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dox commumt1es in the East and
the Roman Catholic and Protestant
worlds in the West.
The Pope told the visiting schol–
ars that he had confided the follow–
ing to representatives of various
non-Catholic communities in mid-
1980, short ly after having visited
Ecu menical Orthodox Patr iarch
Dernetrios
J
in Is tanbul: "One can–
not as a Christian, 1 would even say
stantial agreement on "just ification
by faith," a key issue that divided
the two churches in the 16th-cen–
tury Protestant Reformation.
The 20 U .S. Catholic and
Lutheran theologians said they still
recognized some di fferences in
approaches to the doctrine, but that
the differences were not sufficient
grounds for division.
T he report was timely.
lt
was
issued during the year of
the 500th anniversary of
the birth of Martin Luth–
er.
Soviet Long-term Plans?
The hardened Western
position on the missile sit–
uation and the ongoing
Papal "spiritual offen–
sive" in Eastern Europe
is, sorne believe, forcing
the leadership in the
Soviet Union to seriously
consider future ties to the
nations of Europe, both
East and West.
According to a report
from Budapest, Hungary,
in the British weekly
The
Observer
(July 31, 1983),
th~Soviet
long-term
ap–
proach just might provide
for a united- and, it is
assumed, neutralized–
Europe.
Observer
corre–
spondent Lajos Lederer
claims that the idea that
such a plan may be in the
mind of Soviet President
Andropov emerged from
remarks he reportedly
made to Janos Kadar, the
Hungarian leader, during
three long meetings in
Moscow.
In open forests of West Germany older Pershing 1
launchers are on the move. New generation of
missiles will replace them.
The reason for this
rethinking, says Mr. Led–
erer from H ungarian
as a Catholic, breathe with on ly one
lung; it is necessary to have two
lungs, that is to say, Oriental and
Occidental."
Within the Western Christian–
professing world, too, the ecumeni–
cal drive is slowly but steadily pro–
ducing results.
Last September an official panel
of Lutheran and Roman Catholic
scholars, after a five-year study,
announced that it had reached sub-
4
sources, "is the recogni–
tion by the Soviet Union that the
development of nuclear missiles has
destroyed the rationale for main–
taining the sta tes of Eastern
Europe as a 'buffer' between Rus–
sia and the Wes
t.
However loyal
Poland and Hungary and the rest
might be in a nuclear war, they
could do nothing to prevent the
annihilation of the Soviet Union."
Correspondent Lederer then
adds, " The H ungarians would not
be surprised if arnong the offers
from Moscow would be a s triking
one: the withdrawal of military
forces from Eastern Europe in
exchange for American forces
withdrawing from Western Eu–
rope."
Such a grand reshuffiing of the
political map of Europe would
shake t he foreign ministries of
every advanced nation in the
world- the U.S. State Depa r t–
ment most of all! It would aJso, of
necessity, entail the reunification
of Germany. With the rest of
Eastern Europe set free-partial–
ly, at least, into a condition of
strict neutrality- East Germany,
the farthest west of the East Bloc
satellites, would have no place to
go but into a greater German
state.
The Soviets, of course, would
hope that this new Germany would
remain in a harmless, neutralized
condition, forever appreciative of
Moscow's generosity.
For Moscow to even consider
such a course of action shows the
dread that the Soviets have of the
new generation NATO missiles, as
already evidenced by the fu ry with
wh ich they have attacked the
deployment program.
On his trip last year to Moscow
to visit Soviet President Andropov,
West German Chancellor Helmu t
Kohl surpr is ingly, and to Mr.
Andropov's face, forcefully
brought up again the German
desire for reunification.
That the Soviets, in contrast to
past years, did not react with hos–
tility to such a request only con–
firmed to sorne observers that
they have precisely such a just–
in-case policy in the back of their
minds.
Neutral Austria a Type
The stage is thus being set for sorne
dramatic realignments of power in
Eu rope.
T he Soviet Union, notes political
analyst William Pfaff, is occasion–
aJly "capable of sudden acts of real–
ism." As an example, the. Soviets
permitted the complete freedom of
Austria in 1955- with the stipula–
tion that Austria become a perma–
nently neutral state, not attached to
NATO. For
JO
years previously,
(Continued on page 43)
The
PLAIN TRUTH