as the law exists, it must be denounced and repudiated, and its revocation must be

It is of no use to invoke the pluralism

The restriction of the law to certain

abortion permissible. Moreover, moral judgment is not restricted to formalist appearances. It confronts actual good and evil. And it is notorious that in the social context in which the law is in

troduced, its abortionist projection is far greater than the content of its text. The law does not serve as an expression of penal benignity, but rather as an incen

tive and a justification for it. The deci sion of the Constitutional Tribunal

evidenced the omission of guarantees on the part of the legislators. Many statements by government officials

(some very recent and related to the deci sion) and those by columnists and peo ple who with impunity boast of pro moting and carrying out abortions demonstrate that those who hope to take advantage of the law disregard the "of ficial" conditions, which they merely

solicitous in keeping silence about this matter. They become shameful ac if the issue were closed and better forgot ten. But that silence conceals a slaughter of innocents. While the blood flows and

the infants are torn to pieces, some find it very convenient to attempt to stifle the voices of protest by manipulating with cynical wWte-gloved elegance terms such as "tolerance," "peaceful coexistence," "moderation," and "regulation of an existent reality." What does all this mean

when crime is being authorized and facilitated at the expense of the weakest and most innocent? What significance does such false rigmarole have, except to act as of a symptom of a rotting socie

ty? Can such words be the reaction of a healthy organism? Can one admit the sincerity of such language? When those

who speak thus feel themselves to be vic tims of aggression, do they accept that others use such language?

It Is Immoral to Cooperate in the En forcement of the Law. Cooperation in legalized abortions is gravely immoral. As the Pope warned in Spain, it is im-

CONTENTS

take into consideration, and hail the law as a door to obtain impunity for abor

MORAL TEACHING

tion in many other conditions. The de

Pages 1-4

sire to "protect" the "unborn child," demanded by the Constitution, is

NATIONAL

weakened. On the other hand, what

Page 5

stands out is the disposition to favor those committing abortion, by expan ding some of the motives so as to be able to use them even as universal pretexts. In greater derision, the same law authorizes the pregnant woman to abort, ignoring the guarantees that the law sets

RELIGION

Pages 6-10 INTERNATIONAL

Pages 11-13

down and the Constitutional Tribunal

demands! This amounts to practically a free rein for abortion.

In any case, the large number of abor

AMBIENCES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIONS

Page 14

tions, together with the aggravating fac tor of the monstrous commercial utiliza

NEWS FLASHES

tion of the fetuses, makes the moral pro blem of abortion qualitatively and quan titatively the most grave in today's

Page 15

worldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;more so than terrorism. And this

law does nothing to remedy it.

TFP NEWS

Page 16 TFP Newsletter

child in

i I THE parents or from .Ny HUMAN SOCETy o"UlSoRlTY. MOTHER'S WOMB.'HAS A RJCHT TO

WORDS OF Pius XII endghten. support and encourage us.

llliii

The American TFP Joins Protest A large number from the American TFP Join the over 60,000 participants in the 13th March for Life in Washington D.C. on January 22.

The weight of Papal authori ty gives Impetus to the antiabortion affirmation that the

right to life comes directly from God.

The impressive public de monstration organized by March for Life President Nellie

Gray united Americans from all over the United States and ex

pressed public rejection of the wanton killing of the unborn.

moral to provide public and private

does not lie in the interpretation. The real

suicidal. Because they will continue to at

means to cause the death of defenseless

problem is that if the Constitution, in its

tempt to secure their own defense against

victims. The State has no authority to oblige physicians and nurses or any

concrete juridical application, permits

aggression. And if this is just in itself,

some to be put to death, then not only the government officials, but also the fundamental law itself, obviously leave

leave those who are most in need without

the weakest and most innocent without

of the strongest at the expense of others

employee to such cooperation, which they should in conscience deny. An order by the public power to that effect would

how could it be equitable for them to defense? Can those supporting the law

not only be erroneous, but also radical

protection. (And regarding this: Have

maintain any credibility when they ap

ly null and perverse. In face of it, one

the government officials who, somehow

would have to say with the Apostles; "We ought to obey God, rather than men." The King says; "I order all

supported by members of the clergy, deceived the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;soliciting their voles while assuring them that the Con

peal to moral values? Did they not lose all moral authority to claim respect-for their own lives and to protest against ter

Spaniards, both private citizens and

stitution did not permit abortionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; anything to say to us? Will anything they say now prevent the slaughter that has been legalized?)

authorities, to observe this organic law and see that it is observed." This man

date and the content of the law itself only demand the obedience of the judicial

rorism? In certain circumstances, the ter

rorists apply the same moral criteria to their interests that those who legitimate abortion apply to the other interests. Even now, all responsible people and

As long as this situation persists, the

organizations have united in indignation,

powers in the rescission of penalties, because, among other reasons, the Judicial powers are deprived of the facul

foundations of society are fearfully threatened. In Spain, the Pope warned

in which they will remain while the

that once the death of an innocent is

cent victims continues.

ty to impose penalties. Any mandate that

legitimated, "the very foundation of

implied cooperation would deserve

society is undermined."

refusal. When the law was made known

The

foundation

undermined.

Therefore, the error of those who treat

ference board wrote; "It is not licit to

this issue as an isolated fact is patent. To

cooperate in the writing, in the pro mulgation or in the enforcement of a law that is clearly adverse to the primary norms of human morality."

absolutely repudiate abortion, one is obliged to consult anew the moral preaching on the structure of society. This obligation is equally incumbent upon the Crown. It is contradictory to accept as good a system that legally has unacceptable effects. It is impossible for

Spanish Constitution says "All have the right to life," it makes no distinctions.

That right must be protected. It is strange that the Constitutional Tribunal

It is necessary to stress the responsibili

ty of those who, while repudiating a' â&#x20AC;˘

publicly, one Spanish bishop on the Con

The Moral Ruin of Society. When the

clamor, though suffocated, of the inno

someone in good conscience to tranquilly install himself in such a system without doing what is necessary to orient it, and

tion and the lack of protection for its tims as absolutely immoral, enabled or still enable those guilty of this crime to enjoy the support of Catholic votes. Where in certain ecclesiastical circles

were the so-touted "prophetic denuncia tion," "the voice of those who have no voice" and "the critical conscience of

society"? Where is the John the Baptist who tells the powerful; "It is illicit for you to do this!"? Have the prophets become complacent courtiers? Those who "legitimated" the vote on

interprets this to mean that some have that right, while others do not. It is also strange that while the Constitution ex

to detach himself from responsibilities

the abortion law do not escape respon

that cannot be shared. But this is not the

moment to develop this matter of such

sibility, whatever their own vote. Did they not decline to vote on other laws so

cludes the death penalty for murderers

and other offenders during peacetime,

scope. Those accountable should at least

as to not become accomplices in their passage, "even in a passive way"?

the Tribunal authorizes the death of in

open their eyes to see that their conduct

As long as it is legal to kill those who

nocents in certain cases. But the problem

undermines their own foundations. It is

live in the wombs of their mothers, the

Vol. IV, NO. 17, 1986

Queen and the Royal Family does not in cur excommunication" would be saying a truth. Nevertheless, everyone would

rightly concede that such a proclamation would be imprudent, ambiguous and intolerable.

Second example. No one would say that the crime of a mother who, with im-

putable acts, were to murder all the members of her family, or of a doctor who were to do the same to tens of

hospital patients would be a lesser crime than an abortion, even though the latter Black

standards

Madrid. The

Spanish TFP In mourning over the legitimation of an abominable crime

that represents a dark day In the history of Spain whole Nation is stained—some by action

ticipating ministerially in "any act of

or complicity, others by omission. Their

worship. Given the conditions of imputability, this excommunication is incurred by all

nationhood stands under interdict.

Especially damaged is the Crown, the

incurs excommunication former does not.

while the

Third example. This example brings us closer to the practical treatment of our case. The Code of Canon Law does not

establish an automatic penalty for "the faithful who belong to Masonic associa tions,"but the Holy See expressly declared that "they are in grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion." The authority of the Church can deter mine canonical punishments in different ways. No authority of the Church can modify moral culpability or the malice

traditional succor of the weak and of the

those who procure, perform or cooperate

natural law. How lamentable it is that

in the performance of an actual abor

this succor has been interrupted at the ex pense of the most defenseless, whether

tion: those who induce the mother; those

because the institution wants to come to

form it; the mother who wants or allows

as if the intervention of the public powers amounted to no more than ac

their aid but cannot, or because it can

it to take place; its physical authors, the

ting as witnesses, record keepers or

but does not want to. This wound can humiliation—with the revocation of the

doctors, technical attendants and other collaborators; those who supply clinical facilities and the means of other sanitary

law, the repulsion of homicidal conduct, and the structural cleansing referred to

the abortion is not effected excom

munication is not incurred, even though

notaries of the "public will."-They will see. God is not deceived. One thing is for certain: the Chief of State, upon pro mulgating the law for Spaniards, does not say, "I attest." He says expressly, "I command all Spaniards to observe

the ineffective attempt has the same

it."

only be closed—and this not without

before.

The law was promulgated in July, the month in which the feast of Saint James

who provide or prepare the means to per

and economic institutions. Note that if

moral malice.

of scandal. Sometimes attempts are made to elide the higher responsibilities,

Those who implanted the abortion law

the Apostle is celebrated. On this feast

b) Catholics who favor abortion and

are conscious and contumacious authors

the Spanish Nation makes one of its two

are in positions of authority or public of

of what the Pope calls "a most grave

annual offerings to its Patron Saint. These offerings were instituted over three centuries ago: one by the Cortes, the

fice obviously incur this same excom munication to the degree that they cooperate in the performance of a con

other by the K ng. Suppressed in 1931,

crete actual abortion. Sometimes it can

its charge of harmfuhness and social scandal. Let implicated Catholics see whether they are affected by Canon 915,

not be determined whether the action of

which excludes from Communion those

they were rees.ablished in 1937. Can a nation make offerings to an Apostle of Christ and at the same time immolate in

the authorities is responsible for a con crete, actual abortion, or whether this ac

violation of the moral order" with all of

who obstinately persist in "manifest

fants on the altar of Moloch? Saint Paul

tion is restricted to fostering the general

the Apostle is fast upon our heels and

possibility and facilities for its perfor

grave sin." Can they allege any at tenuating circumstance that will free them from guilt in their decisive coopera

cries out: "What concord hath Christ

mance. In this case the excommunication

tion with evil? Does such a circun

with Belial?" "What agreement hath the

would be doubtful. But there is nothing

exist? If so, it would be most rar^

temple of God with idols?" "You can

doubtful about their tremendous moral

in any case, transitory. And let them

not drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils" (1 Cor. 10:21 and 2

responsibility, which is ordinarily greater

remember that the representatives of the Church cannot degrade their ministry by

than that of the executors; neither is it

the Church. The situation of Catholics

doubtful that they deserve public rebuke and spiritual penalties even should they not be automatically incurred. Certain statements by ecclesiastics

responsible for abortion, in relation to

regarding this point unduly disorient the

the Church, is defined in two levels:

Law establishes for the whole Church;

faithful because, even though the state ments are true, in context they necessari ly ring of an attenuation of responsibili ty or of a benevolent interpretation of ac

"A person who actually procures an

tions that, on the contrary, must be de

abortion incurs a latae sententiae Qxcom-

nounced as fits their enormous gravity.

such—particularly regarding the recep tion of the sacraments—until they repair,

munication"(that is, by the very fact of

Three opportune examples show us how it is necessary to avoid equi

to the best of their abilities, the most

committing the crime). The excom munication includes, among other

vocations:

things, the prohibition of receiving or celebrating the sacraments and of par-

proclaim "He who kills the King, the

Cor. 6:15-16).

Catholics and Their Relationship to

a) Canon 1398 in the Code of Canon

First example. Someone who were to

raising the mere social or diplomatic rela tionship to the comunicatio in sacris. The general rule is clear. Catholics in

public office who promote or facilitate by laws or acts of government—or in any case protect juridically—the practice of the crime of abortion will not be able to

escape the moral qualification of public sinner. They will have to be treated as

grave evil and scandal they have caused. July 13, 1985 Jos^, Bishop of Cuenca TFP Newsletter

NATIONAL

Setting Double Standards on Life? WITH mammoth lawsuits abound

tions expected to cost an industry more

rived at values ranging from $400,000 to

ing and concern for safety ever in creasing, government officials cannot agree on how to place a dollar value on

than $100 million to show in a detailed breakdown that financial benefits would exceed costs.

$7 million, depending on the job assign

human life. The Federal Aviation Administration

place it at $3.5 million. The Environmen

With this mandate, the importance of assigning a monetary value to life in creased drastically. To show the finan cial benefits of an anti-pollution measure or a safety regulation, for example,

tal Protection Agency (EPA) says the

many agencies had to set a value on

value ranges from $400,000 to $7

human life.

million.

One of the novel approaches to the question was that of Chicago economist Kip Viscusi, who bases his estimates on "willingness to pay," that is, the extra wages workers require to take an added risk. According to this theory, people willing to take greater risks in their work

(FAA) claims a human life is worth

about $650,000. Work-safety officials

For years, life insurers and judges had valued human life by age, future earn ing power, loss of tax revenue and loss to society. The FAA arrived at its figure using a similar method. In February 1981, the Office of Management and Budget(0MB)issued

merit greater compensation.

an order requiring all proposed regula

Using Viscusi's method, the EPA ar

ment and its respective risks. The Oc cupational Safety and Health Ad ministration came up with a figure of $3.5 million using the same method. This figure was presented to the 0MB, but was rejected. The issue is far from settled. Amid all the hullabaloo over the

monetary value of human life, a most obvious inconsistency is scandalously ig nored: the total disregard for the victims of abortion. It seems these human beings are not worth any more than what drug and cosmetics companies pay for them. In their case, future earning power, loss of tax revenue, loss to society or even the risk involved in being born are not criteria for determining value.

Commandments Ordered Removed Although a Christian, demo cratic tradition has been the pride of America since its birth, the upright sentiments of the American people are

'1^4:4

increasingly falling victim to extraneous, minority opinions. On occasion, the outcry of a lone

libertarian is all it takes to overrule ageold traditions and wholesome social customs. Our once-undisputed Christ

mas creches are considered controversial,

and Christian morals are labeled

"discriminatory."

However, in Hazard, Ky., Perry County school officials have reacted

quite strongly to this trend.

For as long as can be remembered, the Ten Commandments had been posted in

the county's schools, and no one had ever complained. But five years ago the

U.S. Supreme Court struck down a state

wv \uv

law requiring that the Ten Command

ments be posted in public schools if paid

for by private contributions. Despite statewide opposition, the Kentucky at torney general's office then requested that the Commandments already posted be taken down.

Although many of the county school boards were reluctant to comply, threats of lawsuits by the state and the American Civil Liberties Union soon forced the forbidden Commandments out of 179 of the state's 180 school districts.

The sole dissenters, the coal-mining residents of Hazard, do not think there

The Ten Commandments: A threat to schools or anti-Christian censorship? from today's violence-ridden schools. Acting against the advice of its own

county pay legal fees if a lawsuit results.

lawyer, the Perry County School Board

stand up for more morals in the school

has voted 3-2 to keep the Command

system," said Charles D. Campbell, a

ments on school walls.

There has been a groundswell of sup port, and donations have been sent from

is anything wrong with the Decalog, nor

Ohio, Illinois and Georgia to help the

do they .see why it should be excluded

school board in the financially poor

Vol. IV, No. 17, 1986

r EH

"It's time for Christian people to coal hauler who is on the school board.

"The Ten Commandments were good enough for Moses, and I believe they need to be taught"[Kansas City Times, 11/28/85).

■

RELIGION

Saint Joseph,

Martyr of Grandeur To have an idea of what Saint Church—was like, we must consider two

creature, knowing it is God asking the question, gives the advice! If you can imagine a man who had

Joseph—the

Patron

of the

prodigious facts: he was the foster father

sufficient wisdom and purity to rule over

of the Child Jesus and he was the spouse of Our Lady.

God and the Virgin Mary, then you will be able to comprehend the sublime vir

The husband must be proportional to the wife. Now, who is Our Lady? She is by far the most perfect of all creatures, the masterpiece of the Most High. In her

tue of Saint Joseph.

is the sum total of all the virtues of the

angels, of all the saints, and of all men

We are speaking of the grandeur of Saint Joseph. Now, how did the men of

until the end of time. Even when we con

his time react in face of this grandeur?

sider her in this light, we still have only

The Scriptures say: "And she IMary] brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes,

a shallow idea of the sublime perfection of the Mother of God.

But a man was chosen from among all

men to be in proportion to this eminent creature. He was proportional, natural

ly, in his love of God, in his wisdom, in his purity, in his justice, in all the vir tues. This man was Saint Joseph.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Church

and laid him in a manger; because there

But suppose they had known that Our Lady was about to give birth to the Child

was no room for them in the inn"(Luke

Jesus?

2:7). The words "there was no room for

They still would not have received her. It is fitting to remember the famous

them in the inn" encompass a bitter

apostrophe of Donoso Cortes: "The

truth: it is especially difficult for men to accept that which is grand—a fortiori,

for sin."

human spirit hungers for absurdity and

petty selfishness. We often think that

The Child Jesus resembled Our Lady. She was the prefigure of the Redeemer.

that which is divine—because of their There is still something more un fathomable: the father must be propor tional to the son. A man who would bear

men take pleasure in dealing with things

Saint Joseph also looked like Him.

that are important, high, sublime. Some men do enjoy such things, but only

Those people did not want Our Lady,

with dignity the honor of being the foster

superficially and selfishly.

They hungered for baseness, vulgarity

father of God was needed. There was on

For men are not greatly attracted to grandeur; they are attracted to mediocri ty, especially if it includes a mixture of good and evil where the evil predominates. There is a profound tendency in man for the trivial, for the

ly one man, created especially for this role, with a soul adorned with all the vir tues entirely at the height necessary for such a sublime mission. This man was

Saint Joseph.

He was in proportion to Jesus Christ;

he was propc 'tional to His sublime Mother. What grandeur there is in this!

banal, for that which is contrary to the grandiose, to the sublime. So we can understand why men were

We cannot imagine how far he

not willing to make room for the Holy

transcended the rest of men. The human

Family. There was no room, particular ly because Our Lady would have con served, together with a demeanor of

vocabulary does not have the words to

adequately express the depth of his penetration of the most holy soul of Our Lady and the degree of his intimacy with the Word Incarnate.

It is customary to represent Saint An

thony of Padua holding a book upon which the Child Jesus is seated. The saint is enchanted because the Child Jesus has rested for a few moments in his arms.

We look admiringly at Saint Anthony because he was blessed to have been

singled out for this indescribable honor! Yet how many times more did Saint

Joseph hold the Child Jesus in his arms? It was Saint Joseph who had suffi

sublime kindness, an air of great majesty.

As Saint Joseph would have maintain ed a similar aspect, they were obviously an eminently distinctive but poor couple. This was the most profound reason for the refusal. Distinction is accepted when

it is accompanied by wealth, for the lat ter pardons the former. And the interest

nor Saint Joseph, nor the Child Jesus. ancf wealth. The result: this is the first

refusal of the Hebrew people. This is the first time Our Lord, already on earth, knocks at the doors of men through the

voice of Saint Joseph and is refused. Saint Joseph—prince of the House of David, prince of a royal family that, although dethroned and decadent, was

at its apogee because from it was born the Hope of the Nations—knocks at the door and is rejected! But in this rejec tion is his first glory. He represented

something that the vulgar and prosaic spirit of the Jews detested. He u le first step of his martyrdom: he leu our Lady to a cave suitable only for animals, where the Child Jesus was born.

To this glory—which was certainly a

negative one—were added many others: the glory of being considered a person of no consequence although all public honors were due him; the glory of tak

in making money incites flattery, which takes the place of respect. But when so meone of great distinction and salient

ing upon himself all the humiliation, all

virtue knocks at the door—above all, if

Lord. From the very beginning, he had the special bliss of being refused for his

he is poor—then there is no room. It

ciently pure lips and a sufficiently grand

would take only five minutes to arrange

humility to undertake the formidable task of responding to God! Let us im agine the scene: the Child Jesus comes to him and says, "I would like your ad

accommodations for a mediocre friend

vice. How should I do this?" And the Patron of the Universal Church, a mere

arranged were refused to the Holy

the ignominy and all the weight of the opprobrium that was to fall upon Our

love of justice and his grandeur of soul. This is a forgotten, though salient,

or for a moneybags who possessed

aspect of the moral physiognomy of the

nothing but wealth . . . Yet accom

Patron of the Church, whose virtue,

modations that could easily have been

especially rejected by modern man, in duces us to say: Saint Joseph, Martyr of Grandeur, pray for us!

Family!

TFP Newsletter

Dutch Religious Communities Are Dying Out Aging is the common concern of all

didates because the generation gap would

Social Activism. Underlying the new

Dutch religious orders. The average age

become too big. . . . They have therefore chosen to let their congrega tions die out" {Long Island Catholic, 6/13/85).

communities is an emphasis on social ac tivism. Freed from the more stringent re

of the 30,000 men and women religious is 55. Most orders say they have been unable to attract a significant number of new members since the end ofthe Second Vatican Council.

New Communities. Traditional com

quirements of traditional community life, many religious are now pursuing their ministry in the defense of the homeless and oppressed. According to Smits, they are taking a

Of the 20,000 women religious, only one percent are under age 35. Thefigure

munities are being abandoned; new com munities are being formed. These new

for the 10,000 men religious is a mere

communities have been termed "new

issues and are becoming more involved

five percent. New vocations arefew and far between. In 1983,for example, only

nuclei" and may include:

in women's liberation movements and

1. A mixture of lay and religious, as well as men and women, who shape their religious ideal in their own way; 2. Small groups of men and women

peace organizations.

21 women and 19 men joined religious communities.

For years, Catholic dioceses and religious communities throughout the world have been plagued by a serious lack of vocations. A solution has been

sought by attempting to modernize and update the Church to the ever-changing standards of the world. In most cases,

such attempts have met with little

religious from different orders; 3. Religious brothers and nuns, who according to Fr. Karl Derksen, O.P., are trying "to create new forms of evangelically liberating partnerships be tween men and women"; 4. Religious who left their communi ty to live alone but who are "bundled

together" in a "regional community." The members of the disintegrated com

more active role in secular and church

Despite the emphasis on social issues,

youths willing to dedicate themselves to the religious life are sadly lacking. The number of Dutch religious shows no sign of increase.

Attraction to the Spiritual. If the no ble goal of helping one's neighbor fails to attract people to the religious life, what, then, will attract them? Religious writer and abbot Dom Jean-

Baptiste Chautard points out in The Soul ofthe Apostolate that it is not church ac tivities but the resplendence of sanctity

success.

munity meet regularly to discuss matters

In the Netherlands, the vocations pro blem is so acute that the very survival of many Dutch religious communities is threatened. Aging religious and declin ing recruitment have all but closed

of common interest, to pray and to meditate; they then return to their separate houses or apartments.

several communities and have stimulated

have kept their convents and monasteries

aspirants to perfection who followed

new liberal experiments in community

have opened their doors to young peo ple on the weekends. Their purpose, however, is not to persuade young peo ple to join their societies, but rather to teach them an ambiguous form of

them are ready proofs of the efficacy of

life.

A book containing articles on the status of Dutch religious life has just been released in the Netherlands. It discusses some of the reasons and "solu

tions" for the plunging religious population.

Reinterpreting the Founders. Accor

Weekends. Some of the orders that

spirituality and to provide them with some kind of refuge and counseling. According to Freeman, these "re treats" have not produced an upsurge

in vocations, but they do prove "there is a hunger for a deeper spiritual life"

that attracts people to the practice of

religion. The amazing conversions some saints

were able to effect merely by the fame of their virtues and the large groups of

sanctity. In such cases, the natural tendency of

religious orders is to expand, not to diminish. Saint Anthony filled the deserts of Egypt with his followers. Saint

Benedict civilized Europe through countless monks. Saint Ignatius raised up a body of valiant saints to counter the trends of his time.

ding to Tom Smits, one of the book's authors and the press spokesman for the

among young people. The retreats also

Traditionally, a strong religious for mation and an emphasis on sanctity have

Conference of Dutch Religious, many communities have shifted their emphasis

show that the practice of religious life is "more important than all discussion

Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who calls

on recruitment and have embarked on

about it."

and attracts people to the religious life.

provided the basis for recruitment. It is

new non-traditional forms of community

life that emphasize outspoken involve ment in social and church issues. Other

communities have fell prompted by the crisis to look for new answers that they

claim can only come from reexamining the thoughts of their founders. Some of

the resultant "solutions" can hardly be what saints such as Saint Francis and

Saint Dominic had in mind when they founded their orders.

