It is indeed appropriate that Mr. Wall's letter of August 31 should have been published during the silly season. Among his usual rantings of Reds under every bed (by which he is seen as a self-professed extremist) he makes several errors which ought to be exposed for what they are. The Wiriyamu massacre is well authenticated by several independent sources — including the eye-witness Antonio, who was wounded during the massacre and the priests who buried some of the victims.
Wiriyamu's location is determined. The Archbishop of Lourenco Marques (despite being the strongest episcopal defender of the Portuguese Government) admitted that there had been a serious incidcnt and the conference of bishops made representations to the army authorities over this case.
It is interesting to note that the Burundi massacres were first exposed to the outside world by missionary priests — and yet Mr. Wall does believe in those massacres. It seems that Mr. Wall is only prepared to accept evidence by Catholic priests when it suits his politics U) do so.
Mr. Wall attacks other Catholic priests for working towards peace and justice and condemns them for meddling in pOlitics. I would ra.spectfully remind him that "politics" is caring about people" — not my words, but Lord Carrington's.
But I am really concerned about Mr. Wall: he claims to be a loyal Catholic but he seems to
ignore papal encyclicals on social justice and peace. (He reminds one of those people who branded Leo XIII an ultraLefty for having written Rerum Novarum.) Indeed Mr. Wall seems to believe in justification by faith alone.
In my penny catechism two of the four sins crying to heaven for vengeance were the sin of Sodom and wilful murder. The other two were oppressing the poor and defrauding labourers of their rightful wages.
Has Mr. Wall forgotten?
F. X. Coveney 11A Cheriton Avenue, Chiyhall, Ilford, Essex.
Mr. Patrick Wall, M.P., puts blame upon priests for going too far left. One obvious reason is men like himself who refuse to face facts of brutality imposed by police in neofaseist states.
The Church — and that means all Christians — can never defend the indefensible without harm being done to the whole body of the Church.
The strategic importance of Africa to the Western world is the old, bland argument to maintain law and order at the expense of the natives for motives which are mainly mercenary. Bolstering neo-fascism up doesn't contain Communism — it breeds it. Latin America provides ample proof of this.
Patrick McKiernan 17 Kingston oad, Ilford, Essex.