Catholic Bishops See Disaster if Farm Crisis Isn’t Resolved

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops warned Congress and President Reagan Friday that, without new laws to protect family farms, the entire country could suffer economic and social disaster.

“Unless there is sufficient government support forthcoming in the short term and effective methods of managing food supply in the long term, this . . . will destroy a large number of our competent and dedicated owners and operators of moderate-sized farms,” the bishops said.

Effects on Consumers

“The success or failure of our efforts to address this problem will have serious effects on every consumer and, thus, every citizen of the land.”

The statement, addressed to Reagan and the Congress, was adopted on the closing day of the 300 bishops’ weeklong annual conference.

The message expressed the bishops’ “concern about the present trend in the development of the 1985 farm bill as it relates to food and agriculture.”

Any legislation on the subject should include a just return for farmers and a just wage for farm workers, incentives for long-term soil conservation and the encouragement of more owner-operator farms, the statement said.

“We believe that the further concentration of our agricultural land in the hands of a few could ultimately produce oppression, hunger and powerlessness of the general population,” the bishops said, adding:

“The economic and social disasters which now threaten our farming communities will only foreshadow social and economic disruption in our cities and metropolitan areas in the future.”

Previous Farm Statements

The U.S. Catholic hierarchy expressed concern for farm families in statements issued in 1972 and 1979, and their forthcoming major pastoral letter, “Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy,” will devote an entire section to food and agriculture issues.

At their final session, the bishops criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision last July 1 denying the use of federal funds for remedial education on religious school property.

“We . . . deplore the harm and the hurt that so many children are suffering from the unjust, discriminatory and narrow decision of the . . . court in the Aguilar vs. Felton case,” the bishops said. “It deprives our poorest and most disadvantaged children of equitable participation in the compensatory education program which Congress authorized in Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.”

Since 1965, the funds had been available for remedial education in both public and parochial schools.

The bishops said that the decision, “rather than showing the neutrality the Supreme Court boasts of . . . exhibits nothing less than hostility toward religion and the children who attend church-sponsored schools.”

Called ‘Blatant’ Bias

During debate on the issue, Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia told his brother bishops to loud applause: “This is blatant discrimination. This is blatant injustice, and we should call it that . . . . It is a distortion--not an interpretation--of the Constitution.”

In the closing moments of the meeting Friday, the bishops adopted a resolution expressing “deep concern” for the U.S. hostages in Lebanon--who include Father Lawrence Jenco, a priest assigned to Catholic Relief Services--and offering prayers for their release and for their families.

The Lebanon hostage crisis threatens “the very presence of Christianity in the Middle East,” the bishops said.