In contrast to the dynamism that

characterized the spread of most orders, one "solution" now in use is to simply do away with some communities. Gerard Freeman, a member of the

Association of Brother Francis, a Fran ciscan lay organization, wrote that,

because of the high average age of members, "some congregations have decided not to accept any more new canVOL, IV. No. 17, 1986

Modern innovations have resulted in empty cloisters just about everywhere

^Basic Communities: A Term Inspired by Marxist Terminology

and Equivalent to Soviet' ^ A Chameleon-like Movement

That Feigns Nonexistence DOM Miguel Balaguer, bishop of

already the new Church and the new

Tacuarembo, Uruguay, has a curious explanation for the origin of the

society: without structures, organization

term 'basic communities.' Speaking on

Utopia of self-management that is in the

the necessity for small communities, he remarks: "Now they have been baptiz

backbone of their doctrine.

ed with the name of'basic communities,'

a term inspired by Marxist terminology and equivalent to 'soviet'. But this is no reason to reject it. We had the name already chosen for this child whose birth we were eagerly awaiting." Moreover, the study of the history,

and authority, in conformity with the

The myth of spontaneity thus plays an important role in the legitimation of the BCCs before the eyes of both their own

members and of the general public. For, if they are born spontaneously from the action of the Spirit, who can question

Marxist ideology has infiltrated much further than the name alone.

This Uruguayan bishop's statement— almost shocking in its frankness— destroys one of the most carefully nourished myths of the BCC movement: the myth of spontaneity, a spontaneity

Brazil, in addition to numerous interdiocesan and regional congresses. This obviously requires planning, organiza tion, coordination and financing. It does not, then, seem unfounded to conclude that over and beyond the organizational structures one can iden tify, the BCCs are, in fact, a cohesive,

their physiognomy, their doctrine and

solidary and disciplined movement of an

their methods?

international

doctrine and action of the Basic Chris

tian Communities(BCCs)shows that the

Also, there have been four national congresses and two international con gresses of the Basic Communities in

A Movement that Is Not Secret, Just "Discreet." Anyone who carefully follows the press reports and studies the

well

national

character. They are so obviously organiz ed, that authors beyond suspicion (since

they are mentors or supporters of the BCCs)and publications of the National

abundant information available about

Conference of Brazilian Bishops(CNBB) itself refer to them as the "movement of the Basic Christian Communities."

that is presented as being a sign of the

the BCCs will see that, in every state and country, they have the same fundamen tal characteristics, the same doctrines, the same objectives and the same methods of recruitment, formation and

work of the Spirit of God.

action; they even have their own jargon.

The Myth of Spontaneity. For doc trinal and strategic reasons, the BCCs are strongly constrained from appearing before the eyes of the general public— and, above all. before those of their own members—as tn organized movement. On the one hand, the BCCs define themselves as "a Church born of the

Origin of the BCCs It seems that the first Basic Com

people by the Spirit of God." This ac tion of the Spirit is supposedly proven

ple's catechism classes," established

by the spontaneous character of their

by Dom Agnelo Rossi in Barra do

origin and formation, which should be Comparable to a spontaneous and

Parai; these had been preceded by the Natal Movement's "grass roots education" groups, founded by Dom

unorganized process, these groups have been inspired by the "Spirit" simultaneously throughout the world,

Eugenio Salles and Dom Nivaldo Monte, who were then young priests. On the national level, the CNBB

especially in Latin America. Each Com

"Emergency Plan" (1962) laid the

munity should be an autonomous and sovereign group, self-managed and born from the local necessities. This is the way the BCCs are presented to the general

foundation for the movement, and

public, and it is quite possible that they

the first "Plan for a Joint Pastor

ship" (1965) explicitly mentions the

priorities of the CNBB. With the sup

port of the episcopate, they began to mushroom everywhere, especially

equality and democracy is a well-trained group of people who direct every move.) On the other hand, they pretend to be

level? Who Runs the BCC Movement? In

theory, each bishop is responsible for the BCCs in his diocese, and each pastor for those in his parish. And, in fact, they cannot be formed without their know

ledge and at least tacit approval.' But a question remains: Who coor dinates the BCCs on the inter-diov

state, regional and national levels? /^ud on the world level?

Contrary to other religious move ments, the BCCs do not have an osten-

sive central leadership nor known per sons in positions of responsibility on higher levels, much less on the national level.

Nevertheless, this communalist move-

ing years, they became one of the

their grassroots members, who perhaps this "new way of being the Church." {In reality, behind this apparent radical

no name, according to statements by Fr.

"Basic Communities." In the follow

appear as such to the eyes of many of even believe that they are protagonists of

and that can adopt either any name or Jose Marins, one of its leading theoreti cians and exponents on the international

munities began to appear in Brazil at the end of the 1950s with the "peo

interpreted as a "sign of the times."

However, how can one define a move ment that, if not secret, is at least discreet

after the Medellin Conference (1968), where they received high priority status for the pastoral movement throughout the continent.

1. In 1975, Paul VI established the condi

tions for a "Basic Community" to be con sidered an "ecclesiastic" entity rather than

merely a sociological one in his apostolic ex hortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. One of those conditions is that it must be united with the

hierarchy (doc. cit., no. 58). TFP Newsletter

ment is universally coordinated. And the (CERIS) put the total number of BCCs fact that this coordination often goes un

in Brazil at 40,000, without, however,

noticed by the general public (and perhaps also by most of the BCCs' members) does not make it any less real

In 1980, in response to a Vatican request

giving the total number of participants. for information, CERIS put the number of BCCs at 80,000; again it provided no total number of members. No current of

or effective.

The unity of the movement is largely ensured by countless congresses, assemblies and meetings that take place at all levels, by training courses for

leaders and pastoral agents and by an in tense interchange of persons and publica tions (more than three million monthly copies of mimeographed bulletins alone are mentioned). This presupposes the ex

ficial data exist. Estimates circulated by

the religious and lay press vary from 80,000 to 100,000 BCCs, with a con tingent of between 2 and 2.5 million "conscientized" people. Friars Leonar do and Clodovis Boff speak of 4 million members, an obvious exaggeration.

istence of a coordinating organism, com

At present, it is impossible to verify these estimates or even to approximate

posed of people with authority who are

the number of existing BCCs and the

obeyed and respected by the Com

total number of their members. Yet it is not so much the lack of statistical data

munities throughout the country.

Who are these people?

that makes it difficult to evaluate the size

An ensemble of bishops, priests, nuns,

of the BCC movement; it is rather the discreet nature of the movement and its chameleon-like character, whereby it assumes now one name, now another, and now none at ail, acting incognito or behind curtains and fagades.

pastoral agents, theologians, sociologists and Protestant ministers have closely followed the Basic Communities and

even participated in their national and in ternational congresses. Could they be the

which took place in Sao Paulo In 1980,

Friar Betto (left) consults with Fr. Miguel d'Escoto, Nicaragua's foreign minister.

Friar Betto, an accomplice of the com munist terrorist Marlghela, is one of the

principal exponents of the BCCs on the na

national leaders of the movement? This The BCC Grassroots Pressure and the

supposition is not groundless, for it can be proven that their theoretical and prac tical directives

During the famous "Sandinista Night,"

tional level.

CNBB Leadership Pressure. Whatever

have oriented the

Brazilian BCCs.

the figures, the BCCs undoubtedly in clude a significant number of people. Even though they involve a minority of

ban reform, business reform and others); these reforms would result in the elimina

100,000 BCCs? 2.5 million members?

the country's populationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a small

tion of private property and lead the

What is the total number of BCCs in

one at that, considering their goalsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they

country into self-managing socialism.

Brazil? How many people are enlisted in the movement? These are two questions

are still sufficiently large to provoke enough agitation to enable the CNBB,

It is important to recognize that the

that not even the CNBB can answer. Or

certain political sectors and the press to

Basic Communities are scattered all over

so it says. The bishops who are respon sible for the BCCs in their dioceses cer

present them as an irresistible force, to

Brazil, making their action felt in the

which one must surrender. They thus

most diverse aspects of national life:

tainly should know the answers to these

feign a grassroots pressure so that the

questions.

CNBB can assume a leadership role in pressuring the leading classes to accept

religious, political, syndical and educational; they act in both urban

In 1974, a poll by the Center of Re ligious Statistics and Social Research

structural reforms (agrarian reform, ur-

and rural areas, in the neighborhoods, in the slums, in the countryside and

The BCCs Elect

a Congresswoman "On November 15, 1971, two nuns went to a parish (Our Lady of Grace in Vila Remo, Sao Paulo) to give a course on church renewal. They showed the film The Value

of the Human Person, which proves how everyone is im portant and how everyone must have a role in society. The nuns' suggestion: that participants proceed from this course

to other projects, start a Mothers' club, for example. . . "It was agreed that there should be a meeting every

Thursday. One of the nuns. Sister Veronica, left. The other, Sister Angelica, remained to continue the project. On the day she was to take perpetual vows and return to the con

\ \ \ v.it

vent, she assembled the community and asked whether she should return to her order or stay with the mothers. After

this meeting, she gave up being a nun. Today she is mar ried and has a child, and next month she will give birth to a second. This young woman is a member of the state assembly, and her name is Irma Passoni" iO Sao Paulo, 5/10/79).

even in the depths of the Amazon jungle. The 1981 pillaging of buses in Salvador in the state of Bahia, and the invasions of urban lands in several state

capitals alarmed public opinion. The case of the French priests who were ac cused of instigating crime among the squatters of Araguaia and the incident involving the farmhands of Ronda Alta in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, il lustrate the BCCs' wide range of opera tions, in which there is no lack of bloodshed.

**Look at Us and See if We Have the Faces of Clerics!" Seminarians increasingly are being conducted into the mainstream of the

Basic Communities. Such is the case, for example, of 29-year-old Deville Alongo and 26-year-old Wilson de Oliveira Salles. Both are seminarians

References

Dom Miguel Balaguer, "Letter to the Presbytery" in Vida Pastoral, Montevideo,45(1975); Ismar de Oliveira Soares, "Liberating Communication" in Famflia Crista, September 1980; Veja, 1/im and 12/17/80; Isto 4/29/81; Fr. Eduardo Hoornaert,"The Dangers Threatening the BCCs" in SEDOC,Oc tober 1976, col. 276.

from the Belem episcopal district of Sao Paulo. They are good examples of the new type of priest that is emerging in the "Church born of the people." This is illustrated by their statements to a magazine in early 1979:

"Deville:'A good question to ask is whether we are seminarians. We are

seculars; we do not belong to orders or congregations. We owe total and unre stricted obedience to our Bishop. Just

a second. I take back the 'total and un restricted': we owe obedience to the

Bishop. We are 'engaged laymen,' as I have said. Look at us and see if we

have the faces of clerics, novices or the like.... We are working ourselves to death in the Basic Communities....

Our formation is practical, with the people, suffering with the people. ...' "Wilson: '. .. What we, the secu lars, the engaged laymen and some other very socially aware priests are striving for is an evangelization starting with concrete reality according to a real Marxist vision'"(Brasii Reportagem, vol. 1, no. 2,1979, p. 16; O Sao Paulo, 11/30/79, pp. 1, 5).

BCC Experts and Specialists Friar Leonardo Boff, O.F.M. Pro

fessor at the Franciscan Theological In stitute of Petrdpolis and editor of the Brazilian Ecclesiastical Review and the

international theological review Con cilium. As one of the most prolific mentors of the BCCs, his writings deal especially with the ecclesiastical nature of the Basic Communities. He gives

work with the Basic Communities in the archdiocese of Vitoria. He was coordinator of the fourth International

the foremost proponent of the "Biblical reflection" method adopted

Ecumenical Congress of Theology(the Congress of Taboao da Serra) and the "Sandinista Night." A member of the

various syllabi used for this purpose

Workers' Pastoral Council in the

diocese of Santo Andre, he played a prominent role in the organization of

courses to bishops, priests, nuns, lay the ABC metalworkers' strikes in 1980. pastoral agents and leaders of the BCCs (ABC stands for three cities that form throughout the country. He is an expo an industrial belt around Sao Paulo. nent of "liberation theology" on the in They are extremely important because ternational level.

of the enormous number of factories

lege of Theology of Our Lady of the Assumption and pastoral coordinator

there.) He gives "pastoral counseling" during his visits to BCCs in several dioceses and districts and has publish ed works of a theoretical-practical

responsible for the BCCs in the ar

nature. He is considered one of the

Friar Gilberto Gorgulho, O.P. Pro

fessor of Sacred Scripture at the Col

chdiocese of Sao Paulo.

Fr. Jose Oscar Beozzo. Sociologist. Director of the Theological Institute of Lins.(The diocese of Lins is one of the important promoters of the Basic Com munities.) Coordinator of the fourth national BCC congress. Friar Betto (Carlos Alberto Libanio

Christo). Dominican. Although he completed the required studies, he opted to remain a kind of lay brother rather than be ordained a priest. He served a four-year prison term to which

he was sentenced by the Department of

(the Biblical Circles), in addition to other works.

Fr. Joao Batista Libdnio, S.J. Ad visor to the Conference of Brazilian

Religious. Member of the John XXIII Center (of the Jesuits of Rio), which advises the CNBB. Professor at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Specialist in the theologiceil aspects of the methodology of the BCCs.

Friar Clodovis Boff, O.S.M. Pro

principal organizers of the movement

fessor at the Franciscan Theological In stitute of Petrdpolis. He teaches six months of the year and spends; the other six months working wii

on the national level.

BCCs in Acre and Purus. He nds

Fr. Eduardo Hoornaert. A Belgian professor at the Theological Institute of

published several works on the Basic Communities, especially about their role in politics. He has also published works on "liberation theology."

Recife. Specialist in Ecclesiastical

History, which he is rewriting accor ding to the "vision of the oppressed." Msgr. Gerard Cambrdn. A Cana

dian who is considered a top specialist in Basic Communities, with which he has been active for some years now in the state of Maranhao.

Friar Carlos Mesters, O. Carm. A Dutchman who is the movement's "of

Justice for his involvement in the ur

ficial" exegete. He travels throughout

ban guerrilla warfare led by Carlos Marighela, which bathed the country in blood. Upon leaving prison, he went to

the country giving courses on Sacred Scripture to pastoral agents, leaders

by the movement. He is the author of

and members of the BCCs since he is

Jetber Pereira Ramalho. Sociologist and Protestant minister. Member of the Ecumenical Center of Documentation

and Information, whose magazine. Time and Presence, is one of the

mouthpieces for "liberation theology" and the Basic Communities, even though it is maintained by a Methodist institution. Pedro Assis Oliveira Ribeiro. A

sociologist from CERIS, which is an nexed to the CNBB. Contributor to the Brazilian Ecclesiastical Review. TP? Newsletter

INTERNATIONAL

Privatization—A Refreshing Worldwide Trend Socialist theoreticians have never quite understood the nature of the worker they claim to represent. They see

private property as a threat rather than as an incentive for the worker. Hence

comes the supposed necessity that the state own ail property.

Actually, human nature responds much to the contrary. The hope of own

ing and accumulating property sparks the worker to his full potential. Pro viding the conditions to realize this hope ensures the foundation of a vigorous

economy and a thriving middle class. This lack of understanding on the part of socialists has led to one of the greatest fiascoes of socialism: the utter failure of

the application of its economic theories. In the name of the working class,

governments have nationalized major industries—thereby often stagnating the

economy and impoverishing the workers.

Only now are both rightist and leftist

governments endeavoring to dismantle

The French arms manufacturer Matra, a victim of socialist nationalization

greater part of more than a dozen large state-owned companies, moved 400,000 workers into the private sector, and add ed more than 5 billion pounds to the na tional treasury.

work has been laid for the division and sale of the nation's cumbersome Post Office.

Socialist About-Face in Europe. Amid

the euphoria of its 1981 election victory,

their industrial dinosaurs—the state-

Many of the nation's over-unionized

owned companies. This endeavor, which is called "privatization," has revealed

sacred cows have been streamlined in this

the French Socialist govemment.of Fran

extensive privatization drive. Firms such

the extent of the socialization of the

as Amersham International, British

cois Mitterrand nationalized many of the country's major corporations. Now, it is

West—including that of nations long

Aerospace, Jaguar Cars, British Telecom and Hoverspeed are among the com

considered conservative.

State-owned companies have little in centive to compete, as they cannot go bankrupt and the government guarantees all their borrowings. This results in

overstaffing, bureaucracy and inefficien cy. Some governments have decided to change this. The Thatcher Revolution. In

the

forefront of the move toward privatiza

panies that have become profitable and competitive in private hands. Some local government services have been con tracted out.

market.

In Socialist Spain, the national, car manufacturer. Seat, will be sold. The

When the Conservative party came to

privatization of the state airline, Iberia,

power in 1979, Great Britain had the largest public sector of any country in the

is being considered. The Socialist-led

West. The Conservatives are working to make it the smallest by 1990.

sell some of its excess baggage.

Preparations are underway to sell

tion is Great Britain's Conservative

British Airways, the National Bus Com

government. In less than six years, Mrs.

pany, the British Airports Authority and Rolls Royce, among others. The ground-

Thatcher's government has sold all or the

reexamining its early economic policy.

Some parts of France's nationalized giants have already been placed on the

government of Italy has also begun to Privatization Goes Worldwide. From

the jute mills in Bangladesh to the Bosporus Bridge in Turkey, privatization is gaining momentum.

The Japanese government plans to rid itself of the unprofitable Japan Nati'^n:^! Railways. It has already done so wii share in

Nippon Telegraph and

Telephone. Almost half of Mexico's 500 state-

ovmed companies will be put up for sale, as the only state firm to run at a substan tial profit is the state-owned oil company.

The Brazilian government has already sold 12 state-owned companies. Another 77 state firms will be privatized soon. Pakistan has freed itself of the burden

of nearly 2,000 cotton, rice and flour mills. Bangladesh has similarly rid itself

of some ICQ companies, including the jute and chemical industries. American Privatization Urged.

Private courier services might provide an alternative to state monopoly Vol. IV, NO. 17, 1986

Privatization is more than just the sell ing of state industries. It entails the

private provision of many services now delivered by government. Some economists see this as a means

of reducing the problems of the U.S. Social Security system, the public educa tion monopoly, welfare services, urban mass transit and the U.S. Postal Service.

They argue that privatization would cut deficit spending and boost the American economy.

The Reagan administration has

already privatized a number of public housing units by selling them to tenants at reduced i^tes. Privatization = Desocialization. The

beneficiaries of privatization are many. Instead of throwing billions of dollars at a multitude of state-run industries, the government can better fund services that

only it can provide. Public housing tenants become owners. Workers fre

quently become shareholders in privatiz ed companies. The taxpayer's burden is reduced.

All this amounts to greater deso

cialization and makes possible the economic survival of nations that dallied with socialist economics.

'Privatization' Chinese-Style Despite the fact that not one ma jor industry has been dena tionalized in Red China, some

economic commentators point to the growth of small capitalist ventures under a smiling Deng >Ciaoping and call it "Chinese privatization." China is thus included among the nations that are unfettering industry from excessive

neighborhood committee and agree to abide by a myriad of regulations. The staff may not exceed eight people, and profits are limited to 32 percent above costs. Prices are frequently checked by plainclothes price inspectors.

In addition, the owner is subjected

government control.

to monthly taxes that include a land tax, an urban construction tax, a total

In reality, only 3.4 million(.03% of the population) have become selfemployed since the lifting of a 12-year

to relinquish almost every state benefit, including his retirement pension and

ban on private businesses in 1978. And these would-be entrepreneurs are carefully watched to insure they remain

business turnover tax and a fluctuating profit tax. On top of this, he is required free medical care.

Thus, it is despite government con

small, obedientâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and communist.

trol and not because of government

To open an eatery in Peking, for ex ample, the self-employed "en trepreneur" must obtain a license ap proved by the local communist

launch small business ventures. This

liberality that the Chinese continue to

Bar Slave-Made Goods With all the talk about imported goods biting into American business profits, it would appear that the United States could at least bar those Soviet goods produced by slave labor. Yet according to New York's Sen. Alfonse D'Amato,an estimated $180 million in goods produced by Soviet political prisoners are brought into the United States annually, despite the 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act banning the import and sale of pro ducts made by convicts or forced labor. "When we make a mockery of that law, and refuse to en

fact highlights two things: the failure of the communist system, and man's

desire for personal freedom.

Nicaraguan revolution gives him strength to contihue fighting for "changes in society." Also participating in the gathering was Carlos Alberto

Libanio Christo, known as Friar Betto, who is writing a book describing his interviews with Fidel Castro. In these interviews, the Cuban dictator defends the idea that the revolutionaries

and the Catholic Church "can and should work together." Opposition newspaper La Prensa commented that the

representatives of the Popular Church who met in Managua "did not show any interest in viewing the files of denuncia

force it ... we help enslave them," said the New York

tions made by the Permanent Commission on Human Rights or in praying for those who had paid a high price merely for disagreeing with the Sandinista government"(O Estado de Sao

Republican.

Paulo, 9/18/85).

Two former Soviet prisoners joined D'Amato in protesting the infamous trade. One of them was Georgi Vins, who suf fered seven years in a Soviet prison because of his religious

beliefs. He described the inhumane conditions in the prisons, including bitter cold, constant hunger, overcrowding and

The Vanishing Swedish Fair"

11-hour work days {Newsday, 9/3/85).

God Is with the Sandinistas?

Since getting a divorce in Sweden has become so easy, fewer and fewer Swedes are entering into legal matrimony, and more and more of those already married are splitting up. In Stockholm, for example, 3,300 marriages were performed last year, while nearly 2,200 couples were divorced. Some ex

perts believe that throughout the country nearly as many Friar Leonardo Boff of Brazil stated that Nicaragua could not be defeated in the current Central American conflict

Swedes cohabit as are formally married. Divorce legislation allows judges to grant divorces on re

"because it preferred death to submission" and because "God

quest, without any investigation concerning the motives of the

is there, fighting on the side of the poor."

parties concerned. The divorced parents are given joint custody

Along with Brazil's Pedro Casaldaliga, bishop of Sao Felix do Araguaia, Friar Boff participated in the International Week for Peace in Central America, held in the Nicaraguan capital

of the children of the union. In cases where economic hard

of Managua.

Having surveyed the region where the conflict rages between the Sandinistas and the contras. Bishop Casaldaliga said the 12

ship is involved, the government furnishes a small allowance for each child.

But such cases are becoming rare, since birth control and

abortion have reduced the number of children per family. To day, 85 percent of families with children have only one or two. TFP Newsletter

Marxist Grenada's Shopping List After the successful Grenada rescue mission, a sulking press

never expressed too much interest in the 37,000 pounds of documents that proved the communist character of the deposed government of Maurice Bishop.

Paul Seabury and Walter McDougall, two scholars at the University of California-Berkeley, gathered just a sample of international communism's plans for the small, 133-squaremile island in a book titled The Grenada Papers.

Among items promised by the Soviet Union to dictator Maurice Bishop were 30 anti-tank guns, 30 artillery pieces, 50 armored personnel carriers and assorted ammunition. The Czechs threw in 50 bazookas, 3,000 automatic rifles and one

million cartridges. North Korea agreed to supply 1,000 automatic rifles, 80 machine guns, 50 rocket launchers, 6,000 uniforms and other aid—at the same time requesting absolute secrecy.

The documents included agreements with the Communist

parties of Cuba, Bulgaria and East Germany to train secret police and propagandists for this island of 111,000inhabitants.

Genocide in Ethiopia

Behind this wall, some are more equal than others

Chinese Cadillacs Question: What do the leaders of the Chinese masses drive?

The suffering and hunger continue in socialist Ethiopia despite of the millions of dollars in food and aid poured into the country by a very gullible West. In fact, all evidence points to the fact that it is really govern ment policy that is starving hundreds of thousands of people, and that the simplistic solution of throwing food at the pro blem may only be prolonging the agony.

London's Sunday Times reports that, according to interna tional relief agencies and Western government sources in Ad dis Ababa, up to 100,000 Ethiopian peasants have died this year as a result of a government resettlement program. Most

Answer: The latest in Western luxury cars. This summer Chinese officials took their first drives in a fleet

of 20 sleek, new Cadillac limousines—the first to be imported by the communist nation.

Without the proper settings, trade-hungry Chinese leaders ap parently have some difficulty convincing Western capitalists to

invest in the massive transformation of the giant country from a repressive Maoist communist regime to a repressive Westerniz ed communist regime.

of the deaths resulted from malaria contracted by the peasants

Western capitalists can now feel at home in the 22.5-foot-long navy blue limos, which boast color televisions, "hands-free" in tercoms and wooden bars equipped with refrigerators and crystal

when they were moved to mosquito-infested areas in the

decanters.

lowlands of southern Ethiopia (Newsdayy 11/4/85). Others report that the Ethiopian air force has been bomb

According to officials of the government-owned China Inter national Trust and Investment Corp., the cars are to be used for "guests of honor—with Chinese leaders by their sides." A Cadillac official called the partially computerized Fleetwood 75 model limos the very latest produced. He said the Chinese peo

ing civilian targets in the Eritrean province of Sahel. They say the high level of international aid to Ethiopia is making the

attacks possible by enabling the government to trade cash crops for Russian armaments.

Scottish engineer Paul Prendergast, who witnessed an

ple should be "proud" their nation owns them (St. Louis c Democrat, 6/30/85).

Attack, says Russian-built MiG-21 and MiG-23 jets were not aiming at military targets when they bombed a refu gee camp four times in one day, killing 29 refugees and wounding 70.

Czech Imprisoned Behind the Iron Curtain, a comment about the food can land

FOR CLARITY AND INSIGHTINTO THE CONFUSING EVENTS TAKING PLACE IN THE WORLD TODAY

you in jail. According to sources in Austria, Petr Cibulka, 35, a

signatory of the Czechoslovak Charter 77 human rights move ment, has been sentenced to seven months in prison for his comment about a restaurant's menu.

