[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 21, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E635-E637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         A HISTORIC PARTNERSHIP

                                 ______


                         HON. THOMAS J. MANTON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 21, 1995
  Mr. MANTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with my colleagues 
some remarks recently delivered by the Honorable Raymond L. Flynn, the 
U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.
  In his statement, the Ambassador reflects on the United States moral 
obligation to help end suffering of our fellow men. I agree that this 
ethical consideration, to help where we can, and lead by example, 
should be the cornerstone of our Nation's foreign policy. As my 
colleagues are no doubt aware, the Holly See has demonstrated great 
leadership in the fight for freedom from all types of oppression. I 
commend his speech, ``the United States and the Holy See: A Historic 
Partnership'' to my colleagues' attention.
The United States and The Holy See: A Historic Partnership . . .  From 
                        the Potomac to the Tiber

Delivering humanitarian assistance to the Third World: the Necessity to 
                                  act

       The United States and the Vatican are developing an 
     important partnership, one based on common interest, 
     cooperation and coordination. This partnership has the 
     capability to become a prominent feature of the post cold-war 
     world where the ability to achieve results in the 
     international arena may be based as much on moral concerns as 
     on military and economic alliances.
       Many are not aware of the relationship between the U.S. and 
     the Vatican, so let me review some of the highlights of our 
     productive relationship over the past 11 years of official 
     diplomatic relations. First I would like to discuss a crucial 
     issue for U.S. foreign policy: the moral commitment we have 
     as a nation to help those most in need.
       We hear outrageous statements in Congress about the 
     trillions of dollars of foreign aid being tossed down Third 
     World ratholes. There is a major debate in Washington today 
     about whether to cut the foreign aid that goes to feed the 
     hungry and clothe the naked in some of the poorest places in 
     the world. What many Americans do not realize is that we 
     spend less than one half of one percent of the federal budget 
     on foreign aid and even less on the part of foreign aid that 
     goes toward humanitarian assistance. That is not too much. If 
     anything, it's too little.
       Foreign aid to help poor and developing countries is not 
     only morally correct but makes sound U.S. policy. A small 
     amount of 
     [[Page E636]] money goes a long way and can mean the 
     difference between life and death. American interests are 
     better served when countries and regions are stable. The U.S. 
     throughout its history has often been isolationist when it 
     has come to getting involved in the world's problems. But if 
     we don't, we will be dealing with famine, disease and 
     possible military intervention later on. I don't need to 
     remind you of the problems the U.S. has encountered in its 
     temporary, fitful withdrawals from the world community 
     throughout its history.
       Like it or not, there is a moral dimension to foreign 
     policy. Children dying of malnutrition and disease are moral 
     concerns of the U.S. We can't and shouldn't ignore this.
       When President Clinton nominated me to be the U.S. 
     Ambassador to the Holy See two years ago, the President told 
     me he wanted me to work closely with the Catholic Church on 
     issues of social and economic justice. As part of this role, 
     I have traveled widely to visit some of the most desperate 
     places on earth both to highlight the problems in as well as 
     consult with Catholic charities and other humanitarian aid 
     organizations on how well aid was being delivered to these 
     areas. Over the past many months, I have been to India, 
     Sudan, Haiti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Croatia, Sarajevo, 
     Burundi, and Rwanda and have
      seen for myself humanitarian crises occurring in these 
     countries. I have also seen, though, the fine work of the 
     Catholic and other charities in the places I have visited, 
     including that of Catholic Relief Services, Caritas, 
     Doctors Without Borders, and many other groups across the 
     religious and social spectrum.
       The world's media are interested in these places for a few 
     weeks or months. But then a new story comes along and the 
     continuing crisis becomes yesterday's news. The television 
     cameras leave and people still starve. We need a way to keep 
     the world's attention focused on these troubled places, but 
     we also need to read about the great successes that are 
     achieved by these humanitarian organizations or donor fatigue 
     will set in. To read the paper these days is to read of 
     failures--in Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan. It's partly true but 
     does not touch on the successes: the work of aid 
     organizations to keep people alive.

