The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1985 (8. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1985-05-01 / 3. szám

BI-MONTH L Y B 20435 \t THE GUARDIAN OF LIBE RTY (NEMZETŐR) Vol. 3 XXIX MAY-JUNE, 1985 "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" Article 18 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Four Million "Catacomb” Catholics Cardinal Miroslav Lubachivsky has con­firmed that there are an estimated four mil­lion Catholics in the Ukraine despite „severe government repression.“ The cardinal is the new head of the Ukrain­ian Catholic Church. He said in a recent interview in Rome that he had been made a cardinal „in order to emphasise that our church exists there (the Ukraine) even though the authorities in the Soviet Union say it does not exist.“ Members of this „catacomb church“ have had to worship clandestinely since Stalin ordered its forcible absorption into the Russian Ortho­dox Church in 1946. Cardinal Lubachivsky’s interview was broad­cast by Vatican Radio’s English-language service. Born in 1914, he is a former Archbi­shop of Philadelphia. His predecessor as head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was Cardinal Josyf Slipyi, who died in exile in Rome on September 7, 1984, aged 92. Arrested in April, 1945, Josyf Slipyi served a series of sentences of imprisonment and forced labour between 1946 and 1963, when he was allowed to leave the USSR. Some of his ordeals in captivity were de­scribed in a recent issue of the Mirror, journal of Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic charity which since 1963 has given nearly ten million dollars to support the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USSR and in exile. Describing incidents following his final sentence in 1962, the Mirror said that the „most harrowing and poignant recollections“ were from those who saw him at Inta, in Komi, near the Arctic circle. „Eye-witnesses recall him dressed in rags held together with bandages around his ankles and knees, his feet covered in lime, a man defenceless against the cold, which reached 45 degrees below zero.“ One such witness declared: „Still we re­member him as serene, understanding and even generous to the surveillants and spies who were not lacking in that place of tremen­dous suffering.“ An Austrian, Professor Grobauer, recalled Cardinal Slipyi’s arrival in a cattle truck at Inta. Made to march in deep snow at dead of night, he collapsed. A guard forced him up with a rifle butt. Again he fell and could not rise despite the guard’s brutality. Keston College, the British centre for the study of the practice of religion in Communist countries, recently reported the death of 79- year-old Bishop loan Dragomir, who had been one of the four remaining Greek Catholic bishops in Romania. He was secretly conse­crated Bishop of Maramures shortly after the Communist authorities announced his church’s forcible absorption into the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1948. ACN Aids Flying Priest French Redemptorist priest, Father Jean Fi­scher, now has a Cessna Skyhawk light aircraft to enable him to do pastoral work among scattered communities in the Central African Republic. He is one of many clergy in the Third World who have received grants from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), an international Catholic charity, to help provide them with various sorts of essential transport. Other recent recipients of ACN grants in­clude: Father Garry Jenkins, SMA, for a four­­wheel-drive vehicle needed for his work among the Gola tribe on the Bomi Hills in Liberia; Holy Ghost Fathers at Ouesso in the Congo (two aluminium canoes); Benedictine monks at Irrua, in the Benin City diocese of Nigeria (a vehicle for their farm and retreat house); and Archbishop Khai of the Thare-Nonseng diocese in Thailand ((three motor-cycles and five bi­cycles for use by catechists). Last year ACN (Postfach 12 09, D-6240 Kö­­nigistein 1, West Germany), provided 447 con­veyances of various kinds for the reedy Church in 74 countries at a total cost of 1,775,796 dol­lars. Of these, 122 went to 32 African countries, 114 to 18 Latin American countries and 66 to 13 Asian countries. In addition, 135 vehicles were sent to the persecuted Church in six East European countries and ten were provided for pastoral work among refugees in five West European countries. Pope John Paul II with Cardinal Slipyi. CONTENTS: Romanian Policy Examined anew 2 How Communists Cheer and Boo — 10: "ANTI-SOVIETISM" 3 UN Report on Afghanistan 4 Kabul Regime "Unrepresentative" 5 Eastern Europe 40 Years ago: Formation of the "Socialist Community" — IV 6-7 Why Concentration Camps Were Reopened 6-7 Threatened by Alcohol - not Missiles 8 Centenary of a Philosopher (G. Lukács) 9 Death of a Principled Communist (E. Hoxha) 10 MIRROR AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED In AUSTRALIA: ACN, Box 11 PO, EASTWOOD N.S.W. 2122 In GREAT BRITAIN: ACN, UK, 3-5 North Street, CHICHESTER, West Sussex PO 19 1LB In IRELAND: ACN, The Norbertine Fathers, Kilnacrott, BALLYJAMES­DUFF, Co. Cavan and: ACN, North. Ireland Sub-Centre, PO Box No 76, BELFAST BT 13 2DX In the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: ACN, POB 1000, EL TORO, CA 92630

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