Exporting Death to Ireland

...hierarchy than f o r them t o take a closer look at what Dozier did in Memphis last Advent and, where appropriate, for them to do likewise within their authority as bishops of dioceses...

...Occupying a building--dubbed the Palazzina Liberty-in Milan, Fo broke with the "bourgeois theater" and succeeded in constructing an independent theater company which he brought into local cultural centers (Case del Popolo), Chambers of Labor, occupied factories and universities as well as to France, Greece and West Germany...

...population of 200 million, the proportionate death total would be 240,000...

...ZeffireUi's Jesus, wrote one critic, looks like "the statues on the altars of country churches...

...authorities will be able to reduce the traffic to the point where the IRA will begin to feel the pinch...

...DESMOND FISHER (Desmond Fisher, Director of Broadcasting Developments /or Radio Telefis Eireann, is Commonweal's regular correspondent in Ireland...

...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Two C h r l s t s In I t a l y Italians, always fond of dialectics, were recently presented with a curious confrontation...

...Many of those deaths were caused by the stupidity, or--to put it as mildly as possible--by the ignorance of Americans themselves...

...The film critics, however, were not so generous...

...The reality might be brought home by converting it into comparable American terms...

...After the first installment of Zeffirelli's Jesus o/ Nazareth--seen by an estimated 22 million viewers-the film received an immediate benediction from the Vatican...

...Using a Lombardian dialect based on the peasant language of the 1400s, Fo creates a Christ who drinks, laughs, eats and dances and talks of the here and now more than the beyond...

...Apart from tracing and stopping the arms leaving the U.S., the Dublin government is hoping that the American authorities will stop the traff~ at the source...

...This is how, says Dario Fo, the common people saw the Gospel...

...With millions of American tourists coming into Britain and Ireland every year, it is physically easy, though decidedly risky, to bring in the pieces in a suitcase...

...Fo himself has been the subject of controversy for some time...

...ZetFareUi has finally given us an authentic Jesus, a sweet Mary and Peter sculpted from a rock," wrote L'Osservatore Romano...

...Indeed, if he is like some other men, he could even be goaded into more drastic action, unwise and unjust, the consequences of which could be enormously greater than any to date...

...to Ireland...

...One source estimated that some 40 percent of the guns brought into Northern Ireland from North America are obtained in this way...

...Fo's Mistero Buffo (Comic Mystery) was shown April 22 and 29...

...The more knowledgeable were less inclined to cheer...

...In Ireland, his journey was regarded as a success--at least up to a point...

...In the tradition of the Commedia dell'arte with its grotesque characters and ribald language, Mistero Buffo presents the Gospel as it was seen by the common people of the Middle Ages...

...The suffering is incalculable...

...Cardinal Knox has taken a public stand, and he is not likely to back down from it...

...Police on both sides of the Border have captured some big caches...

...bishops at last month's hierarchy meeting in Chicago as one of "relative solitude...

...No one knows exactly how many illegal weapons are brought in from North America, and particularly the U.S., to Northern Ireland...

...That sort of calculation gives some idea of the dimensions of the Northern Ireland tragedy...

...Out of the U.S...

...If any need encouragement, let them reflect on some words of the earlier-cited Liturgical Conference statement: "The present silences of the general law presumably leave some freedom for the local bishop to adapt the rites of reconciliation according to his considered assessment of the special pastoral needs of his diocese...

...In the light of that worry, if no other, we would opt for a deescalation of rhetoric, including in Memphis...

...For it was they who supplied the money that bought the guns that caused those deaths...

...Expelled more than 14 years ago from national television--then controlled by the Christian Democratic Party--for making political comments on a variety show, he has also been at odds with the Italian Communist Party for his unorthodox, far-leftist views...

...The "other" Christ has become just as controversial, but for exactly the opposite reason...

...The Christ of Dario Fo is far from being the catechism figure of Zeffirelli...

...As the American Liturgical Conference said in a recent open letter to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "The central pastoral issue is not 'Under what circumstances may general absolution be given?' but 'How can people and ministers responsibly seek reconciliation and healing in their daily lives?'" In this context, there can be no doubt about the responsible character of the two Memphis liturgies, nor any question about their salutary effects...

...Time and again, they have pleaded with political leaders to be more careful about what they say on Northern Ireland because their statements can give a wrong impression and result in loss of lives...

...They would like to see IrishAmerican organiTations, which continue to subscribe money for Northern Ireland through dubious channels, harassed and, if possible, prosecuted on some count...

...Irish people, North and South, were pleased that he appeared to have cleared up President Carter's woolly thinking on the problem and enlisted his active support in stopping the illegal arms traffic...

