NEWS & VIEWS
NEWS & VIEWS Occupying Churches That new phenomenon of the poor occupying churches has crept from France,. Belgium and Spain to Rome itself, and taken on a political as well as social...
...They have come to take peacefully what is theirs...
...They have come to remind the Church that if it is to remain faithful to Christ it must follow His example and concern itself with the poor above all...
...There are 800 churches in the papal city and the poorly housed have occupied three," the Rome correspondent of ln/ormations Catholiques lnternationales reports in the current issue...
...At St...
...This is an interpretation of events that runs counter to that of many Maryknollers...
...Said the New York Times: "A Church that has always elevated its heroic women to sainthood is not likely to resist indefinitely admitting them to the priesthood...
...Maryknoll's circulation: over 300,000...
...A priest whose ministry is to the homeless is quoted: "What is surprising is that the phenomenon should be surprising...
...A Church without poor people would be a poor Church...
...JOHN DIEEDY 10 May 1974:228...
...Were not the Benedictine abbeys traditionally the refuge of the poor...
...The latter are especially upset that the viewpoint should be promulgated in the official magazine of the Maryknoll order...
...Adding salt to their wound is that the Chilean Embassy in Washington is using reprints of the article as a propaganda handout...
...Written by Father Miguel d'Escoto, M.M., editor and publisher of Maryknoll, the article deplores that "many well-intentioned people continue readily to accept a Marxist interpretation of recent events in Chile and firmly deny they may have been deceived, even after facts clearly demonstrate that this has been the case...
...They moved reluctantly but decisively," he added, "only when it was obvious that Allende's government had placed itself in direct opposition to constitutional legality and thereby threatened their country, which they had pledged themselves to defend...
...For years we have been complaining that the poor are leaving the Church, but it can be asked whether 9 . . it is not the Church which has abandoned them...
...Rita...
...Belgium and Spain to Rome itself, and taken on a political as well as social dimension-specifically in terms of the upcoming Holy Year...
...The occupying of churches enrages certain Christians, who view the action as a "violating of the house of God...
...The problem posed by the homeless is that of a Church which has come to appear as the property of the rich, linked to the power exercised by the speculators who produce the homeless...
...Region 3 will meet in secret and there will be no news conference...
...On this point, the sarcasm of the ln/ormations correspondent: "What a scandal to see people talking, sleeping, camping around the altar, children playing between the Virgin's altar and that of St...
...When a New York newsman phoned the "status & information contact" listed for the region on the general press release out of Washington, Msgr...
...The occupation of the churches became an issue at a recent congress organized by the Diocese of Rome on the problems of social justice in the Eternal City...
...A delegation of occupiers was designated to call on Cardinal Poletti, Vicar of Rome...
...Paul's-Outside-the-Walls, they are given food and medical aid...
...Odds and Ends --The National Conference of Catholic Bishops is meeting these days in 12 separate locations across the country...
...A city, prey to financial speculation in which the superwealthy can be found cheek by jowl with people who have to hunt cats in the Coliseum to overcome their hunger...
...declared the new prior-elect, Giovanni Turbessi...
...A city in which, in the last few years, 270,000-low-cost dwellings should have been built and only 4,500 were...
...In/ormations comments that "in a certain way we are witnessing the birth of a sort of 'theology of the occupying of churches.' . . . Considered as a house of God reserved for liturgical rites, the place of worship becomes a home for everyone and even furnishes shelter for the homeless...
...Theme of the meetings: "The Use of Modern Means of Communication as Instruments of Evangelization...
...One of the churches being occupied is St...
...Paul'sOutside-the-Walls...
...William E. Maguire was surprised...
...Said BU's Daily Free Press: "A change in Catholic dogma allowing the ordination of women as priests is inevitable...
...he received them and in turn urged the parishes to place themselves "and all their goods" at the service of the poor...
...The meetings are all open, except that of region 3, headed by the president of the U.S...
...Others, not at all scandalized, find it quite normal that both the phenomenon should occur and that the chureheswsome at least-should welcome the poor...
...Pope John said: 'The Church belongs to all people but especially to the poor.'" Maryknoli and Chile Causing considerable flap in the Maryknoll community is an article in the April issue of the order's magazine which takes a surprisingly benign look.towards the recent military coup in Chile...
...He didn't know he had been designated as region contact...
...Catholic Conference, Cardinal Krol, and chaired by Bishop Ahr of Trenton...
...d'Escoto, a native Nicaraguan, writes that "the military were, if anything, almost too respectful of Chile's longstanding tradition of military non-intervention...
...Editorial comment on the Sister Gloria Fitzgerald case at Boston University [News & Views, 4/26/74] has leap-frogged, inevitably, from protest over the handling of Sister Fitzgerald to prediction...
...An occupier there is quoted: "We protest, in this church, against the capitalist structures of a city in which 60,000 dwellings are vacant and 100,000 people (a record in Europe) live in hovels...
...What is the significance of this 'holiness' which preoccupies itself with tourists and ignores the city's most destitute inhabitants...
...And the poor have taken him at his word," ln/ormations concludes...
...It makes one think: to accommodate the Holy Year pilgrims, a series of large hotels is about to be built in Rome...
Vol. 100 • May 1974 • No. 10
