Pope to bishops: shun politics

Press, 12 July 1980, Page 9

Pope to bishops: shun politics

NZPA-Reuter Manaus, Brazil! Pope John Paul, ending a nation-wide tour, yesterday cautioned Brazil’s progressive bishops against becoming involved in politics, then later told a large congregation of Brazilian Indians that bold land reforms were necessary.

The Pope will return to Rome today after a gruelling 12-day journey through Brazil during which he has called for sweeping action against social injustices in which a rich minority prospered at the expense of a poor majority. In his strongest statement so far opposing clergy who take part in politics, the Pope told the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops: at Fortaleza: “Your vocation as bishops prohibits you, with total clarity and without a shadow of a doubt, from being involved in anything concerned with party politics.” But he went on to say that the bishops were not prohibited from serving mankind, especially the poor, through a social policy which persuaded people’s consciences to make society more just.

It was the Pope’s clearest and sharpest statement so far of his view that priests should not play politics or become involved with Marxism.

In a reference to the crisis among the poor who are being dispossessed of their lands in the north of Brazil by big-business gunmen, the Pope ■ declared that “audacious reforms” were necessary “to allow access to property for all people as

this constitutes an indispensable condition of liberty and creativity of man.” The Pope rejected the collectivisation of the means of production, an allusion to Marxist solutions to the problem of land tenure, and also “the concentration of ' all in the hands of the State, converting it into a unique capitalistic force.” Hours later the Pope told the congregation of Indians in Manaus Cathedral that “audacious reforms are necessary.”

“These reforms should have the goals of giving access to property; to all neople it constitutes, in a certain way, the indispensable condition for the liberty and creativity of man.” he said. Thousands of Brazil’s Indian and peasant population have been turned into migrants by large agricultural organisations which have bought large areas of land. The Pope listened on a balcony of the archbishop’s palace while Indian leaders angrily complained over loudspeakers about the plight of their people and handed statements to him. “Brazil was not discovered, it was taken away from us,” one said, while another added “We are massacred and exploited.” Today the Pope will celebrate an open-air Mass for missionaries working in the Amazon jungle before stepping aboard a Brazilian Navy frigate for a 30km cruise to see where the Rio Negro and the Solimoes Rivers form the Amazon. He is due to leave for Rome at 9 a.m. today (N.Z. time) aboard a Brazilian airliner.