Taking a stand

...Yet despite these surface deficiencies, I have meditated deeply on that golden saying, "There's no such thing as MY FAVORITE New Testament pas- charity on my part...

...were free and fair elections to be held tomorrow, the seventyBy making its own a call by the weak and repressed opposi- four-year-old Stroessner would gain around 60 percent of the tion parties for a national dialogue between all social forces in vote...

...summary is Whitehead's remark about 7 November 1986: 583...

...I can barely tell, for instance, the difference between M- I and M-2 (for a long time I thought they were rifles), RUNNING THE REPUBLIC and until the other day I had believed that THE RED SOX, REYKJAVIK, & RE-ELECTION David Ricardo was married to Lucille Ball...

...Although the end of Spain's long fascist counter-march following a Mass celebrated by Bishop Medina dictatorship has deprived Stroessner of one pillar of support, in a downtown church...

...Not only has Bishop Medina become one of the most Color in March 1984, Paraguayans' only source of regular outspoken opponents of the dictatorship, but observers credit uncensored information and critical comment has been the him with spurring a cautious bishops' conference to a more opposition radio station Radio Nanduti...

...For MIT spokesman Victor Baez Mosqueira, this was the "The church sees its task as being that of re-weaving the greatest achievement...

...never been democracy or participation, what the church hopes aid...

...In his letter of invitation to the gov- of Haiti and Marcos of the Philippines early this year, attention ernment to participate in the dialogue, Archbishop Rolin has been focused on growing U.S...

...They are losing their fear," he said...

...Despite the government's refusal to partici- some skepticism here...

...It's just that the older a free lunch," with the result that I now sage is the one in which Jesus and busier I get, the less time and capac- know more essential economics than the sums up the Law and the ity I have for studying anything in depth, ordinary student learns from mastering Prophets in the two commandments, love and the more, therefore, I appreciate one- all the great theorists from Adam Smith God and love your neighbor...

...Paraguay's political future...

...With growing pressure dictatorship...

...recent numbers have dealt with divisions in was told, is the only political party known by the poor, and it is the ruling party, the isolation of Paraguay among its now to the party they turn for help in their dealings with state democratic neighbors, and police repression...

...In terms of formal training, for example, I confess to being an economic ignoramus...

...On a visit to a poor slum area on the outskirts of for a political liberalization and with a planned visit from Pope Asuncion, I was able to verify the absence of the grassroots John Paul next April, this at least is likely to change...

...The govern- agencies or for favors for their locale...

...Medina was appointed first bishop of the was carried in the march...

...Only now are a few PEADAR KIRBY pastoral agents beginning to visit these areas in an attempt to (Peadar Kirby is an Irish journalist currently working with begin Bible reflection groups, while the phenomenon of Noticias Aliadas/Latinamerica Press in Lima, Peru...

...Despite Bishop the unlikely center for the growth of this movement when Medina's active support, Nuestro Tiempo has to be printed police brutally repressed a peaceful march by doctors, nurses, outside Paraguay and cannot be sold openly in the country...

...In the case of Paraguay, this has thirty-two years, and the release of all political prisoners...

...hoods of most Latin American cities...

...Since the the Paraguayan episcopal conference of its one progressive government closed the independent daily newspaper ABC voice...

...Its director, Ilde Silvero, told me that the paper's role is happened in Paraguay...

...courageous director, Humberto Rubin, have, however, been Under Bishop Bogarin Argana's inspiration, the church was subject to constant harassment including thefts of equipment, actively involved in the growth of a network of peasant attempts to destroy the station's transmitter, pressure on advercooperatives called the Christian Agrarian Leagues in the early tisers to withdraw support, and Rubin's own brief imprison1970s...

...A year ago we could not have believed social fabric of the nation," Bishop Mario Melanio Medina how far we could have got by now," he told me...

...The radio,-and its determined stand...

...This and in favor of civil liberties and of respect for the human is what the government does not want to see or admit, but person...

...allies Duvalier Paraguay's political life...

...ence, however, should not be taken as a the essence of some vast and complex In philosophy my tentative preferred sign of any particular inclination toward discipline...

...invitation to visit the United States...

...the country, the church this year moved to center stage in Since the sudden ditching of long-time U.S...

...to provide a space where all sectors of Paraguayan opinion can Significantly, these areas remain dominated by the local find expression...

...told me recently...

...Surprised by the widespread public support for the strike, the government released those detained...

...coolness towards dictators included a call for an end to the state of siege, in force for Pinochet and Stroessner...

...Although brutally repressed by the growing identification of the Catholic church with a fast baton-wielding police, for the first time since General Stroessemerging opposition movement could be more decisive for ner took power in 1954, a counter-march actually took place...

...and administrative staff to the Finance Ministry in April...

