Brazilian Cardinal (Paulo Evaristo Arns) Who Faced Down Dictators Over Murdered Jew Dies at 95
Quote:
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, who challenged
Brazil’s brutal dictatorship to honor a Jewish journalist killed in
prison by the military, has died.
Arns, one of the Catholic Church’s most prominent pro-democracy voices
in Latin America, became famous for his fight against torture during
1964-1985. He died Wednesday at 95.
On Oct. 31, 1975, he organized one of the most open acts of defiance of
Brazil’s dictatorship, praying with Rabbi Henry Sobel and a Presbyterian
reverend blaming the regime for the murder of Jewish journalist
Vladimir Herzog, who had been taken as a political prisoner shortly
before.
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http://forward.com/news/breaking-new...ng-12-headline
Quote:
In 1989, Arns sent a letter to Fidel Castro on the 30th anniversary of
the Cuban Revolution. He praised Cuba's record on social justice and
wrote that " Christian faith discovers in the achievements of the
revolution signs of the kingdom of God.... You are present daily in my
prayers, and I ask the Father that he always concede you the grace of
guiding the destinies of your country." Political and theological
conservatives, including Cardinal Eugenio Sales of Rio de Janeiro,
protested what they interpreted as support for Castro's continued rule.
Leonardo Boff, the foremost figure in the liberation theology movement
defended Arns saying: "Cuba carried out a revolution against hunger by
ending prostitution, illiteracy and misery. Dom Paulo [Arns] is not a
socialist, but a man of the poor and the oppressed." Arns said the
letter was part of an ongoing dialogue with Castro and that he opposed
dictatorship . . .[5]
Liberation theology
He defended the liberation theologian and former Catholic priest
Leonardo Boff, producing letters from the Roman Curia that he believed
were evidence that Boff was treated unfairly. Arns had always encouraged
a preferential option for the oppressed and the poor, encouraging
religious orders in São Paulo to transfer their energies from middle
class schools and hospitals in central areas of the city to the millions
of marginalised people living on the periphery. with respect to the
requirement that Catholics practice abstinence on certain days, that is,
refrain from eating meat, Arns told the poor that on such a day "if
they can find meat to eat, which is rare, they should eat it, and do
some good work to mark the day, because not eating meat is not the
point". He defended his position by saying that "Canon law gives me full
power to dispense people from abstinence; there is no problem". . .[9]
Arns himself must be reckoned a significant cause of the military
withdrawal and return of civilian government in Brazil. During the
dictatorship he visited political prisoners speaking out against the
abuses of the military. Prior to governmental change in 1985, Arns had,
with the assistance of the Presbyterian minister Jaime Wright (pt),
photocopied the military government's records on torture, and then
smuggled the copies out to have them published, the book 'Brazil Never
Again' which was based on this evidence; it became a bestseller and
began the widespread move for change in Brazil.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Evaristo_Arns
__________________
"It's a free country; you can say whatever you want."
--Old American Saying
(U.S. Postal Service stamp-- from 1977 Americana series which extols
freedom of speech and features a Speaker's Stand decorated with an
American Flag shield.)
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Dec 18, '16, 4:47 pm
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