wfn.org | BRAZIL:CONIC PRESIDENT LAMENTS CARDINAL RATZINGER'S DECLARATIONS

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

Title:CONIC PRESIDENT LAMENTS CARDINAL RATZINGER'S DECLARATIONS
July 1, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.6.4.1]

*Last week's article on Brazil ran under the wrong heading. This is the
correct heading and the correct article. We regret the error.

BRAZIL:CONIC PRESIDENT LAMENTS CARDINAL RATZINGER'S DECLARATIONS

By Edelberto Behs

SAO LEOPOLDO, June 16 (ALC). The president of the National Council of
Christian Churches (CONIC) of Brazil, Glauco Soares de Lima, lamented
declarations made by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who accused the World
Council of Churches (WCC) of financing subversive movements in Latin
America.

Soares de Lima, who is also the primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church
of Brazil, told ALC that the WCC is always opposed to dictatorships and
takes the side of the people. We do not accept, however, that the WCC
financed guerrillas. The organization gave humanitarian, but not
ideological support.

He lamented comments made by Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stating that they contribute
nothing to the ecumenical cause. He is confusing support given to
grassroots movements in the struggle against dictatorships and
oligarchies, with support given to guerrilla forces, added the CONIC
president.

Last Monday Ratzinger declared that the WCC had funded Latin American
subversive movements between the 1960s and 1980s and that this support,
even if given in good faith, caused the Gospel serious harm.

Now it is said that the WCC supported the struggle against Latin
American dictatorships of that time. If we are talking about moral
support, this effectively took place. However, if we talk about
financial support, this is not true. Churches which contributed to
maintaining the WCC would not have agreed with this funding, said Bishop
Glauco Soares de Lima.