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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 20, 1984
PAGE 9
pacifism, Glucksmann said, "The line rests on a cultural division
that recalls that of the end �the Renaissance between the
(Protestant) Reformation and the -(-Roman Catholic) Counter'=
Reformation." Elaborating on the"religious argument, LE MONDE's
Tatu agreed it is no accident that pacifism is weakest in
Catholic France and strongest in Protestant countries.
The
Catholic Church in Europe, Tatu said, always identifies with the
state [ and its defense], while the Protestant churches are
against hierarchy and close to their parishes.
Back in the United States, the tenets of the U.S. bishops' "peace pastoral"
are now being implemented in Catholic schools, along virtually the same
kind of curricular guidelines as recommended by the .leftist National Educa
tion Association. As the WALL STREET JOURNAL of December 27, 1983 re
marked:
If you thought that creeping pacifism-in-the-classroom affected
only those public schools in thrall to the National Education
Association [NEA], think again. The largest group of private
schools in the U.S., the Roman Catholic parochial schools, is
running up the white flag, too, and urging teachers to turn
students into "peacemakers."... Jonathan Schell [ author of FATE
OF THE EARTH, the nuclear freeze bibl� is lauded; the anti-war
group called Educators for Social Responsibility is touted as a
source for further readings; so is the U.N. Public Information
office....
The implications for the future are thus quite grave·. Will the Vatican
ultimately come to the conclusion--after the Reagan era passes--that the
United States can no longer be counted on to defend the Western world--and
that only a European-based security system can provide the protection? And
what if the Vatican should, in the future, determine that the rebellious
Catholic Church in America is beyond help and not worth saving?
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau