Lamont fears for future

Bishop Donal Lamont, President of the Justice and Peace Commission in Rhodesia, said in London last week that he was very pessimistic' about the future of Rhodesia.
"If there is any settlement between Smith and Nkomo I do not think it will last because it will not be accepted by the vast majority of African people because only about one in ten recognise him as their true leader," said Bishop LamOnt. Ian Smith, the Prime Minister and Nkomo the African leader, are asking for diametrically opposed things and the white community have already objected to their even meeting.
Bishop Lamont had some words of hope for the African people. They were alert and aware of their new power and that they were now surrounded by friendly African States. They were also encouraged by the fact that South Africa had made a declaration of intent not to underwrite Rhodesia.
Of the Church, Bishop Lamont said that it had a providential role to play. "Thank God our time is now and our place is here," he said.
"Rhodesia is blessed in that all its African leaders are Christian. The Church has spoken up for human rights in Rhodesia and Bishop Lamont suggested that a reason that the Church is being rejected by the leadership in Mozambique and Angola is because in the past the Church in these countries has been "the Church of silence."
On the controversial work of the Justice and Peace Commission in Rhodesia Bishop Lamont recalled that he had reminded an African politician recently that the commission was not set up just to deal with the present situation. "If and when you come to power," he told the politician, "we will be on your tail as much as we've been on the tail of the Smith administration."
He has advocated an all Africa court of justice to help African countries apply the high standards of justice they demand in South Africa and Rhodesia to their own countries.
Bishop Lamont spoke of the dangers of Communist regimes taking over in Africa, but he said the Smith and Vorster regimes arc preparing the way and laying the seed bed for Communism by their canonisation of power, privilege and opportunity, to the neglect of the vast majority of the people.
. Bishop Lamont's Gospel of Bishop Hernando Antiporda, Auxiliary of Manila, aged 61. was strangled in his church in the centre of the city and Fr Raimundo Costales, 26, who went to his aid, had his throat cut. The three assailants fled with about £800, the previous day's collection. reconciliation is one of contemplation. Until a man can recognise in the dark, mysterious world of his inner self that he has a unique quality, that he is dependent and that he is purpose-made and not massproduced, then he can achieve religion — 'religare' — the relationship between God and man.
Until he can find these things within himself he cannot recognise them in another man. No one who commits savage murders in Northern Ireland, the Lebanon, or Southern Africa can have exercised this contemplative spirit. In the Church too we have neglected the importance of silence and contemplation and failed to teach it in our schools he said.
Bishop Lamont has become unpopular with the Smith regime because of the stand he has taken for human rights in Rhodesia and in particular because of the stories of atrocities against civilians by the Rhodesian army published earlier this year by the Rhodesian Justice and Peace Commission, which Bishop Lamont leads.
The truth of these stories has been confirmed by a report published on Friday by the International Commission of Jurists, which says that the Africans in "protected villages" are treated as if they were citizens of a foreign country which is at war with Rhodesia.