...Of the government, he United States the sincere and disinterested desire to really help says: "They may have the power now, but they'll have to start the Latin American peoples in their struggle against poverty handing it over because things can't continue as they are...

...Following the arrest of four doctors, an even bigger march was The church in Paraguay organized, this time with the active participation of student, peasant, and opposition trade union groups...

...administration is regarded with civilized people...

...to achieve by the dialogue is that people accustom themselves Having firmly supported General Stroessner, this apparent to an interchange of ideas and to dialogue as rational and change of heart by the U.S...

...statue of the Virgin of Caacupe, the patroness of Paraguay, In 1980 Msgr...

...We managed to awaken the national Airport in Asuncion, Paraguay to the center of general public...

...Following a wave of cruel repression unleashed against ment...

...Every number highlights a controversial polit- branches or seccionales of the ruling Colorado party...

...For some Paraguayans his appoint- events in bi-weekly statements read out at all Masses in the ment was seen as continuing a tradition of prophetic episcopal archdiocese...

...Even more important for Paraguayans than the prespations, and their alternative proposals to resolve our prob- ence of some 800 priests and religious was the fact that the lems, above all our socio-political ones...

...This prefer- or two-sentence summaries that capture through Jack Kemp...

...One foreign priest who try appeared, however, as a warning shot to the church on its has worked for over twenty years in Paraguay assured me that support for a more critical media...

...leadership begun by the charismatic Bishop Ramon Bogarin In giving voice to what is really happening in Paraguay at Argana whose death at the age of sixty-five in 1976 deprived the present moment, the church plays a crucial role...

...ambassador Clyde Bishop Medina told me that since in Paraguay "there has Taylor and the opposition parties, and threats to cut off U.S...

...Our service to the national community, Lending active support to this emerging movement, Archwhich should not be interpreted as a struggle against the bishop Rolon headed a silent march for an end to repression government, is to try to install a new social order in which all and the return of democracy through downtown Asuncion on Paraguayans could participate with their ideas, their preoccu- May 30...

...The bishop was giving his reasons for rejecting an sooner or later they will have to...

...With the hospital under virtual siege by police, as staff went on strike for the release of their detained leaders, Archbishop TAKING A STAND Ismael Rolon of Asuncion expressed his solidarity and said THE BISHOPS & GENERAL STROESSNER Mass for the strikers in a nearby church...

...Carlos Filozzola, who was held by police for twenty-two days, told me they achieved 0 ON THE main road from General Alfredo Stroessner Inter- something more important...

...Of several minds: David R. Carlin, Jr...

...Javier Arancon, from re-entering the coun- nalistic image of General Stroessner...

...workers' day march organized by the government-controlled The names are revealing in that they express what have Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (CPT), the newly stood as two of the main supports for the thirty-two-year-old created Inter-Union Workers' Movement (MIT) organized a Stroessner regime...

...What is network of neighborhood groups, self-help projects, and basic less clear, having missed almost three decades of political Christian communities which characterize the poor neighbor- development, is what the future holds in store for Paraguay...

...involved in the leagues...

...Color to be director of a new monthly magazine Nuestro Asuncion's nineteenth-century Hospital de Clinicas proved Tiempo, that they were permitted to publish...

...As Bishop Medina put it in an editorial pate, Bishop Medina is confident that emerging opposition in Nuestro Tiempo: "We don't see in the intention of the sectors within the party will participate...

...Whatever funds or ment's July prohibition of the director of the critical Catholic projects are channeled to them generally reinforce the paterRadio Caritas, Fr...

...included growing contacts between U.S...

...that pleasant colonial city, one passes an intersection of The significance of what was sparked by this determined two main avenues, Avenida del Santissimo Sacramento and protest was revealed on May I. In opposition to the annual Avenida Generalissmo Franco...

...Furthermore, the archbishop has large new rural diocese of Benjamin Aceval in the im- made a critical and very concrete commentary on political poverished Chaco region...

...The only critical publication available on newsstands is the Commonweal: 582 bi-weekly Sendero, the official organ of the bishops' confer- priests and religious going to live in poorer areas has hardly yet ence...

...The day I visited the station, Rubin pointed to the three them in 1976, which included the arrest of three priests and the different cars with police agents parked outside, and we lisexpulsion of a number of Jesuits, the bishops remained ener- tened to the constant government interference which make his ally silent, according to one Paraguayan who was actively broadcasts inaudible...

...Beyond the opposition role being assumed by some bishops, For too long Paraguay has been hidden and unknown to the however, the church has suffered from the thirty-two years of outside world, Bishop Medina told me...

...Although they won no raise in their average $40 monthly wage, Dr...

...Meanwhile, it was only when Bishop Medina accepted an With the emergence of a new opposition movement this invitation from a group of journalists who had worked in ABC year, church leaders have once again begun to take sides...

...This, I ical or social issue...