READ THE TFP NEWSLETTER

Apparently, Cibulka complained the restaurant had not in cluded at least one cheap meal on its menu, as is prescribed by communist law. The malcontent's complaint was reported, and he was found guilty of public disorder.

Vol. IV, No. 17, 1986

The Cleverness

of the

Smiling Fool A widely-read newspaper printed this sagacious cartoon by Bill Mauldin depicting the "rivalry"—and even

"antagonism"—between Soviet communism and Chinese communism. A Westerner with a jovial expression mark

ed by a broad, optimistic and foolish smile is about to step jauntily into a terrible trap that will cut him in two. Who is this Westerner? He is the authentic representative of a whole family of souls that is becoming ever more

numerous in the West: the family of smiling fools. The smiling fool has a philosophy of life. Superficial, agitated and fainthearted, he lives only in the world of ap

pearances. He detests making profound studies, going to the heart of problems, or recognizing the perils and prepar ing to face them. Because of this, he created for himself the myth that "everything will work out in the end," and that it is not worthwhile to either think or fight since,

whether we do so or not, everything will turn out for the best.

Of course, for the smiling fool, everything is just as it appears to be. . .. If there are enemies, they are exactly as they appear to be. Whether they are frowning or smil

ing, one must believe entirely their frown or smile. Further more, when they appear to be quarreling among themselves, it is because there is a real quarrel.

Anyone who thinks differently is a bilious, paranoid and backward reactionary. Only such a person could believe that in our century Trojan horses or Machiavellis still exist. We

are the century of the enlightenment and the smile. One need only smile to attract, move and disarm the adversary.

of the Ottomans, so many pre-Counter-Reformation Catholics in face of the Pseudo-Reformation, Louis XVI

and the liberal nobility in face of the French Revolution.

The smiling fool, who is neither sickly nor reactionary, knows this very well. Consequently, he—the superior

And the examples could go on and on right up to our days.

diplomat, the politician of the smile and credulousness—

fools. "A fool is the devil's steed" goes the adage . . . As 1 close these lines, I can imagine a smiling fool as he frowns on seeing I am speaking about the devil. Not the 'devil,' he thinks. The term is anachronistic. Wouldn't it be better to follow the suggestion of a Dutch magazine and speak of "separated angels"?

prepares to exploit the Sino-Russian antagonism. How? With a terribly intelligent plan: he will give everything to Russia in order to play her against China—beginning with wheat, which will be provided to communist Russia at very reasonable prices and in whatever quantities she desires .. . What a subtle move! The Soviets will be most grateful!

So it is that the devil has no better tools than the smiling

How compelling is gratitude in the human soul, thinks the smiling fool. The American wheat will cause the Soviet

regime to shake on its bases. And, with this, lost in love and gratitude for the West, the Soviet colossus will feel itself increasingly distant from China . . .

Upon reading these lines, many people will say:"But isn't

..i

Ma Yuzhen, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, staled

recently the normalization of Sino-Soviet ties was "out of the ques

this so? Isn't such conduct generous and Christian?" "Christian" . . . How many abuses have been

ship. He did not specify what these key obstacles were (St. Louis Post-

perpetrated with this word!

Dispatch, 10/24/85).

No one could be more Christian than Our Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't His life teach us that in these matters the

of a "bitter 25-year-old feud" between the two communist powers.

wickedness of man time and time again closes his heart to

tion" unless the Soviet Union removed key obstacles to the relation

Unfortunately, many people give credence to the frequent accounts This "feud" provides the smiling fool ample opportunities to prove his cleverness.

the feeling of gratitude, even when he receives the greatest

In the 1960s the smiling fool thought that by helping Russia he would

benefits? What did nine of the ten lepers He cured do (cf. Luke 17:11-19)? What did the Chosen People, upon whom

check China. In the 1980s he thinks that by helping China he will check

He had bestowed the choicest gifts of body and soul, do

can be found today among the Western capitalists who rush to moder

to Him?

nize China or among the naive pacifists who are willing to disarm the

This unhappy family of smiling fools is a stigma of degeneration on the peoples among whom it flourishes.

that Soviet Russia has really changed and that a smiling Gorbachev

Such were the emperors of the Later Roman Empire of the West in face of the barbarians, the Byzantine rulers in face

Although this article was first published in 1963, its theme is current.

Russia. The bolstering of both communist powers is the result. Truly, the era of the smiling fool is not over yet. The smiling fool West in the name of peace. He is a close friend of those who claim has little in common with a smiling Stalin.

Yes, the smiling fool continues to play his tragic role. History will reveal it as suicidal.—ED.

TFP Newsletter

Macabre Trends

had been ambushed near the border of South West Africa. Killed in the ambush

More Television Viewing

According to a study on television view was a Soviet identified as 1st Lt. Kirov Ziorochilov, an adviser to the Angolan 8th ing habits, Americans are watching more television than ever before. For the sells the latest in tribal chic to fashion- Motorized Brigade. According to Figueiredo Paulo, 1983-84 TV season, the overage conscious New Yorkers. The shop specializes in skullsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;rat skulls, Washington representative for the Na household viewing time has been dog skulls, cow skulls and even elephant tional Union for the Total Independence estimated at seven hours and eight minutes skulls. (In addition, customers can buy of Angola (UNITA),the incident marks the a day. Based on a survey of 1,700 households, animal teeth for a mere 50 cents a piece.) first time that Soviets participated in bat the Nielsen Report on Television 1985 Human skulls, which sell for $79 each,are tle at the front. Combat units accompanied by Soviet claims this represents on increase of 13 also offered. They are bought as decora tions by customers from the arts and commanders and advisers are being sent minutes over the 1982-83 season. The report found that even the lowest to the front to bolster the 20,000 Cuban fashion worlds. Skulls have suddenly become popular, occupation troops stationed in the country. viewing groupâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;single-person house holdsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;still watched an average of more replacing posters and prints in the home, than 40 '4 hours each week,and that 84.9 Capitalist Earthquake soys shop owner Henry Galiano. Business is booming for Moxiilo & Man

dible, a year-old shop in Manhattan that

million U.S. households owned at least

Galiano obtains animal bones and

skeletons from contacts he made during his

Not all Mexicans agree with Auxiliary

13 years at New York's Museum of Natural History. His wares are largely

Bishop Genaro Alamilla Arteaga of Mex ico City, who told reporters the great September quakes were o "stern message from God" warning Mexicans to change their ways. On the contrary. Retired Bishop Sergio

supplied by ranchers, trappers and hunters. Human skeletons are obtained from medical schools.

Galiano decided to go into business when he realized that people would pay cash for bones. He expects to gross more

than $1 million annually by 1986. Land Reform in Spain

Spain launched its first land reform in more than 50 years when a Socialist regional government expropriated 12 "neglected" estates last October. The expropriations affected 15,000 acres of farmland in Malaga province alone,one of the four areas where the An-

dalusian government plans to implement its land reform program. "We told the owners they were not

meeting the legal requirements of land productivity," said Miguel Manaute, an

Mendez Arceo of Cuernavaco believes the

devastating earthquake was "not on ex pression of God's punishment." Ar chbishop Sergio Obeso of Xolopo, presi dent of the Bishops Conference of Mexico,

supported that position and said the na tion's bishops, as pastors, "in no way would encourage such thoughts." The coordinators of Mexico's Basic Christian Communities labeled the earth

The farmland will not be distributed

of the confiscated estates "to moke them

more productive." The other estates will be added to the government forest reserves.

As in most land reforms, the owners

have only received vague promises of compensation for their property (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/17/85).

Soviets Troops Fighting in Angola Angolan resistance fighters have an

nounced that Soviet soldiers ore actively involved in fighting to keep the communist regime of Jos6 Eduardo dos Santos in power.

The announcement come following reports that two Soviet armored vehicles Vol. IV, No. 17, 1986

Canceling Christmas

Christmas is universally celebrated as the birth of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus

Christ. Despite lamentable commercializa tion, a joyful holiday atmosphere per vades society during this holy,season, pro viding mankind with a respite from modern day cares. But for some, even Christmas is no

longer sacred. In the fanatical quest to remove all religious influences from socie ty, anti-religious zealots hove instituted lawsuits to prohibit public Christmas crdche scenes, ban Christmas hymns in schools, and eradicate the religious con notations (and,therefore, all the meaning)

quake a mere natural phenomenon and "port of our human condition." They said natural phenomeno "should not be con

of the feast.

fused with that which originates through human negligence and corruption." Many

notorious for its tolerance of homosexuals,

of the buildings fell, they noted, due to bod construction and greedy contractors {Catholic Trends, 1 }/2/85}.

agricultural counselor.

among the landless. Instead, peasant cooperatives will be established on some

one television.

Bird* of o FuoHmt

The la Republica newspaper of Costa Rica has reported that 22 Italian Red Brigades terrorists are living in Nicoroguo,some of them holding the rank of sergeant in the Sandinista Army. The newspaper, citing sources in Managua,the capital of Nicaragua,and a dispatch from Radio Impacto, a private

In West Hollywood, Calif., a city the council went o step farther and voted to cancel Christmas altogether. Using as pretexts the separation of church and state and the legal limitations against making Yom Kippur,o Jewish holy doy,a day off, the council voted to eliminate o" city holidays with religious overt*, including Christmos. "The council is saying that all religious holidays are on the same footing," City Manager Paul Brotzman said. "We understand that the U.S. Supreme Court considers Christmas a secular holiday, but the council takes issue with that and views

station, listed the names of the terrorists,

Christmas strictly as a religious holiday"

which it said were supplied by a dissident from the terrorist group. The dispatch from Radio Impacto said the Italians were not alone. They hove been joined by comrades from other lef

(Newsday, 8/18/85). Beginning this year,the city government will operate on Christmas. City workers will be given four and a half holidays each

tist groups, including members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Bas que terrorists from the ETA group in Spain,and Islamic rebels faithful to Iran's Ayotolloh Khomeini.

year to take as they desire. Ironically,.the council did not meet on Halloween. "It's clearly a celebration in the gay community," said City Councilman Alan Viterbi (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/1/85). 15

TFP NEWS

THE COLOMBIAN TFP APPLALDS

ARMY MOVE AGAINST TERRORISM WHEN guerillas of the Marxist M-19 took hundreds of hostages in the Bogota Palace of Justice last November, the Colombian army

responded in a way the guerillas had not

granted the guerillas in 1982. Three years

headlong in our urban centers with a type

ago,the TFP had warned in El Tiempo: "The TFP must voice its fear, which

of violence much more advanced than

[the present] guerilla activity. ... The ef

is surely shared by countless Colombians that, as things now stand, granting

fect of the amnesty would not be the disarming of the guerillas, but rather the

expected. When the fighting ceased on November 7, the guerillas lay dead. On

freedom through an unconditional

transfer of agitation from the deep of the

amnesty to numerous active leaders of

jungle to the heart of the major cities."

November 10, the Colombian TFPâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

subversion would enable them to proceed

The TFP has repeatedly stressed that

of several terrorist

a radical antiguerilla reaction is indispen

attacksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;published a manifesto in Ei Tiempo, Bogota's major newspaper. In the manifesto, the TFP praised the

sable. Its November manifesto stated:

itself victim

"A superficial analysis of the events would create the impression that the radical solution is always the most cruel. Such an impression is a sad illusion of vacillating, indefinite minds, who think that every categorical attitude is

energy with which the authorities had reacted to the brutal and bloody guerilla aggression. The TFP also expressed its sadness at the death of so many innocent

people in the cross fire or at the hands

necessarily reprehensible. The recent tragic episode illustrates the opposite to be true: Very often to radicalize to pre

of the guerillas.

Regarding the fate of the 12 Supreme Court justices, the TFP declared:

vent; it is to avoid disaster an

express here its indignation and sorrow over

the cruel

od-

shed; it is to protect rights; it is lo de fend law and order. This is especially

"This society [the TFP]cannot fail to

true when one faces implacable adver

assassination of the

hostages. This feeling is intensified by the fact that the distinguished president of

saries, such as the Colombian guerillas, who are incited, armed and directed by

the Supreme Court of Justice, the most

Havana and Moscow.

illustrious of the victims, was known for his strong support of a conciliatory at titude toward the subversives, for which, however, the assassins showed not the

"This is the lesson given to our nation by the terrible attack on the Palace of

least sign of gratitude." The manifesto recalled the amnesty

Justice. Let us not forget that cruelty often consists in being soft, and not in Government troops react to terrorism, avoiding further bloodshed In Colombia

being decisive, firm, and, in short, men of principles."

TFP NEWSLETTER is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). John Horvat 11, Editor. Subscription complimentary in the United States (third class bulk) and Canada. Rates for foreign subscriptions and list of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests and inquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pieasantvllle, N.Y. 10570. Permission

is granted to reproduce in whole or in part any article of this newsletter with the credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. 16

TFP Newsletter

Russia's

Crnmbling Empire

U im (

" li^

Red Square^ Moscow ^ Near the Cathedral of St, crowds of people gather, â&#x20AC;˘//, five or ten years ago^ someone among " those crowds had distributed a pamphlet with articles like the ones^'e are publishing in this issue, he might well find himself ' â&#x20AC;˘ a prisoner in a psychiatric hospital or even in Siberia,

His crime: to attack the prestige ^f the communist state. Today, the notoriety of Soviet economic chaos has reached' * such a point that the official press is the first to report on it. What once said only clandestinely is now being reported openly by the very culprits themselves. I \ 1 1 \lsnN Wiii'in

(See TFP Special Report on pages 2 to 7)

riii: Avu kk AN Sot 11 n kor nil Di irssi: oh Tradiiion. Famiia and Propi ria- .

Soviet Press Exposes Failures To afford our readers a true picture of life in the Soviet Union, we are

urally, it is impossible for leftists to label these sources biased, as they would any

critical state of affairs, the reality is sure ly worse than what is presented by these

presenting a special report drawing from

publication in the Free World that took

two newspapers.

articles from two sources: Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper, and Pravda, the official publication of the Soviet Communist Party.

a critical position on communism. Any partiality there might be in material published by Pravda and Izvestia would certainly be in favor of the regime that has plagued Russia for almost 70 years.

veterate habit of thinking that the radical

News stories in these publications reveal the pathetic inef

Although the following stories depict a

ficiency of nationaliza-

Widespread complaints

from individuals and government agencies about the lack of even

.. ^ fare of the poor. They feel that this radic^

^ V./ /

egalitarianism should be able to solve, to the de-

"r <V if i

essential products pro- 'Vr \ vide indisputable proof that the productivity and efficiency of the Western-buoyed Soviet economic system falls

egalitarianism of communist doctrine and communist regimes should act as a pole of attraction for all those con cerned about the wel-

mm-n

tion in the Soviet Union.

Some people have fallen into the in

: gree possible, all vital problems. According to this logic, it follows that

-'y J

the more one adheres to

communism, the more he should be considered

â&#x20AC;˘;

a friend of the poor. However, this train

far short of reasonable

expectations.

of thought in no way corresponds to the reali ty of things, a fact

evinced by the Soviet press itself. From this

- .-.a

angle, the.documented extensive

article provided below is

tion compiled by the articles about the grove deficiencies of the socialist economy of great importance to TFP Press Service. Nat-

Fruit and Vegetables Shortages.

the Free West.

planning lead to the loss of substantial quantities of fruits and vegetables. Fre quently, the growers, shippers and

"Perhaps the most evident failure of Soviet produce growers can be seen in the production of vegetables. According to published statistics and actual local figures as of last August 12, the year's sale of vegetables registered a drop of 299,000 tons over the previous year, and

that only the interests of each sector are served. In other words, there is no col laboration between the Ministry of Pro duce, the Ministry of Agriculture and the

the sale of fruits a drop of 56,000 tons"

Central Union. . . .

(A. Sokorev, "The Consumer Sets The Price," Pravda, 8/22/85).

poorly outfitted" ("For the Worker's Table," Pravda, 10/19/85).

handlers lack coordination. The result is

"Although presently the canning fac

CONTENTS TFP SPECIAL REPORT

Pages 2/7

tories have been geared to operate at full "Whether the fruits and vegetables reach the marketplace depends on order and precision in the production line, where there are frequent disorders. Seri ous problems have been exposed, espe cially in the regions of Alma-Ata, Vin nitsa, Tashkent, Gorki and Novosibirsk. At times it is difficult to buy greens, potatoes, carrots or beets. Other sectors of the economy systematically thwart plans for the purchase of tomatoes and cucumbers, while the commerce of mel ons and grapes can only be described as

a failure. The apathy and tardiness of

the workers cause the supply rhythm to

production, many of these industries are

AMBIENCES, CUSTOM.

not supplied with raw materials on a

CIVILIZATIONS

regular basis. It is impossible to resign

Page 8

oneself to the fact that, year after year,

work in the production of canned goods is a failure and complaints are made over

COMMENTARY

the poor variety and quality of those

Pages 9-10

goods. Sufficient quantities of peas, preserves, fruits and frozen vegetables are all lacking.

"The final stop in the fruit and vegeta ble production line is the marketplace. Buyers are served by thousands of spe cialized grocery stores, and new custom er services are being introduced increas

break, and poor use is made of transport capabilities and other resources. . . . "Does farm produce always reach the

ingly; the counters still hold a small

consumer? Miscalculations in harvest

pace. Many of the premises are tight and

NATIONAL

Pages 10/14

RELIGION

Pages 14, 16

assortment of products. Often there are

NEWS FLASHES

lines, and small stores develop at a snail's

Page 15

TFP NeWSLBTTER

"One would never have expected to

gone, and the customers are demanding

Low Agricultural Production. "It is

witness this appalling scene: At the height

more." But from where did they come?

common knowledge that the Ukraine is one of the major producers of vegeta bles. The soil is rich, and the experienced

of the produce season, the vegetable

From the neighborhood warehouse? It

stores offered . .. canned goods! We

has none since it sent its supply to an

saw it. It was not on some oblivious

streets. On the counter were dried out

other warehouse. You might call it a 'personal favor. .. .' "After this report is published, we

eggplants and shriveled apples; there

will go again to the locations mentioned

were no other fruits or vegetablesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and this was at the beginning of September.

above. Exactly one week will have passed. However, the situation will have not im

When, then, will the stands be replete with cucumbers, melons, peppers and all

proved. Availability of supplies for cus

corner, but on one of Moscow's major

types of greens and fruits? "Why are the capital's inhabitants

tomers in the Dzerjinsk neighborhood

will be hunger-ration-like. In the Sevas

farmers there lack neither know-how nor

fertilizer. These farmers are in Dnepro-

petrov, Vorochilovgrad, Harkov and other regions. However, for the last four years of the five-year plan, production in the country as a whole has not met

state vegetable sales quotas. As of the middle of September, annual produce supplies have fallen more than 220,000

topol neighborhood, the store that sells vegetables and beverages will be closed

tons short of last year's measure. . . .

the Chersonplodovochthoz Company. According to him, the rainy season was

in the article "In the Market and the

for remodeling. In the Lenin neighbor hood, the window of the Metrostroevsk street market features pictures of water melons, but there will be none there for

Grocery Store"(see Izvestia, nos. 267-8,

sale. Instead, there will be long lines

1983). Following its publication the executive committee of the Moscow

of people waiting to buy peaches from Bulgaria"(I. Abakumov, V. Kovalevski,

Soviet discussed it during its regular meeting. . ..

O. Pavlov, "Either Lines or Empty Shelves," Izvestia, 9/15/85).

so poorly supplied with fresh produce despite strict plans and regulations drawn

up to provide reasonable necessities? Our newspaper addressed this same problem

"Two years have passed, yet the fruit and vegetable harvest is still unsatisfac

early, spring was late and temperatures were low ... Because of this, by the end of summer the company's output had

reached only 14 percent of projected vegetable harvest. "Was only the weather to blame? No, this is not the only culprit. In the Maiak 'sovkoz' in the Bielozersk region, which we visited with George Alexandrovich, we beheld this scene: The tomatoes in

tory. Everything is still the sameâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or ... "Let us look at some stores for con

"We spoke with G. Lisitsei, head of

"In Cherson, we went to state-owned

the 320 acre field had been picked, but

fruit and vegetable warehouse No. 8. On

most of them were never collected. On

"It is 9:30 a.m. at market No. 9 in

the shelves, where there should have been

the Dzerjinsk neighborhood. Inside are two long, slow-moving lines: one for

tomatoes, eggplants, squash, carrots and greens, there were cereal, sugar, canned

ly six to seven tons had been sent to market, even though market order esti

melons and one for other sundry goods. The assortment of vegetables and fruits is not so bad, even though the tomatoes

fish, candy and cigarettes. "The assortment of fruits and veg

crete examples:

mates called for more than 4,000 tons

of tomatoes" (A. Artsibachev, V. Vasilets, "The Garden Produce Marathon," Pravda, 9/21/85).

do seem like small, green apples, and

etables in warehouse No. 2 was also scanty.

the onions are simply not there. . . . "10 a.m., market No. 13 in the same

for restaurants? In restaurant No. 27

neighborhood: No onions, no cabbage, no squash or cucumbers. Many things

of Odessa, as well as in the Black Sea's Arcadia Restaurant, salad is on the menu

following autumn were again unencour-

are lacking. And what is there? There

but, in reality, is not available.

aging. The Voronezh region sold the

is the record book that tells what is to

"Almost inevitably, there are long lines leading to the vegetable stands with

state only 40 percent of the projected demand. In the past few years, the grain harvest of a typical field fell more than four metric quintals short (1 metric quin tal = 220 lbs.). This is the worst produc

be ordered each day from the warehouse (Dzerjinsk warehouse). Following most orders on the list are the words: "Not filled."

"10:40 a.m., market No. 61 in the Lenin neighborhood: . .. The September 5th order includes cucumbers, melons, onions, grapes, pears, apples and squash. But only grapes are to be found.

"And how was the vegetable supply

people waiting up to two hours after leaving work to make their purchases. Markets doing business are obviously few"(A. Artisbachev, V. Vasilets,"The Garden Produce Marathon," Pravda, 9/21/85).

"Frankly speaking, figures from the

tion index recorded to date for the Cen

tral Black Lands"(A. Staruhin,"Grain Figures," Pravda, 10/31/85).

"12:30 p.m., market No.7 in the same (Lenin) neighborhood: A large store is empty but for potatoes and, naturally, beets [which are abundant in Russia]. This is the full extent of the selection.

"2:30 p.m., store No.9 in the Sevasto pol neighborhood: In a large building divided in two parts, nine-tenths of the

area is occupied by the beverage section. The rest is set aside for vegetables. Only pickles and canned cabbage are to be found there. The beverages are bought

at the counter and the appetizers in the vegetable section.

"3:15 p.m., store No. 22 in the Brezh

nev neighborhood: People are lined up to buy what appear to be red, freshly ripened tomatoes. "I haven't even been

able to stop for tea," says manager A. Stxadana with satisfaction. "We've sold

about six tons of tomatoes. They're all Vol. IV, NO. 18, 1986

Sf Plenty of demand yet limited supplies plague food distribution

"Work errors brought about stringent measures to better stabilize the agricul tural industry, especially farming. ... There is only one solution: When dealing with the different, sometimes difficult conditions, more effective means and methods must be found to assure a good harvest. ...

"Such measures are extraordinarily

trying to trade their homes; some have already done so and are preparing the documents; others are trying to find a house. Among them is Vasili Ivanovitch Baziuk, for 30 years a technical super visor in the mining industry. For three years he has been attempting to return to the Ukraine, his native land, and he

ber was supplied"(A. lachin, "Building in Town," Pravda, 9/9/85). Insufficient

Footwear

Production.

"For the past few years, retailers' orders for the production and supply of chil dren's footwear have not been filled.

For the last four years of the five-year plan, total production growth was eight million pairs, whereas the production of orthopedic shoes fell 1.4 million pairs.

important for the regions of Siberia, the

wants to trade his two-room house for a similar one back home.

Urals and Kazakhstan. The records of the 'kolkozes' and 'sovkozes' in these

"All in vain," complains the worker. "There were several prospects, but they

regions have demonstrated the instabili ty of farming. For the last four years of the five-year plan, harvest expectations for most of the products raised in Ka

all asked from three to 10 thousand more

children? Since the number of children

rubles beyond the trade. And I do not have this money...."

grows from year to year, the answer

"In Norilsk there are still not enough schools, hospitals, cultural institutions and especially houses. Yet this problem

factured. The demand far exceeds the

zakhstan have not been met. Grain sale

quotas for the provinces fell far below projected plan estimates. In many areas, the quality index has also fallen, as well as field and livestock production. "For the last few years, quotas for the production and sale of grain to the state have systematically gone unmet in many regions of the Urals and Siberia. After four years, the 'kolkozes' and 'sovkozes' of the regions of Altaisk, Krasnoiarsk, Orenburg, Kurgan and Tcheliabinsk owe large debts to the government. Their pro duction of meat and milk has also fallen

substantially. "The failure to meet grain production and sale plans has strained the country, and forced us to import grain at a con siderable expense" (Speech by Gor

is resolved here much better than in other

more remote regions. ... "It is no love of the northern climate

that keeps these people there. Some

Shortage of Housing and Construc

sian interior, the first problem facing a builder is where to get the necessary materials. ... Builders frequently en counter difficulties in obtaining brick, mortar and roofing tiles. Up to one-third of the households never get around to

finishing their houses for lack of paint, window glass and wallpaper"(A. lachin, "Building in Town," Pravda, 9/9/85). "Why don't people want to work here

(the city of Perm)? Because there is no place to live. Right now, more than 600 people, about one-fifth of the work force, are waiting to find homes. For many years, they have not managed to solve transportation problems in the main work plant. There is no shift

change at night because there is no way to get home"(S. Riabov, "Production

Line Defects," Pravda, 9/17/85).

