After 30 years of collaborating with Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, the Dominican Republic's Roman Catholic hierarchy broke sharply with the strong-man last year. In a pastoral letter signed by all six of the country's bishops in January, the church called clearly and unequivocally for "freedom of conscience, press and assembly," for a climate of liberty, for an end to "anonymous denunciations." Last week the news filtered up from the Byzantine depths of Trujillo's country that the church had been forced to bend to the dictator again.
Pridefully, Trujillo's radio station La Voz Dominicana reported the letter of capitulation addressed to "the benefactor of the fatherland" by the six bishops: "We are coming to Your Excellency with the wish to continue cooperating. There has been a deterioration in relations that we are the first to deplore. None of us could have suspected the misinterpretation given our pastoral letter. We are the first to condemn such distortions of truth. We do not say that there have been no imprudent acts in the ecclesiastical sphere. We acknowledge them. To this end, we propose 1) to remind the priests to cooperate and try to avoid even the slightest cause for friction with the authorities, and 2) to study the government's suggestions very carefully."
Back to Rome. Behind the apparent surrender lay a long and bitter assault on the church by Trujillo. The man most responsible for awakening the hierarchy last year was Papal Nuncio Lino Zanini who arrived in Ciudad Trujillo only three months before the pastoral, looked around and told the bishops to fight. After the pastoral, the nuncio received anonymous letters threatening his life. Boston-born Bishop Thomas Reilly found his residence encircled by secret police goons, was trailed wherever he went, was threatened with expulsion, even violent death.
Some Dominican-born bishops got word that "accidents" might happen to their relatives. Trujillo's Radio Caribe took up the attack, almost daily called priests "psychotics, perverts, parasites." In five months, more than 50 priests were expelled from the country. Trujillo agents wearing cassocks ostentatiously parked their cars in front of brothels, walked into bars; Trujillo officials passed laws limiting religious education and tried to force parents to withdraw youngsters from parochial schools.
Intermittently, Trujillo proffered bits of the carrot to go with the whip. He reminded the church that he was building a $3,500,000 basilica and a $4,000,000 Catholic University in Higüey. He also warned that the church by inciting a rebellion against him was asking for a Castro. As the pressure built up and church attendance fell off under the Trujillo scrutiny, the decision was made to bend—or at least appear to.
Benefactor of the Church? In the exchange of letters that reached the outside world last week, Trujillo tentatively accepted the bishop's truce offer: "We have devoted the most careful consideration to your intention to correct the imprudences which, as you loyally acknowledge, have been committed in the church."