The bishops speak on El Salvador
Hehir, J. Bryan
Church/worldwatch The bishops speak on El Salvador J. Bryan Hehir The following column is an abbreviated version of the testimony that Father Hehir gave, as associate secretary for international...
...policy sees the risk of change in Latin America as so threatening that it appears to support almost any sitting government which flaunts its anti-Communist credentials, we place ourselves against the best insights of the church in Latin America...
...The church of El Salvador has taught us to see the civil war through the eyes of the people it serves...
...If we simply lift this whole conflict out of context and make it an East-West face-off, we lose sight of the essence of the problem...
...We have been led by the Salvadoran church, and by American missionaries working there, to see the struggle of the last three years as a quest for social justice by the majority of the population, who have too long been denied the fruit of their labor...
...military aid say to them and what will it do to them...
...These are not the only questions before the Congress, but these are the ones which the United States Catholic Conference will stress because they are in danger of being lost in the altered definition of the situation which now dominates the public debate in the United States...
...We are against all military aid, but especially those instruments of massive firepower which are readily available in the U.S...
...In the present context of widespread conflict, the good offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross should be utilized...
...policy, in our view, is not the opposition to Soviet involvement, but (a) the priority given this issue, to the detriment of more fundamental questions, and (b) the problem of which means are appropriate to resist Soviet or Cuban activity...
...missionaries who were murdered in December...
...It is the position of this testimony, therefore, that Soviet or Cuban involvement in the conflict is inadmissible on political, legal, and moral grounds...
...The bishops know there is risk in change, but they are convinced the greater risk is not to change, for that condemns another generation to poverty and misery...
...This internationalization of the conflict concentrates attention, at the level of policy and public opinion, not on the fate and future of the people of El Salvador, but on the role of the Soviet Union in the Caribbean and our response to it...
...The murder of the four American missionaries catalyzed an outpouring of revulsion in the church in our country...
...policy moves toward more aid and advisers, this truly tragic possibility ought to be clearly faced...
...On policy grounds alone, the USCC believes that the long-term interest of the United States in Central America will hardly be served if the majority of the people there believe we have chosen to subordinate their quest for justice to a geopolitical policy of hemispheric security which is one step removed from their daily lives...
...We accept the testimony of the church in El Salvador because the Christian community there has\ proven its fidelity to the vision of the Gospel by the witness of itsrlife...
...military assistance to El Salvador...
...to see the conflict as one rooted in historical patterns of inequity - in the concentration of political, economic and social power in the hands of very few, while the majority lived in conditions marked by poverty and violence...
...In the name of both we respectfully but urgently ask for reconsideration of our present course...
...the path the United States follows will be decisive for our country and for the people of El Salvador...
...But the moment is a critical one...
...Our second recommendation is to repeat here the call of Bishop Rivera y Damas for both of the major powers to stop their intervention, particularly the sale and supply of armaments, in an already violent conflict...
...What does a massive increase in U.S...
...This will undoubtedly be repeated if the prospect we portray here comes to pass...
...The testimony was given at the end of February...
...Church/worldwatch The bishops speak on El Salvador J. Bryan Hehir The following column is an abbreviated version of the testimony that Father Hehir gave, as associate secretary for international justice and peace of the U.S...
...We recognize that the threat to the integrity of El Salvador comes also from other powers, and we have no doubt of the need to halt the supply of arms from such sources...
...The questions of the church are: How are they affected by the present conflict...
...In El Salvador and throughout the continent conditions cry out for nothing less than the "profound and courageous reforms" demanded by John Paul II during his visit in Brazil...
...The distinguishing characteristic of the El Salvadoran church is a pastoral ministry based on "the option for the poor...
...If we move toward em-(Continued on page 223) Church/worldwatch (Continued from page 199) phasizing the international dimensions of the El Salvador case to the detriment of focusing upon the internal injustices afflicting its population, we will mis-define the problem we face...
...But they also consistently affirm that the primary threat to human dignity, peace, and justice in their countries is rooted in the social system which condemns the majority of the population to a marginal existence...
...For the church in the United States this has been a valuable lesson - we do not find that perspective of the conflict reflected often in press reports, even less so in the public debate...
...Chairman, we offered this testimony today knowing it stands at variance with the mood of the moment...
...Before U.S...
...THE BISHOPS IN the United States take their perspective on the conflict in El Salvador from the viewpoint of the church there...