"People who intend to come here(the city of Norilsk) to work, those who already work here, or those who are retired here encounter serious housing problems. "The office of E. Chteck, administra

tive vice-director for the A. P. Zaveniagin Mines and Steel Mills Complex Housing Department, is surrounded by long lines made up mostly of the elderly. Some are

is simple: Not enough shoes are manu supply. "The situation worsens with the un

met goals set for the production of chil dren's orthopedic shoes. In the last few years alone, stores failed to receive near ly 10 million pairs of shoes"(Answer of

retirees cannot leave Norilsk because

U.S.S.R. Vice-minister of Commerce S.

there are housing shortages throughout

Saruhanov; G. Bilialitdinova, "Shoes for Masha," Pravda, 9/2/85).

the country. "The State promised that those who

work in the far north would be granted the right to join the country's home cooperative system servicing most of the heavily populated areas in 10 years. But this right is extraordinarily diffi cult to obtain" (E. Isakova, "Housing Cooperatives for Northern Inhabitants," Izvestia, 9/8/85).

bachev, Pravda, 9/11/85).

tion Materials. "In villages in the Rus

Why can't people find shoes for their

Poor Production Quality. "Our peo ple have a right to attractive, quality merchandise. But look at the windows

and shelves of your stores. Few articles are pleasing to the eye. If I were a vis itor here, I certainly would not say such a thing. But I am here as the President of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. And there is a general concern about this; it is a concern of the Soviets at all

"Despite recent measures taken to considerably increase the construction

budget, resourses are insufficient. Thus, the supply of wood products meets only 78 percent of the demand; the percent

levels. The problem of the lack of varie ty in consumer merchandise, as well as in industrial products, is very grave to

day" (Speech by Gromyko in Gorki, Pravda, 11/14/85).

age falls even lower in other areas:

plumbing products,63 percent; finishing materials, 54 percent; glass products, 47 percent. The supply of lacquer, electrical equipment and sanitary supplies varies, meeting from 30 to 60 percent of the de mand. Less than half the indispensable supply has been filled for bricks, lime, plaster, and other basic construction materials. Frequently, gravel, sand and stone are not even available. "Construction materials destined for

sale to the public are not delivered on

time by suppliers, and the shipments are incomplete. For the last three years, the supplier of lumber in Krasnoiarsk delivered only one-third of what was promised. "The lumber suppliers of Vostotchno-

Sibirski, Sredne-Uralski, Habarovski, Dalnevostotchni, Kirovski, Tiumenski, Gorkovski and other places do not satis fy the needs of consumer cooperatives. "This year important measures were

taken to ensure that 70 percent of the products of commercial lumber organ izations were made of coniferous wood.

But, in reality, despite the increased public demand,only 40 to 50 percent of the projected output of coniferous lum

"We must fight for our cattle industry and for increased quality in our beef by taking advantage of current advance

ments in science and the past experiences of the 'kolkozes' and 'sovkozes.'

"I would even say that the problem of quality should now be given first priori ty. Quality control findings show that, due to the poor quality of beef, 30 percent of edible substances are . in many parts of the country" (Speech of Gorbachev, Pravda, 9/11/85).

"A number of difficulties exist in sup plying the capital with foodstuffs. The city is large, and its infrastructure is complex. Suppliers are far from disci

plined. Sadly, many deliver inferior prod ucts, which means the added expense of finding some way to increase the avail

ability of fruits and vegetables" (I. Abakumov, V. Kovalevski, O. Pavlov, "Either Lines or Empty Shelves," Izvestia, 9/15/85).

TFP NEWSUTTER

A 1984 Soviet Congress in the Kremlin celebrating the anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. Such cold and often lifeless congresses ore called to discuss the problems of the nation that, despite massive Western aid, continue to worsen. Bombastic plans and gools often fail to be translated into action. "The young woman pulled her hus band resolutely toward the door of the furniture store.

"'Perhaps you would like to see an other set,'"asked the salesman trying to hold the shoppers.

"'Thank you, but we've seen every thing,' said the woman with a smile.

'Why is the nightstand a different color from the rest of the set? And why isn't the linen closet part of the original set? And why is the keyhole crooked? Why

should I pay 840 rubles for a defective piece of furniture?' The woman again pulled her husband toward the door: 'Let's go.'" "When I told this story to A. Unanianu, the director of Gormebelroztorg

have come to this conclusion long ago: We must use absolutely every possible means to improve the quality of pro

such problems are mentionedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but to little avail' (C. Riabov, "Production Line Defects," Pravda, 9/17/85).

duction. . . .

"But the company's management

staff has not learned the lesson despite the results of the last inspection, where the state inspector discovered significant defects in a considerable number of prod ucts. Permmebel circulated a warning admonishing a number of employees at its Baharevsk plant; other employees lost

"Until now, the industry has not re

vised production guidelines for stand ard new houses, furnishings for comfort able and highly comfortable houses, or

plumbing fixtures. Houses are still being built based on 1977 blueprints, and their

poor quality has roused a good deal of

their bonuses for one month. And with

popular complaint. Great quantities of

this, the case was closed. "We wanted to know what the pun ished workers thought about the quality

construction materials often reach the

of production and the causes for the defects.

market unpacked; some sanitary units

arrive incomplete, lacking even essential mounting fixtures and finishing parts. "Production defects are found in ma

"Work brigade member V. Kazakov said: 'Those in charge of preparing the

terials such as ceramics, glass \m and glass blocks"(A. lachin, "Bui. in Town," Pravda, 9/9/85).

ducer. The warehouses and showrooms are full of furniture with the brand name 'Irem.'

surface of laminated wood do not give us, the stainers, their work on time. There are not enough people. We even have to help them fulfill their task. When you're on a high-pressure schedule, you

"However, buyers besiege salesmen

can't expect good quality. That's the first

in the city of Perm, he sighed deeply: "Unfortunately this is a common oc currence. The buyer is not interested in purchasing goods made by the local pro

with questions like: 'When will you be

reason. The second is that the exhaust

selling products from the region of Ivan?

system either works poorly or not at all. We open the doors and windows, and, as you know, the drafts affect the

Could you put me down on the list for furniture sets made in Kiev?' This is the

situation in the region of Perm, one of the most important areas in the produc tion and assembly of wood products.

The region is accountable for the produc tion of at least 20 percent of all furniture.

finish of the lacquer that has just been applied. . . .' "However, V. Grochevoi, shift fore

man at the wood carving shop, thinks that:'One of the main causes of the lack

"If the administration of Permmebel

of continuity in the work is frequent

[the region's furniture manufacturing

equipment breakdowns due to lack of proper maintenance. At all the meetings.

outfit] were to reason logically, it would VOL. IV, NO. 18, 1986

^ .g

"Why should our children have to wear such rough and heavy shoes? Our grandmother lives in Rostov on the Don, and it is difficult there to buy the boots and sandals we need. When will good quality shoes be found everywhere on the market?"(From a letter of N. Chilovoi

from the city of Kastroma). "'1 bought shoes from the Tibilsk factory size 12'/2,' writes T. Brislalova of the city of Gagra,'but the children can not use them. They are made from very rough leather.' Letters like this one are numerous. The people are com-

materials complex. .Anyone who leafs through paid-vacation files will see the words "agreed' and 'no objection' stamped by director V. Stroichilin, which leaves one with the impression that work ers are abundant in this company. . . . "But the management staff of the

complex could not explain to us the ty's recent 27th con

mystery of how truancies were trans formed into vacations with the permis

gress,

sion of the administration.

At the Communist Par

five

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Gorbachev's

and-half

hour

keynote speech con tained biting refer ences to "signs of stagnation," unmet goals, and serious lags

in production. Despite colls for reform, no retreat from disastrous

work early. All the members of the work brigade knew this. So everyone was

forseen."1 do not think

shocked when the two men received their

there is any need for a special campaign to

bonuses and when their families also ap peared on the bonus lists. The bad ex ample was contagious, and in the office of the neighboring Liiey company, 35 more such cases were registered. . . . "A similar situation took place in the

purge the ranks of the Gorbachev remarked.

"Our party is a healthy organism."

"Let us suppose that government al locations did not fail, that full working hours were observed, and even that

growth surpassed set goals. What bear ing would this have on the matter of quality? Only a few are concerned about quality, says D. Satlarova, a worker in one of the Kazan factories. We receive

salaries and bonuses proportional to the amount of material, energy and basic

supplies that we use. Thus, it profits us

example, in the Taganrogsk steel com pany, workers Baiciuk and Saenko were officially denied bonuses for leaving

socialist principles is

Communist Party,"

plaining about the poor variety of col ors and the lack of good taste .. (G. Bilialitdinova, "Shoes for Masha," Pravda, 9/16/85 ).

"During the course of the inspection, investigators discovered supervisors who publicly criticized and punished the guilty with financial penalties, but later, behind the scenes, privately rewarded them. For

Kamenski companies. For e.xample, in the brick factory one out of two workers

Simply an unlucky buyer? No, he is not alone. The poor quality of sound equip ment, some refrigerators, and other domestic articles occasions many com plaints. I. Vajenina of Pervouralsk, S. Kabakinoy of Omsk, M. Purova and N. Chaimuhametova from the region of Bachkiria, N. lakubi of Zaporojie and G. Ocin of Mogilev all say that radical

was found to be truant, and one in six had recently requested medical treat ment. In all, some 270 truants were found, and, strange as it may seem, only one-fifth of them had been 'disciplined' by their superiors. . . . "Truants in Kamenski's 'lujtehmontaj'

measures must be taken in the fight against defective merchandise. They are

230 of them, but when the public con

backed by V. Nikolaiev of Krivoi-Rog,

found that only 20 of them had been

S. Romanov of Moscow and writer Z.

denied bonuses and that the rest were

Aliev from the Azerbaidjian region"(V. Brovkin, "What's In the Stores Today," Pravda, 9/21/85).

placed on the 'diligent worker' and 'ex emplary conduct' lists. . . . "We're not sure what the supervisors think of the truants, but we saw with our own eyes that at least half a dozen

organization can also receive bonuses. According to official records, there are trollers reviewed the payroll lists, they

more to make 'mountains' of expensive

Work Confusions and Irregularities. "At work place No. 101 in Novotcher-

articles.

kask, no one could explain the disap

"The consequences of this concept of making 'mountains' are evident to

pearance of A. Klimavoi from the work crew on the first day of the job. No one

Since the quota must be met, the lost time has to be made up by the next shift. So you roll up your sleeves as soon as

"The shelves of our stores are full of

knew where this woman was. Perhaps she was directing the work at another

care. You can reprimand them ai

mediocre coats made of cheap cloth. No

place. Only on the 24ih day of the job

one buys them"(V. Brovkin, "What's in the Stores Today," Pravda, 9/21/85).

did Klimavoi finally show up. It then became clear that she was habitually

consumers. . . .

skipping work. The workers remained puzzled. However they became stunned when, a short time later, the period she "A member of the military, V. Diakov, raised an important problem in his letter. He bought two color televi sions in Iwevo-Sahalinsk, but he had to return both of them right away because of defects. In Leningrad he had to search

was absent was recorded under an earlier

date, as unpaid vacation. . . . "Those in charge of monitoring these occurrences have admitted that one out of five workers is a truant. Of the 122

most recent infringers, 'preventative

youngsters didn't work all year long.

the sun rises. But the truants j

' m't ake

them up, but it's not long before they fall back into irresponsibility. . . . "On the day of inspection for bus company No. 1722, only 36 buses of the scheduled 50 were on the lines. 'What

happened?' asked company director A. Sliusarenko. And he himself replied,

'Fifty drivers are not enough. . . .' "On the day of the inspection at the Rostov transportation company, which covers three itineraries, 87 buses left the gate. However, only 48 buses were found

uncountable stores before he found a

measures' were taken against only a

to be following the designated routes. Of

super-modern stereo radio, a 'high class'

dozen. Time cards are fixed, and truan

model, which he then bought. It worked . . . for exactly one hour. A similar stereo that he later bought made by the PIJ company lasted only 30 minutes.

cies are 'covered' as if the worker were

the 75 sent out on the second shift, only 38 were covering the assigned routes.

actually present. . . . "What takes place at site No. 101 can

Where were the others? Some of them

be observed by the adjoining building

Some of the buses were even being

were discovered running on other routes.

TFP Newsletter

driven without their route instructions—

driver of the truck is in a bad mood. This

Whole trailers of watermelons disappear

the drivers making their own courses

is understandable since he arrived at the

and pocketing the money. 'The regional administration of'Rostovpassajiravtotrans' that manages a

store at 5:30 that morning, weighed in at 7 a.m., and the unloading began only

—yet no one is there to unload them" (I. Abakumo\', V. Kovalevski, O. Pavlov,

passenger taxi service, has over 100

be happy [at 8:30 prnj. . . .

at 9:30 a.m. There is really no reason to

GAZ-24 automobiles. But most of them

"Employees of the business number

cannot be found in service day or night. Their itineraries are not assigned, and

some 800, of which 470 are laborers. The rest are supervisors—just about a one-

their whereabouts were a mystery even

to-one ratio. . . .

"Either Lines or Empty Shelves," Izvesiia, 9/15/85),

"The city dwellers are frequently sent

to the state transportation inspectors. "We talk about days, hours and min

"The railway workers unload the

out into the fields to help the farmers,

trucks slowly. If the signal announcing

a situation that cannot be avoided at

utes lost. But what does this mean in

the arrival of 'Red Worker' railcar

rubles? One hour of work in the Don

sounds at 3 p.m., you can be sure that

present. However, if people are taken for this purpose from their classrooms, of fices and shops, they are at least entitled to proper work conditions. But little con

companies represents earnings of 4.5

the trucks will not make it to market, on

million rubles, or 75 thousand rubles per

ly a few kilometers away, before 10 that

minute.

night. "During a night visit at the ware house, V. Tselikov, the city's supply

cern is shown for this. For example, on

director, calls attention to the fact that

at a field where nearly 80 students from

work starts at the same time at both warehouses and markets. Two to three

tomatoes.

"During the first six months of this year, over 97,000 days of work were lost in this region because of truancy alone, with a consequent loss to business of more than nine million rubles daily. "Nevertheless, only a relatively small number of truants received any serious

punishment. [Based on an eight-hour work day, these companies should pro duce 36 million rubles per day]" (V. Sazonov, V. Fedorenko, G. Gubanov, "Rewards . . . for Truancy," Izvestia, 8/28/85).

Moscow. . . .

"It is Friday, 8:30 p.m. at Brezhnev

the Pediatric Institute were picking "We arrived on time," reports Prof. A. latsenko,"but there was no one here to meet us. No one told us what to do

market.

so we spent two days without working."

"Saturday, 12:05 a.m. at Warehouse No. 1 of the Lenin produce company:

vided by those serving light sentences

At midnight the guard, V. Guskova, discovered that three boxcars loaded

with watermelons were missing. The

us along the supply line to find out just how our fruits and vegetables reach

neighborhood in Nikolaiev, we stopped

hours can pass between loading and de parture during which, as a rule, there are no fresh vegetables to be sold at the

trailers had arrived and been weighed in at 10 p.m. the previous night after every one had gone home. Since no unloading "We invite the reader to accompany

the Chevtchenko 'kolkoz' in the Jovtnev

"They also poorly utilize the help pro

on the 'sovkoz' of Krasnopovstantcheski in the Odessa region, where there is neither packing material nor trans

portation. On the Kamenski 'sovkoz,' many pickers showed up, but -the to matoes were green, not ready for har vest. Meanwhile, the supervisors of the

is done at night, the trailers should have remained untouched until morning. But

Tchernomorski 'sovkov,' which ad

when morning arrived, we discovered

joins the Beliansk region, were pulling

that four refrigeration sections had been

their hair out; they had some 640 acres

emptied. . . .

of tomatoes to pick—and no laborers' {A. Artsibachev, V. Vasilets, "The

produce market No. 7. Electric fork lifts

"At Warehouse No. 1, there are

are unloading apples from the trucks.

guards and the militia, in addition to the

Garden Produce Marathon," Pravda,

Work is progressing normally, but the

night watchman. At night no one works.

9/21/85).

V. /^rs A HUHHy!BEFORE lEFORE^/ To BL/y

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AMBIENCES^ CUSTOMS, aVILiZATIONS

The Christian Spirit and the Pagan Spirit Expressed in Architecture rHE United Nations Organiza tion (U.N.O.) is the keystone of the contemporary world. Thus, the buildings designed to house it should,

by the majesty of their lines and pro portions, express the highfunction for which they are destined.

OUR photo shows the U.N. ad ministration building. Despite its enormous dimensions, we would hesi

tate to call it a palace. It is certainly immense, most expensive and over whelming, but its lines are as commomplace as those ofa matchbox; they are monotonous, plain, harshâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like those of a penitentiary. And its air is somber, like that of a KGB head quarters. Everything about this im mense framework of concrete, steel

and glass seems calculated to make man feel like nothing more than an

ant, a grain of sand, an atom.

MIDDELBURG is a small village in Holland that built its town

hall in thefifteenth century. How can this building compare in size with that

ofthe U.N.? Yet we would not hesitate to call it a palace because the nobility of its lines does not allow one to give it any other name. A

MERE difference in architec-

tural style? It is said in literature that "the style is the man."Regarding architecture, it could be said that the

style is the epoch. Every style is a result

of an ensemble of tendencies, ideas, aspirations and mental attitudes.

Moreshocking than the contrast between the two styles is the contrast between these two mentalities,

two epochs, two culturesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one Chris tian and the other neo-pagan.

WSlm

The Blind Leading the Blind ICOMMENTARY' ^

JANUARY and December 1985 were marked by two surprising failures of the perspicacity of our me

dia regarding the deep tendencies of the overall thoughts and desires of to day's Brazil.

In January, the stage had been set

PLINIO CORRfiA DE OLIVEIRA

the day-to-day religious, cultural, po litical, social and economic life of our modern existence. They want to flee from all that the media continuously bombards into their minds through

the eye as well as the ear. They want a calm, normal existence free from

for the "Rocic in Rio" festival to be

worry. And this the media continually

a milestone success, not only on the

properties and the personal safety of the common man, and because the authorities allow the streets to be over

run by unpunished thievery and sexual furor.

Consequently, Fidel Castro's appear ance on TV Manchete was announced

as a program that would begin a new phase in the political life of contem porary Brazil. And what actually hap pened? Let the reader consider the

national level but on the international

refuse them. And because of this, at least to a significant degree, the rock

level as well. To this purpose, it would

festival failed.

have been impossible to have more

And the media? They seem not to have learned any lesson, at least not

table below recounting how many

resources of our country. With one voice did the tubas of our media pre dict a glorified mass participation in

in Brazil. They go on as if they were

watch the bearded, verbose dictator. This table was drawn from figures sup

the thundering spectacle—with regard

"Rock in Rio" was devised for a

completely mobilized the publicity

living in a mythical world completely devoid of reality.

to both the numbers that would attend

multitude hungry for induced pleas

and the delirious enthusiasm that they

ures, a multitude effervescent with sex ual appetites tending toward what we

would surely exhibit. However, the result was a failure as great as the ex pected triumph. The attendance was

might call a Las Vegas style orgy. It was planned for multitudes fed up ad

scanty, and the enthusiasm was even

nauseam with the "insipid" pleasures

more so.

of the evenings of yesteryear, where everyone sat around a table drinking

The media was sure that Brazilians

from all parts of the country would flock to Rio to be present for the mo ments of supreme frenzy that the spec

tacle would provide, and that, a for tiori, the people of Rio, who are by nature jovial and fun-loving, would leave their apartments and homes to pack the "Rock in Rio" bandstands. But what actually happened was quite different. Brazilians from all parts of the country preferred to remain in the

of Brazil, the Folha (12/28/85) and the Jornal do Brasil (12/27/85) respectively. Rio de Janeiro

9:30 p.m.

made cookies amid the lazy talk of

9:30 p.m. Globo: 45 "la SBT: 31 "la

familiar family news. Yet the saturated

Manchete: 2 "la

masses tended toward the extreme op posite of this. On the contrary, what we saw was

the triumph of domestic pleasure over "Rock in Rio."

Globe: 25 %

Globo: 34 '^'o

TVS:(Not available)

SBT: 19 "la

Manchete: 6 "la

Manchete: 4 "la

The media, retreating aghast, did not foresee this immense saturation.

The year of 1985 has passed, yet no

guid, tranquil pleasures of their arm

the people of Rio preferred the lan

plied with laudable impartiality by the Brazilian Public Opinion Institute and presented with no less laudable an im partiality by two leading newspapers

mint or chamomile tea and ate home

one seems to have reflected upon this lesson. The media, again imagining the myth—more Marxist than secular—of

comfort of their cities and homes. And

viewers in Sao Paulo and Rio chose to

10:30 p.m.

Globo: 21 %

Globo: 26 "!a

TVS: 21

SBT: 19 "la

Manchete: 6

Manchete: 4 "la

chairs to the distorted, agitated fren

class struggle to be completely true,

zy of the so-heralded spectacle. The

seems to have expected the effect of

TVS: 20 "la

Globo: 23

reason, or reasons, for such an unex pected abstention?

Roberto D'Avila's interview with Fidel

Globo: 16 "fa

SBT; 18

Castro to have acted as a match being

Manchete: 6

Manchete: 3

If I were an optimist, I would ven

struck to an immense powder keg. The

ture to imagine that among the causes of what I do not hesitate to call the

powder keg was supposedly the masses of manual laborers boiling with fury at the fact that wealthy people still

In Other words, the people of Sao

Paulo and Rio opted for a low-key Sunday night even though TV Man

event's happy failure was the indigna tion of a great majority of Brazilians

exist on the face of the earth. It was

chete offered them the revolutionary

over the immoralities and extrava

expected, therefore, that these masses

gances staged for "Rock in Rio." But,

would be avid to hear the messianic

"treat" of two hours of bluster with the Cuban "boss." The immense ma

in this case, my judgment would fall

preaching of the leader of Sierra

jority in the two large cities preferred

far short of reality!

Maestra.

the regular schedule of routine televi

The truth is that the multitudes are exhausted from their work and suffer

But, in reality, our masses are calm, orderly and peace-loving. They bear no ill-will for the rich or for the police.

sion programs.

ings. They are worn out from being constantly over-stimulated by the media into paroxysmal emotions in all

And their soul-felt indignation at the public authorities rises not because the

their leisure hours. They are tired of treading the fearful maze of chaotic

authorities safeguard the medium and

events that have no relationship with

cause they do not protect the small

large size properties, but rather be

Of course, they followed their reg ular routine above all because com

munism does not stimulate a churning,

avid appetite such as the media imag ines. But to a great extent, they opted for the routine programming be cause the people—the colloquial

NATIONAL

The Fear of the Fear of AIDS From its obscure beginning around

Estimates on the number of those ef

isolation has been used to protect and ensure society's well-being. In some areas of the country, belated

of life with terrifying ferocity. Today,

fected reflect this opinion. Mathilde Krim, a researcher of the Memorial Sloan-Keilering Cancer Center in New York, estimates that as many as three

more than 16,000 Americans have died

million Americans have been exposed to

about the disease. More than 20 states

1981, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has shaken the com placency of the carefree American way

legislation to halt the spread of AIDS has been enacted based on what is known

or are dying from the disease that could

the disease and will, in time, show its

have considered AIDS-related legislation

become the worst epidemic in memory

symptoms. Others say they are not sure how many will eventually contract the disease but they expect the total number affected will go as high as 40,000 by the

in the past year, and more action is ex pected in 1986.

end of the year.

been empowered to close homosexual es

—perhaps even rivaling the bubonic plague that killed one-third of four teenth-century Europe.

AIDS first appeared among the na tion's homosexual population and has demonstrated an uncanny capacity to

human body's immune system, leaving it susceptible to disease and infections.

blood transfusions. Once limited to ho

lethal if AIDS is present.

American mainstream—and is affecting heterosexuals.

Unprecedented Public Health Threat. The disease is now recognized as a major

public-health problem in every major ur ban center of the United States, Western

Europe and Australia. It has been re ported in over fourteen countries on five continents. Even the Soviets have ad

mitted the existence of cases in Russia. Researchers in the field have acknowl

edged that possibilities of finding a cure for the disease are very bleak. Further

more, the mysterious nature of the virus has clouded its exact makeup and be havior. While scientists do not agree

about its particulars, most experts are unanimous in affirming that it constitutes

an unprecedented threat to public health. "Unless we get a handle on this dis ease—and soon—it will make the Black

Plague look like a simple case of the flu," says Dale Katterhagen, the head of

Oncology at Tacoma General Hospital in Washington (S/ar, 11/13/85).

