NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 3, 1997 - 7
ope to
preach
vaues
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -
Pope John Paul II hedged yesterday
when asked about the Vatican's will-
ingness to broaden an apology by
France's Roman Catholic Church
over its silence during the deportation
f Jews in World War II.
Suggesting that non-Catholics
must address their own failures over
the course of history, the pontiff also
acknowledged that a church docu-
ment on anti-Semitism promised 10
years ago is still far from complete.
Before his plane touched down in
Brazil, the world's biggest Roman
Catholic country, the pope told
reporters he didn't see the need to
d up possible canonization of
other Teresa.
The pope, who has been on the
road frequently in recent months
despite his increasingly delicate
health, plans to preach family values
to a vast but straying Brazilian flock
during his four-day visit.
In a strongly worded speech at
Galeao Air Base in Rio's Guanabara
3Bay, he cited Brazil's yawning gap
between rich and poor as a cause of
social problems.
"The unequal and unfair distribution
of wealth, the cause of conflicts in the
city and the countryside ... the prob-
lem of unprotected children in big
cities, constitutes an enormous chal-
4enge," the pope said in Portuguese.
His feeble voice getting stronger as
lbe went along, John Paul made a spe-
cial mention of Afro-Brazilians and
native Indians, who "inject in
razilian culture a deep sense of fam-
ily, of respect for their ancestors."
r During his visit, his third to the
country, the pope also will lead cere-
monies for the Roman Catholic
Church's World Meeting of Families.
President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso met the 77-year-old pope as
his plane landed in mid-afternoon at
the air base. A chorus of children
waved green and yellow Brazilian
l agsand sang "A Bencao, Joao de
eus," Portuguese for "Bless Us,
john of God."
John Paul emerged from the plane
in white robes, holding a handrail as
1he slowly descended the stairway
beneath clear skies and a hot sun. He
stopped halfway down to wave at
well-wishers. When he reached the
tarmac he was handed a silver-head-
ed cane.
Cardoso shook hands and
)embraced the pope, who then greeted
Cardoso's wife Ruth and a number of
-Brazilian cardinals. Cardoso helped
the pontiff to a dais where he deliv-
bred the first of eight speeches during
1is visit.
He did not kiss the ground as he
has in the past because of concerns
for his frail condition.
Earlier yesterday, John Paul
ddressed the French church's deci-
on this week to ask forgiveness for
failing to intervene to prevent Jews
from being shipped to death camps
Juneau residents debate
new road, ending landlock
Los Angeles Tines
JUNEAU, Alaska - The Boeing 737
plunges down through a blanket of driz-
zle in search of the runway that lies
below two high, tree-topped ridges. No
luck. Passengers sigh as the captain guns
the engines and circles around for anoth-
er try.
This time, bingo: A blanket of city
lights pops into view, and the jet rolls
into a low-level swoop toward the run-
way. Welcome to one of the most nerve-
racking air approaches in the country. It
is also one of the few ways to arrive in
Juneau - the only state capital in North
America you can't get to by road,
because there isn't one.
Two hundred scheduled airline flights
didn't make it into Juneau last year, fod-
der for the long-running debate over
whether the Legislature should head for
the state's population center -
Anchorage.
No matter that 96 percent of the
flights did land successfully, or that
there's pretty reliable ferry service, or
that a sizable portion of residents aren't
even sure they want to make it easier for
the world to come knocking: Juneau,
landlocked too long, is thinking hard
about a road.
An environmental impact study, mak-
ing the rounds at public hearings this
month, says a 65-mile highway could be
punched through to Skagway. From
there, it's only 832 road miles to
Anchorage, 710 to Fairbanks.
The proposal, which also looks at
stepped-up, high-speed ferry service
into Juneau, is drawing attention because
it calls up all the old conflicts about what
Alaska is and what people went looking
for when they moved here.
