-IN THE
ORIGINAL
CHRISTMAS, 1989 CHRISTMAS CARD/LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, THE NOTE TO HIM
WAS ABOVE
THE UPDATED FORM OF THE ORIGINAL 1987 DOCUMENT I WAS THEN SENDING HIM--ANOTHER "CHRISTMAS GIFT"....
GIVEN THE NOTE'S LENGTH, I
CHOOSE TO PUT THE
NOTE BELOW THE TITLE AND DOCUMENT TEXT HERE...ACCOMPANIED BY THIS NOTE ABOVE
BOTH.
Gordon C. Wong,
SPECIAL DIPLOMATIC ADVISER
TO THE U.S. PRESIDENT,
SENIOR ADVISER TO THE YEAR
OF THE CHILD,
P.O. Box 1236,
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, V6C 2T1,
Christmas, 1987.
The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu,
Anglican Christian Archbishop of
Capetown,
Bishopscourt,
Claremont 7700,
South Africa.
Archbishop Tutu:
As Christmas approaches this year, i have been thinking over the following from the December 16, 1985 Vancouver Sun article, "Upheaval challenges Christianity APARTHEID BLAMED":
"...This politicization of the clergy always arouses protest, particularly from politicians.
But, according to Bishop Desmond Tutu of Johannesburg (a powerful Christian, but an indifferent politician), the church in South Africa has no choice.
Tutu has found that young people--the key to the future of any church, South Africa or otherwise--are turning to direct and violent protest rather than following any longer the church's call for peaceful change.
The Christmas message of peace on earth, goodwill toward men cannot be applied to South Africa, he believes.
'As to non-violence as a strategic weapon, I have a theory,' Tutu said in a recent interview.
'Non-violence presupposes a minimum moral level. And when that minimum moral level does not operate, I don't think non-violence can succeed.'
In other words, the story of the baby Jesus learned at missionary school is a thing of the past in South Africa because the white leadership of the country does not recognize the message of equality."
In my December, 1983 submission to Pope John Paul II (which received the two letters from Monsignor G.B. Re of the Vatican Secretariat of State in January, 1984 that i gave you copies of last year), i drew his attention to remarks made by Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, quoted in the December 24, 1983 Globe and Mail article, "Peace of Christmas", as follows:
"The Peace which Christmas represents is not the analysis of the means of peace, so we are not talking about deterrents or first strike or cruise missiles. The Peace which is synonymous with Christmas is an interior peace, which can only come from Love. Christmas is God's gift to man; a gift wrapped in Love. If all we can see is the swaddling clothes which cover the Child, we will never find the Love and we will never find the Peace."
In the letter from my parents accompanying the monetary gift they sent me for Christmas this year, they suggested i use it to buy myself a good meal to celebrate Christmas. They also enclosed a copy of an article from the local newspaper reviewing a book about the history of the city and mentioning my father's contribution as a Canadian to the struggle against the Nazis in World War Two.
I sincerely believe they will respect that i have decided to use it instead to pay for these two registered letters to South Africa.
Two years to the day from the date of publication of the Vancouver Sun article i quote from here, i did send the statement to P.W. Botha that i enclose the copy of here for you.
The struggle in the name of the true meaning of Christmas and Christianity will continue so long as "all of us" celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Hoping this will help you and all South Africans--
I remain, as always,
Gordon
C. Wong
[THE CHRISTMAS, 1989 CARD/LETTER PACKAGE WAS SUBMITTED WITH THESE ADDITIONS AND IN THIS FORM:]
My friend:--
As this is going to come up shortly, since i got no reply from President Reagan to my 2 Christmas, 1988 registered letters to him--one matter documented in them was that the former Soviets, under Glasnost, had admitted that his so-called "muscular foreign policy" in 1983 had almost scared them into using nuclear weapons...killing "all of us"--and for some personal reasons it seems i'm going to have to explain, i have been dating all the correspondence in my "International Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" for the world's children as Christmas, 1989 and in brackets the actual date of mailing with respect for these two elements of the past work.
