U.S. Catholic Bishops Still Oppose Contra Aid

Leaders of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have reaffirmed their opposition to U.S. military aid for the contra rebels seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

In a three-page statement issued by U.S. and Central American prelates after a meeting in Costa Rica, the bishops said they “are in complete agreement that the solution to the conflicts afflicting Central America needs to be sought through political measures.”

“This presumes an intense and perservering task of seeking the dialogue for peace at the national, regional and international levels.”

The bishops, including Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Nicaragua, an opponent of the Sandinista government, said Monday: “We have further been unanimous in insisting that U.S. relations with Central America must give clear priority not to military aid but to economic assistance for development.”

Catholic officials said the statement reaffirmed a 1981 U.S. church policy that opposed military aid to the contras and called on the Reagan administration to pursue more positively a negotiated settlement with the leftist Sandinistas.

The opposition to military solutions is the first statement of church leaders on the issue since the beginning of the hearings on the scandal and indicates the hearings have done nothing to blunt church opposition to administration policies, especially aiding the rebels.

Nor does the statement indicate that the hierarchies of the Catholic Church in Central America support the administration argument that the Nicaraguan regime--often at odds with the church in Nicaragua--poses a threat to other Central American nations or churches.

Underscoring the church’s opposition, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, often considered a conservative on the church’s political spectrum, has declared that U.S. policy “cannot and should not be built on continuing aid to the contras. “

In a column published recently in the Boston archdiocesan newspaper, Law, who was not part of the delegation to Central America, urged the administration to fashion a new Nicaraguan policy, including a program of U.S. economic aid that fosters the growth of democratic institutions in Nicaragua.

In the joint statement of the U.S.-Central American bishops, the U.S. bishops noted they had met with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez and voiced support for peace initiatives he has put forward, as well as expressing continued support for the peace process put forth by the the Contadora Group, which is made up of Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela.

The U.S. delegation to the Costa Rica meeting was led by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Sullivan of Brooklyn, chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s Committee on Social Development and World Peace. He was joined by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., and Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, N.M.