Catholic

rights movement? No! These, of course, are the activities of the women's movement, because we really do care about life and have built significant movements around free child care and health care as well as for abortion rights.

Divorce

In Italy recently, the Catholic Church fought viciously along side facist elements to prevent humane divorce law reform. On May 12, however, Italian voters went to the polls and decisively upheld the divorce reform law despite Pope Paul's public opposition.

War

Has the Catholic Church ever been a significant force against unjust war? No! Although Catholic moral theologydistinguishes between just and unjust wars, in practice, few bishops have ever failed to support the war waged by their own governments. A few days after the start of WW II, the German bishops issued a joint pastoral letter, asking Catholic soldiers to do their duty: "In this decisive hour we encourage and admonish our Catholic soldiers in obedience to the Fuhrer to do their duty and to be ready to sacrifice their whole person. We appeal to the faithful to join in ardent prayers

Church

that God's providence may lead this war to blessed success and peace for fatherland and people."

Would not much of the unconscionable slaughter and carnage inflicted by the U.S. military establishment upon the Indochinese people have been averted had the Catholic hierarch expressed any outrage? As a matter of fact, the late Frances Cardinal Spellman of New York, the most important Catholic prelate in the U.S. was the prime backer of the Diem regime and made yearly pilgrimages to Vietnam. He virtually sanctioned the Vietnam holocaust as a holy war against the heathen non-Christian majority of Vietnam.

Abortion Rights

Even Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame University, notes the irony of the Catholic Church's position. In a speech last April by the Catholic Press Association, he said, "We cannot be loud in condemning abortion after being silent about napalmed Vietnamese children, or seemingly unconscious of the horrible present fact that 60% of the children already born in the poorest countries, with more than a billion inhabitants, die before the age of five."

ABORTION BILL

The Wilkowski Bill 989 is now law in Ohio. It is an oppressive set-back for the women's rights struggle, and we should be aware of what our enemy has planned for us.

The main points of the bill are as follows: 1) No person shall purposely take the life of a fetus which is alive when taken from the uterus of the pregnant woman.

2) Written consent is required of all women who undergo abortions. No woman can be forced to have an abortion, and the refusal of an abortion will not result in the loss of public assistance benefits.

3) In the case of a woman who is of minor age, the written consent of at least one parent and the guardian or custodian* is required. 4) No experimentation is allowed at all on any fetuses. Autopsies are not included in this definition.

5) No public funds can be used to pay for an abortion unless it is proven necessary for the physical and mental life of the woman. 6) A public hospital can refuse to perform an abortion. No person can be forced to participate in an abortion.

After the Supreme Court decision, and until this bill was passed, there were no restrictions pro or con concerning abortion in Ohio. The decision was left to the woman entirely. Facilities were made available to accomodate this right.

Now that this UNCONSTITUTIONAL law has been passed, we must again return to the courts to fight. We must never assume that the anti-abortion forces will relent and allow us our civil rights. The Grendel monster never sleeps. *Editor's note: Are we now considered property?

DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE

Amid crowded streets, popping chainpagne corks, and waving banners, Italian citizens celebrated the referendum in support of Italy's 3 year old divorce law. Passed Dec. 1, 1970, the law states that nobody can file for divorce unless separated from her or his spouse for five years. A civil divorce allows for alimony payments and child support for a woman, whereas a religious annulment does not?

Women controlled the election, as 1.7 million more women voted than men and they voted in favor of divorce. The largest percentage of women to turn out for the election in any area occurred in Sicily and Sardinia, where married life is most harsh for women. Other large turnouts were in large industrial centers such as Milan.

The vote marks a resounding defeat for the traditional clergy-dominated state and threatens the presently divided government of Premier Mariano Rumor. The cabinet is now split in two,

with the Christian Democrats and Neo-Facists against divorce and the Socialists, Social Democrats and Republicans for divorce.

There were other strange partners in the race. The Catholic Church alligned itself with the Neo-Facists, their allies in the anti-abortion struggle, and the Communists and anti-commun. ist Liberals marched side by side in pro-divorce demonstrations.

All-in-all, we.shall see a radical change for the better as Italy developes toward a modern, secular social country. Independent free-thinking Italians are now questioning traditional view. points of social behavior. The referendum has already triggerred demands for revision of the 1929 concordat between the facist Mussolini government and the Vatican, which established Catholicism as Italy's official religion and still regulates church-state relations today. Changes have only begun.

While to some degree supporting the Ch stand on the abortion issue, Fr. Hesburgh stat that many in the "forces for good do not war to be identified with mindless and crude zeak (Catholic Right-to-Lifers) who have neither g judgment, sophistication of procedure, nor th modicum of civility needed for the rational d cussion of disagreements in a pluralistic demo cracy."

Opposition to legal abortion is part of th whole pattern of oppostion to the rights of th individual, especially the poor and the womar in the area of morality and sex. In so doing, Catholic Church acts to maintain its own pow Moreover, a victory for the Church in this ma could be a first step to a more general assault democratic rights.

CATHOLICS VS ERA

The Cleveland Diocesan Council of the Na

tional Council of Catholic Women announce its opposition to the ERA this past month, at its biennial convention in the SheratonCleveland Hotel. The 300 women who participated unanimously passed a resolution stating that the ERA "is a threat to the natur of woman which individuates her from man i God's plan for creation."

Ms. Bernice Zilly, of Grosse Point, Mich., the national president of the NCCW, is an active anti-abortion advocate. Speaking at th convention, Ms. Zilly strongly recommended that the DCCW work on rescinding the ERA by "getting out of the kitchen and using your God-given talents for the greater good of all women." Furthermore, she feels that the "ERA is a very insidious kind of amendment solely to reiterate the idea that women are people, and we already know that."

The convention also urged continued devc tion to the Blessed Virgin "to promote family unity."

CARDINAL SENATOR BUCKLEY

There is a "sickness of Americans. They have to have intercourse." Blurted out by Repr. John Zwach (R-Minn) at the abortion hearings held by the Senate Subcommittee ‹ Constitutional Amendments. He was giving his "expert" opinion that life begins when t egg is fertilized. He added that "virtue is self-discipline."

page 3/What She Wants/July 197‹