Verse
Smith, LeRoy Jr.
places like Brazil, and encouraging specific acts of nonviolent lead in a nonviolent resistance," people "will have to take resistance in their dioceses when faced with government ...
...And I on what is good or just or fairthink we must be truthful and say that it was similar to Latin which leaves me over open sea America: that the church as an official institution was for too amongst the downdraughts of despair long - for much too long - linked to those in power...
...to carry out a land reform so institution, the bishops, gave its full support to the nonviolent that the mass of the people can live in dignity on the land...
...Many very difficult steps...
...And she appreciates the historic peatedly qualifies by insisting that it was "only a first step": significance of the bishops' February 14 letter: "I think it is the What is before the Filipino people now is at least as first time, at least in present history, that a bishops' conference difficult, if not more difficult...
...Her voice sounds pained when she criticizes the church Le Roy Smith, Jr...
...There has been is educated in nonviolence...
...process" in the Philippines, she calls the February events "the She sees Bishop Claver ("certainly one of the pillars of non- recent liberation struggle...
...Much For everyone prefers his own, of the responsibility for the growth of the NPA lies, she insists sharing their constructs and their dreams, sadly, with "the cowardice of large sections of the official but always some must fly alone...
...articles in America, has called it "the February revolution...
...There is as yet not pression in the last few years...
...harassment and killings...
...Hildegard Goss-Mayr's assessment is equally question of who, behind the scenes, was the greater force on cautious...
...to rebuild the economy of the country...
...But "it is not a thorough, complete mass resistance), makes it look as if the leading role in the revolution in the sense of a total transformation of society...
...The deep poverty...
...Claver's group numbered between The church, then, bears some blame for the polarized viotwenty and thirty (out of a Bishops' Conference of 104) by the lence which made the Goss-Mayrs pessimistic in 1984 about time he brought them to meet with the Goss-Mayrs in 1984 and the possibilities of nonviolence...
...But while stressing that important places in the provinces: to dismantle the pri"it was very important that in this last phase the church as an vate armies of the landlords...
...You cannot say that the whole nation "not the first," says Hildegard approvingly...
...Yet Mrs...
...and Hildegard Goss-Mayr's view is complex...
...for not taking the lead in defense of human rights during the early years of martial law...
...Aquino, priests in turnover, and what happened was that a twenty-year reign of a all the churches reading from the pulpit the bishops' call for dictator was ended...
...successful nonviolent liberation was played by the hierarchy What is before us now is the second phase: addressing the deep rather than by the people...
...And it will need a continued conversion of civil disobedience as the way that the Gospel proposes to us in those who still adhere to the old regime, who still have order to overcome the unjust system...
...a process going on, similar to what happened in some Latin In her concern about the continued precariousness of the American countries, that a few bishops understand [non- situation, Hildegard is careful about the language she uses in violence] and they believe that their brothers in Christ can referring to the February drama...
...church...
...And wherever the moral authorities, whether it is the Christian churches or other moral authorities, do not give a 20 June 1986: 367...
...People cannot remain passive under certain circum- since truth abhors, yet breeds, extremes...
...Bishop Claver, in recent understand also, if they witness...
...Aquino's celebration social and economic problems such as the landlessness and the speeches attributed the success to "people's power...
...bishops...
...struggle," she sees the direction of influence precisely that to negotiate with the Moslem minority...
...stances...
...Because it will need in writing asked people to go into nonviolent action and into perseverance...
...And even now, while Hilthen again with Richard Deats in 1985...
...A small part of the church" did Solo flight from base stand from the beginning "on the side of the people and work for social justice...
...places like Brazil, and encouraging specific acts of nonviolent lead in a nonviolent resistance," people "will have to take resistance in their dioceses when faced with government counterviolence...
...This picture of the Filipino bishops gradually converting When I asked Richard Deats whether he thought "revolution" each other to active nonviolence over the years, combined with was an accurate term, he made a useful distinction: yes, he the visibly effective actions of the church hierarchy during the said, "in the sense that a revolution is a rapid change, a rapid crisis (Cardinal Sin's Victory Mass for Mrs...
...While believing firmly in nonviolence as a revwhom the people or the church hierarchy - is a matter of olutionary force, and referring often to "the revolutionary interpretation...
...Although she enjoys this picture of conversion from the bottom up, Hildegard Goss-Mayr also sees its serious implications...
...But the majority of the church leadership My world and I do not agree and of the middle class people were linked to the regime...
...Their election statements are enough preparation...
...With their arms and to become one of the democratic parties in a laugh she adds, "I think it is the people who converted the the country...
...to negotiate with way: the bishops giving support to a struggle already in the NPA, so that perhaps they will be willing to put down process, "approving what the people had already lived...
...And even that phrase she reviolence") as a major force...
...Under the influence of degard rejoices in what the Filipino church and people were Claver's group, the Bishops' Conference of the Philippines able to do together through "the transforming power of nonissued increasingly strong statements against government op- violence," her initial concerns remain...
Vol. 113 • June 1986 • No. 12