New York State's local officials have

tablishments such as bathhouses, where A Horrible Death. AIDS disarms the

spread like wildfire mainly through prom iscuity, intravenous drug injections and mosexuals, AIDS is spreading in the

The measures taken thus far include:

Even relatively harmless illnesses can be

By breaking down the immunity sys tem, the body's control mechanism is

destroyed. It cannot defend itself against infection or tumor. The classic AIDS

patient suffers many tragic diseases and is prone to infections wherein the brain, eyes, digestive tract, skin, lungs, blood and almost every part of the body could be affected.

"AIDS victims die a much more gro

tesque death—physically and psycho

logically—than any cancer patient I've seen," Katterhagen claims. "Our cure

rate for all cancers lumped together is over 50 percent. And then along comes this blight. It's the only disease now that's wham, bang, you're dead"(Star, 11/13/85). While there is no cure for the disease, it can be contained by avoiding the loose and often abnormal morals associated

with its spread. Measures Taken to Control the Dis

risk of spreading the disease is high. Massachusetts officials established the

first state-wide guidelines for people with AIDS whose work involves handling food. The measure even allows them to continue

working, but under prescribed conditions. Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Calif.) introduced five bills in Congress that in clude these protective measures: They would make it a felony for an individual from a high-risk group to donate blood;

anyone with AIDS would be prohibited from working as a health-care profes sional in institutions receiving federal funds; federal funds would be denied to cities that do not close bathhouses; children with AIDS would be kept from

attending public schools; and health-care workers would be allowed to wear spe

cial protective clothing around AIDS pa tients without interference from hospital officials. Americans concerned with their own

safety overwhelmingly approve the

strong new government action in the fight against the AIDS epidemic. A Los Angeles poll found that 90 percent of those surveyed would support a law

ease. Like the body, society has its own

allowing health care workers to wear

immunity system. Health regulations,

protective garments while treating AIDS

standard medical procedures and even

patients. Seventy-seven percent would

The Blind Leading the Blind — (continued from the previous page) "common man"—want things to remain calm rather than be consumed in a tragic blaze.

How can the media's error be ex

plained? As I see it, it is because for the most

part their gazes are fixed on a fictitious Brazil, that is, a Brazil composed of a

communists; 3) various socialites who

many Brazilians will see the relationship

idolize extravagance, sophisticated por nography and the latest scandals; 4) in

between the failure of "Rock in Rio" and the similar failure of Fidel Castro.

tellectuals who imagine that the latest trends always blow in the direction of the left; and 5) journalists on the left

They give their more or less resigned consent that Brazil slip toward the left because they, deceived by the myth, imagine that at the heart of our country

or en route there.

This is, in short, an inauthentic Brazil,

large little clique (pardon the contradic

for Brazil is neither a clique nor is it left

tion in terms, but 1 mean a large number

ist. But Brazil is so often described as

of people who nonetheless constitute a proportionally small minority in all

being leftist that this description is be

Brazil). This clique includes: 1) progressivist or Boffist [after Frei Boffl Catholic

clergy and laymen; 2) a few thousand

lieved even by those who, in their ideo

logical flights of imagination, fabricated the myth. In truth, this myth is dangerous. Not

is a leftist predominance . . . that in fact does not exist!

A people that allows itself to be guided by a myth, especially by such a false one, runs the risk of sharing the fate of the one blind man being lead by another, a course against which Our Divine Savior warned us (Matt. 15:14). ■ TFP Newsletter

Even among AIDS patients themselves, there are scandalous reports that educa tion has had little effect. Norma Watson, one of four nurses at San Francisco

General Hospital, a leading center for the treatment of AIDS,complained to a

IDSAIDSAID AIDS

Republican forum studying the subject that in her hospital "promiscuity and degradation regularly go on with the full approval of the administration." The nurse told Republicans conducting a forum on AIDS that there is at least

one wing of the hospital where male homosexual and lesbian volunteer med

ical personnel encourage sexual activity

of patients and their associates because

s*a£i&:

it is important to the "socio-psychological well-being of the patients." Watson also said that patients are regularly al lowed to view a selection of at least 30

pornographic videotapes that are stored among medicine and other supplies. "We are told that this is part of the acceptable standard behavior in the community and that it is good for the patients," she said. Even medical efforts to contain the

s'l

kit

The so-called AIDS hysterio: Breaking down society's immunity system?

support a law making it a crime for ho

mosexuals or other groups with a high risk of having AIDS to donate blood.

Fifty-one percent favor a law making it a crime for an AIDS patient to have relations with another person. Nearly half support withholding federal funds for cities that allow gay bathhouses to remain open.

care or proper concern for AIDS vic tims. . . . It is a suggestion that the hu

manitarian response to AIDS is exactly the opposite of a humanitarian response to sexism or racism: In the presence of considerable ignorance about the causes

and effects of the syndrome, the benefit

of the doubt should not be given to the victim of AIDS. This is not a civil right issue; this is a medical issue" {Sacramenio

The Anti-anti-AIDS hysteria. Homo sexual advocates have interpreted these

legitimate self-defense measures as po

Bee, 9/22/85). Laissez-faire Solution? Meanwhile,

disease through blood test have run into problems. Two Harvard researchers, for example, say the test to screen donated blood for AIDS is much less reliable than

the government claims and transfusionrelated AIDS may become as common as hepatitis caused by contaminated blood. They claim the test could miss as much as five percent of contaminated blood. Social AIDS. Despite the obvious threat to public safety, a discrimination hysteria has taken hold that would do to society what the AIDS virus does to the

body: destroy society's immunity system. Progressive anti-discrimination laws have been enacted in Los Angeles, West Hollywood, and San Francisco that would make it unlawful to fire AIDS pa

tients, evict them or discriminate against

litical backlash against their anti-natural

homosexual advocates have suggested

behavior. Instead of keeping the poten tial epidemic in the medical arena, they

them—even when the employer or land

that an almost laissez-faire attitude be

lord would consider the patient a threat

adopted toward the AIDS crisis in the

have insisted on making it a political or

to public safety.

mistaken belief that it will simply go

"civil rights" issue.

away. A policy of public education about

The hysteria over the natural public fear of AIDS has often extended beyond

Others are openly taking advantage of the issue to push the so-called homosex

the nature and symptoms of the still-

ual rights platform. In the process,

unknown disease is proffered as the catch-all solution. Any type of restric

ical procedure. Historically, true human-

attack and discriminate against il who steadfastly refuse to accept the un

tions or protective government measures

itarianism has consisted of a compas

natural aberration as normal.

is viewed as "discriminatory." Education efforts aimed at altering

"This tragic, terrible disease is being used to further a right-wing political

sexual behavior among homosexuals have not remedied the problem. Recent studies show that while large percentages of homosexuals are limiting their sexual activities drastically, mere reduction is

agenda," says Rep. Henry A. Waxman,

scientific evidence and established med

sionate but firm segregation of those af flicted with communicable diseases from

those who are not. By carrying out such a policy terrible and highly contagious diseases have been contained.

"But the threat of AIDS demands from us all a discrimination based on our

instinct for survival against a peril that, if not somehow controlled, can destroy

not always effective. But, at the same

time, a small portion of homosexuals—

D-Calif. Of future AIDS-related legisla tion, he says: "If we're not careful we

can have a hysterical reaction not only by the general public but by members of Congress as well" {The Rocky Mountain News, 12/17/85). While the anti-AIDS "hysteria" has

this society," writes Richard Restak, a

about 20 percent—is instead assuming a fatalistic attitude and continuing to in

Washington neurologist studying AIDS. "This is a discrimination that recog

dulge in their amoral sexual behavior as

much as possible. The theory presum

not materialized, society's capacity to react against the epidemic is being severe ly hampered by those who intolerantly

nizes that caution is in order when knowl

edge is incomplete so that the public in

ably is that at least every other homo sexual has been exposed to the virus

terest can be protected. This argument is not a counsel against good medical

ably medical and moral problem. Mean

anyway and that escaping the disease is

while, the hour is late and the number

nearly impossible.

of AIDS cases continues to grow.

Vol. IV, No. 18, 1986

make a political issue out of an undeni

■

THE GRAIN EXPORT POLICY: AN INADEQUATE SOLUTION Anyone remotely familiar with farm problems and their suggested solutions to them has been bombarded

with the alleged benefits of a vigorous

export policy, especially since the lifting of the Carter grain embargo following Russia's brutal invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979.

In a world awash with grain, which even India is exporting, the argument

goes that only by more aggressive mar keting can the massive surplus produced by American farmers be consumed. In such a competitive situation, anyone

claims Wessel, in no case has this policy

without considering the harmful effects

ever proved more than a temporary solu tion. By its very nature, export of agri cultural goods is highly dependent upon the unpredictable variants of natural and

on the soil and national water supply.

man-made disasters..

can be gleaned from the results of the controversy surrounding the grain em bargo enacted by President Jimmy Carter

Practically the only way that the ex

port policy could continue as a relative ly steady supporter of U.S. prices, Wessel

Ironic Twist. A perhaps ironic ver ification of this unreliable export policy

in 1979. Trade resumed when the boycott

was lifted by President Reagan in 1981 in response to pressures on Congress

says, would be by developing a clientele abroad dependent on American markets, which is precisely what has been done.

from all major grain producers in the

However, he claims, this dependence backfires if our policy relies on the

their sales to Russia.

United States who wanted to increase

with the cash or loans sufficient to pur

dependence of societies who are seeking

Despite increased trade agreements,

chase grain can get a bargain on today's

to be self-sufficient. In addition, how

the farm crisis has worsened during

market. More often than not, communist countries and socialist dictatorships that

stable a society can be built on such a

the past 18 months, with the American

policy considering the fragile and shifting

farmer reportedly facing the bleakest

systematically trample upon the rights of their own farming class are first in line when it comes to purchasing cheap American grain. The hopelessly ineffi cient socialist system and the convenient ly continual bad weather has assured

nature of international relations?

situation since the great Depression.

For example, on October 1, the Soviet Union defaulted on the terms of its grain

farmers a steady market over the years. According to a recent study of the

agreement with the United States, fall ing 1.1 million metric tons short of the minimum purchase for the 1984-85 export year ending September 30. China also reneged on its grain agreements, alleging

present agricultural export policy in

that U.S. failure to open its markets to

the book Trading (he Future by James

more Chinese goods negated the terms of

Wessel, this "solution" is just one of

the grain purchase requirement. Thus, the touted export market was dealt a large grain surplus, a severe blow at a time when it was least prepared to receive

many stopgap measures that have plagued the farms for years. Reliance upon ex panding exports is an inadequate re sponse to the American farmer's prob lem. Wessel points out that increasing

it {The Kansas City Star, 12/15/85). Another major problem with the pres

exports only aggravates the situation of

ent agricultural system, Wessel and his

the declining family farm and leads to

colleagues at the Institute for Food and Development Policy claim, is that it is

the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a wealthy elite.

unsustainable. Rather than relying on the

laws of supply and demand to define the A Temporary Solution. Ever since the

Civil War, policy makers have pointed enthusiastically to exports as the sole answer to the farmer's problems. But,

grain market, the present reliance upon export crops has resulted in a growing dependence upon monoculture farming, a practice whereby a cash crop is planted

Moreover, in their quest to sell grain, grain companies give customers better treatment than what is afforded to the

farmers themselves. A typical example is

a recent agreement by four large Western banks to lend the Soviets up to $400 million to buy U.S. and Canadian wheat at an enviable 8-3/8 percent interest rate. Another hard blow was struck with the much-heralded 1985 Farm Bill that was

pushed through Congress as a peace

offering to angry farmers. Part of the program includes an export program whereby the Agriculture Department

provides nearly $2 billion in commodities to exporters and foreign buyers of Amer ican farm products over the next three years.

According to James Gattuso, a polit ical analyst from the Heritage Founda tion, the bill is more than just an export

subsidy. Although no nation is specifi cally mentioned in the bill, he believes

a major portion of the subsidy will go to the grain-importing Soviet Un "The bill would quietly create a lu..sive new export subsidy program by which American taxpayers will be re

quired to help pay for the purchase of farm commodities for the Soviet Union!' Mr. Gattuso claims.

While exports can help the farm econ omy, the magical export "solution" advocated by many has actually com

pounded the problem. The farmer oper ating at costs rarely benefits. By acting on the motive of pure profit rather than

on principles, grain brokers seek to in crease their profits and capital, not hes

itating to supply the means of victory to the inexorable enemy of all forms and

degrees of capitalism and profit. Today, the American farmer is reaping the sad

American farmers face an enormous surplus and an uncertain future

results of that policy.

â&#x2013; TFP Newsletter

ONE does not have to

go too far today to

I gatherat l,aroundtheTV

^ ^

staggered schedules, working parents and the omnipresent

television set, the dinner in

find critics of television.

Many educators and writers wage their personal vendettas against the popular box. Even the everyday man needs no university

BEYOND

stitution has been seriously damaged. Today, families are more apt to gather, when they

set rather than the dining

degree to observe the fact

room table.

TELEVISION

that millions of Americans,

with a kind of opium-like

addiction, wile away their

evening hours ingesting

their daily fare of the often mediocre, frequently vio-

;

Psychologists following this phenomenon find that the lack of the traditional family dinner hour tends to fragment the family. "It creates a social isola

lent and increasingly promiscuous programming.

tion, creates a lack of ap preciation for one another be

Scholars meanwhile de-

cause people don't need one

bate at length the merits

another," says psychologist

and impact of television.

Dr. Leonard Haber. "Their

Its more liberal advocates insist that the

that originally entered the home as a

medium is purely cultural, entertaining

novel means of entertainment has grad

and educational. They adamantly affirm

ually become an addictive and timeconsuming institution for whole genera tions growing up in the "civilization of the image."

that viewers do not imitate what they see on television.

On the other hand, opponents blame TV for low morals, poor academic skills

needs are being met by total strangers. It makes people more irritable, less cohesive with one another, less conver

sational and more easily influenced by what's on TV"(Corpus Christi Caller, 7/9/85).

The average viewing time in American

and violent behavior in children. Others

households has climbed to 7.2 hours.

claim that as long as Americans spend

Disturbing statistics show that Ameri

Facing the Void. While it is easy to condemn television as a scapegoat for all

substantial amounts of time slouched in

cans under 30 have spent an average of 20 minutes a day conversing with others

suggest a plausible and positive alter

useless inactivity in front of the tube, our country will always have a large lower class with horizons no higher than the top of the family television set. Out of Touch with the American

Reality. For some time now, a growing number of Americans have been becom

ing disillusioned with network program ming. As the difference between soft core pornography and TV drama be comes

increasingly

difficult

the world's woes, it is more difficult to

since they were two-years-old, compared

native. Many are so convinced of the

with their six hours a day watching televi

television's necessity that they are afraid

sion. The only activity that occupies

to pull the plug. Eight years ago, Frances Moore Lappe, an author and mother of two,

more of an American youth's time is sleeping. Researcher have found that television

decided to face the problem directly. When the television set they had bought

has an impact beyond the moral sphere. Shortened attention spans, passiveness,

to watch the news started to captivate her

obesity, language-development dif ficulties and curtailed imaginations are

young son Anthony, Mrs. Lappe decided to give the set away.

some of the indictments leveled against

Now she has written a book. What to

distinguish, many concerned parents

the medium.

have futilely petitioned for hours of wholesome or family entertainment.

Playing the role of babysitter, enter tainer and educator, television has

Ideasfor Enjoying Family Tune, in which

The entertainment industry has sought to escape censure by claiming that its

played a key role in transforming the American home and family—and not, it

survived without television. The account

"values" only reflect American culture;

appears, for the better.

this justification thus gives them license to obstinately air enormous amounts of gratuitous violence, promiscuity and

Demise of Dinner. A prime example of this influence is the vanishing institu

profanity.

Do After You Turn Offthe TV—Fresh

tion of the family dinner. Traditionally, the formal family dinner was the occa sion when major family problems were

However, on the whole, the industry's perception of "American culture" fails to coincide with reality. Even the most

solved and where social skills and man

liberal observers have to admit that the

ners were transmitted.

marked revival of political and moral conservativism marking the Reagan

Martin claims that

years has been largely ignored. In any given month, viewers can see

Syndicated etiquette columnist Judith

she tells how she and her children have

of her experience does much to demolish the myths about living beyond television. Surprisingly she found she was not alone

in this experiment; she solicited and

received help and suggestions from many families who had similar experiences. She claims that while many paren. convinced that their children are wai....

ing too much television, they suffer from what she calls the great "fear of the

void." Many of the parents who grew up

civilization used to

programs that defend or favorably por

be taught at the din ing table. Anthropol

tray abortion, adultery and homosexuali

ogist Sidney Mintz of

ty. Yet pro-life advocates are portrayed as unbalanced and bigoted, and those

Johns Hopkins Uni-

FOR CLA RITY AND INSIGHT INTO THE

versity goes even farther, saying that the

CONFUi CONFUSING EVENTS TAKING PLACE

who defend traditional Christian morali

ty are consistently viewed as intolerant

social

and narrow-minded.

eating is "the single

nature

most important huMedium on Trial. A new facet to the

man activity" (San

old television debate centers not so much on what is shown on TV—but that it is

Francisco Chronicle, 6/21/85). However, with

even shown at all. The cathode-ray tube VOL IV, NO. 18, 1986

IN THE WORLD TODAY ''

bpai

READ THE TFP IXEWSLETTER

on television themselves cannot imagine what life would be like with that blank

space of time to fill.

Breaking Myths. The void was filled with many of the traditional and whole

More On the Liberating Truth T~^ URING the Ameri-

H[|^H is in the newly baptized child and in the little old lady.

can TFP's National

Conference in October,

some activities of pre-television times. Mrs. Lappe recounts how she and other families occupied evenings with arts and

participants asked guest

jH|[H

theologian Fr. Victorino

crafts projects, cooking, story-telling

Rodriguez y Rodriguez f

today that leads people to say,

and educational activities.

questions about his master| W

Mrs. Lappe, who is a full-time writer and lecturer, says she had to avoid the

iyexposition "TheLiberat^ ing Truth." Given the [» IK

"1 feel this wayj' instead of, "Look, this is the truth or the

temptation to use the TV as a baby-sitter. She recalls returning home tired, fearing

timeliness of some of the

Question: Father, what about the attitude prevalent

error of the matter"?

topics broached by these

Answer: This attitude re

that without the television to occupy the children, she would suffer even more

questions, we are reproducing two of garding the evaluation of good and them here for our readers.

evil—this problem, this difficulty—is

fatigue and worry. However, without the television, she found the contrary to be

QUESTION: What is the difference

attitude defined by Saint Pius X. It is

true: her children actually helped her

between the absolute certainty and me moral certainty of faith?

sentimentalism.

Answer: The certainty of faith is ab solute in itself, as the word of God is absolute: "For I am the Lord, and I

talism—that is important in evaluating

relax. The author also found that the tele

vision-free home was definitely reflected in the children's schoolwork. Her chil

dren became more motivated, had more ideas and were not interested in drugs. Moreover, her children were not subject

change not." How individuals accept

and progress in the knowledge of faith

originally, historically, the modernist According to this school of thought, it is the feeling of things—sentimen human life. The modernists termed this

"religious feeling!* With the encyclical Pascendi of Saint Pius X and the oath against modernism,

is another matter. There are many steps

this was contained. Nonetheless, from the

from an elementary knowledge of faith

Second Vatican Council onward, this at

to a developed knowledge of faith. If you permit, I will relate a famous observa

titude began to gain ground anew in

who do not have major problems with their children, a fact she attributes to

tion made by Saint Thomas.

to many of the "values" transmitted through network programing. She claims she is one of the few mothers she knows

many ambiences of the Catholic Church.

Paris that came to be called the "Sermon

The most elementary way to pose this attitude follows: The great dogmas of the Trinity, the Incarnation, sanctifying grace

or rules," she writes. "Families are peo

of the Old Lady!' Speaking from the

and the practice of the sacraments do not

ple who develop intimacy because they share experiences over the years that make up their uniqueness. TV robs us

pulpit of the Church of Saint-Jacques in Paris on the appreciation of faith, he said

mean anything to me—1 don't feel them. Therefore, they are worthless. This attitude is really rationalistic and

of these family-building traditions."

church knew more about God than all

agnostic—even though the terms seem

the philosophers of the Gentiles.

contradictory. It is rationalistic in that it

Saint Thomas once gave a sermon in

better communications.

"Families aren't marriages or homes

that any of the little old ladies in the

Ending Television Tyranny. While

By this he meant that when faith grows

abstaining from television can hardly be expected to solve all the crises now facing

subjectively to the knowledge of revealed truth, one need not identify the value of this growth with the attitude of the posi

the family, it presents a positive alter native with a refreshing appeal that could

uplift the long-battered institution. For too long, television has been ac

cepted without any consideration of the immediate or long-term consequences of

its now generalized abuse. Those like Mrs. Lappe who have defied the tyranny

tion of faith, which is as valuable in an ignorant believer as it is in a theologian, even if he be Saint Thomas Aquinas. This is the Sermon of the Old Lady. I think that in the ambiences of the Se cond Vatican Council there was too much

wishes to submit the divine criteria and

the divine realities to our personal appre ciation, our reason. At the same time, it is nonrationalislic; it is agnostic. It does not wish to submit this appreciation to controllable, discernible, rational criteria, but rather to the sentiment, that which is felt. If Saint John of the Cross had acted

according to these criteria when he was going through the dark night of the

of television believe that the time has

insistence on evaluating the maturity, or adulthood, in faith, forgetting or not tak

come to question its role in people's

ing into consideration that the principal

soul—when he could feel nothing—we would not have had any Saini' of

■

value of faith is the supernatural gift that

the Cross.

lives.

■

Our Lady^s Birth Observed by State Senate

IN perhaps the only legislative

is the appropriate time to recognize Mary on the occasion of her 2,000

country. He was, however, uncertain

States, the Virgin Mary was honored

birthday anniversary."

by the Illinois Senate on the 2,000th anniversary of her birth. That body adopted the resolution

among his colleagues. He said that the only problem he could foresee "would

R. Thompson to declare December 8,

resolution of its kind in the United

sponsored by Sen. Richard Kelly by a voice vote.

"Whereas, motherhood reached its highest plateau when Mary, the virgin,

The measure also asks Gov. James

the Feast of the Immaculate Concep

tion, "as the date to honor Mary, the Blessed Virgin."

at first of the reception it would receive

be if someone were an atheist." But no

atheist raised his voice, and the resolu tion was passed.

"This is the 2,000th year of her birthday," Sen. Kelly remarked,"and

was chosen to be the mother of Jesus

crat, believes that the resolution was

I thought that was a very significant date" {St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

Christ!' the resolution states, ". .. this

probably the only one in the whole

12/1/85).

Sen. Kelly, a Catholic and a Demo

■

American Tourists to Honoi

Howkish Solution

Bringing Bed ond Mottress

The district hospital of Cotondico in the Monica province of Mozambique munism enslovinjg their country^ there gadget available to rid the area of requires a patient to bring his own ore indications that the impoverished troublesome birds. The fowl problem bed, mattress and bedspread if such regime may soon open its doors to was so bad that birds would often hit are necessary at the time of his American tourists. planes, impede air traffic, and even internment. Eight American veterans were re provoke accidentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;resulting in The news was reported by a mem cently part of a two-week trip sanc millions of dollars in damage. But"a ber of the military from that region tioned by the very government whose bird on the arm is worth two on the in the newspaper Diario de Mo partisans were responsible for near runway,''and the problem is finally zambique, published in the city of ly 50^000 American deaths during the being solved with a centuries-old Beira. According to Jose Mauricio bitter Vietnam war. The tourists indud- solution: the use of falcons. Chimo, during his wife's stay at the ed seven servicemen who actually Falcon enthusiast and breeder hospital he had to supply a bed, mat fought in Vietnam. The groups visited Patrick Paillat and two helpers were tress and bedspread for her. "My house is not too for from the Honot Haiphong^ Donong^ Hue and recently contracted by airport Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. authorities to patrol the surrounding hospital," he reported."I was able According to tour organizer Greg 8,700 acres and keep the runways to arrange for the things that they Kane of Westbury, New York, if the free of birds. Using Jeeps, each asked for so that my wife could be first trip goes well, the Vietnamese patrol keeps three or four hooded hospitalized. If I haan't been able to will allow visits of groups of 20 falcons in a ready position. When the take care of it, I don't know what she While the Vietnamese continue to

Officials at Charles De Gaulle Air

risk their lives to escope the com

port in Paris tried every modern

American tourists. Costs for the two

falconer, using binoculars, sights a

would have done." Mr. Chimo re

week stay, including airfare, are flock of pigeons or crows near the $2,953 per person. runway, the falcons ore uncovered

called that during Portuguese colo

and let loose. Some falcons are used to attack at low altitudes while others

Crimes Go Unreported

nial rule, no such reauests were ever

made by hospital officials(O SSculo

de JohannesDurgo, 12/16/85).

hunt at high altitudes. The result has been the effective

China's Abortion Holocoust

Statistics do not tell the whole story control of the nuisance. Recently,one of crime. In fact, since many crimes of Paillat's falcons,"Kid,"scared off

According to communist Chinese

go unreported, they may only tell hundreds of crows and other birds as estimates, one out of every three one-third of it. In a study on how peo he swooped down on a pigeon and nnancies was halted with abortion ple react as crime victims,the Justice

Department found that only 35 per cent of some 37.1 million crimes in

1983 were reported to police. Based on interviews with 129,000

caught it in his powerful talons. At the same time, a jumbo jet swept safely by a thousand feet away. "It [falconry] is really the most

984, resulting in nearly - nine million unborn dead. Other estimates

claim that as many as 53 million un born babies have been killed over the

pure form of hunting^," comments Mr. last five years as a result of a brutal

randomlv-selected individuals over a

Paillat IJornal da Tarde, 2/12/85).

