4 The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana December 8, 1989
Nuns and priests cl,escribe battles in Philippines
By SR. MARY ANN WALSH
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
Nuns and priests in the Philip-
pines went into the embattled
streets of Manila to call for
peace as government soldiers
fought rebel troops trying to
overthrow Filipino President
Corazon C. Aquino.
Cardinal Iaime Sin of Manila
called on the Religious "to
make themselves visible," said
Mercy Sister Margaret Ann
O'Donnell, in a Dec. 4
telephone interview from
Manila's Makati Medical
Center.
"It's kind of tense around
here," she said four hours after
shooting had ceased in her
neighborhood for the day.
The medical center is located
in Makati, Manila's commercial
center and what appeared to be
the "last stronghold" of rebels
who launched their coup at-
tempt Nov. 30.
Sister O'Donnell, a U.S.
citizen and a member of the
Sisters of Mercy from Buffalo,
N.Y., is one of three members of
the order which provides
pastoral care at the medical
"Jatican
"Continued from page 1
Archbishops Angels Sodano
and Edward Cassidy, also were
encouraged.
For Archbishop Sodano, the
encounter represented "the
building of an important arch-
way in the bridge that should
unite the Holy See and the
Soviet Union."
Archbishop Cassidy said that
"our impression is that Mr.
Gorbachev has a vision of a
world, not just in which con-
flict is missing, but a world in
which there is a real decent
cooperation between peoples."
"He sees in this process that
he wants to pursue a place also
for the Catholic Church," he
said.
Archbishop Cassidy said the
meeting and recent events in
Eastern Europe lead to "one
great conclusion" -- that a pa-
tient policy toward the Soviet
bloc has paid off, in contrast to
those who argued that the West
should have gone to war to free
Eastern Europe.
Although people in these
countries suffered over the
years, he said, it "cannot be
compared to the suffering that
would have taken place had
there been an armed conflict."
Cardinal Achille Silvestrini,
a Vatican official who dealt for
several years in East European
affairs, said the meeting marked
an abrupt change in Soviet
policies toward religion.
Recalling his missions to
Moscow, the cardinal called the
turnaround "a miracle of pro-
vidence."
"We always hoped for it but
never could imagine when or
how it would take place," he
said. He noted that the events
also open up new prospects of
dialogue with the Russian Or-
thodox Church.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, who
heads the Vatican's dialogue
agency with non-believers, said
the pope-Gorbachev meeting
was "an immense, epochal fact
of great historic significance."
It marks "the end of a long an-
tagonism and the start of a con-
crete dialogue," he said.
"Christianity has resisted the
frontal attack of atheism. Today
it comes away younger, purer
and more truly evangelical,"
• Cardinal Poupard said.
Reported commentary in the
Soviet Union was also highly
favorable.
Soviet television, in a news
broadcast, said the meeting
"puts an end to a long period of
mistrust and hostility, which
had been fed by the intolerance
of some of our country's past
leaders."
The Communist Party
newspaper Pravda published
on its front page the full texts of
the talks by the pope and Gor-
bachev along with a picture of
the historic handshake. In a
commentary, the newspaper
praised the pope's "political
dynamism."
Andrej Grachev, a top Com-
munist Party adviser on foreign
affairs, said the announcement
of a possible future trip by the
pope to the Soviet Union was
"very important, not only
because of opens a new chapter
in Vatican-Soviet relations, but
because it exalts the Soviet
Union's new way of thinking in
foreign affairs."
Russian Orthodox leaders
also were enthusiastic after the
meeting.
Metropolitan Juvenaly of
Krutitsi and Kolomna, who met
with the pope Nov. 27, said the
pope and Gorbachev had taken
a "giant step" toward better
relations between the Kremlin
and leaders of religion.
"In one morning, they have
already taken us half the way
there, with one cosmic step
ahead," he said. He added that
the encounter should help im-
prove relations between the Or-
thodox and Ukrainian chur-
ches, which have experienced
decades of enmity.
The Ukrainian-Orthodox
issue "is a theological, church
problem, and therefore more of
church than of state. I think that
With God's help everything can
be resolved," he said.
The metropolitan also said he
was in favor of a papal trip to
Moscow.
The Orthodox head of
Volokolamsk and Jurevsk,
Metropolitan Pitirim, called the
meeting "extraordinarily im-
portant," and said it was fur-
ther evidence thai the Soviet
Union's "perestroika" or social
restructuring foresaw a new
way of thinking on religious
issues.
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center where civilian casualties
from the fighting were being
treated.
Seven other members of the
Buffalo order, all Filipinos who
work in the Mindanao area of
the southern Philippines, also
were at the medical center --
stranded there by the fighting
while attending seminars in the
Philippine capital.
Sister O'Donnell said two
groups of Mercy nuns and some
priests responded Dec. 3 to Car-
dinal Sin's urging to the
Religious to "go out where the
soldiers could see them" as a
way of making themselves
available to negotiate a settle-
ment. She said that, in the
Philippines, Religious are
viewed as "people of peace."
Mercy Sister Rose Palacio, a
doctor from Mindanao and one
of the nuns who went into the
streets, said the action was
"dangerous" but that the nuns
"wanted to answer the call"
from Cardinal Sin.
"We put on our habits and
went to the Makati commercial
center" a couple of blocks from
the medical center, the nun
said.
She was in the first of two
groups which went out from the
medical center and was safe
from shooting. However, a se-
cond group got "caught in
cross fire," she said, but none
were hurt.
"We knew the rebels were in
upper stories of the buildings
but did not know that govern-
ment troops were located
below," she said. After about
two hours the second group
was able to make it back to the
medical center, she said.
"There's lots of prayer going
on," said Sister O'Donnell. She
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said students at Jesuit-run
Loyola University, in Quezon
City, near Camp Aguinaldo, the
principal army headquarters
about three miles northwest of
Makati, held a peace rally Dec.
4 after government soldiers
quelled the revolt there.
"People sat in the streets
with lighted candles," she said.
All Filipinos were urged to put
lighted candles in their win-
dows as a call for peace and
peace Masses were held in the
country during the fighting, she
said. On Dec. 1 churches held
holy hours for peace, she said.
Sister O'Donnell said the
medical center is in a "no
man's area," but the nuns
"presume" it is considered a
"safe zone" by troops because
it had not been hit in the
• fighting. Many of the hospital
staff were living at the hospital
because of the danger in travel-
ing to and from work, she said.
Cardinal Sin previously has
urged Religious to make
themselves visible during time
of political upheaval in the
Philippines. In 1986, for exam-
pie, during the turmoil follow-
ing the election of Mrs. Aquino
and the ousting of President
Ferdinand Marcos, the cardinal
urged Filipinos, including
priests and Religious, to keep
vigil outside a camp housing
military leaders who defected
from the Marcos government.
Filipinos flooded the streets
in response to that call, and
troops loyal to Marcos refused
to fire on the unarmed civilian
crowds. That demonstration
was instrumental in bringing
Marcos' departure from office
and from the country.
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