page three 40,ait,
BUSINESS PHONE:
764-0554
Tuesday, August 15, 1972
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
News Phone: 764-0552
Pnest says N. Viets
By THOMAS FOX
Dispatch News Service
SAIGON F- The first known
S o u t h Vietnamese to travel
north across the DMZ into North
Vietnam and return to the south
has arrived in Saigon excited
and also disheartened by what
he found during his journey. No-
tably, he saw indications of a
flourishing Catholic Church in
North Vietnam which gives
strength to its communist mem-
bers.
Father Loc said he found the
spirit of the North Vietnamese
higher than anything he has
ever seen in the south. He re-
gretfully added that the North
Vietnamese seem certain to win
the war unless there is a near-
ly total change in the South
Vietnamese army and society.
Like most South Vietnamese
priests, Father Loc is a tradi-
tionally - minded Catholic. The
prospect of a communist vic-
tory does not settle easily with
him. He does not agree with
communist dogma. Yet he said
that "the sense of selflessness
and community" found in the
north were similar to the ideals
of a Catholic community.
Father Nguyen Cao Loc, a
fifty-three-year-old C a t h o I i c
priest, said he was "invited" to
travel into North Vietnam by
soldiers after they overran his
village in Quang Tri province
last April.
- Another priest and ten Catho-
lic nuns also journeyed into
North Vietnam during the past
few months, Catholic sources
confirmed here. They too, have
returned to South Vietnam. The
second priest does not want to
discuss his journey with the for-
eign press. The ten nuns have
returned to the seclusion of a
convent in Hue.
"All the North Vietnamese
soldiers I encountered were ex-
tremely polite to me once they
were assured I was not work-
ing for the Americans," Father
Loc said as he lay in his hos-
pital bed where he is recov-
ering from flesh wounds incur-
red by an U.S. bomb, he says.
He contrasted the "politeness"
of the North Vietnamese soldiers
with the "rudeness" of the
U.S. jets
spirits
South Vietnamese soldiers who
"ordered the peasants around
and threw their things inside the
church" when they retook the
village in July.
When the North Vietnamese
soldiers ate, the first ones to
finish poured tea for those still
eating. The last ones to finish
cleaned up the tables, Father
Loc said.'
Father Loc said he spoke to
many North Vietnamese Catho-
lics during his trip. He said his
contacts were sporadic, but that
Catholicism seems to remain
strong in the north.
"Everyone (in North Vietnam)
seems to believe the communist
propaganda and they are con-
vinced they are going to win the
war," Father Loc said. He add-
high
ed that the North Vietnamese
had a saying, which goes "with
every bomb that falls, we are
ever more certain to win."
Father Loc said his guides
treated him as a "guest from
the south." For a few days he
stayed in the International Ho-
tel in Hanoi. "Everywhere I
went, they greeted me and re-
spected me as a priest."
"I could not believe their po-
liteness," he added. "I thought
it had to be political propagan-
da. But I found it everywhere."
Reflecting on his unique ex-
perience, Father Loc reluctant-
ly seems to conclude that there
has been a growth in spirit in
the ideological - oriented North
that is missing in the South.
I
hit Hanoi-China
rail, raid near Saigon
Daily Photo by JIM WALLACE
Still going strong
Loyal followers of the late Pizza Bob pay their respects
to the deceased culinary master by attending the wake
held in his honor at Pizza Bob's yesterday. Pizza Bob
has been dead for one year, but he lives on in the sign on
State Street and in the stomachs of pizza eaters. The
first anniversary of Pizza Bob's death was observed
yesterday by charging half-price on all items. So many
patrons appeared that some went next door to phone in
their orders.
MEETING POSTPONED:
Vatican pressure stops
Dutch democratic move
AMSTERDAM (A')-Dutch Ro- Their communique said the ob-
man Catholic bishops bowed yes- jections included:
terday to Vatican pressure and -The parliament's statutes do
decided not to convene a planned not adequately safeguard the
Church parliament in October. bishops' authority.
The parliament-a move to- -The time is not ripe for in-
ward greater democracy in stituting a Church parliament.
Church affairs-wou)d comprise -A document is being pre-
chiefly laymen and have a hand pared by the Vatican on Church
in policy making in the Nether- parliaments, called p a s t o r a l
lands. councils here.