A behemoth of a state whose grandeur
is largely hidden away, Alaska has prid-
ed itself on the idea that those who suc-
ceed in getting somewhere do so by their
own brawn, cunning or perseverance.
There is a word in Alaska for the low-
est form of life on the planet:
"Winnebago.'
That word pops up in the debate over
whether the state Department of
Transportation should build the two-
lane, $232 million highway along the
west side of Lynn Canal, as in how many
Winnebagos could Juneau's narrow,
winding, one-way streets handle as new
summer hordes flood in from points
north.
"It's kind of a two-edged sword,"
admitted city manager Dave Palmer,
whose city has done battle for years
against ballot measures to move the cap-
ital to Anchorage. Twice, Alaska resi-
dents have voted to move the capital.
Twice, Juneau and others have beaten
the idea back. The city of 30,000 spends
half a million dollars a year on free park-
ing passes for state legislators, television
broadcasts of legislative sessions and
other efforts to keep the capital here.
A road, built largely with federal high-
way funds, would be a crowning
achievement. Yet even Juneau official-
dom is havirng doubts.
"You know, this is the only place we'd
be having this discussion: Should we
build a road to our town? But if it's built,
Juneau's going to be the end of it'
Palmer said. "The question is, what are
we going to do with all those buses and
trailers and Winnebagos once they get
here? "
On the other hand, city officials say,
think of the commercial prospects of a
road in a city that now has to barge in
most of its heavy freight from Seattle. "If
nothing else, as a species, we need to be
able to get out of here;" said Fred
Morino, head of Alaskans for Better
Access, a pro-road group. "Have you
ever heard of cabin fever? To be able to
know that without a great expense, you
can get in your car and go somewhere!"
Susan Ronsse says it's often too
expensive to fly the whole family out for
a trip, and taking the ferry to Haines in
the summer can require reservations
months in advance. The 4 1/2-hour trip
often leaves in the middle of the night.
On the other hand, say critics, driving
would cut only about two hours off the
ferry commute. For that, they say,
motorists would have to pay a $25 toll
and negotiate a road that will traverse 58
known avalanches, rendering it prone to
frequent closures.
And the road, says the Southeast
Alaska Conservation Council, would
traverse pristine areas critical to the
threatened Steller sea lion and other
species.
"Even up here, we live in a car culture,
and people somehow think it's in the
Constitution that you have to be able to
get in your car and drive where you
want, when you want;said Joe Geldhof,
a lawyer for the Marine Engineers'
Beneficial Association.
A group of street children wake up near the metropolitan Cathedral In Rio de
Janeiro yesterday, where Pope John Paul 1 will offer a-mass on Saturday.
half a century ago.
"What is interesting is that it is
always the pope and the Catholic
Church who asked forgiveness while
others remained silent. Maybe that is
as it should be," John Paul told
reporters.
Papal spokesperson Joaquin
Navarro-Valls later said the pope's
statements were intended in general
terms and did not specifically refer to
the Holocaust.
In 1987, after receiving Austrian
President Kurt Waldheim, who has
long concealed his service in the
German army during the war, John
Paul promised Jewish leaders that he
would prepare a document on the the-
ological history of anti-Semitism
within the Catholic Church. The doc-
ument is to examine ways in which
positions or attitudes within the
church may have set the stage for the
Holocaust.
But, the pope acknowledged yes-
terday, the paper is not close to
being released. The paper's conclu-
sions, he said, will depend on the
opinions of Catholic theologians
meeting at the Vatican this month to
discuss the Christian roots of anti-
Semitism.
The "attitudes at the time of the
Holocaust are key" John Paul said.
"One mustn't forget there were other
holocausts," he added, without elabo-
rating.
Navarro, asked which other holo-
causts the pope was referring to,
recalled the pope's depiction in
Poland several years ago of the large
numbers of "unborn children" as a
holocaust. The reference was to abor-
tion.
Jews and others have in the past
charged that the pope during World
War II, Pius XII, did not do enough
to prevent the Nazi genocide. But
John Paul has repeatedly defended
his predecessor.