...This freedom of adaptation is necessary if the bishop is to fulfill his role as a pastor, a discerner of the Spirit among the people he serves...

...Both were the subject of recent television specials: the Zefilrelli film was presented in a five-part series from March 27-April 24...

...No one knows exactly who brings them or how...

...Irish people might wonder what the statistic means to the average American reader...

...FitzGerald's mission in mid-March was the latest attempt to drive home the lesson...

...The clash between Rome and Memphis is joined on issues inherent in those sentences, so that what is involved ultimately in the current contention is more than a man in Tennessee and any cause of his...

...as with Broderick, his career in the Church could be ruined...

...We believe that Cardinal Knox has not only distorted what took place in the Memphis diocese, but also that he is imposing a much too narrow concept of what is possible under the new (1972) pastoral norms for general sacramental absolution, the norms under which Bishop Dozier acted...

...They proceeded on five months of careful preparation, on broad consultation with brother bishops-and they produced strong positive results...

...There was considerable satisfaction in Dublin with the move against Noraid, the chief collection agency for funds for Northern Ireland...

...This would be quite contrary to that ancient theological tradition in the Church which sees the bishop as a legitimate pastor precisely in virtue of his ordination to that office...

...At present, the Provisionals have all the arms they want: the best estimates suggest that in Belfast alone the extremists of all kinds have enough to keep up the present level of fighting for years...

...Noraid is reported now to be bringing a suit against the Justice Department alleging harassment of members...

...Rome has been known to act impulsive.ly before...

...The judgment of the Vatican has been unequivocal...

...Patrick's Day, they issued a joint statement calling on Americans "to renounce any action that promotes the current violence or provides support or encouragement for, organizations engaged in violence...

...Jesus Christ versus Jesus Christ...

...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 GUNS AND MONEY EXPOBTING DER TH TO IBELMrD "Almost 1,800 people have been killed in Northern Ireland since 1969," wrote the New York Times in commenting on the St...

...So far, so good...

...They see it in simple terms of finishing off the job of winning Irish independence left unfinished in 1922...

...They were even more pleased that he got the four leading "Irish" politicians in the U.S.--Senators Edward Kennedy and Daniel Moynihan, House Speaker 'Tip' O'Neill and Governor Hugh Carey of New Yorkmto abandon what had seemed to be their sneaking regard for the IRA...

...Attacking its traditionalism, the film was labeled conservative, reactionary and sentimental...

...In the last few years, especially, substantial quantities of guns and ammunition have been captured...

...To restrict a bishop's freedom of responsible pastoral adaptation to the point where, in effect, he has no such freedom is to reduce him to the status of an agent for higher ecclesiastical authorities or peers whom he cannot readily convince of his people's needs...

...Time and again, Irish politicians have warned their American opposite numbers about the traffic...

...It is no secret where our sympathies lie in this quarrel between Rome and Memphis, and thus--should the matter come to denouement--which of the two contending principals we would prefer to see end up pumping gas...

...10 June 1977:356 or the crime statistics from San Francisco, what impact does the figure of 1,800 deaths make on him...

...On St...

...Today, the Provisional IRA seems to be no nearer its goal...

...But if the traffic could be significantly reduced Commonweal: 357 and the discovery of arms caches stepped up, the situation would be better...

...And if some of them sought to justify the violence by imagining the victims to be British soldiers, he advised them bluntly that they were far wrong: over 90 percent of those killed have been civilians...

...FitzGerald's best efforts, the illegal arms traffic from the U.S...

...a Mary, a peasant woman, who screams like a banshee and curses the Angel Gabriel when she sees her son on the cross: and a Lazarus who rises from the dead, not wrapped in a fresh white sheet, but already beginning to rot...

...It is fight and it can be broken down into separate bits easy to conceal...

...Others called it a mixture of Cecil B. DeMille and illustrations in a Sunday School catechism...

...Most of them were probably bought out of funds donated, in large part, by unsuspecting or naive Americans in the belief that the money was being used to relieve the sufferings of innocent victims in Northern Ireland...

...It was a film, according to the Vatican newspaper, that was "capable of translating in images the sublime dimension of faith...

...These facts make strong debater's points on Dozier's side...

...Their view was that, despite Dr...

...Goods containers, cabins and even coffins containing corpses for burial in Ireland, are said to be some of the hiding-places used...

...However, the controversy between Rome and Memphis has developed to the stage where debater's points may not only be meaningless, but could boomeraag...

...The criticisms became so intense, in fact, that a journalist on the front page of the prestigious Corriere delle Sera claimed that it had simply become chic to pan the film...

