THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 20,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11A
Catholic WWll opinions revealed
The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — The first documents from newly opened Vatican archives dealing with the Roman Catholic Church's relations with Germany on the eve of World War II are beginning to emerge, including a letter seeking papal intervention against the Nazis written by a famed Jewish convert to Catholicism, Edith Stein.
The letter's existence has been known for decades — Stein wrote about it before she was killed in a Nazi death camp in 1942 — but its text was published for the first time yesterday in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
At the same time, other documents from the era are coming to light in the Italian media, including one some historians say is proof that Vatican did intervene on behalf of the Jews; a document dated April 4, 1933, that shows
the Vatican ordered its diplomats in Germany to warn Hitler's government not to persecute Jews.
The documents have become available following the Vatican's decision to open its prewar archives to scholars years ahead of schedule in a bid to deflect criticism that it was silent in the face of the Holocaust.
The archives available to researchers as of last weekend cover the Vatican's relations with Germany from 1922 to 1939.
Germany. During those years, Pius XII — pope from 1959-58 and accused by some historians of failing to do enough to protect Jews — was a Vatican diplomat in Germany and later its secretary of state.
At the same time, Stein was a teacher in Muenster, Germany, who joined the Carmelite order of nuns after converting to Catholicism. She had been born into an Orthodox Jewish German family in 1891.
On April 12, 1933, she wrote a letter to the then-pope, Pius XI, asking that he speak out against the "war of exterminating Jewish blood" by the Nazis.
"I know that my letter was sealed when it was delivered to the Holy Father some time later; I even received his blessing for myself and my loved ones. But nothing came of it. ... My fears concerning the future of German Catholics have been gradually realized in the course of the years that followed," she wrote.
She said Catholics "feared the worst for the worldwide image of the Church itself, if the silence continues further. We are also convinced that this silence cannot in the long run obtain peace from the current German government."
Historians also have wondered what became of the letter, because they say it may have been the first of many appeals to the
Vatican for intervention on behalf of the Jews.
In 2000, a commission of Jewish and Catholic scholars appointed by the Vatican and a Jewish group listed Stein's letter as one of the documents they hoped to see to reach conclusions about the Vatican's wartime record.
Specifically, they asked how the letter was received in Rome and whether they could see a copy of it. The panel disbanded in 2001, saying they couldn't proceed further without more access to the Vatican's wartime archives.
Their preliminary report said Stein's 1953 letter had asked Pius XI to issue an encyclical condemning anti-Semitism — but that request is not specifically made in the letter reproduced by Corriere. The newspaper said Stein merely planned to ask for an encyclical if she ever obtained an audience with the pope.
Crash kills guards in Iran's mountains
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran — A plane carrying 270 passengers, all members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran yesterday and all on board were killed, state-run media reported.
The plane was en route from Zahedan, on the Pakistan border, to Kerman, about 500 miles southeast of Tehran, state-run Tehran television reported. It crashed in a mountainous area about 50 miles from its destination, near the city of Shahdad.
The television report said the plane lost contact with the control tower at 5:30 p.m. yesterday.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that all
on board the plane were killed.
on board the plane were killed. State television and radio did not offer reasons for the crash and did not address the possibility of terrorism. There was heavy snowfall in many parts of Iran yesterday, including in Zahedan, which didn't seen snow in three years.
Tehran television quoted an anonymous official as saying the forces had visited the impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, of which Zahedan is the capital, for an "important mission." The Revolutionary Guards are seen as the defenders of Iran's Islamic regime.
The government issued a statement offering condolences to the families of the victims, television and radio reports said.
Japanese skiers brave European mountain
The Associated Press
CHAMONIX, France — Yuichiro Miura, 70, the first person to ski down Mount Everest, took his pursuit of adventure to the French Alps yesterday, tackling an arduous, avalanche-prone course with his son and 99-year-old father.
Together, the three generations braved howling winds and freezing temperatures to traverse the famed Mont Blanc's Valle Blanche, or White Valley.
