Church unites against apartheid

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.)y Kasia Giedroye
THE SAME week that Pope John Paul condemned racism in South Africa and praised antiopartheid demonstrators for championing the "undeniable" rights of man, two major 'Cath.ilic organisations in Ireland urged their Government ta introduce sanctions against South African produce.
Speaking after his weekly bl.:ssing in St Peter's Square recently, the Pope praised the 10,000 who had marched trough Rome the previous day to protest against apartheid.
"They demonstrate an affirmation of the values and the undeniable rights that help make man more human, and help him to realise his true dignity ... and to elevate him socially, culturally and spiritually," he told an estimated 4,000 people, including some ot the protesters, gathered in the square.
The Pope added that the Catholic Church regarded such actions with "approval and support".
His message followed an announcement by Bishop Egmonn Casey, Chairman of Ireland's Catholic Agency for World Development, Trocaire, and Bishop Dermot O'Mahony, President of the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace, welcoming their Government's intention to set up an inquiry into the use of forced labour in the South African fruit industry.
The inquiry is expected to lead to a ban on the importation into Ireland of South African fruit and vegetables.
The bishops urged the Government to complete the investigation with the greatest possible urgency and to introduce sanctions against other South African imports such as coal.
They said the situation in South Africa was worsening and the regime there was making every effort to suppress the opposition movement among the blacks and coloureds. The application of economic sanctions remained the sole method by which, short of violence, change could be effected in the country, the bishops added.
They also called on Irish consumers to refuse to purchase South African goods and so indicate their abhorrence of apartheid and their solidarity wito the oppressed millions.
It seems likely that setting up the government inquiry will encourage the settlement of the Donne's Stores strike over the handling of South African produce. The two bishops had planned to visit the strikers to give them support as they "carried the burden of conscience for the nation".
The meeting was called off ¶.' hen the striking workers were summoned to an emergency meeting of their union, but the bishops publicly appealed for the recognition of the right of conscientious objection in the commercial and industrial fields. Apartheid, they said, was too high a price to pay for South African goods.