Clergymen Unite Against Salvador Aid : Religion: About 800 listen to an interfaith service protesting U.S. military assistance.

In an unusual display of interfaith unanimity, Catholic Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and local Protestant and Jewish leaders protested U.S. military aid to violence-torn El Salvador in an outdoor service Wednesday at the Los Angeles Civic Center.

“Let our government refrain from investment in war,” Mahony said in an opening prayer before about 800 protesters and lunch-time observers.

Mahony, scheduled to leave Saturday on an eight-day trip to Central America, said in an interview that the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops has not called for full cessation of aid to El Salvador.

But the Los Angeles prelate added that American bishops are distressed by the Salvadoran government’s failure to change policies that have contributed to the harassment and murder of church workers. “The bishops don’t see a reining in of the death squads,” Mahony said.

During the service, featuring social protest songs by recording artist Jackson Browne, bread and matzo were distributed as symbols of the cross-denominational unity.

Among clergy taking part were United Methodist Bishop Jack M. Tuell, Reform Rabbi Lennard Thal, Episcopal and Presbyterian regional representatives and Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Roger Anderson, who read comments by exiled Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez of El Salvador.

Participants accused the U.S. government of ignoring the funding needs of social programs at home by giving money to El Salvador.

“On Nov. 21, 1989, Congress approved an emergency assistance package that included $85 million in military aid and $5 million in police aid to El Salvador,” said Tuell. “Between 1980 and 1988, our federal commitment for affordable housing under HUD was cut 75% from $36 million to $7 million. For our silence, we repent. Oh God, have mercy.”

The rites at the base of the Triforium were organized by the same religious coalition that has attempted to block entrances to the nearby Federal Building eight times since November in nonviolent protest of U.S. aid to El Salvador.

Mary Brent-Wehrli of the Southern California Interfaith Task Force on Central America said about 750 arrests have been made during the protests.

The service was a Southern California extension of high-level Catholic, Protestant and Jewish lobbying of the Bush Administration on the issue since last fall.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III told a nine-member religious delegation Jan. 19 that the White House does not believe the frequent charge by Salvadoran officials that the churches are aiding rebel forces. Baker defended continued U.S. military aid, however.

Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist and other mainline leaders have had greater access to the White House under Bush than under Reagan. Presiding Episcopal Bishop Edmond L. Browning, for instance, has met several times with Bush, a lifelong Episcopalian.

But after the Los Angeles protest service Wednesday, Archbishop Mahony said religious leaders must do more.

“We have leverage which we don’t use,” he said.