By Marie Mulvenna

While Mexican Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo joined Mexico’s president, Luis Echeverria in voicing condolences to the Chilean people on the overthrow and subsequent death of President Salvador Allende, the Vatican issued a cautious statement expressing “deep pain for the tragic turn of events” and for the “sad end of President Allende and all the victims.”

While extending official condolences, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s daily paper, said it was abstaining from “any immediate judgment on the highly complex causes of the crisis and its outcome.” The paper did go on record stating its conviction “that even the most radical political changes should be capable of achievement without violence.”

In Mexico, Bishop Mendez said upon learning of the death of “my friend President Allende, I made the bells of this cathedral toll for him,” adding “I join the sorrow of the hopeful poor in Chile and indeed trust they will continue their struggle for liberation. Bishop Mendez maintained that Chile under Allende was “bringing hope to the Latin American peoples that they would achieve their aspirations for liberty and true democracy.” He was openly critical of the coup, contending “the military chiefs gave in to selfishness and placed themselves in the service of the oligarchs – local and foreign.

In the strife-torn capital of Santiago, Chilean bishops asked the new military rulers to show respect rather than revenge for the followers of ousted leader Allende, an avowed Marxist. The 26 bishops asked for “moderation” and the avoidance of unnecessary reprisals while calling for “peaceful reconstruction” of the nation of 10 million people.

The statement from the bishops said many of the ousted leaders “were moved by sincere idealism and this must be taken into account.” They expressed their sorrow at seeing streets “covered with blood, of towns and factories covered by the blood of both soldiers and civilians.” The bishops asked that social gains made by workers during the three years reign of Allende socialist programs be kept and asked that such gains be improved. The strict restrictions imposed by the military junta banned the bishops’ statement from radio and TV.

Prior to the September 11 coup that unseated Allende, women’s organizations and Catholic leaders had asked that he resign. In the forefront of the movement calling for the resignation was Father Paul Hasbun, director of the Catholic TV network. Father Hasbun, who had been the target of violent attacks by the leftist extremists, has been an outspoken critic of the Allende government and spoke on September 6 calling for a “moral climate of freedom so that we can all see and hear the realities of our people, and get an undoctored image, not the preconceived picture of Marxist interpretation.” The priest said “Chileans cannot continue to be sacrificed on the altar of an ideology that has been imposed on them as dogma, foreign to their soul and directly opposed to their Christian heritage.”

He termed Allende’s regime as having had been marked with “an obsession to impose totalitarianism, by a false sense of saving man and the nation and by a policy of lies and violence.” A few hours after his TV address, machine guns strafed the house he shares with Cardinal Raul Silva. Cardinal Silva, who offered a Mass for victims of the bloodshed, said, “Peace will be difficult to secure in the present atmosphere of poison and personal vengeance.”

A lay missionary who recently returned from 11 years in Chile voiced his fears for the safety of dozens of American and Canadian sisters, priests and ministers in the poor areas of Santiago. “Knowing them as I do, I can see the nuns, priests and ministers taking care of the injured, helping the families in distress, trying to protect those in need. I say undoubtedly that they might find themselves among the victims.” There are 223 missionaries from the U.S. serving in Chile, many of them in the small parishes and communities in southern Chile, the scenes of violent fighting since September 11.

In the U.S., Catholic and Protestant leaders have voiced their concern over human rights in Chile since the coup and are asking the U.S. government to go slow on granting recognition to the new rulers of the nation. In Washington, representatives to the National Council of Churches and the U.S. Catholic Conference appeared before the Department of State asking that official recognition be withheld in light of repeated reports of violence and executions against Allende’s supporters. One of the spokesmen for the delegation was Father Philip Wheaton, director of the Ecumenical Program for Inter-American Communications. Although no official answer was made to the religious leaders’ request, sources in the State Department are quoted as saying that should evidence support charges of violations of human rights, U.S. recognition and aid would be delayed.