The national pastoral council
Its members were to be elected was to be the follow-up of six
by democratic process in a man- plenary sessions held by the
ner bDuie d of qu ithe 2 utch Church Province in 1968-
centuries of Church history. 70 which put it into conflict with
The Dutch bishops announced the central administration over
that the parliament sessions had several issues, including one in
been postponed due to "objec- favor of permitting married
tions" by the Vatican Curia. priests.
SAIGO(N /P) - American jets
struck the Hanoi to China rail
line yesterday and U. S. B52
bombers carried out heavy ov-
ernight raids in the Saigon area.
The r'isble of exploding bombs
atv'ke residents of the capital
jest before dawn today.
U.S. 1552 bombers rained 900
tois of explosives in and near
the demilitarized zone, trying to
wipe oot stolies and men of a
fresh North Vietnamese division
believed to be a Irching south-
ward to join the battle for
Quang Tri, the northern most
proviincial capital. The division
was the 312th, recently pulled out
of Laos, informants said.
The Saigon command claimed
113 Communist troops were kill-
ed in fighting on the northern
front and on southern battle-
grounds between Saigon and
Cambodia. South Vietnamese
losses were put at 28 killed and
71 wounded.
A terrorist grenade went of f
at a local militia office in Qui
Nhon, on the central coast 275
miles northeast of Saigon, kill-
ing three persons and wounding
20.
West of there in the central
highlands, day-long fires and ex-
plosions scourged two ammuni-
tion bunkersatPleiku. It was
the fourth ammunition depot hit
in three days, and sources said
North Vietnamese sappers were
believed again responsible.
Attacksaonnthree dumps, out-
side Saigon on Sunday destroyed
6,000 tons of munitions, but au-
thorities said there were enough
stocks elsewhere to prevent a
shortage.
On the front north of Saigon
the long-awcaited reopening of
Highway 13 to An Lot seemed as
far away as even. Communist
gunners fired a dozen rounds of
rockets and mortars into a rear
headquarters base at Lai Khe,
30 miles north of Saigon. Two
South Vietnamese soldiers were
reported wounded.
Five miles farther south, a
government battalion pulled back
after taking half a dozen wound-
ed in an attempt to dislodge
North Vietnamese troops f r o m
bunkers just outside Ben Cat, a
district town.
Inside the Cambodian Parrot's
Beak, that juts into South Viet-
nam west of Saigon, government
forces claimed they killed 52
communists Sunday in a day-
long fight that cost the South
Vietnamese 14 men killed and
28 wounded.
In the air attacks on N o r t h
Vietnam, Navy pilots reported
they struck barracks and storage
buildings at the Hoi Doi mili-
tary complex, 20 miles south-
west of the port of Haiphong.
Aauun viemmese sauuier caises a srigiieneu cus
while its mother follows them past the remains of their
bicycle. Smoke billows skyward in the background as a
result of an U. S. airstrike.
BELFAST VIOLENCE:
GOuerrillas g.u Cudowvn
twuvo soldierncivilian
BELFAST (3) - Guerrilla out-
laws killed two British soldiers
and a civilian yesterday in a
deadly answer to army claims of
bringing Northern Ireland's vio-
lence under control.
The two soldiers, one a Royal
Artillery major were killed by
a bomb hidden in a milk churn
in the Andersonstown district of
West Belfast.
The civilian was shot as guer-
rillas opened up on an army pa-
trol in the Ardoyne District,
where two more soldiers h a d
been wounded earlier by sniper
fire.
The deaths brought the toll in
Northern Ireland's three years of
violence to 510.
In Londonderry, Irish terror-
ists managed to slip through
army checkpoints and leave a
10-pound bomb at the door of a
restaurant to show they were
still in business. The blast there
took no casualties.
Soldiers found another b o m b
planted near a Belfast m a t c h
factory and managed to defuse it.
All three bomb attempts came on
the day the British army claim-
ed a dramatic reduction in Nor-
thern Ireland's terrorist violence
in the past two weeks.
It was two weeks ago t h at
British troops swept into t h e
strongholds long run by terror-
ists of the outlawed Irish Repub-
lican Army, forcing the gunmen,
to- flee, leaving weapons a n d
ammunition.
Since then, the army said.
shootings, knifings and bombings
were down more than 50 p e r
cent.
Other developments yesterday:
-The army said IRA docu-
ments uncovered in the p a st
two weeks show a number of
supposedly legitimate business
concerns and political organiza-
tions have been used as IRA
fronts.