12-montn period,the study provides many insights on the nature and fre quency or :rime in the United States. The study claims,for example,that completed crimes were more likely to be reported than attempted crimes

Hamster Attack Earns Prison

ly immoral "one-child per family" population policy that has been rigid ly enforceci throughout the country. Hou Wenruo,a professor of popu lation studies at Peking's People's

A Marion, Indiana judge has

University, says that the govern

sentenced a 20-year-old man to six ment's birth-control program is like and crimes resulting in injuries. months in jail for Killing a pet hamster ly to continue despite a U.S cong Women and blacks were more like

and a dog.

sionol decision to withhold fundh^

ly than white males to report a crime Tim Briclcer is serving his sentence for a U.N. agency promoting popu to the police. Teenagers and poorly in Grant County Jail upon his convic lation control in t^hina. educated adults were also less likely tion of two counts of cruelty to Although communist officials claim to report crimes. animals. In an affidavit filed witn the that abortion is voluntary, evidence Victims were also often found to city clerk's office, Edwin Stewart, an has surfaced to support the claim that value their physical property over officer with the Grant County forced abortion and infanticide are

their physical integrity, as only ap

proximately half or six million violent crimes such as rape, robbery and assault were reported to police. This

contrasted with a 70 percent report rate for motor vehicle theft.

The reasons most often cited for neg

Humane Society,claimed that Bricker strangled a pet hamster and hit a dog three times with a wrench in a fit of anger after his girlfriend left him.

widely practiced and sanctioned. Late or full-term abortions, induced stillbirth, and murders of newborns

are reportedly common.

^ Judge Pro Tem Thomas Michael de According to Stephen Mosher,one livered the unusually harsh sentence of the few eyewitnesses of the

saying that when one is mad or upset, genocidicol policy, on estimated 90

lecting to report a crime to the police killing is not the answer. Bricker percent of the abortions performed in

were that the victim felt that the inci acknowledges the fact that his act China are forced upon women who dent was not important enough or that was wrong, but he hardly expected would bear the children if they were it was a private or persons matter. to go to jail for it. truly free to choose to do so.

VOL.IV, NO. 18, 1986

A ^Portrait

of Saint Francis of Assisi The only painting of Saint Francis made while the "Poverello" was still living is this admirable fresco

pictured here. It is found in the chapel of Saint Gregory, one of those in the famous complex of chapels of Subiaco nestled in the rocks like a "nest of swallows," according

to the expression of Pope Pius II. The chapels were built over the "Speco," the cave where Saint Benedict lived as a hermit in the sixth century. Over the centuries, a series of Benedictine monasteries were constructed in this region, where one can still feel the blessings of the Patriarch

of Western monasticism and breathe the perfume of his eminent virtues.

Although some of the world's great masters of the brush, such as Ghiotto and Simone Martini, have left celebrated

frescos and portraits of Saint Francis, none of those works of art can be compared to this impressive painting in the chapel of Saint Gregory.

It is probable that the artist, a contemporary of the founder of the Franciscan Order, knew the saint personal

ly and was able to depict him with an impartial objectivity impossible to attain by the famous painters who lived after the death of the "Poverello."

This painting is considerably different from current iconography of the saint. After analyzing it carefully, one sees that this painting coincides well with the authentic ac counts of his life—so deformed by certain authors of a pro-

gressivist orientation. Thus, one can understand the ex clamation of a lucid observer: "He must have been like

this!'' That the painter had possibly seen Saint Francis also

explains why this fresco is considered almost a portrait of the saint who inspired the "Fioretti."

St. Francis of Assisi by an anonymous painter, 13th

century. Chapel of St. Gregory, Suoiaco, Italy. The fresco was painted before 1224, the year he received the stigmata. In addition to this, a virginal, supremely upright in nocence shines through this countenance. It reveals a soul thoroughly convinced of its own innocence and disposed to reach the consequences of all its actions. And because it is innocent, one can also see an unblemished, almost in describable purity. All this is accompanied by sweetness. If an irresolute man looks at this fresco, it would be

natural for him to feel, as it were, a censure. The gaze of Saint Francis carries an uprightness that seems to penetrnte

Truly one could affirm that the simple lines of this paint ing reflect the humble soul of the saint who espoused "Lady Poverty." But, at the same time, it could also be considered

the inner soul of the observer. From this a confrontati>

commonplace. For generally the writings about Saint Fran cis almost exclusively stress his incomparable simplicity and humility, allies of the virtue that most characterized

mind, hesitant and weak.

him—poverty.

A number of other virtues, however, are reflected in this

arises: on one side, a soul gifted with unshakable certain

ties and profound convictions; on the other, the relativistic In conclusion, one could ask: What is the relationship be tween the governing virtue practiced by Saint Francis, which was poverty, and this rich ensemble of other virtues? Pover ty is a means to attain that high degree of strength, purity,

an extraordinary self-mastery. This fortitude has nothing

uprightness and firmness of will. By practicing unparelleled poverty, the "Poverello" of Assisi detached himself far

to do with brute force, but is a strength that results from

above all earthly things, thus making possible his spiritual

profound, deeply-rooted conviction.

ascension.

countenance. It is a face that denotes great fortitude and

■

TFP NEWSLETTER is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and

subscription requests ancTinquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or In part any article of this newsletter with the credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. 16

TFP Newsletter

Changing campns values

Columbia University,

New V^rk â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Something ^

* KT

is happening on the

j '"

nation's campuses.

Interest in religioRStcisgrown. In fact, some

obsef^rs s^^noWPHEs are turning to religion with the /cnl that their

pre(]jg<rtssors once expressed for the counterculture.^This shilt toward religioa Js accompanied by a parallel upsurge in conservatism. Kvidcnce seems to indicate that the liberal education establishment is no longer so firmly entrenched in the college campus of the eighties. L.

(See Inside America SpClETy FOR THE pEfENSE OF TRApiTION, FAMILY

4 and 5)

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Follow-up

At times, conservative action is based on the idea

that if you overwhelm the public with enough facts

Just as the rumblings of a real cred

and statistics, people will gradually see things your way. Sometimes, this method works, but not always. People often want more than just cold hard

ibility crisis were starting to alarm members of the nation's press estab lishment, the crisis was abruptly

factsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they want examples.

This is true today more than ever, and in this issue of the TFP Newsletter, we have zeroed in on some concrete cases. Our story "Poland's Noble

Obstinacy" looks at the situation in Poland where

the population has long since given up on the false promises of the communist regime. Today's Polish youth are looking to the past and to the Church for models.

Our story on Europe's communist parties {see page 8) shows that with their charismatic leaders either dead or dying, the public is no longer at tracted by Marxist arguments. If this state of af fairs continues, communist movements in Europe will soon be reduced to mere sects, sustained by only a few die-hard adepts. In this issue, we introduce Inside America, a new

column {see pages 4-5) analyzing trends and events that shape our lives. Our conclusion this issue:

American youth are dissatisfied with the liberal smorgasbord offered by our universities. They want more. They want new models . . . and they want religion. This thirst for wholesome models prompted us

quashed. The unofficial repudiation came in the form of a Gallup poll com missioned by the Times Mirror

Company, owner of The Los Angeles Times. The survey, which was released in January and was based on interviews

with more than 3,000 people, concludes that if credibility is defined as believability, then the nation's media pass the crucial test with flying colors. In fact, 80 to 90 percent of those polled gave passing grades to the print and broadcast news organizations. When, for example, individual news organizations were tested for believability, the ratings were consolingly high. In general, radio news led with a 90 percent believability rate. This was followed by local and national television news with 89 percent, local daily papers with 88 percent, and news magazines with 86 percent.

In response to such results, headlines proclaiming "No

Heroes to the TFP Newsletter {see pages 11-12).

Credibility Crisis" left the Fourth Estate reassured. Other reports hinted that the whole credibility problem never really was a problem, but rather an issue stemming from the fact that media

Catholic authors tell us that we need to know the

critics were more vocal than media supporters.

lives of the saints so that we can imitate them.

to add the feature, Prophets, Martyrs, Saints and

Moreno act as inspiring models for today's world.

However, the same poll reports some less convincing findings suggesting that the public still has some very serious doubts about media reliability. Poll respondents criticized news media for be

"Verba movent, exemplatrahunt"(Words move,

ing politically biased, emphasizing bad news, invading privacy,

but examples attract).

failing to admit mistakes and bowing to outside pressure. While public support for the media was broad, it was not en thusiastic. A greater number of Americans were only "mostly favorable" rather than "very favorable" in their positions. From the six categories of attitudes toward the press, 70 percent of the population chose options ranging from a categorical "un questioning" support to a vacillating "wavering" support. Near ly one-third of the American public gave negative responses, their feelings varying from mild to vociferous. Press critics who were strongly condemnatory constituted only

Figures like Cardinal Merry del Val {see page 9), Saint Ignatius of Loyola or Ecuador's Garcia

This issue also features Prof. Plinio Correa de

Oliveira's charming article "Reflections on a Cafe" and an article about what socialists really think about the family.

And on the TFPs . . .

On the streets of New York City, the American TFP distributed thousands of leaflets protesting the

five percent of those polled. However, those who were ^

City's so-called homosexual rights law {seepage 16). Veteran New Right leader Paul Weyrich visits. The American TFP sends a telegram of congratulations to President Reagan. The Chilean TFP urges cau

best informed about the news and news-gathering organizations. The overall evaluation of press accuracy also reveals a credibil

tion and authentic rightist Leadership, {seepage 15). We hope you enjoy this issue and our new features.

had the best reasons for being so since they tended to bv .ae

ity problem. Only 55 percent of the public said the press generally gets its facts straight, while 34 percent believe that it does not. The unfavorable findings of this latest Gallup poll seem to

confirm earlier studies that reported a significant public distrust John Horvat II Editor

of the media. Such doubts lodged in the mind of the American

public would seem to indicate that the tenacious credibility crisis â&#x2013;

is far from over.

TFP NEWSLEHER is a monthly publication of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). John Horvat II, Editor. Subscription complimentary in the United States (third class bulk) and

Canada. Rates for foreign subscriptions and list of other TFP publications available upon request. Direct all subscription requests oncTinquiries to: The American TFP, P.O. Box 121, Pieosantville, N.Y. 10570. Permission

is granted to reproduce in v/hole or in part any article of this newsletter with the credit given to TFP NEWSLETTER. TFP Newsletter

Reflections On a Cafe PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA

COMMENTARY

For a long time—a very long

deur, the well-being and the/orce de

the flavor and savor of the fruits of the

frappe of a country is the intimate rela impression about the development of tionship that exists between its natural

earth, and of the sounds and songs of nature—all this has been reduced, for

resources and its landscape on one hand and, on the other, the charac

many of us, to the foggy memories of childhood that progress wiped out in

time—I have wanted to convey an

Brazil.

'Development' is a term I use here in a sense only remotely related to what is usually understood by that word. I am not referring to economic-financial development. This is the supreme meaning—and not rarely, the only

teristics of its national spirit. This is so

our adolescence with the steam roller

true that an observer is able to note the

of "practical sense."

formation of the mountains, the meanders of the rivers, the thousand

colors and types of vegetation, the

one—that is attributed to this word,

fragrances of the flowers, the flavors

which in our days is steeped in

of regional cuisines, the harmonies of

bourgeois hedonism and communist

native music and dances, the styles and

materialism.

colors of typical garb—and observes

From the perspective I adopt, economic development does have its

their affinities with the spirit of the

place. However, it does not hold the supreme place for the simple reason that man is not principally a stomach.

Supreme development, therefore, does not lie in the promotion of corporal things—of "Brother Body," as the

These considerations came to my

mind when I heard of a picturesque epi sode that took place in Londrina(Bra zil), a city I have not visited for nearly 30 years. However, it is with pleasure that I narrate what was told to me by friends from the "Coffee Capital." A man of wit and initiative opened

population, such as the nature of the games and quarrels of its children, the

a cafe there in a glass pavilion. This

deeds of its mature men, and the prov

of coffee, he offered no less than 25

en wisdom of its aged. All this pro duces a complex tissue of elements in tertwined by a thousand indissociable

varieties. I am entertaining myself by running my eyes down the list of the various methods of preparation. Among the hot coffees is, of course, "Cafe Chantilly," followed by,among others, a somewhat perplexing "Scotch

Franciscans would say. Where it does

affinities. The differences among these elements distinguish nations from one

lie is in the development of the whole

another even more than territorial

man, with the various elements of this

boundaries.

whole arranged in due hierarchy.

For example, what a difference there

Thus, the soul holds first place.

is between France and Germany! It is

was not just any cafe. In his selection

Coffee," in that Scotland does not

even produce coffee. After them come a pompous "Royal Coffee" and a

Among the faculties of the soul, I want

obvious that each of these nations

dashing "Society Coffee." The iced

to emphasize that one of its most no ble is its aptitude to relate material things to spiritual things, and then to

forms, with its respective "tissue," one

coffees are quite naturally headed by

single whole. It is impossible to imag

"Viennese Coffee." But their ranks

relate them both to God. The whole universe was created to

the image and likeness of God. For this reason, similarities exist among all things, for two beings similar to a third

ine a France inhabited solely by Ger mans, or a Germany inhabited solely by Frenchmen. Classical tradition, and later the pro found influence of the Church, taught these men to be much more soul than

are smaller—with only six varieties

compared to the 12 hot coffees. The hot and iced coffees are followed by seven more labeled "others." What

might "Coffee Creme Liqueur" be like? How is it different from the simple "Coffee Liqueur?" And the "coffee

material things have the ability to ex

body, and to seek in material things analogies and supreme lessons about

press spiritual things. And to know the

the soul and about God. From this

spiritual expression of material

comes the admirable consonance be

this variety has enchanted the public, and the establishment is always full.

things—both individually and as a

tween the body and the soul of great peoples. These peoples were led, in an

man with a lively imagination achieve

noble uses. Through this expression, the intelligence has a better grasp of the spiritual. For this is the highest

immense unified action, to interpret their respective material surroundings

many of Brazil's fruits and, mutatis

use of matter—even for the blessed

finities with their own souls, affinities

who, after the Resurrection, will see

that culture accentuated and made salient.

are necessarily all similar. Thus,

whole—is to know one of their most

God face to face.

and find in them a multitude of af

candies?" The fact of the matter is that

Couldn't this diversification thai with coffee also be attained with so

mutandis, with the country's countless flowers? And with this, how much more explicit so many of our soul's riches could become!

ing the matter-soul-God relationship a ruling activity of his mind can thus reach the apex of his personality. In

I have the impression that amid the contemporary storm, most men—de personalized and reduced to a mass by today's modern, mechanical and cosmopolitan civilization—no longer

other words, he attains the orderly, full

know how to grasp the spiritual and

If someone were to tell me that all

development of his own being—his

"divine" significance of things.

this is only daydreaming because it

supreme development. Precisely because these truths are

Neither do men know how to perceive

does not solve the fuel crisis, I would

the links that join them, nor do they

respond with a hearty laugh. Because a

most abstract, they have a relationship with what is most profound and

understand the settings in which they

Christianly developed Brazil is not fore

were born. And, in young countries

most defined as an immense fleet of

decisive in concrete reality. So it is that one element of the gran-

like Brazil, the symbolic interpretation

motors, but as an immense family of

of panoramas, of flora and fauna, of

souls.

One who is imbued with these great truths and who is accustomed to mak

Vol. IV, No. 19, 1986

In light of the analogies of a truly

Catholic symbolism and the glorious, accompanying labor of our people's soul, how much magnificence would unfold before us!

■

Young Conservative Foundation activists asking sticky questions about Soviet atrocities.

* â&#x20AC;˘> -v %

UC 'DIVEST FROM

SOVIET OPPRESSION l.\SIDE A.TIERICA

Campus Climate Changes: Where Have All the Liberals Gone? Times were when it was fashionable

the area one of the school's fastest grow ing departments. Theology majors at

to be a college liberal. Parroted

which often amounted to a left-wing smorgasbord serving generous helpings

slogans and anarchical protests against

of secularism, agnosticism and the odd

Princeton Theological Seminary have

the Vietnam War were almost an ac

notion that religion was both intellectu

increased 25 percent over the last few

cepted part of the liberal curriculum. 'Twas the rage to question and brashly

ally backward and unscientific, students could claim their diplomas. After so many years of such anythinggoes schooling, a new climate has begun to appear on the nation's university and college campuses that reflects a new at mosphere in academia. Most observers agree that conservatism, and especially

years.

discard religion, tradition and morals. With rampant self-righteousness, the col lege liberal threatened to save the world. With the exception of token South

Africa protests, the great liberal campus party is over. The Vietnam War ended,

and its refugees now flood the world.

religion, are enjoying an unexpected

Soviet Bloc adventures in Afghanistan

rebirth among American students, a phenomenon that, to many, defies

and Africa have discredited the Marxist

ideology as a civilized solution to the world crises. Great Society programs have largely gone sour. In an ironic twist, hard-core liberals have become the scapegoats for many university woes. Education critics have complained that curricula have fallen into disarray and incoherence and that

explanation. Religious Rebirth. Like it or not,

in "assembly-line" students than in im parting true knowledge and wisdom. They claim that since the radical cul tural revolution of the sixties, the uni versity has taken on the appearance of

a liberal supermarket offering fads and

University College in Buffalo, N.Y. of

fashions to attract trend-conscious stu

fered no religious studies. Today, the subject has generated so much interest

dents. In the name of academic freedom,

progressive-minded faculty members have offered students pre-packaged, bland

only 25 percent of the respondei ' Id

that position. religion has come to the campus. In fact, religious studies have become so popular that universities are adding more courses and designing new majors in the area. Indicative of this change is the sudden increase in religion courses at Louisiana State University. Only three years ago, the university began offering religious studies with just one professor. Now, the program has been extended to in clude over 26 courses. In 1975, the State

universities seem to be more interested

Campus chaplains also report an in crease in students attending church ser vices. At the notoriously liberal Univer sity of California at Berkeley, for exam ple, 1,500 students regularly attend Sun day Mass at the campus Newman Center. A long-range study conducted at Dart mouth College shows that 37 percent of the polled students believed in God as the Divine Creator of the universe. In 1974,

The Religious Challenge. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this religious

renaissance is the challenge it makes to the amoral atmosphere pervading the American campus. College chaplains report that people are turning to religion

with the zegj that their predecessors once expressed for the counterculture. Students

have begun to break the barriers of a once-hostile environment that prevented the affirmation of their faith.

Chaplains note that, until recent years, many students who wanted to practice

that officials have considered making it

their religion felt constrained about wor shiping in public lest they be considered

a major studies course.

intellectually backward. Today, this is

doses of abstract liberalism or Marxism.

At Ivy League Dartmouth,the number

After four years of this junk-food diet,

of religion majors has tripled, making

no longer the case.

"It isn't quite so intellectually gauche TFP Newsletter

ilVStDE AMERtCAl

or absurd lo be a born-again Christian today as it was in the sixties and seven

ties," says Thomas M. Ferrick, a chap lain at Harvard University. "It's not an object of scorn or humor anymore"{The New York Times, 1/5/86). The trend to break out of the secular

shell extends past traditionally conser vative areas such as the South and Mid

west. Religious interest and fundamen talist college groups are also mushroom ing at Northeastern schools, including liberal strongholds in the Ivy League. Searching for Values and Reasons. While the return to religion is undeniably clear, the reasons behind such a move

are not. The generation that grew up in the permissive, technological America of the seventies and eighties would seem

a surge in membership over the last year, going from 75,000 on 900 campuses to 100,000 on 1,200 campuses.

is "in" and that they must be prepared

structions and report instances where in structors fail to present an impartial view of history, ideology or politics. The monitors report their findings to the

to weather the storm of a particularly vociferous college right. "Ten years ago, conservative students

group's headquarters in Washington, which then contacts educators thought to be biased. AIA says it already has stu

were timid little sheep who felt it was

dent volunteers in more than 150 univer sities across the United States.

Even liberals are admitting that a prevailing conservatism among students

easier to hide than oppose the liberal establishment," said Karl Edelmann,

chairman of the College Republicans

Liberal Backlash. While the bold,

at the University of Michigan in Ann

outspoken nature of this trend has taken

Arbor. "Today, they're willing to bear the barbs and arrows of their opponents to get another viewpoint out" {U.S. News and World Report, 1/13/86).

the liberal campus establishment by sur

Student Activism. The political right

to be immune to the call of the religious

is adopting the same tactics used for

and the sacred. Many suggest that the religious void itself generated an in

years by liberal students, a ploy that has thrown the left into disarray. Young con

creased interest in divine matters.

servatives are speaking out boldly where they once hesitated—on issues ranging

"Many of these students were brought up without religious training," said Dr. Alison Stokes, an associate chaplain at Yale University. "And some of them feel deprived, almost angry about it. They

monitor, Accuracy in Media. The group asks students to monitor classroom in

from military power to Marxism. For example, the very vocal Young Conservative Foundation, based in Wash

ington, uses sixties-style confrontation

prise, the religious and conservative

revivals have sparked what might be called a liberal backlash.

After AIA's foundation, for example, comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini

were not long in coming. Many univer sity educators began denouncing the volunteer student monitors with catchy

little slogans like "thought police" and "intellectual goon squads." One Arizona State University professor accused of showing pornography to his family studies class admitted that he has

want to get a sense of their roots" {The New York Times, 12/25/85). The interest of the "post-me genera tion" members is often sparked by the

techniques to challenge university invest ments in firms dealing with the Soviet

been showing sexually explicit slides for 10 years without any problem. At the same time, he decries the AIA's accusa

totalitarian regime. The organization

tion as a conservative effort by a distinct

has an estimated 1,000 activists on 100

realization that science does not have all

campuses.

minority to force control over what is being taught.

the answers to the world problems and

Reminiscent of the liberal "alternative

Even the official Soviet newspaper

by the failures of secular substitutes for religion. An early observer of the trend, Dart mouth's Prof. Fred Berthold says, "Con fidence that we were on the verge of solv ing all our problems seems to have

newspapers" of the sixties counterculture, conservative newspapers with sizable readership are circulating on an estimated 40 campuses. Many of these conservative

Izvestia, not a stranger lo the art of thought manipulation, has taken notice.

campus publications are thriving where no effective voice from the right existed

to "self-styled censors." College Christians also suffer from the

evaporated, and people are looking for more ultimate solutions" {U.S. News and World Report, 1/9/84).

before.

liberal backlash. Some officials have

Perhaps the most controversial group representing this trend toward the con

"A lot of students reaOze an emptiness

servative is Accuracy in Academia (AIA),

inside and discover that their needs and

an offshoot of Reed Irvine's watchdog

U.S. professors, it contends, "quiver

with fear" because they may be reported

pointed out that the world view held by many fundamentalist students jeopard izes "delicate campus social relations." While most fundamentalists do not

aspirations aren't being met by material things," said Agnes McGarrigle, a min ister at Columbia. "They know some thing is lacking spiritually, and they're

the rest of the student body, sociol studying student religious beliefs nil, k

searching" {The New 1/5/86).

liefs usually oppose premarital relations and alcohol abuse, this supposedly

deliberately separate themselves from

to find fault with them. Since their be

York Times,

creates social barriers on campuses where such permissive practices are common!

Parallel Conservative Resurgence. Parallel to and at times intertwining with the religious revival is a more broad-base

New Voices. Despite attempts to dis miss the whole phenomenon as a mere

return to conservative values and a wider

acceptance of traditional institutions. In fact, many professors, administrators

student fad, the expansive and dynamic

and college chaplains link the spread of religion on campuses to a growing

more profound base. Spiritual voids are difficult to fill with fads and super

conservatism.

nature of the trend seems to indicate a

The signs of this resurgence are easy to recognize in the booming membership ranks of groups like College Republicans and the subsequent sagging ranks of

ficialities.

After so many years of drifting in the liberal establishment's education waste

land, it now appears that something ■ -'.-•vrv

really is new in academia. New voices

Young Democrats and like organiza

New student activism calls for rethinking

are appearing, and this time they boldly

tions. College Republicans experienced

college curricula.

clamor to be heard.

VOL. IV, NO. 19, 1986

■

IiN'TERISATIOXAL

Poland's Noble Obstinacy reasons, Poland has maintained its

West for the cultural, technical and

the accommodating Lech Walesa ap

economic resources to liberate their na

peared from nowhere to lead nearly 10

national identity with noble obstinacy

tion. Instead, Western defeatists claimed

million Polish workers in a demand for

in face of the most adverse conditions.

that any help would awaken and irritate

change and reform. A new formula was

By far the worst of her adversaries are

the Soviet bear, "protective" of her

devised with these components: an un

communism and the incessant revolu

illegal conquests that were later "rec ognized" at Helsinki in 1976.

manageable people, a calculating com

tionary psychological warfare waged on the Polish people by Moscow. The independent-minded Poles have been especially audacious and vocal in asserting their rejection of the commu nist system. Since the pseudo-elections

munist government and a highly respected

arguing that the balance of power in

Catholic Church. This resulted in the Polish model of Communism in 1980.