...The church of El Salvador has fulfilled this ministry by an explicit choice to accompany the people, especially the poor and the oppressed, in their daily struggle and suffering...
...arsenal and undoubtedly will be requested by the junta...
...In the idiom of the moment, El Salvador has been transformed into an "East-West" conflict as well as a question of "North-South" relations for U.S...
...Hence, my second comment is to argue, on the basis of both political and moral grounds, for giving priority to the internal problem of El Salvador...
...One can be rightfully concerned to work out stable patterns of superpower behavior, but not at the price of rendering an entire population simply an instrument in a larger strategy...
...J. BRYAN HEHIRnt course...
...J. BRYAN HEHIR...
...The same sacrifice of life itself was made by the four U.S...
...An example of this voice is the recent homily of Bishop Rivera y Damas which rejected military intervention by either superpower as detrimental to the self-determination of the El Salvadoran people...
...This was the theme enunciated by all the bishops of Latin America in their meeting with Pope John Paul II at Pue-bla, Mexico in 1979...
...In the midst of a civil war the church of El Salvador has accepted the prophetic vocation of the scriptures and it has paid the prophet's price in the lives of Archbishop Oscar Romero, eleven priests martyred in four years, and countless campesinos deprived of livelihood and life itself because of fidelity to the Gospel vision of justice...
...Catholic Conference, before the House Foreign Operations subcommittee...
...But it is our conviction that this would best be accomplished by some regionally or internationally agreed-upon strategy...
...The redefinition, as we understand it, involves two steps...
...They resist and reject, as we do in this testimony, any form of Soviet encroachment in Latin America...
...First, the involvement of the Soviet Union (and other Eastern-bloc nations), on its own or through Cuban cooperation, in the internal struggles of Central America is unwarranted, unhelpful, and ultimately unacceptable on the part of a superpower...
...We know how deeply and pervasively the church in El Salvador is involved with the poorest of the poor, how committed it is to the desire of the poor for change...
...policy...
...First, it describes the conflict in El Salvador in terms of an international dimension emphasizing a test of superpower will and capability...
...The USCC wishes to reaffirm here its basic policy position against any U.S...
...We speak against a policy of ever more lethal and mechanized instruments of warfare which are usually included today in counter-insurgency programs...
...If U.S...
...One of the most useful contributions we can make to the public debate is to interpret the views of our brother bishops in Latin America...
...military assistance and advisers are substantially increased...
...Our fourth recommendation is an extension of our opposition to military assistance...
...The first recommendation of this testimony, reflecting the pope's recent statement in Manila, is that the United States should not place itself on the side of those who say "security" requires postponement of justice and suppression of human rights...
...As pastors, we wish to warn, with the utmost urgency, that a grave prospect lies ahead if U.S...
...It is the life of the majority - their struggles, their suffering, their hope for themselves and their children, their faith and long-suffering patience -. which I wish to put before this subcommittee...
...I offer two comments on this recasting of the El Salvador problem...
...The spirit of the moment there, in the church and in the wider society, is to overcome past patterns of dominance...
...The problem with present U.S...
...But even in this quest for authentic liberation, perceptive observers know that interdependence of some type with the United States will be a fact of life...
...Our fifth recommendation is to request that U.S...
...Second, not only has El Salvador become a test of U.S.-Soviet relations in the hemisphere, it seems to have assumed the role of a model of how the U. S. will resist Soviet adventurism in the developing world...
...Our third recommendation is to encourage support by the United States for beginning a process of political dialogue within El Salvador which could at least stop the killing, and prepare for the negotiations needed to reconcile and rebuild the nation...
...In rejecting superpower intervention, either by the Soviet Union or by the United States, in the El Salvadoran conflict, the USCC is once again simply reiterating the voice of the church in El Salvador...
...Outside agitation, influence, even weapons, would not be sown in such fertile soil if rampant injustice and fundamental inequities did not exist today as they have for decades in El Salvador...
...The policy of the United States, in its political, economic, and military aspects, has historically been the most influential outside force touching Latin America...
...efforts be directed toward the humanitarian relief and reconstruction program which El Salvador so desperately needs...
...It is the poor who have borne the brunt of the violence thus far in El Salvador, and there is no reason to believe this will change if the tempo of the war escalates...
...It is the recent redefinition of the El Salvador conflict which the USCC finds deeply troubling...
...There is a very high possibility, therefore, that American military equipment will be used against whole communities of Christians, and very likely against officially designated church personnel...
Vol. 108 • April 1981 • No. 7
