Brazil challenged to open prisons to Red Cross

FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
OM HELDER CAMARA, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, added his testimony to reports of torture in Brazil at a speech in Paris last week. He described the pans de arara, from which the victim is hung naked by his hands and feet and given electric shocks, and the "dragon's chair", another device for torture by electric shocks.
Archbishop Camara also described the "eucharist" where the live wire is applied to the tongue, and more conventional methods such as being made to run between lines of police being beaten by clubs.
He referred to a Dominican who was so "overwhelmed and crushed that he tried to commit suicide" as a result of such torture (presumably Tito de Alencar Lima, reported in the CATHOLIC HERALD, May 8).
He told his audience of two students who threw themselves from the window of a Recife police station, and whom he later saw in hospital.
He said he had not been able to persuade the civil authorities to examine them.
The Archbishop said that such torture was "the rule in the world of political prisoners" and allegations concerning their treatment were to be taken much more seriously than those concerning the massacre of Indians. which were certainly exaggerated.
He produced a report by a commission of international jurists which concluded that there were about 12,000 political prisoners in Brazil and described nine main types of torture being used there.
He challenged the Brazilian Government to open its prisons to a mission from the International Red Cross.
VIOLENCE 'SPIRAL' However, he went on to point out that "what is happening in Brazil is not a monopoly of my country." It had to be seen in a wider context.
"Tortures must disappear, but what we want for all underdeveloped countries is that they should succeed in freeing themselves from underdevelopment and poverty."
As he saw it there was a three-stage "spiral" of violence in the world. "The first violence is the injustices which exist everywhere, not only in underdeveloped countries but also in developed countries, and above all in relations between the developed and the underdeveloped world."
The second stage was the violence of the oppressed, reacting to these injustices with armed revolution. The third was repression with which the oppressors reacted against this revolt.
The Archbishop refuses to discourage those who choose armed revolt, but considers his own way, that he calls "the violence of the peaceful", to be more effective.
He urged his audience to try it, championing "the poor and the sub-workers" in France and the cause of the un
derdeveloped countries with such bodies as the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development and the European Economic Cornmunity.
However he gave a warning that they would need courage, because they would have to face the anger of men and of governments.
LUTHERANS' PROTEST Meanwhile in Brazil preparations are going ahead for the fifth assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in July, despite demands from Lutherans in several countries that it should be held elsewhere.
President M edici's Press office has denied that prisoners in Brazil are tortured and says that the foreign Press reports have been fabricated by in ternational subversive agents.
Argentine Rebel priests told to go
ARCHBISHOP Bolatti of Rosario, Argentina, has accepted the resignations offered by 30 of his priests in March last year. They re,signed on the ground that he had not implemented or promoted Church renewal in the archdiocese, as called for by the Vatican Council.
After months of unsuccessful efforts Ito reach a reconciliation, the Archbishop decided to withdraw their faculties for celebrating Mass and administering the Sacraments.
His decision was conveyed privately to each of the priests. He indicated that they should seek pastoral work in some other diocese.
Archbishop Bolatti's last reconciliation offer was made during Holy Week when he invited 20 of the dissidents to concelebrate a Holy Thursday Mass with him. They declined, saying the basic issues of the dispute had not been resolved.
INCREASED TENSION
One result of the withdrawal of their faculties has been an increase in the tension in the workers' parish of Canada de Gomez, near Rosario. Its former pastor, Fr. Armando Amiratti, was suspended from the parish in 1969.
This caused a series of clashes in which the parishioners resisted the appointment of a new pastor and attempted to prevent him from taking over the parish.
Because Fr. Amiratti cannot celebrate Mass licitly, he is now leading a large group of parishioners in a series of "commemorations of the Work of God."
Cardinal's call on Rhodesia
ACALL to support the bishops of Rhodesia in their stand against the Smith regime's racial policies was made this week by Cardinal Heenan.
The bishops have said that the new policy, particularly the Land Tenure Act which divides the country into black and white areas, would make it impossible for the Church to continue its work.
They gave a warning that all Catholic schools, hospitals and orphanages would close down unless the government relaxed its attitude.
STILL NEGOTIATING Cardinal Heenan's call, in the name of the Hierarchy of England and Wales, reads: "The bishops of Rhodesia are still negotiating with their government. The issues are not sport, but the whole future of Catholic social works including schobls and hospitals.
"The bishops cannot in conscience continue to co-operate in social programmes which deny full justice to non-white citizens. Their example has been enthusiastically followed by the leaders of most religious bodies in Rhodesia.
Church is not against change, says Pope
THE Church does not oppose change and human development, the Pope said last week. Addressing his weekly general audience in St. Peter's, he rejected criticism that the Church was reactionary and rooted in the past.
He said there was a misconception that the Christian "cannot he a man of his time, cannot understand the young, is without desires, without hope and at root apathetic and fearful." On the contrary, the Pope said, the Christian lived by hope. "He does not give way to the blind passion for new things, but finds renewal and progress prompted by Divine design."
Faith was the "moving force of human dynamism," and without it man was likely to fall into desperation.
Some people found the Church reactionary and wanted "a new religious mentality, a new theology, a new church." But the Church could not abandon its traditions.