The church here and there

Title

Language

English

Source

Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas XLIV (499) December 1970

Subject

Catholic Church

Christianity

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

THE CHURCH HERE AND THERE CARDINAL AGAGIANIAN RETIRES: CARDINAL ROSSI NEW PREFECT OF CONGREGATION FOR EVANGELIZATION OF PEOPLES Cardinal Gregory Peter Agagianian, Pro-Prefect and then Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (formerly for the Propagation of die Faith) since 1958, has resigned the Prefectship. He was ordained as a priest of the Armenian rite in 1917 and was con secrated bishop in 1935. In 1937 he became Universal Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians. He was made Cardinal in 1946. He was appointed Pro Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, to use the title then in use, in 1958. This was one of the last appointments made by Pope Pius XII. Pope Paul VI has accepted lu's resignation and has appointed Card. Angelo Rossi, Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to succeed him. The new Prefect, Cardinal Rossi, has been a bishop since 1956 and has been archbishop of Sao Paulo since 1964. He was made a cardinal in 1965. He has attracted notice in recent months by his refusal to join in the denun ciation of the Brazilian government and his suggestion that there is a spice of political opportunism in the widespread allegations of official use of torture. CARDINAL VILLOT APPOINTED CHAMBERLAIN The Pope has appointed his Secretary of State, Cardinal Villot, to the vacant office of Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church. Between the death of one Pope and the election of another, the Chamberlain is responsible for the goods and temporal rights of the Holy See and is assisted by the heads of the three orders of cardinals: cardinal bishops, cardinal priests, and cardinal deacons. When the Pope dies the Cardinal Chamberlain must take up residence in the Vatican and becomes responsible for its operation as well as that of the Lateran Palace and the papal summer residence at Castelgandolfo. He seals off the private apartments of the Pope and arranges for the funeral. At the beginning of the conclave he is responsible for seeing that all the attendants who go into the conclave with the cardinals take the oath THE CHURCH HERE AND THERE 873 of secrecy not to reveal what takes place in the conclave and he is also resposible for assuring that the sealing off of the conclave from the outside world is complete. Cardinal Villot succeeds Cardinal Benedetto AIoisi-Massella, who died on September 30 having held the post for 12 years. PRIEST TORTURED BY POLICE Th: Brazilian Bishops’ Conference has issued a statement signed by 15 bishops charging that a young priest, Father Jose Antonio da Magalhaes Mon teiro, was tortured by police during his imprisonment in the state of Maranhao. The bishops said they have swom statements from two physician verifying this. Last May the bishops’ conference denounced police torture and asked the government to put a stop to the practice. The recent charges were made after bishops from the northern states of Maranhao, Piaui, and Ceara met in Sao Luis, the capital of Maranhao, to discuss the case of Father Magalhaes. The priest was allegedly tortured on August 6, two days after his arrest on charges of subversion. The bishops said that Father Magalhaes was subjected to police brutality, and that “he was tied by the wrists and feet and hung from a pole diat went from a window to a table as though he were a pig.” He was left there for two hours, they said, during which time he was kicked, beaten and insulted. He was also threatened by fire, but this threat was not carried out because a guard was warned not to leave any scars. Father Magalhaes was untied after agreeing to sign a confession asserting he was a Communist and that he and another priest, Father Xavier Gilles Maupecu, had attended a three month course in guerilla training, the bishops said. The confession by itself “should suffice to demonstrate under what con ditions it was obtained,” a spokesman for die bishops declared. Police claimed they found “subversive works” in the rectories of Father Magalhaes and Father Maupecu. Among those listed as “subversive” w.ere copies of the Medellin guidelines on social reform and Church renewal issued by the Latin American bishops at their meeting in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. These two Fathers had been helping peasants to form cooperatives. MORE COURAGE IN SPEAKING AGAINST INJUSTICES Thirty members and consultors of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace at its fifth general assembly met to assess its past efforts and to continue to work out its programme of stimulating active efforts around the world in favour of peace and against various forms of injustice. 874 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Kinhide Mushakoji of Sophia University in Tokyo said that there is a need for the commission to work outside its present area and to deal “with others who are not members of formal groups.” “I hope to see more ecumenical activity,” he said. “In Asia it is necessary to find a common cause and we must think of nonChristians and non-believers. All the problems we are dis cussing are also being discussed by other men of goodwill.” Barbara Ward, an English economist, said the commission is already changing in its approaches to world problems. “When we began we were concerned with the need for the rich to help the poor, but now we are trying to seek ways of saving a society which is galloping towards environmental holocaust,” she said. Participants in the assembly were in general agreement for the need for greater courage and the necessary freedom in denouncing injustices wherever found. DANGERS OF DRUG ABUSE The Pope’s recent speech on drug abuses was made to a group of Italian doctors who had met in Rome to discuss the drug problem, which has sur faced only now in Italy." Doctors, the Pope said, must teach everyone who is concerned about the health of man, and particularly the health of the younger generations “.. .what these mysterious drugs are that are now spreading like a dangerous disease, encouraged by a secret and commercial traffic.” “They must denounce the gravity of a danger which threatens to spread all the more as the allure becomes greater and as the commercial interests which favour it become wider and vaster.” The Pope said that men today listen more attentively to doctors than to any others. Doctors, must “speak out loud while we still have time to ward off the spreading and the social denegration of the problem.” Paul VI pledged the Church’s cooperation in facing the drug problem. Priests, parents and teachers, all in positions of responsibility, should be sensitive to the tremendous and insidious phenomenon of the spreading of drugs and should be exhorted to see to it that this phenomenon shall be properly watched and limited.” The Church abhors drug abuse because of the effects it has on the mental balance of the person and on his self-control.

pages

603-609

Media