[IN THAT ORIGINAL 1989 SUBMISSION, THE FOLLOWING TWO TERMS OF REFERENCE WERE ON THE PAGE WITH THE NOTE TO POPE JOHN PAUL II RUNNING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH THEM.]
1)
VATICAN CITY (AP)--The Vatican newspaper said yesterday that PLO leader Yasser Arafat is "an able and open-minded politician," but his evacuation from Lebanon was a humiliation.
Speaking of the complex political situation surrounding the Palestine Liberation Organization, L'Osservatore Romano said in a commentary: "Arafat, perhaps, understood it, being the shrewd, able and open-minded politician that he is.
"For this reason in the past few years he tried to achieve a political solution to the Palestinian question," the newspaper continued.
"But from this moment begins his moment of disgrace, culminated the other day by a new exodus. Now the historic leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization leaves the scene with a new humiliation."
Mr. Arafat and his PLO fighters "certainly had a not unimportant role in the tragic Lebanese conflict, which has involved thousands and thousands of unarmed civilians," the L'Osservatore commentary continued.
"But this is not the whole story. According to many observers, the Palestinians, both followers and dissenters of Arafat, may have forgotten the original scope of the PLO."
(text of December 23, 1983 Globe and Mail article)
IN BRIEF
Peace of Christmas
TORONTO (Staff)--Emmett Cardinal Carter, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, has issued a statement on the Peace of Christmas. He says: "The Peace which Christmas represents is not the analysis of the means of peace, so we are not talking about deterrents or first strike or cruise missiles. The Peace which is synonymous with Christmas is an interior peace, which can only come from Love. Christmas is God's gift to man; a gift wrapped in Love. If all we can see is the swaddling clothes which cover the Child, we will never find the Love and we will never find the Peace."
(text of December 24, 1983 Globe and Mail article)
I really wondered
yesterday, the 23rd of
December 1983, whether i should say anything about my personal
Christmas hopes. On the
22nd, the Vancouver Diocese told me
that i wouldn't be allowed to use their
photocopying machine anymore--i "could go to the library".
The library machines cost 15 cents a
page, the Diocese charged me 6 cents a page. The morning mail
had brought me a letter from the person
in Toronto who has been storing my remaining
1200 albums; he now says he intends to sell them and send me
the money unless i have someone pick them up by
the middle of February 1984. I usually get some money from my
parents as a Christmas gift; i
didn't this year so far, though it may have
been delayed in the
holiday mails.
And i found myself without words to accompany a Christmas gift i was
planning to give a Roman Catholic young lady
i've referred to
often recently, so i didn't give her the gift. This may mean that the
relationship will not endure--which will be of "political" advantage
to Prime Minister Trudeau; i said i wouldn't
return to Ottawa to consult if he interfered with my personal life further.
But it is breaking my heart personally.
Then i found these two newspaper
articles. You can consider the first relative to my "Christmas
gift to the Christian, Jewish, and Moslem religious faiths' followers...and the
world" here. It will likely be of ("political") advantage to
Prime Minister Trudeau, sir, that
L'Osservatore Romano sees it like this--but will it help Mr. Arafat,
the homeless Palestinians, the other peoples of the Holy Lands, the Canadian
people, and the people of the world?
I
believe, Pope John Paul II, that this is at
heart what our Toronto friend, Gerald Emmett
Cardinal Carter, wonders.
Is "the Peace of Christmas", not the
time of year-Christmas but the celebration of the "spiritual message"
of Christ's birth and being-Christmas, which is durable forever, we
hope--one which needs the "swaddling clothes" of "political
energy"? I was given $38.40 for working last week; all i will have for
Christmas this year. I can't send this today, on Christmas Eve, then. My one
to Bishop de Roo and the ones to
Prime Minister Trudeau and President
Reagan will be sent after Christmas. So will this one. I sent my parents
and that 'friend' in Toronto with my records
gifts weeks ago. I wonder now whether they will ever see the "gift"
to them you see here.
TO CONSIDER THE TEXT OF THE SECOND PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS, 1987 LETTER TO MY FRIEND DESMOND TUTU, TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP HERE.