Europe should not be upset. "We must seek to discourage anti-communist revolts

to this limited triumph of the Solidarity

This attitude was reflected in excuses

Optimistic pacifists world over pointed

in order to avert bloodshed and war,"

movement as an unprecedented com

read an editorial that appeared in the

promise that would annoy but not enrage

tion, the country has been simmering

The New York Times (8/16/61). "We

the Soviet bear. Secure in its position of

with discontent.

must under our principles live with evil, even if by doing so we help to stabilize tottering Communist regimes, as in East

power, the Polish Communist Party liberally promised everything, granted

of 1947 consolidated the Soviet occupa

History of Turmoil. In fact, commu nist Poland has suffered a long history

of popular uprisings. Were it not for the ingenious psy-war ploys, snares and frauds of a scheming Politburo, the

government would have come crashing down long ago. Popular unrest has often been met with a combination of harsh

reprisals and strategic concessions. In June 1956, for example, riots broke

out in Poznan with the people protesting

the harsh working conditions that plagued the country after 12 years of Stalinist rule. Accordingly, a "new" Politburo was

named, comandeered by a more moderate "Polish" communist character, Wladys-

law Gomulka. Later, the mandatory col lectivization of farms was abolished, and

many collectives were dismantled. In December 1970, food riots rocked

several important port cities. Demands for reform precipitated the resignation of Communist Party President Gomulka in favor of Edward Gierek.

Labor turmoil culminated with the now-famous 1980 strikes in which legions

of Poles rose up, crippling the country's economy. This action led to the subse

quent founding of the Solidarity move ment, which the government allowed un til it was no longer expedient to do so.

little, and gained ground.

Proponents of this truce held that, to

Germany, and perhaps even expose citadels of freedom to slow death by

maintain the balance of power, a pact

strangulation." Even today a pervading myth lingers

ruling communist party, the subordinated

must necessarily be formed among the

that the American superpower is power

Catholic Church and the restless people.

less to help Polandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a simplification that is questionable if not improbable given

The three must coexist, if not collab

the Soviet's inability to subjugate intran sigent Afghanistan. In his book The Threat: Inside the

Soviet Military Machine, Andrew Cockburn, an Irish-born analyst of the Soviet military, cites examples that do

much to dispel the notion that the Soviet bear is omnipotent. When the Soviets did indeed mobilize in 1980 in what was to have been an in

vasion of Poland, Cockburn reports that

in Russia's Carpathian region the mobili

orate, with one another to achieve mi nuscule reforms.

Soon, copies of the Polish model mushroomed throughout the Eastern Bloc as a novel and relatively safe way

to vent popular discontent under the Politburo's watchful eyes. The irrecon cilable differences between the Church

and communist State were thought to have been bridged, or at least amelio rated. The Polish model assumed the

flavor of the politics of the "extended hand," or "eurocommunism."

zation was a fiasco. Large numbers of reservists failed to appear. Many of those who did turn up deserted in such numbers that authorities gave up trying to catch and punish them.

soon dashed when, on December 13,

The general mayhem and disorder of the operation may well have been one of the reasons the plan was scrapped.

ingly granted concessions of the past year were wiped out with a single â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x2013; 'ke.

Birth of the Polish Model. The Polish

rights were violated. The sham fagaue of

crisis reached an impasse in 1980 when

the Polish model was exposed by the

Illusions, illusions... Any hopes that

such a pact could be consummated were 1981, martial law was declared. Public demonstrations, strikes and the begrudg-

Leaders were imprisoned and

government's brutal actions.

Abandoned by the West,

Since it could not control the

Tragically, unhappy Poland had figured as one of the largest

bargaining chips at the Yalta

ifMff

conference table. The stalwart jT

Poles had valiantly resisted the

the government had no choice but to destroy its own creation.

With meticulous planning, the infiltrate and divide a onceunified movement and reduce it

tune. According to the Yalta

to impotence.

plan, Soviet troops were allowed

to occupy the Slavic nation and

r ^ -

install a puppet government

the West.

Like the rest of Eastern Eu-

rope, the Poles were left to their 8==^ lot. In vain they looked to the

suspicious Polish grassroots,

Party managed to undermine,

Nazi troops, only to be besieged by another yet worse misfor-

with no significant protest from

Iks. The The W w est fears the supposed threat of Soviet tanks.

Today, all illusions have been

dissolved as the government stifles all movement toward reform and rules with brute force. Incidents like the murder

of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko by members of the Polish secret TFP Newsletter

I^TER^'ATIO!%AL

police and the crackdown on editors and

intellectuals have buried hopes for recon ciliation or accommodation. Six years

after the supposed partial victories of the people, Poles are no better off than before. An Exhausted Nation Waits. After the

failure of the Polish model, an ominous silence hangs over the country. With

prices increasing at double the wage rate, the Polish economy is in dire straits. Most observers agree that Poles share

gloomy forebodings about the state of Poland and its ability to deal with the problems it faces.

In a secret Government-sponsored poll released early this year, nearly three-quar ters of the industrial workers and man

agers interviewed rated.the Polish econo my as unsatisfactory to hopeless, while virtually no one believed that the Gov ernment's economic policies are correct.

The results of this poll conducted by the Center of Public Opinion Research

revealed widespread support for the dismal assessment that "things are bad and will get worse because nothing can be improved." An average of 33.1 percent of blue col

lar workers held this opinion, while 40.3

Polish women hold pictures of Our Lady of Cxestochowa: Poland faces a test of wills and faith.

of the technical or white-collar staffs and

40 percent of the administration workers agreed with the statement.

Sociologists at the public opinion cen

industry should remain nationalized.

her, "Polish models", communist of

Thirteen percent believe that the coun try could free itself by its own efforts.

ficials and Soviet bears are powerless and defenseless. No government has dared to question her sovereignty in the hearts of

ter report a record high response register ing full disapproval for economic policies and for the whole socioeconomic system. This general mood prompted Mr. Rys-

a majority of young people identified the

medieval Piast dynasty as the most posi tive period in Polish history. At the same

Poles everywhere. Under her protection, a hopelessly outnumbered Polish army put to flight a threatening Red Army in

zard Bugaj, a former Solidarity economic

time another poll rated the late Stefan

1920.

advisor, to write in Tygodnik I^wszechny, an influential Catholic publication:

According to a recently published poll,

Cardinal Wyszynski, head of the church

during much of the postwar period, as the man with the most positive impact on

Today, Poland is at a crossroads, hav

ing exhausted every human "solution." While officially atheist, the cunning com

"Many economists, but also many peo ple who watch the economy as nonprofessionals, have a premonition of danger."

contemporary Polandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a view that con

munist government understands full well

firms Marxist fears of the revered position

the significance of the footsteps of these poor pilgrims.

Union leader Joanna Gwiazda claims:

that the Faith holds in modern Poland.

"Poland is the first country in the Soviet

The recognition of religious values

bloc to reach the stage where all means

among the youth is such that party of

of ruling the country have been ex hausted. Therefore, this system is based

ficials are devising yet another state

Poles after their victory over the'

education program to stem the tide. The

in 1655:

on naked force" {National Review, 10/18/85).

unorthodox new program, however, has a novel element: the perverse use of soft-

"Follow then the holy example of thy forefathers, for if you guard your devo tion to Mary, propagate it zealously, and

porn films on television to lure young Lost Generation. Among the problems

people away from the Church.

facing the red officialdom is a new gener ation who has no enthusiasm for an ana

chronistic party and instead harbors long ings for the glories of its aristocratic past. Today's prevailing pessimism is espe cially noted in the youth. The term "lost generation" has been employed to refer to a whole generation of youth who lack what the government calls the "socialist commitment to the construction of Poland."

An underground press report in Tygod nik Mazowsze says that only 3.6 percent of students assent to the existing socialist order. Only 10 percent now believe that Vol. IV, No. 19, 1986

This situation calls to mind the exhor

tation of Fr. Augustine Kordecki to the

defend it generously, you will attract even greater mercies and become terrible

Higher Recourses. In a city in south west Poland, people from all walks of life tread their way to a shrine of Our

Lady of Czestochowa. Throughout the centuries the faithful have traversed that

same route to ask the protection of the

to the followers of hell! Let Christendom

look and admire how courageously our Queen of Heaven and Earth protects her Kingdom, and how efficaciously she sends aid to her subjects, deprived of all human help! May the angel of the armies

Blessed Virgin from the invasions, per

of the Lord, guardian of Poland, deign

secutions and devastations that have

to move the heavenly militias to pay

marked Poland's history. Represented by the Black Madonna,

homage together with us to the supreme majesty of God for such great benefits,

a revered icon believed to have been

and may He with His powerful Hand

painted by Saint Luke, the Mother of

disperse all the enemies who ally

God has often blessed her Polish children

themselves to eradicate from Poland

in the most difficult of situations. Before

devotion to the Queen of Angels!" â&#x2013;

UlMTERmriOJVAL

The Demise of the Communist Ideology For over 100 years,

some 1.6 million members.

communists have been

parliamentary

preaching social revolution,

elections, they were able to

bloodshed and class strug-

gle to the world's working

'' '/

swing 29.9 percent of the electorate.

\ I

class. Most of the time, they

The apparently robust

have been able to forge ahead with virtually com-

character of the Italian

E n -

4 pmrn

Communist Party has been

Ky attributed to several factors, AM ^ one being the Italians' abili■f adjust and maneuver wlUnfl according to the circumstances. In Catholic Ita-

plete freedom of thought and action. Furthermore, immense financial and pro-

paganda resources were at their ready disposal. In spite

ly, the Party also carefully disguises its materialistic

of all these advantages, the ^Hlr^• ^ masses have been largely

unresponsive to the Marxist

and

y*"'

ideas that are supposedly so

attractive to them.

This puzzling failure is L .

stagnation, and even disin-

ty. Many observers note that the party has made a

represented the Red sect's greatest hope. Today, however, the European left is faced with unprecedented

However, this same

flexibility has jeopardized

the very identity of the Par-

Western Europe where once-

powerful communist parties

character

whenever possible.

'-ry -rift

— , '

especially embarrassing in

atheistic

tactical drift toward various Social Democratic positions

even while it eschews rigid

eadership Italian Com munist party leader Alessandro Natta, fading leadership and a fading fadir future.

Soviet orthodoxy. A series of active ties with Germa

ny's Social Democrats, Brit ain's Labor Party and other Social Democrat groups in Europe has further attenuated the Party's firmly orthodox

tegration. Some sources claim that many of the

cause of communism's downfall. The

European communist parties may soon

term 'Euroleft' is being considered as a

be reduced to little more than inconse

fitting replacement.

quential sects. Indeed, some have already

"Today, no one is defending Eurocom munism," said Ignacio Gallego, head of a Spanish pro-Soviet Communist Party.

stance.

"No one is raising this flag. Eurocom munism was the cause of everything that

problems in the future. Party regulars

shrunk into near-oblivion and can claim no more influence than that of the in

significant American Communist Party in the United Stales.

Even European intellectuals, who were the first to become enthralled with the

happened—a complete failure" {The New York Times, 2/3/86).

However, by thus diluting its ideology, the Italian Communist Party faces grave

face an aging membership and the inabili ty to attract the intellectuals and youth who represent the future of any party.

"ideology of the masses," are starting

In Spain, following Franco's death in

"The party is in a moment of a total

to abandon the communist ship. Failure

1975, the Parly splintered over the

loss of identity because every year the

to muster interest among the working

Eurocommunism issue. The surviving three small factions could claim only 3.8

ideological tension is dropping in Italy,"

percent of the vote in 1982. Far from the delirious dreams of young communists who foresaw the triumph of the masses

left-leaning daily La Repubblica. "A

in post-Franco Spain, the three factions combined hope to win two seats in this

York Times, 2/3/86).

class has proven devastating. "There have been ups and downs of Communism," former French Commu

nist Party intellectual Jean Ellenstein remarked about the sad state of the phil

osophical sect. "But this is not that—it

said Gianni -Rocca, deputy editor of the

party that based all its appeal on selling ideology is losing momentum" {The New

The

Communist Threat.

seems

is an irreversible regression. There can be remission, but this is a fatal cancer"

year's parliamentary elections.

{The New York Times, 2/3/86).

terrand's Socialists, the French Com

ideology has failed and yet it still con

munist Party faces similar problems. In 1972, the party pulled in one-fifth of the vote. In this year's March parliamentary elections, the communists only managed to win about 10 percent. This poor show ing has even raised the question that the

party in France is suffering from an ir

tinues to pose a serious threat to the West. But the sad truth is that country after country continues to fall to com munism even though the people are totally unconvinced by its philosophy. Stranger yet is the fact that it is not always by force that communism makes

reversible decline.

its most significant advances.

Decline in France and Spain. No where is the decline of communism more

evident than in France and Spain. In the seventies the two parties invented "Euro communism," a term under which they

claimed independence from Moscow and feigned respect for parliamentary democracy. Under this guise, they were able to register electoral gains throughout the decade. Since that time, however, even Euro communism has failed to attract any substantial numbers. Some leading com munists even fault the maneuver as the

After a disastrous coalition with Mit

paradoxical that communism as an

By far the most effective means for

Growing Pains in Italy. More than any other party, the Italian Communist Party has proven to be an enigma on the Euro pean political scene. In the overwhelm ingly Catholic country, the Communists continue as the second largest party with

advance of the economically and ideolog

ically bankrupt communist system is the use of revolutionary psychological war fare. And the sooner the West realizes

this, the sooner the paper bear of com munism will be shredded and defeated.■ TFP Newsletter

AMBlEiS'CES, CUSTOMS, CIVILIZATIOI^IS

Dignified Pride >-1.

I*'

is the Harmonious

Complement of Humility tk

A MANLY figure, whose strength

of the Church, taking Holy Orders and receiving the fullness of the

is replete with harmony and proportion and whose bodily vigor seems penetrated by and imbued

of his natural talents. Rather, he

priesthood. In this, he lost nothing

with the strong and luminous pres

elevated them, for the special quality

ence of a great soul. His facial fea tures are very defined and also well proportioned. Handsome? Without

to elevate and sanctify it. His pro found wisdom sprouted from an ar

of grace is not to destroy nature, but

a doubt. But there is almost no time

dent faith and an admirable piety.

to analyze his physical beauty be cause his profound gaze—at once serious, serene, pensive, grave and

supernatural temperance. His dignity

gentle—so captivates the attention

of the respect that he owed himself for so many natural, and principally

that one hardly notices anything else. It is the gaze of a thinker and a man of action—a thinker who sees things from the highest summits of philos

His strength was an expression of a

Cardinal Merry del Val

was the fruit of a keen consciousness

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,

ophy and theology, yet a man of ac

supernatural, reasons. In an epoch where the winds of baseness sweep over everything and even try to drag the priesthood into

tion whose sights are well fixed in reality, who can see deeply into peo

mediocrity—extolling a disparaged,

From the desire of

demotic and secularized clergy to the

From the desire of

loved, * extolled, *

taste of the reigning demagogy—the noble figure of Cardinal Merry del Val presents an admirable model of supernatural dignity that well il

From the desire of From the desire of

honored, * praised, *

From the desire of From the desire of From the desire of

preferred, * consulted, * approved, *

ple, things and events. There is a note of melancholy in the gaze, one of firmness and energy in the lips, and a noble, lofty attitude in his whole being. The hands seem made to command. Everything about this extraordinary man shows us a fighter who has no illusions about the world, who takes a definite stand in face of

lustrates the ineffable dignity of the

priest in the Church of God. That dignity can shine not only in a prel ate like Rafael Merry del Val, but also in the most modest town vicar.

it, and who is ready for all the bat

tles that life presents. All this is seemingly illuminated by a subtlety

of expression and an aristocratic af fability that allows us to glimpse the noble and diplomatic character of this man.

Such was the rich personality of he who in this life was called Rafael

Cardinal Merry del Val, titular Arch bishop of Nicea, who went down in history as the Secretary of State of Saint Pius X.

Descended from an aristocratic

line, he was the son of Marquess

Christian pride is not the opposite of humility, but rather its harmo nious complement. The Secretary of State of Saint Pius X was a profoundly humble soul, and from him came one of the most beautiful writings on Christian humility. In this section, where we usually compare two contrasting pictures, today we compare a photograph with a prayer. Our readers will thus see how a

most elevated dignity coexists with a most profound humility in a gen

hear me. From the desire of

esteemed,

* deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated, * deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being despised, * From the fear .of suffering rebukes, *

From From From From

the fear the fear the fear the fear

of being calumniated, * of being forgotten, * of being ridiculed, * of being wronged.

From the fear of being suspected, ^ That others may be more loved that I, ** Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I, **

That in the opinion of the world others may increase and I may decrease, ** That others may be chosen and I set aside, **

That others may be praised and I un noticed, ** That others may be preferred to me in

Merry del Val and the Countess of

uine, supernaturally Catholic heart,

everything, **

Zulueta, and in his veins ran illustri

in imitation of that Sacred Heart that the Church tells us is at the

That others may become holier than I,

same time meek, humble and in finitely majestic.

I should, **

ous blood from various countries of

Europe: Spain, England and Holland. He consecrated himself to the service

provided that I may become as holy as

Rusty Pipelines in Siberia

Dehumanizing Man

Liberals Fight Pornography

about ecological issues might well

The so-called quality of life moral ity holds that human lire Is only good

Sexual permissiveness has its conse quences, and Sweden, who has long

find a cause to champion in Siberia. Reports from the Soviet press claim

when useful. Once human health is

been in the vanguard of the sexual

lost, the man "loses" both his reason

revolution, is feeling the devastating

Environmental zealots concerned

that thousands of tons of Soviet oil

are being lost doily because of leaks in the shabbily built pipelines in the Samotlor area of that vast region. According to the government

newspaper Sozialisficheskaya Induslria (Socialist Industry), obsolete equipment and rusty pipelines and wells were the major causes of low oil production over the past few

years. And such problems are not likely to be remedied soon. "The toilers in western Siberia are

for being and his "personhood." effects of unrestricted pornography. From this materialist perspective, Even liberals who once fougnt man is not a being made up of body against efforts to curb the nefarious and soul, but merely a hunk of living trade are demanding that controls matter whose purpose does not ex be reimposed on the grounds that tend beyond his brief sojourn on pornography is dangerous, even de earth.

A shocking example of this mentali ty is clearly demonstrated in a sug gestion mode by two Indiana Univer sity professors who feel that society should consider keeping "brain-

"We had hoped that liberalization would lead to the open and honest

portrayal of all aspects of sexuality," said Hans Nestius, chairman of the Swedish Sex Education Association.

dead" patients on life support "Instead, the sex capitalists moved systems for up to 10 years so that in, and what we got was pornog

in complete confusion over the engineering and equipment there," their organs may be fresh and

the Soviet newspaper reported (The

structive.

available for "harvest."

raphy which was cold, mecnanicol, violent and degrading."

Sun, Baltimore, 1/29/86).

In an article in the January edition The association, an advocate for of The Futurist magazine, dean of the greater sexual "freedom" since it The Abortion Holocaust university's medical school Dr. was set up in 1933, has now made Walter Daly and education professor an about-face and is promoting legis Even Soviet medical officials who Harold Shone went so far as to say lation to restrict what has become a hove long promoted abortion are ex that up to 150,000 humans should be multi-million dollar industry. A law pressing concern over the damaging "warehoused" on life support. limiting the pornography industry effects of the estimated 10 million Furthermore, the pair labels such was repealed in 1971. abortions that take place every year comatose patients as "undead" or Beginning this year, movies por in the Soviet Union. "neomorts." Shone even suggested traying sexual violence hove been One of the reasons for this concern that they could be used for testing banned. Legislation is to be intro is the rising infant death rate, which new drugs and as teaching aids for duced that would ban so-called vio is now believed to be at 35 to 40 medical and nursing students. lent pornography In books and maga deaths per 1,000 live births. By comzines. Such a ban requires a constitu parision, the U.S. Infant death rate U.S.-Soviet Student Exchange tional amendment to the Freedom of is 10.6 per 1,000 live births. One of

the many causes cited is the Incidence

of abortion. The Soviet system has provided easy access to abortion on

the Press Actâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a measure that even

According to on agreement reach ed prior to the Geneva Summit last

the nation's liberals are willing to support.

fall, the Soviet Union and the United

demand. Clinics charge five rubles (about $6.50) for an abortion. Among the reasons cited to justify

States will cooperate in an exchange

abortion is that it accommodates Russia's "liberated women." Most Russian women are forced to work to

plementation of the program is

scheduled to begin in Spring 1986. mon that the Defense Departme ' s The initial exchange is intended as decided to increase intercej. i

Deadly Games Over Alaska

program involving personnel, com puter software and students. Im

Soviet intrusions in airspace near or over Alaska have become so com

support their families and tend to

a first step toward cooperation among

capabilities as an assistive defense

avoid motherhood since there is little

educational reformers from a number

measure.

time to properly rear their children.

of countries" and has the potential

Two advanced Airborne Warning and Control Systems aircrofts AIDS attacks Infants young children beginning in the third (AWACS) have been deployed to grade," said New York Times educa help the F-15 Eagle jet fighters to in In some ports of New York City, tion writer Fred Hechinger, who was tercept Soviet Bear H bombers. AIDS has become the most common a delegate to the Moscow meeting. In 1984, there were eight such in infectious disease in newborn infants. The Soviets, notorious for their terceptions involving 11 Soviet air According to Dr. Howard Minkoff, bungled attempts to mass produce craft. Air Force data show that in director of obstetrics at the State Uni- personal computers despite access to 1985 the number of interceptions versiw of New York-Downstate Med U.S. technological know-how, ore doubled and that the number of ical Center in Brooklyn, fighting the eager to increase that access in the Soviet bombers chased away from spread of children's AIDS Is espe educational terrain. Meanwhile, the Alaska tripled. During the first month cially difficult. Most infants with the agreement explains, the U.S. can and a half of 1986, three intercep incurable disease are born to mothers learn something from the Soviets' suc tions involving five Soviet bombers with no outward signs of AIDS. cess in moth and science . . . were recorded. "to restructure the education of

PROPHETS, MARTYRS,SAEVTS AAD HEROES

The Important Role of the Biographies of Saints in Catholic Formation While a knowledge of the doctrine and principles of the

Example Teaches. One of

|MH

the most important ways to

faith is essential to Catholic

teach men to serve God and

education, it is often by read

to avoid sin is through the

ing the lives of the saints that

example of the lives of the

a desire to imitate and follow

From a biography of Saint Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419): "There is one thing which

the pathway to Christian per fection is awakened.

Spiritual authors and biog raphers of the saints all speak

is not the least important

of the irresistible influence of

amongst the many which

the examples given to us by

teach men to serve God and to

the saints. Today this point is all too often forgotten. In

avoid all types of sin and evil

things, and that is the lesson

stead of Catholic saints and

which the lives of the saints

heroes who aspired to the

give

things of God, youth are given

"And

modern day models who rep resent the contrary of Chris tian virtue and morality. To illustrate the need for having Catholic models, we cite be low several commentaries by

he who does not

want to stray from the road to

heaven (which is not frequently traversed because it is narrow

H^H

Catholic authors.

and hard and which became, because of our great igno-

ranee, so obscure)should take

a few minutes to look at the

lives of the saints, because they have all of these qualities in a large measure. The saints

From a well-known theolo-

iv 4m

gian at the beginning of this

^ ISU

"Since spirituality is a science which is lived, we should show historically how it was put into practice; therefore, it is necessary to read the

h. The Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1691), Patron of Youth. itimes. influence of the saints extends beyond their lifetimes. infiuem

biographies of old and modern day saints from diverse conditions in life and countries. . . .

"In effect, it is by knowing them (the canonized authors or those who, al

though not canonized, lived like saints) that the heart is inflamed. The intelli

virtues most necessary to us" (Ad TANGUEREY,Compendium of Ascetic and Mystical Theology, Apostolado da

reading a didactic book filled with the great principles of the spiritual life. And the will, sustained by grace, feels itself drawn to the practice of the virtues, described in such a lively way by those who practiced them to a heroic degree. If one reads the lives of the saints, to gether with these [didactic] books, one will be able to better understand why the

least mortal sins; they are well-made images of Jesus Christ; they are marvelous copies of the evangelical life; they are texts written by the

Holy Ghost; they are guides

who show us the narrow way to heaven, and they are the torches which illuminate our path so we do not fall from some cliff. . . .

Imprensa, Porto, 1961, 6th Ed., pp.

