US bishops stand by nuclear pastoral draft

by Christopher Rails
TWO LEADING American bishops have defended the United States bishops' third draft of a war and peace pastoral
against charges that it "endorses" many of President Reagan's arms policies. The Jesuit peace campaigner Fr Daniel Berrigan called the pastoral "a betrayal".
Archbishop John Roach of St Paul-Minneapolis, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago. chairman of the NCCB committee on war and peace said "the third draft takes stands significantly at variance with current United States policy".
"Specifically, we could not accept any suggestion that there are few and insignificant differences between United States policies and the policies advocated by the pastoral." they said. A State Department press spokesman said the third draft "has been substantially improved".
He said it "explicitly endorses many of the far-reaching
objectives which the administration seeks" including marked reductions in nuclear arsenals. The Bernardin-Roach statement said the differences lay in such things as the letter's advocacy of "no first use"