[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 52 (Thursday, April 15, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3774-S3775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO CARDINAL SILVA

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, last week the hemisphere lost one of its 
greatest leaders on human rights with the death of Raul Cardinal Silva 
Henriquez of Chile.
  The Cardinal was a great man, and one of the great voices for freedom 
and justice of our time and of all time. He was a brave and holy man 
whom many of us were proud to call a friend. The poet Yeats said:

     Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
     And say my glory was I had such friends.

  Most of all, the Cardinal was a friend to all those who needed 
friends the most--the oppressed, the frightened, the lost, the 
``disappeared.'' He sheltered the homeless, but he also sheltered those 
who had homes but dared not go to them. During the dark days of Chile's 
recent history, when the flame of democracy was nearly extinguished, 
and the noble concepts of freedom and human rights considered 
subversive ideas by those in power, this courageous man of God would 
not be silent.
  Now, God has called home his good and faithful servant, and we 
understand that. Only God could still that strong and powerful voice. 
His enemies may have hoped to silence him through all those years, but 
they dared not.
  I first meet the Cardinal in the 1970's, shortly after the coup that 
stifled democracy in Chile. He had come to Washington, and I had been 
holding hearings here in the Senate, year after year, to try to shine 
some sunlight into the darkness of the human rights abuses in his land. 
He asked if we could meet privately, away from the glare of publicity, 
and we did so, at a friend's home. As we sat and drank tea, he spoke 
directly and intensely about human rights in his country, without 
anger, and with insight and determination.
  In those years, he had created the Committee for Peace, an ecumenical 
movement of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews dedicated to providing 
relief to the victims of human rights abuses.
  Later, defying the Pinochet regime, he formed the Vicarage of 
Solidarity, to provide legal assistance for the victims of the abuses, 
and to protect the lawyers who championed their cause. Without the 
protective mantle of the Cardinal and the Church, these organizations 
would almost surely have been snuffed out. Because of him, many people 
found the courage to speak out and to continue the long battle for 
democracy.
  We met several more times over the years. When I visited Chile in 
1986, the government refused to meet me. But the people, led by the 
Cardinal, welcomed me, and I will never forget that inspiring and 
deeply moving reception.
  At another time and place, the poet Gabriela Mistral wrote about the 
wife of a prisoner:

       From the house I grieve, to the fiery thimble of his 
     dungeon, I fly back and forth like a living shuttle, like one 
     who knows no other path, until at last the walls open, and 
     let me pass through iron, pitch and mortar.

  The Cardinal heard the cry of women like that, and their men. Chile's 
Ambassador to the U.S., Genaro Arriagada, was one of those who, because 
of the Cardinal, found the courage to resist. His ``No'' campaign the 
1980's led finally to the shining moment in the National Stadium in

[[Page S3775]]

Santiago in 1990. None of us who were in the stadium that day will ever 
forget it.
  President Aylwin had already accepted the sash of office, a symbol of 
the restoration of freedom and democracy that so many, including the 
Cardinal, had worked for so long and so well to achieve.
  In the stadium, which had been the darkest symbol of fear, 
imprisonment and despair, a beautiful tribute occurred. A young girl 
walked across the infield, while the great stadium scoreboard scrolled 
the names of the disappeared. Their families danced to a song about 
freedom in Chile. When President Aylwin spoke at sunset, thousands of 
candles burned, and fireworks lighted up the sky above the jubilant 
crowd. The celebration lasted for hours--and it continues to this day.
  Many profiles in courage made that glorious day possible. But no one 
did more to make it possible than that strong, brave man of God, our 
friend, Raul Cardinal Silva Henriquez. May he rest in eternal peace.

                          ____________________