              The African example: The forgotten continent

       Involvement by the U.S. in Africa during the past two years 
     has in the public's eye, centered largely on Somalia. There 
     has been a lot of talk recently in the press and among 
     politicians about the ``failure of our mission in Somalia.'' 
     I was in Somalia while operation ``Restore Hope'' was 
     underway and saw what it made possible for relief workers of 
     many nations to do under the protection of U.S. and UN 
     troops. The peace they brought to Baidoa had dramatic 
     humanitarian consequences. Baidoa as called the ``City of 
     death'', where thousands had died of starvation and hundreds 
     of thousands more were expected to die in the near future. 
     You remember the pictures on CNN during December 1992. And 
     Baidoa was not unique. The famine caused by the ravages of 
     the warlords prevented crops from being planted and food 
     being distributed. Without operation ``Restore Hope'' 
     millions would have died.
       A lot of people are saying that it is the responsibility of 
     Somalis to put their own country in order, and that no peace 
     can be imposed from outside. I agree completely. Nor do I 
     think it constructive to discuss how we might have conducted 
     ``Restore Hope'' differently.
       The moral question we need to face, and face squarely, is 
     ``Was Operation Restore Hope the right thing to do? On one 
     hand, we have a 26-month operation that cost the UN over $1.7 
     billion and the lives of 132 peacekeepers, some American but 
     most Pakistani. On the other hand, we have to consider what 
     might have been the consequences of our non-action: possibly 
     a million or more people dead of starvation. Can and should 
     the U.S.--the only superpower with the wherewithal to stop a 
     famine in Somalia--risk U.S. lives and resources to stop 
     widespread death? We chose not to do so in Rwanda. We have 
     chosen not to do so in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
       It comes down to a moral question: what is the greater 
     good? I think that America--the only super power--has the 
     duty to act, and I think it is in our interest to do so. We 
     are not truly ourselves unless we act to save innocent lives.

                 There's still a crisis in Africa . . .

       Starvation is again looming over the African continent. 
     Recent reports indicate that the coming famine could be worse 
     than those experienced over the past few years, when aid 
     donors often--because of ignorance of what was happening--
     responded too late to the crises. The international
      humanitarian group CARE estimates that almost 30 million 
     people are at risk in the Horn of Africa alone. Many 
     organizations are working now to battle ``compassion 
     fatigue'' among the rich donor countries. One way we 
     should be able to fight this is through coordination 
     between the U.S. government, private charities, and the 
     Catholic Church. We need to keep the response to a 
     possible African famine focused and organized and convince 
     the international community of this critical effort.
       As one who has visited most of the countries in Africa 
     which are faced with famine, I want to sound a strong warning 
     bell to the international community that chaos, devastation, 
     and death are at their door. Will it be on our conscience?

                        U.S.-Vatican partnership

       At this point, you might fairly ask, what is the U.S. 
     Ambassador to the Vatican doing speaking out on these things? 
     Part of the answer is that humanitarian issues have always 
     been in the forefront of my work throughout my public life. 
     I'll never forget my parents, a dockworker and a cleaning 
     lady, response when I asked them why they put money in the 
     Church poor box every week despite our modest means, ``we're 
     not as poor as some people,'' they said, ``we have our health 
     and a roof over our heads.'' We all need to remember that 
     there are many people, particularly in the Third World, that 
     are desperate for the basic necessities to live and we cannot 
     abandon them. My position at the Vatican and my instructions 
     from President Clinton to focus on humanitarian issues during 
     my tenure here have led to a natural partnership with the 
     Vatican on developing better ways to deliver aid. From my 
     unique position as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See I have 
     looked around me to see what contribution this Embassy could 
     make to helping those in the most distressed places in the 
     world. By combining the resources of the world's remaining 
     superpower--the U.S.--with the force of the world's moral 
     superpower--the Holy See--we will be able to contribute to 
     getting aid to where it is needed most because of the 
     complementary resources of the U.S. government, the Catholic 
     Church, and their respective aid organizations. The goal is 
     not original, but the way to achieve it is. The U.S. and the 
     Catholic Church, through its various charities, already 
     coordinate on an informal level in many humanitarian 
     assistance projects. This initiative does not exclude anyone 
     or any group. In fact, Administration officials will reach 
     out to many private charities over the next few months to 
     solicit their ideas and support. My charge from the 
     President, however, is to pursue cooperation with the 
     Catholic Church because of my position at the Holy See, which 
     is why I limit my discussion here to that topic.
       I have already discussed the conscientious efforts of U.S. 
     humanitarian assistance missions to deliver needed food, 
     medicine and supplies around the world. But I have also seen 
     the problems with aid deliveries on my visits to the Third 
     World. For example, on my Presidential mission to India in 
     October, 1993, to lead the U.S. relief effort following the 
     devastating earthquakes there, I observed a disturbing 
     problem with the organization of the aid delivery: no one 
     brought emergency housing provisions or some key medical 
     supplies for children. International donors sent food and 
     water purification systems, but not one of the most basic 
     necessities for the newly homeless Indians, temporary 
     shelters. This illustrated to me two problems: first, while 
     there was obviously coordination of aid delivery country-by-
     country, there was not adequate coordination on the 
     international level to make sure
      that the needed supplies were sent and the needed 
     coordination took place. Second, many of the resources for 
     getting information about what was needed at an early 
     stage were not used, meaning the people on the ground were 
     having a hard time telling international donors what would 
     be most useful. The UN does a lot of coordination, as do 
     international charities and individual countries, but I 
     wondered as I left India if it could not be done better.