"This is why Saint Thomas, even

11, 21 and 93; Imprimatur: A. Arch. Bracarensis, 2/11/61).

though he was well-educated, did not

gence, enlightened by faith, perceives more clearly and acquires a better under standing of them in this way than by

undoubtedly, pristine

mirrors, unblemished by at

Saint Gregory the Great: Examples are Necessary. This same principal is af firmed by Saint Gregory the Great. In an

scorn the reading of the deeds and words

of the holy hermits whenever he had i time. And even though he had written much on evangelical virtue and perfec tion, he would still interrupt his work

introduction to the life of Saint Benedict

whenever he could to better understand

(480-547), we find this passage: "It is first of all necessary to have in mind that Saint Gregory set out to write primarily a popular version of the

this lesson. Because even though spec

life [of Saint Benedict] without worrying about being critical. He himself affirms:

"Examples, more than dissertations,

ulative studies deal with virtue and are

holy and very necessary to the Church, they have many fine lines and subtleties, to such an extent that, in order for a man not to become proud and conceited, he

needs to sometimes put them aside and meditate on life, obedience, chastity,

strength will be added to the irresistible

light the love for the celestial homeland in hearts." In his biographies, he strives

influence of their teachings:'Verba movent, exempla trahunt' (Words move,

for the edification of Christians, who in that epoch were avid for the marvelous

but examples attract). . . .

(R. P. Bruno Avila, OSB, Introduction

saints, thus enabling him to become en thused with the virtues which are taught

"Our devotion will direct itself above all to those saints who lived in the same

to The Life of Saint Benedict by Saint

in the schools.

Gregory the Great, Buenos Aires, 3d ed., 1956, p. 8; Imprimatur: Ramon Novoa, Pro-vicarate General, 5/14/56).

lessons (from the lives of the saints), because not only do they exist, acting as

virtues should be imitated. And a new

conditions as we do, who were employed in the same jobs, and who practiced the Vol. IV, NO. 19, 1986

devotion, humility, austerity and penance

along with the other perfections of the

"Herein we find another use for these

SOCIAL DOCTRIAE

THE FAMILY: Target of

entrusted to the care of a collective

Socialist Hatred

education system organized by special ists. . . . Should [the children] be kept away from their parents all the time? I am unable to answer this question, which depends on future pedagogical

The primary goal of socialism is

gle or toward hatred for all superiors. In

cialism, Democracy, Self-Management,

addition, since he has good will toward

Allison Busby, London, 1980, pp. 58-61).

generally considered to be the pro

developments" (Michel Raptis, So

motion of equality in the economic sphere. But few people have a clear-cut understanding of its objectives regarding

superiors, he is better equipped to com bat envy, which is sadness over someone

else's good fortune. Upon this founda

The Russian Revolution attempted precisely this. Liadov, one of its leaders,

the family. Socialist propaganda on this subject is much different from what the

tion, he serenely accepts hierarchy and authority, and considers them natural

collective man in an individual family?

more prominent socialist authors actually

and desirable.

We peremptorily respond no, it is not.

proclaim. Nonetheless, one need only

Socialism and communism, on the other hand, thrive on discontent and hatred. Social peace squelches their very

A child who thinks collective can only be

leaf through some of their literature to see their grim hatred for the family. The reason for this hatred is simple.

In strong home structures, children first come into contact with two realities

abhorred by the revolutionary spirit;

hierarchy and authority. But in such an environment, these two values appear quite different from the stereotypes the socialists like to present. In the home,the subordinates (the children) see in their

lives since it counters their aim to de

stroy the social hierarchy through class struggle.

Here it is opportune to note that in its quest for equality, socialism repudiates what is personal and what is a source of individuality. Only in a collectivist society can equality exist, socialism contends.

mind instinctively associates the notions

The family, which strengthens individual characteristics and forms distinct, un equal personalities, acts contrary to socialist goals. The atmosphere for fostering indi viduality and esteem for authority that

of authority and hierarchy with those of protection and benevolence. This be

effective implementation of socialism.

superiors (the parents) an accessible, warm and protective authority that nat urally awakens endearment. Thus the child's highly inquisitive

comes the child's first standard in human

relationships. Following a logical pattern of assimilation, throughout their lives

people have the tendency to align their relationships with all superiors to their original standard. Teachers, employers, the public authority and even the infinite and transcendent superiority—God Our Lord—are thereby viewed as benevolent and protective. A mind thus formed obviously has no

particular propensity toward class strug

exists in the home is an obstacle to the

and guiding like a light which shows them the way to heaven; but these lessons also conquer the will, throwing out

raised in a collectivist ambience. . . . The sooner the child is taken from its mother and confided to the care of a

nursery, the stronger our certainty that this child is sound"(Igor Chafarevitch, Le Phenomene Socialiste, Seuil, Paris, 1977, p. 281).

This concurs with the philosophy of Z. I. Lilina, the wife of Zinoviev leseie-

vitch (1883-1936), a high-ranking Lenin aide and president of the Communist In ternational. She said:"We must save the children from the disastrous influence of

the family. We must nationalize them. They will learn the ABC's of commu nism, and they will become true com munists. Our task is to oblige all mothers

to give their children to us, the State" Thence its hatred of the family. (Apud Marc Ferro, La Revolution de Michel Raptis, a radical socialist and 1917—Octobre, naissance d'une societe, former secretary of the IV International, Aubier, Paris, 1976, p. 356). Some might think that this objective foresees a future society devoid of family influence: "The society organized in classes finds in the family unit the best

element for the preservation of its struc ture. . . . In the new worldwide socialist

society . . . there will be social eugenics and education of children. .. . By social education of children I mean that chil

dren, in one way or another, will be

PROPHETS, MARTYRS,SAiKTS AYR HEROES

a mirror, as we have said, for people to know their faults, serving as a model toward which they can gaze as a guide,

pondered: "Is it possible to educate the

is defended solely by the communists, the radical brothers of the socialists, and not by the so-called democratic socialists. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The democratic socialists' methods dif

fer from those of the communists; how ever, their goals are identical. For example, in Sweden's so-called

Continued from the pre

for him like live coals which kindled the

idence never sends a saint of an ex

most intimate part of his soul" (Fray Vincent Justiniano Antist, Life of Saint Vincent Ferrer, BAG, Madrid, 1956, pp. 94-95; Imprimatur Hyacinthus Ep. aux, and Vic. Gen. Valentine, 6/9/56).

emplary life into the world without fur nishing, at the same time, someone he

sparks of the love of God and scorn for the world which wholly enkindle those people who, regardless of their station in life, are disposed to receive this

of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591) by

celestial fire. There are no spurs that can make a horse who refuses to gallop run

Fr. Virgilio Cepari, a Jesuit and contem porary of the saint who avidly worked

faster than these lessons [from the lives

for his beautification:

knows who, inspired by God, will write about his life and works. In this way the saint's fame does not expire with his life, but rather extends itself throughout the Church and is conserved for the common

Rules for Living Well. From the life

benefit and advantage of the ages to come. In effect, the lives of the saints are rules for living well and show the direct

path to heaven in a more efficacious

of the saints] which make our wills travel

"Everyone who reads the stories and

in the direction of heaven. Thus, Saint

lives of the saints who flourished in the

manner than books and words"(Virgilio Cepari, Life ofSaint Aloysius Gonzaga, Editrice Polygraphy Office, Rome, 1910,

Augustine writes in his Confessions that

various epochs of the Catholic Church can see that, ordinarily. Divine Prov

Patr. Const., Vicesg.).

the examples of the servants of God were 12

p. 15; Imprimatur: Joseph Ceppetelli,

■

TFP Newsletter

soci.XL Docrniyt:

socialist democratic paradise, the State has taken thousands of children from their families

NATION

to raise them collectively and to adapt them to the "com mandment of equality." A Brazilian journalist com

UNDER

mented on the matter: "The Swedish State's om

nipotence in social affairs has reached Orwellian proportions

in the past few years. The most serious charges publicized by the European press in re cent weeks refer to the com

pulsory separation of parents and children, even with the use of police force.... Several other public institutions such as unions and political parties have joined the State in its

philosophy of breeding what could be termed 'the Swedish

social being.' "According to a definition

by the Social Democratic Women's League, a method ical collective education for

children to supervise their social development beginning at age three is an important

One nation under Qod. A proper education teaches iove of authority and hierarchy.'

commandment of equity and should be

of birth. In my opinion, this is the more

one of the major objectives of society. In other words, viable 'collective' and 'systematic' training [for childrenl can be

rational process. . .. We educate their children to prepare them to live in a

made available only by the State, not the parents. But this is of second concern

Chmuel'"(Erico Verissimo, Israel em Abril, Editora Globo, Porto Alegre,

ity to attract men and to inject them

to union sectors in charge of studying

1970, pp. 295-296). The hatred for what is personal and individualistic is accompanied by a love for everything collective and impersonal. This symmetrical movement finds ex pression in trends that take socialism to its ultimate logical extreme. Besides de nying the right to private property, they

(Pedro Demo, Sociological Problems of the CNBB's Studies on Community, Ed. Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 1975, pp.

educational matters: 'Children are not

the property of their parents, but a com modity of society. . . .' Almost 24,000 children were put under State tutelage last year; more than 11,000 of them were ordered to be taken from the hands of

their parents, who cannot recover them

even through legal proceedings" (Assis Mendonga, "Um juizado de menores

onipotente", O Estado de S. Paulo, 9/19/83). This same situation, so distressing for

collectivist spciety like that of Gam

even destroy the notion of the moral pro perty that exists in a family when a hus band says "my wife and children," the wife says "my husband and children,"

and the child says "my parents." Here,

those who have the natural sense of the

in the fullest sense, the family is replaced

mutual appropriation between parent

by the community. A magazine published by the National

born from free unions. ... Nor would the children be told who their natural

mothers were. . . . This community is a real Utopia. It has a tremendous capac with an unprecedented enthusiasm"

104-107). Note that all these Scandinavian com

munities were failures, so unnatural was

the life for which they strove. They re main solely as a hope,a future objective. In conclusion, we invite the reader to leave the tortuous chamber of socialist

ideals and enter the wholesome, serene

atmosphere of Catholic doctrine taught by Pope Pius XII: "The dignity, rights and duties of the

(collective farms), where the supposed social rights tyrannically take precedence

ingly describes this communitarian ideal,

family home,established by God Himself as the vital cell of society and thus as old as the world itself, are independent from the power of the State, which should

over the rights of both family and in dividual. Writer Erico Verissimo, from southern Brazil, was invited to visit

which horrifies anyone with the least degree of uprightness: "Many families

protect and defend them if they are threatened. . .. Precisely because it (the

[in Scandinavia] with a sufficient degree

family)is an organic element of society,

of consciousness decided to make the

every attack on it is an attack on hu

Israel. This is how he described what he saw in a kibbutz:

ideal of community become a reality. . . . At first, the community only held

man and the woman, as an innate in

"I asked Prof. Avigdot to tell me

as common property various material

something about the kibbutzim's system some and equally criticized by others.

articles, such as houses, tables, cars, etc. .. . In the final stage, everything was formally held as common propertyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

He said:

even intimate relations. Thus would the

and child, also exists in Israel. There, the socialist pioneers created the kibbutzim

of child education, greatly praised by 'At first glance, it might seem cruel and unnatural to take the children away from their mothers right at the moment Vol. IV, No. 19, 1986

Conference of Brazilian Bishops approv

manity. God placed in the heart of the

stinct, conjugal love, paternal and mater nal love, and filial love. Consequently, to remove or paralyze this triple love is

distinction between couples would disap

a monstrous profanation which fatally leads a nation, and humanity, toward ruin"(Allocution to the Delegates of the

pear, the basic idea being that the entire group would be parents to these children

International Union of Family Organiza tions, 9/20/49). â&#x2013; 13

He presently serves as President of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, whose 50 staff members and resident scholars produce more than 150 books, monographs, policy bulletins and newsletters per year on

political trends, judicial reform and family issues. In addition, the Free Congress Foundation sponsors training and educa tional conferences on topics ranging from social sciences to grass roots politics. He is also President of Coalitions for America, one of his

pet projects that brings together more than 110 pro-free enter prise, pro-defense and pro-family groups, and organizes them into several different coalition groups.

Indicative of his organizational acumen and personal clout

in Washington was the March 3 salute to retiring Senator Paul Laxalt. Mr. Weyrich organized the event that brought together many of those whom he himself helped to put in office. Among the guests of honor were President Ronald Reagan and no less than 18 senators and 17 congressmen. Rules for Success. In his talk to American TFP friends and

supporters, Mr. Weyrich proffered many of the rules he has followed that have lead to successful action in his over 20 years

in Washington. The address, interrupted several times by ap plause, stressed the need for conservatives to take the initiative. For too long, Mr. Weyrich noted, conservatives have blamed liberals for their problems and failures, when a change of tac tics or attitudes would have better served their cause. Veteran New Right leader Paul Weyrlch receives a tribute of friendship from the American TFP.

Paul Weyrich Visits TFP i i T T'S a great time to be alive and to be conservative,"

X claims Paul Weyrich, a leading promoter of today's conservative cause.

One of the most crucial tactics is the need to keep all things

in the proper perspective. Conservatives must learn to recognize the importance of and differences between long-term goals and tactical strategy. He explained that short-term proj ects, operations and events are often favored since their im mediate effects make them much more attractive.

The outspoken rightist leader pointed out that conservatives must define their principles and remain faithful to their vi sion of the future. Ambiguous goals fail to attract society-atlarge, especially since entire generations today may not even know what conservatism is or what it means.

Such a comment is indicative of his enthusiasm for America,

To create a false traditionalism is a tendency that should

the Right and the future. With political savvy and a spirit of tactical flexibility, he holds firmly to his vision of uniting all Americans who are dedicated to the preservation of traditional values. His political brainstorming and coalition-building capacities have played a key role in the construction of the dynamic conservative revolution of the eighties. Over the years, the American TFP has been honored to have Mr. Weyrich as a friend who has defended the TFP movement

be avoided, Mr. Weyrich said. Conservatives must stress the

on several occasions and has offered sound advice on the bat

tle terrain. As an expression of its gratitude, the American TFP invited him to a dinner/address on March 7 at the Estate of

Our Lady of Good Success in Bedford, N.Y. Over 100 friends and supporters attended. Mr. Weyrich was presented with an illuminated parchment

timeliness of their message, which is to provide lasting solu tions for modern problems. To want to turn back the clock is not only futile, but foolish. "We must understand our responsibility and the fact that

God placed us on this earth at this time," he said. Mr. Weyrich pointed to the work of the New Right in developing informal working coalitions to unite r '-f-ious, political and economic rightists in Washington as an at, mg factor in the victory of many conservative ideas and can didates. This flexibility is a prerequisite for the coalition's viability, and the advice of trusted counselors outside the heat of battle is vital to sound decisions. Since effective action

that reads:"To Mr. Paul Weyrich, whose outstanding presence

always generates active opposition, conservatives must find strength in unity. The disastrous consequences of working

in American public life is a factor of stability, dynamism and

alone have been proven time and time again.

success for the activities of the conservative movement. The

American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and

Property offers this scroll as a tribute of its friendship." History of a Movement. As a writer, public policy specialist

and political activist who has been on the Washington scene for nearly 20 years, Mr. Weyrich has been instrumental in putting together an affirmative—and effective—conservative movement.

Dedication. Defending traditional values is more than just

a passing whim for Paul Weyrich. All his life, he has stressed how one must be dedicated to principles despite the obstacles that will inevitably appear. "Be prepared to wait" and "Don't give up the fight" are

Heritage Foundation, a major public policy think tank in

the maxims that have governed his political life. He is not among those conservatives who give up the fight when denied a swift, easy victory—an attitude that he characterizes as "so contrary to the Christian spirit."

Washington. He also has a long career as a journalist, and his op ed pieces frequently appear in leading newspapers

fight," said the veteran leader in a comment that sums up his

throughout the nation.

formula for victory.

Paul Weyrich was the founder and first President of the

"We have the responsibility to commit our lives to this ■ TFP Newsletter

TFP :Vf:US

The Chilean TFP Calls on its Country'5 Right- Wing

to Avoid the Sad Errors of the Past A FLURRY of activity pervades the political atmosphere of Chile today.

jority of Chileans was orphaned, its grave being dug by the very man who became its

No sector on either the right or the left lacks official spokesmen or media coverage.

representative.

Even among leftists, everyone from the Communist Party to the Marxist guerrillas, guilty of countless bloody crimes, has a representative with free access to the media. Underlying this apparent political ef

ander Kerensky who prepared the way for Lenin. In Chile, Allende rose to power

In Russia, it was interim president Alex

sponsored initiative uniting political fac

because there was a "Kerensky"(Frei) who paved the way. The latter won the presiden cy because there was a sector of the Right with "Kerenskian" attitudes that, instead of fighting to win, opted for the motto underlying all surrenders: Give up a little

tions ranging from Catholic conservatives

in order not to lose all.

fervescence is the "National Accord for the

Transition to Full Democracy," a Church-

the good of the Christian Democrats. It further warns that such a concession could

result in grave consequences that could even be suicidal.

The alert shows how the growth of the Chilean Christian Democratic Party was largely artificial, due primarily to defaults and capitulations of the Right. It then calls upon the anticommunist leaders of the present, who hold the future of the coun try in their hands. "If the Chilean Right can win the con fidence of its own grassroots and can gather

to former Allende supporters and Marxists.

What Chile really did in the Frei-Allende

around it all those who share its ideas and

To those who are unaware of what is really

years, says the TFP alert, was "to aid the progress of the self-destruction of its gen

states. Only then will the conditions for real

happening in Chile, it appears as if a wide spectrum of political parties, under the aegis of Santiago's Cardinal Fresno, have reached an accord for the peaceful transi tion to democracy. Everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;both in Chile and abroadâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; wants the peaceful normalization of the country's institutions. Even the com

munists agree to this, at least in word. However, many Chileans are apprehen sive of this new accord, fearful that not only the Christian Democratic leaders but

many rightists as well are acting without political wisdom and being led by wishful thinking. They fear that an improvised at titude of concession toward the left will

lead the country to the same brink of dis aster upon which it found itself 20 years ago, led by then-president Eduardo Frei Montalva, the "Chilean Kerensky." Recognizing this concern, the Chilean

Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property(TFP) prepared a timely warn ing titled "An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Right Who Signed the National Ac cord: To be Read by the People They Want to Represent" {El Mercurio, 12/20/85). In this alert, the TFP maintains that a

mere statement of good intentions is not enough to assure the peaceful transition to stability and normality. In politics, as in diplomacy, reason often demands that an apprehensive suspicion be adopted, especially when dealing with communists

and their sympathizers. For example, Allende systematically violated the Con stitutional agreements he signed in 1970 as a condition of support from the Christian

uine anticommunist currents. The Chilean

accords, and not for simulated capitula

Right allowed the Christian Democrats to

tions, be created.

become its mediator, and, in doing so, ac tivated a mechanism that would lead almost

ruinously to communism." For this reason, the TFP document

fully expresses the Christian, anticom

tive Catholic Left.

munist, law-abiding and peaceful sen timents of most Chileans. If this segment is weakened or if it artificially surrenders its leadership, as in 1964, to some Ke renskian "liberator" (like Frei), then the country, lacking a true political rep resentative, will become destabilized." The TFP document points out that some Chileans are already asking themselves if

this Accord is being made exclusively for

This flagrant omission is explained in an addendum in which the TFP states that its

weighty silence is not an attempt to minimize the importance of the Catholic Left's role, which is clearly greater than that of the Right. Rather, it explains, since the organization has already dealt publicly with the matter on previous occasions, it abstains at present in order to address the issue again at a later date. â&#x2013;

Telegram to the President Upon hearing of American actions against Lybian terrorist installation, the

American TFP immediately sent the following telegram of congratulations i President Reagan: April 14, 1986 The Honorable Ronald Reagan President of the United States The White House

Washington, DC Dear Mr. President,

calls for the solidarity of all Americans. I must also congratulate you for the en tirely appropriate manner in which you led our nation tonight. It is difficult to imagine a more just initiative than the energetic action you took on this ocassion.

On our part, please be assured that On behalf of the American Society

in this regard you may count on our

for the Defense of Tradition, Family

complete support, on our patriotism, and

and Property (TFP), I could not help

on our love for Christian Civilization.

destruction was taking place in the top

but immediately send my complete and enthusiastic support for the American reprisals against Libyan terrorist in

suddenly surrendered its prestige and votes

stallations upon hearing of them on the radio. This just and opportune action

VOL. IV, No. 19, 1986

Left, as well as that of the "moderate"

stresses that an indispensable condition for authentic stability and normality in Chile today is a "strong Right that genuinely and

leadership of the Right. This process reached its apogee in 1964, when that leadership to the leader of the Christian Democrats. The anticommunist sentiment of the ma-

Noticeably absent from the document are references to the role of the Catholic

hierarchy of the Church in Chile. This silence is all the more significant since Car dinal Fresno is a principal advocate of the National Accord and of the extremely ac

Democrats in Parliament.

If Chile is to learn from her past, she should note that at least 10 years before Allende rose to power, a process of self-

mentality, it will become strong," the alert

Sincerely yours, John R. Spann President

American TFP Protests Homosexual Bill nation on the basis of "actual or per ceived" sexual orientation in housing,

employment and public accommodation

CW\UZM\ON MTR^CTS THE 01ISSINGS OF COD UPON MEN. ma effects EFFECTS DOES ^BANOUNMtN up HHM SODOM AND

i wn CIVIU2ATI0N PRODUCE? . HOMOSEWALITF HABITUAL

INuVnOTRAL CWlUWm ™SInopS nice,WJAAOE an example, NOERGOING the punishment.1 • • PMCTICED IN THEIR CW1U7ATON- BtnuLu intpcopp; iuuoM AND GOMORRAH

such as hotels and restaurants. Unlike race, which involves physical character istics, homosexuality is not always per

ceptible. Hence, any employer could be threatened with a lawsuit by a rejected

applicant who is member of a homosex ual organization. "The bill now being debated by the City Council fails to protect employers against this unjust and degrading pressure," read the TFP statement. By far the worst aspect of the bill, which would allow and confirm homo

sexuals in positions of influence in the home, parish and school, is that it di

rectly conflicts with Catholic morality. Guaranteeing homosocuals access to such influential positions is tantamount to de

priving the Church, the family and school The American TFP in front of New York City

of the freedom to practice their religion.

Hall (above). American TFP President John

Catholic Opposition. The chief oppo

R. Spann sharing the dais with New Yoiii auxiliary bishops and civic leaders (left),

nent to the bill has been the Catholic

mosexuality" read one of the banners car

ened by its implications on Catholic

ried by some of the scores of TFP mem bers and volunteers who joined several

schools. Although the move jeopardized the availability of city funds for the

hundred protesters in front of City Hall.

Church's charitable works, John Cardi

Archdiocese, which feels especially threat

New York Protests. Among those at tending the demonstration was Auxiliary

SINCE 1971, unsuccessful attempts

nal O'Connor challenged Executive Order 50, a 1980 version of the bill, and won.

Bishop Patrick Ahern, who said the bill

Prior to the vote, the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn

"promotes the legitimization of the ho

issued a joint statement condemning the

mosexual lifestyle." Also present at the

measure as one that "would seriously

rally were two other New York auxiliary bishops: the Most Rev. Anthony Mestice

undermine the moral education and

York City. This year, despite raging con troversy, the City Council delivered a

and the Most Rev. Francisco Garmendia.

the family in our society."

21-to-14 vote to make this aberration

voices of their Excellencies present her^"

have been made to force into law a

so-called homosexual rights bill in New

legitimate in the eyes of the law. But the issue is far from settled. Far

from quelled by the legislation, promorality advocates lead by the New York Archdiocese have stiffened their resist

ance. Triumphant homosexual rights groups now see themselves threatened by a referendum.

Because of the grave implications of

"Not only do we have the authorized said American TFP President John R.

Spann, referring to these Catholic bish ops in his address to the crowd, "but also the declarations of His Eminence the Cardinal have declared this measure

wrong. This iniquitous law is destructive to and undermines the family in par ticular and our city in general." "New Yorkers tend to forget the sym

the bill, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Proper ty (TFP) voiced its protest and concern over the legal recognition of what it term

bolic importance of their city. New York City is a sort of queen city for the whole

ed an unnatural and illicit habit, the crea

tion of a privileged class, and the viola

ing this law, the signal will be given for the same iniquity to be spread all over

tion of the freedom of the Church.

the United States and the world."

United States and, indeed, for the whole Free World," said Mr. Spann."By pass

"Will Homosexuals Who Claim to be

a Persecuted Minority Become a Privi leged Class?" read the TFP flyer that was spread by the thousands to passers-by in bustling New York during the two days prior to the March 20 Council vote. "O Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, ward off from our city the shame of ho16

Privileged class. Countering exagger ated cries of hysteria and bigotry against

values of our youth and the stability of In a sermon before 2,000 worshipers at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Cardinal O'Connor noted that every major culture world over has duly condemned homo

sexuality for thousands of years. "Divine law cannot be chai

' by

Federal law, state law, county . or city law, even by passage of legislation by the City Council," the Cardinal said, referring to the bill. "This changes nothing in terms of divine law." Challenge Offered. Despite the vote in favor of the measure, opponents claim the law is unenforceable and have threat

ened to file suit questioning the city's jurisdiction to rule in such matters.

Others have stated they will put it to the real test with a public referendum. Underlying the debate is the real issue at question: Does America want to aban

homosexuals, the TFP statement claimed

don Christian Civilization or to defend

that the bill will install a state of affairs

that will make homosexuals a privileged

it and attract the blessings of God? The tragic consequences of forsaking Chris

class among New Yorkers.

tian Civilization have been all too evident

It noted that the bill bans discrimi

through the centuries. TFP Newsletter