...FitzGerald seemed to have got home to some of the Irish-American organizations that, in many cases, their well-intentioned donations were going straight to the IRA...

...Rather, it is the integrity, the freedom, the pastoral authority of each and every individual Ordinary of a diocese...

...Security experts believe that arms and ammunition are smuggled through in small lots, one handgun or rifle or even separate pieces of rifle or submachine gun at a time...

...Or more precisely Jesus of Nazareth, a colossal film by Franco (Romeo and luliet, Zabriskie Point) Zeflirelli versus the Christ of actorauthor Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo, a series of Biblical tales based on the popular traditions of the Middle Ages...

...Dedicating five columns to Mistero Buffo, L'Osservatore Romano spoke of ideological violence, claiming that the I0 June 1977:358...

...If this is not enough to make the American bishops react courageously and supportively to the Dozier initiatives--and his plight, should it come to that--then they are without respect...

...Patrick's Day visit to President Carter by Dr...

...The Armalite rifle, the favorite weapon of the Provisional IRA sniper, when fitted with a telescopic sight, is particularly easy to smuggte...

...It was taken to court by the Department of Justice for failing to complete its registration forms and supply all the information required...

...The wedding feast of Cana (a scene Zeffirelli leaves out entirely~ is described by an elated drunk, the resurrection of Lazarus by a pickpocket taking advantage of the crowd gathered to witness the miracle...

...Part of the trouble is that it has proved impossible to trace how the arms reach Northern Ireland...

...There is little optimism, either, that the Irish-American organizations which have been collecting money will completely cease their activities...

...Making full allowance for the workings of journalistic license, it is disconcerting that the National Catholic Reporter should be able to interpret as "sniping" some statements about Dozier by the president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Joseph Bernardin...

...Fourteen years later--and after a reform of the state-controlled television created two channels, one controlled by the Christian Democrats, the other by the Socialists----Dario Fo has returned...

...After all the killing and all the destruction of property, the Northern Ireland problem seems further away from a solution than ever...

...similarly, it is dismaying that the New York Times should be able to speak of Dozier's presence among U.S...

...More cynically, perhaps, the hope in Dublin is that those who have supported the IRA because they seemed to be fighting for a worthy cause will begin to tire of keeping up the financing of what appears to be a lost one...

...What t h e Irish government hopes for is that, by a combination of methods, the U.S...

...What has been the reaction to his "other" Christ...

...Some of it was found in ships and boats, especially in the narrow channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland...

...But there seems to be no one special route from the U.S...

...Dozier, in turn, certain that his liturgies have been grossly misinterpreted by the Curia official, has charged Knox with using "very loose wordage in a form of a public reprimand which could ruin my career with my fellow bishops...

...But the experts---the security authorities in Britain and Ireland---believe that at least six and perhaps as many as eight of every ten illegal weapons brought into Ireland came from the U.S...

...Garrett FitzGerald, the Irish Foreign Mini.qter...

...They are not convinced by the official Irish government view that it would be dangerous in the extreme if the British were to withdraw precipitately from Northern Ireland and that a united Ireland won by force would not be worth the winning...

...to Northern Ireland would not be cut down appreciably as long as guns and ammunition could be bought across the counter in many states...

...Twenty-one of the diocese's twenty-nine parishes reported substantial increases in individual confessions duzing Holy Week this year, in some cases these being more than double that of the year before...

...Nothing would testify more strongly to the seriousness and backbone of the U.S...

...Many of their members have a romantic view of the nature of the violence in Northern Ireland...

...Whoever dares to admit that he enjoyed the Sunday shows is accused of being kitsch, of loving graven images, of joining the reactionary followers of Monsignor Lefebvre or of indulging, as with Jesus Christ Superstar, in another wave of religious consumerism...

...In point of fact, the personal stakes are much higher for Dozier...

...At the same time, we would like to see some stronger indications, if only symbolic, from the American hierarchy that they intend to stand by their colleague in Memphis...

...When he learns the weekend road accident toll for the whole of the U.S...

...Cardinal Knox has unleashed an official public criticism of Dozier...

...In late April, Governor Carey returned to the subject at a widely-publicized lecture and press conference in Dublin, during which he branded the two principal factions of the IRA as "the Irish killers" and "the Irish Marxists...

...Finally, Dr...

...Dublin Ministers believe that any association with court cases will frighten off some contributors who would fear police and federal agencies' interest in their activities and others who would for the first time begin to suspect the organizations' bona lutes...

...The overwhelming majority of the Irish people, North and South, who are both disgusted with and ashamed of the continuing killings, felt the Minister had done a good job...