Backing sought for campaign against torture in Brazil

by PETER NOLAN
The 10th anniversary of military dictatorship this year in Brazil, a country which calls itself the largest Catholic nation in the world, marks the beginning of a new Catholic-backed campaign against the tortures practised by the Government there.
This week the Catholic Institute of International Relations has written to every parish priest in England and Wales asking for signatures to back the Amnesty Interrational campaign for the restoration of civil rights in Brazil.
Last week a Brazilian teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "In Brazil there arc only two parties now — the military Government and the Catholic Church."
In a country where many priests have been imprisoned and tortured, the Brazilian Catholic Bishops' Conference has declared 1974 the occasion of a massive education programme concerning justice and human rights.
Miss Mildred Nevile, CIIR general secretary, said: "Car
dinal Heenan has told me that he has been in touch with the hierarchy in Brazil and that Brazilian Catholics hope that their brethren in Britain and the United States of America will do all in their power to in
uence the Brazilian Government."
Amnesty International, the chairman of whose International Executive Committee is Mr Sean Mac Bride, the international jurist and former Irish Minister of External Affairs, has published a report on the Church's defence of human rights in Brazil.
The report describes the Church as having "emerged in recent years as a surprisingly forceful spokesman for liberalisation in Brazil.
"As virtually the only remaining institution capable or oppos
ing the ruling military regime, able to call upon a reservoir of international Catholic support when threatened . . . the increasingly progressive stands taken by the Church have called down the wrath of Brazil's secular authorities."
Archbishop Helder Camara, on whose actions the media are forbidden to report. described the Brazilian situation of great economic growth, at the price of increasing repression and poverty for the majority, when he visited London as a guest of the Justice and Peace Commission two years ago.
Last November, in an interview in the New York Times, Dom Helder told how six of his closest associates, engaged in a project helping poor farmers to improve their methods, vanished without trace.
ln the same month the Government closed down ten radio stations, including a number or Catholic ones. Later, Bishop Casaldalinga of Si.i0 Felix reported that all demands for entry into Brazil of foreign missionaries had been blocked by the Government.
Brazil suffers from a chronic shortage of priests, with about one for every 6,000 Catholics in a population of 92 million.
The student son of a prominent Sao Paulo family died in police custody last year — one of several people reported by the police as accidentally killed in motor accidents.
Archbishop Arns of Sao Paulo offered a special memorial Mass. The police refused to return the body for burial and the Archbishop observed that "even Christ, after his death, was returned to his family and friends."
In 1970 the Brazilian bishops helped to submit more than 100
documents about Government breaches of human rights to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Last year the Brazilian Bishops' Conference issued a statement publicly condemning the Government's repressive policy and charged the Government with "unimagined violence, murdering students who marched peacefully in the streets and workers who organ!sed strikes for higher wages and the return of their rights.
Alter this. in August 1973, Pope Paul said: "We follow with particular affection meritorious efforts of our sons and brothers
to deepen their faith and carry out their family, professional and civic duties . . . Brazilian Catholics occupy a special place in the World Church."
Receiving Brazil's new Ambassador to the Holy See. he said: "The common good is not guaranteed, except in so far as the various human rights and duties of the individual are guaranteed as well."
Those writing to ask for the return of civil rights to Brazil's Catholics should address their letters to: General Ernesto Geisel, Presidente Da Republica, Brasilia (DF),
Copies OF the Catholic Institute for International Relations background paper on Brazil costing 8p, may be obtained from: CIIR, 41 Holland Park, London, WI I 3RP.