Keizo Miura, who turned 99 on Saturday, wanted to ski down the glacier to mark his birthday. He required supplementary oxygen after being dropped off at the 12,700-feet high Aiguille du Midi, one of
the highest points in Europe that can be reached by cable car.
"What more could I imagine than the Valle Blanche!" Keizo said before setting off on the off-piste course that is notorious for avalanches.
A family associate in Tokyo said Keizo skied down the glacier all by himself except for one spot with a dangerous crevice where his 37-year-old grandson, Yuta Mitaura, piggy-backed him through.
When they arrived at the camp base, Keizo's 3-year-old greatgranddaughter Rio and other family members greeted him.
The Miura family, ski legends in their homeland of Japan, were followed down the mountain by dozens of other family members, friends and onlookers.
Sept.11 conspirator receives 15 years
The Associated Press
HAMBURG, Germany — A Moroccan was convicted yesterday for helping a key Al Qaeda cell behind the Sept. 11 terror plot and was handed the maximum sentence under German law—15 years—the first verdict anywhere in the world in the attacks on the United States.
Mounir el Motassadeq, 28 showed no emotion but occasionally shook his head or checked his watch as he listened to the verdict finding him guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder.
El Motassadeq helped pay tuition and rent for members of the Hamburg-based Al Qaeda cell — allowing them to live as students as they plotted the attacks, prosecutors said.
Judge Albrecht Mentz said el Motassadeq had lied when he testified he was unaware of the
plot despite being close friends with suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and other cell members.
The defendant was "a cog that kept the machinery going." Mentz said. He "belonged to this group since its inception. He knew and approved the key elements of the planned attacks."
ments of the planned attack. Sept. 11 victims' relatives who participated in the trial as coplaintiffs — some offering emotional testimony that Mentz said had prompted him to impose the maximum sentence — praised the verdict.
Joan Molinaro of New York said she was "thrilled."
"It's the first small victory we've had since 9/11," said Molinaro, whose firefighter son Carl was killed at the World Trade Center. "I kind of feel like, 'OK, Carl, we got one.'" she said. "I think my son is smiling."
Another New Yorker, Kathy
Ashton — whose son Tommy was killed at the World Trade Center — called the 15-year sentence "a drop in the bucket, especially for a young man, but at least it's something."
Interior Minister Otto Schily hailed the verdict as a "success in the fight" against terror. "It is a warning to all those who think they can toy with the idea of aligning themselves with terrorist networks."
While suspects in the plot detained in the United States face possible death sentences if convicted, el Motassadeq's sentence translates into a minimum of 10 years with 15 months off for time served. Even defendants in Germany sentenced to life in prison generally serve at most 15 years.
El Motassadeq, a slight, bearded man who admitted receiving Al Qaeda training in Afghanistan, denied the charges
during his 31/2-month trial. The defense, which had argued the evidence was circumstantial, said it would appeal.
In addition to 3,066 counts of accessory to murder, el Motassadeq was convicted of five counts of being an accessory to attempted murder and an accessory to bodily injury — charges introduced so five wounded survivors of the attacks, including a Navy officer at the Pentagon, could join the trial as co-plaintiffs.
Mentz said it was hard to give a man with two small children the maximum sentence, but that he had to consider the enormity of the crime.
Schily said the penalty was severe, a judgment shared by a lawyer representing many of the more than 20 American family members and survivors who joined the prosecution in efforts to secure the maximum sentence.
University of Kansas Classified Staff:
Please plan to attend on one of the following dates: Tuesday, Feb. 25-8:30-10:00 a.m.at Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union Wednesday, Feb. 26-2:00-3:30 p.m.at Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union Thursday, Feb. 27-8:00-9:30 p.m.at Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union Thursday, March 6-9:00-10:30 a.m.at Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union Sponsored by the Classified Senate, Provost's Office and Human Resources.
You are invited to attend a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the possibility of moving from the Civil Service employment structure to a University designed employment structure.
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