                       The initiative takes shape

       One way to work on the better coordination of aid--and to 
     make sure that aid gets to the people who need it most at the 
     least cost--is through a partnership between the U.S. and 
     Catholic and other charities. The Holy See, which has often 
     been called the ``world's listening post,'' can help supply 
     useful data in our efforts to respond more effectively to 
     international disasters.
       On December 2, 1994, President Clinton wrote to Pope John 
     Paul II, offering a closer collaboration between the U.S. 
     government and the Vatican to better alleviate the ``human 
     suffering in a world with too many man-made and natural 
     disasters.'' In his letter to the Holy Father, the President 
     designated me as his direct representative on this initiative 
     with the Vatican. The Pope welcomed the initiative in his 
     written response to the President and named Cardinal Roger 
     Etchegaray, president of the pontifical council Cor Unum 
     (which coordinates the humanitarian assistance of the Vatican 
     and Catholic charities around the world) as his point man on 
     the issue.
       I met with Cardinal Etchegaray at the end of January. I 
     presented him with a proposal from Brian Atwood, the Director 
     of the U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID) 
     to share with the Vatican situation reports on U.S. 
     assistance missions and reports from its recently-created 
     Famine Early Warning System. U.S. AID also offered to review 
     jointly with the Vatican our various emergency responses, 
     with a view to improving future reactions to emergencies.
       Cardinal Etchegaray welcomed our proposals to share 
     information and coordinate the delivery of assistance around 
     the world. He told me that Catholic charities, because of 
     their extensive network of workers in the world's trouble 
     spots, would be able to share the information with the U.S. 
     government. The Cardinal emphasized the Pope's deep interest 
     in humanitarian concerns and pointed to two institutes the 
     Pope supports to promote sustainable development in Latin 
     America and sub-Saharan Africa. He offered 
     [[Page E637]] these as two constructive points of immediate 
     cooperation between the U.S. and the Catholic Church.
       I have also met regularly with Archbishop Giovanni Cheli, 
     Andre Nguyen Van Chau (International Catholic Migration 
     Commission), Kenneth Hackett (Catholic Relief Services), and 
     with representatives of other respected emergency relief 
     organizations to pursue further avenues of cooperation 
     between the U.S. and the Catholic Church. In March, I spent 
     two hours with Mr. Hackett discussing the best way to 
     anticipate political and natural disasters so that aid can be 
     delivered early. The fine work of CRS should be a model for 
     what we can accomplish on a larger scale, with more donors 
     involved in coordinating humanitarian assistance.
       The U.S. has financial resources and logistical support to 
     offer Catholic charities. These charities, which receive 
     direction from the Vatican, are often an early warning system 
     of their own, with key insights into where crises will occur 
     and how to prevent them in the first place.
                      The Moral imperative to act

       Charity begins at home, as the popular saying goes. We are 
     left--after all the discussion and analysis in Congress, on 
     the OP-ED pages, on the Sunday talk shows--with something 
     that is often forgotten: we have a moral imperative to act to 
     save people who are starving and dying. We as a nation have 
     always done this. To say that it should not be part of 
     foreign policy is to deny much of what we are as a people and 
     country. There is no moral distinction to be made between 
     someone starving in New York and someone starving in Sudan or 
     Rwanda. We should attempt to help both.
       It is time to cut through the rhetoric and say it clearly: 
     we should be spending a portion of the federal budget--it's 
     only one half of one percent at present, which does not seem 
     to me to be too high--to help those less fortunate than 
     ourselves. It makes good moral, as well as foreign policy, 
     sense.
       That said, there are always ways to provide aid more 
     efficiently. By working together, the U.S. and the Holy See 
     can contribute to the more effective utilization of resources 
     to help those in need. In Pope John Paul II and President 
     Clinton, we have a natural partnership in the concern for the 
     poor, disadvantaged, and forgotten. Let's build on that 
     partnership to achieve concrete results. As I have said 
     before, the U.S.-Vatican relationship seems to be one made in 
     heaven; but it's nice also to see fruits of our labor 
     together here on earth.
     

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