Also yesterday, John Paul quashed
speculatin that the church might
expedite possible sainthood for
Mother Teresa. When she died last
month, many speculated that the
church would make an exception to
rules that call for a five-year wait
after death before the process of can-
onization can begin.
"I think it is necessary to follow
the normal way" the pope said.
Ruddy-faced and firm of voice
despite an accentuated tremor in his
left hand, John Paul will speak about
abortion, divorce and birth control
during his visit. Schools and govern-
ment offices closed early yesterday
and police blocked off streets in
downtown Rio to welcome the pon-
tiff.
As bells toll from 20 historic
churches in this colonial-era capital,
the pope was to parade through the
heart of Rio behind the bulletproof
glass of the popemobile. He was then
to switch cars and head for the resi-
dence of Rio's Cardinal Eugenio
Sales, on nearby Sumare mountain.
With Rio's reputation for street
violence, the pope's safety is a key
concern. The city has prepared the
biggest security operation since the
1992 Earth Summit environmental
conference, when more than 100
world leaders came to Rio.
Police took up positions in 29 of
the city's more than 600 "favelas,"
or hillside slums, in an effort to sup-
press the violent turf wars between
drug gangs - at least until the pope
returns to Rome on Sunday.
Cardinal Sales' residence on
Sumare mountain, once a bucolic
retreat overlooking the city, now sits
amid seven of Rio's most dangerous
slums.
Rocket man
AP PHOTO
Showing his son the way to do it, Brad Farrar is followed up the fuselage of a playgound rocket by his 2-year-old son
Kristopher Farrar at McWhorter Park in Longview, Texas, yesterday.
Clinton suggests program
to block contaminated food
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - In response to
public skittishness over food safety,
President Clinton yesterday proposed a
new program of standards and inspec-
tions aimed at blocking contaminated
fruits and vegetables grown overseas
reaching the United States.
uring a Rose Garden ceremony,
Clinton detailed his plans to ask
Congress to authorize the Food and
Drug Administration to halt imports of
produce from foreign countries that have
lower safety requirements or do not per-
mit FDA inspections. The administra-
tion will develop new guidelines and
monitoring procedures, he said.
"With these efforts, we can make sure
10 no fruits and vegetables cross our
borders, enter our ports, or reach our
dinner tables without meeting the same
strict standards as those grown here in
America," the president said. "Our food
safety system is the strongest in the
world and that's how it's going to stay."
The plan, the broad outlines of which
were released last week. was fashioned
try officials warned the plan could hurt
domestic growers if foreign govern-
ments retaliate by adopting stricter
standards against American products.
"This whole plan of his is pure cos-
metics to get fast track passed," Rep.
Sherrod Brown, (D-Ohio,) said by tele-
phone from the Mexican border, where
he was studying the impact of the North
American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). "I don't think anybody in
Congress is going to change their vote
because of
this rather
inadequate "Thiswhole
food safety ,
proposal of is pure cosa
the presi-
dent's." g t fast tra
T h e
Clinton leg- passed."
islati on
would give
the FDA the
same kind
of power over produce imports that the
Agriculture Denartment has over meat
About 38 percent of the fruit and 12
percent of the vegetables consumed by
Americans last year came from foreign
growers, according to the administra-
tion. Officials said they were not
responding to any great threat from
overseas produce. "We don't see a huge
problem out there;' Deputy Agriculture
Secretary Richard Rominger.
However, some food industry offi-
cials said they fear a backlash from for-
eign governments to Clinton's plan.
"I've seen
countries do a
plan of his lot of things to
_ _ s protect their
M
D6[1C$ [0tmarkets, and it
wouldn't sur-
ck prise me at allto
see other coun-
tries use this to
Rep. Sharrod Brown protect their
(D-Ohio) markets if our
government
isn't careful how
they structure this program," said Chris
Schlect. ,resident of the Northwest