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Italian antidrug leader in N.H.
Father Redento Tignonsini, one of the founders of the European
Anti-Drug Coalition, is shown here with his interpreter, journalist
Webster Tarpley, addressing a February, 1980 National Anti-
Drug Coalition meeting in New Hampshire. Father Tignonsini,
the director of the drug-free therapeutic community CEIS in
Bessimo, Italy, was appointed by the Archbishop of Brescia to
collaborate with the coalition's work.
The Italian priest made an impassioned appeal to his American
audiences to use the power and prestige of America in the battle
against drugs, restoring the role of the United States as a moral
force in the world. As an educator who works daily with reformed
addicts, Tignonsini stressed that "more than of curing, we must
speak of preventing. And we must prevent by educating the new
generation to make human choices and not simply to behave in a
certain way. The present upbringing teaches protohuman attitudes,
but it does not educate the mind of man."
Father Tignonsini decried the fact that "in the face of the drug
tragedy which is destroying the lives and minds of youth, and
which is preparing for a society of men whose souls are dead,
what is frightening is the fact that all this is about to be legalized,
facilitated, and supported by politicians like Senator Kennedy,
who are putting themselves forward to guide the destiny of
American and the entire world."
He noted a "great vacuum: the vacuum left by the absence of
the voice of the Catholic Church, of the shepherds of souls, of
those who have been called to be the defenders of human and
Christian life." Urging that priests speak out forcefully against
drugs and euthanasia, Father Tignonsini charged that "certain
political agreements" with politicians had prevented this. "First
as a man, and even more ai a pastor, I cannot be silent," he
declared in a statement issued in New Hampshire in February.
"I cannot accept the genocide of the human race. I cannot
accept silence while so many of our brothers and sisters are
condemned to death and while the danger of a nuclear war hangs
over the world. I cannot be silent just as Dr. Tremblay, with
whom I have had the pleasure of collaborating, cannot be silent."
Boston church
applauds NADC
The Pilot, newspaper of the Boston
Archdiocese and the largest circulation
Catholic newspaper in New
England, gave front-page coverage
April 18 to the National Anti-Drug
Coalition. Under the headline
"Drug Abuse: Modern Plague Perils
Society," the Pilot reported at
length on Dr. Edward Christian's
slide presentation on the deadly
effects of drugs at Catholic Memorial,
Don Bosco, and St. Dominic
Savio high schools.
"While educators, politicians
and people generally ignore the
narcotics problem, insofar as a
reality so pervasive can be ignored,
one man has chosen to confront
the scourge with energy and determination:
Edward Christian, a
member of the National Anti-Drug
Coalition ... recently lectured at
several archdiocesan organizations
and high schools with the shocking
facts of drug dependence."
'Conspiracy' cited
Also quoted in the Pilot is Herbert
Quinde, Boston area coordinator
for the coalition, who
charges that behind efforts to decriminalize
dangerous drugs is
"Dope, Inc.," the international financial
network that runs the
drug traffic. "The central fact is
that this is a conspiracy ... a conspiracy
of people who are out to do
evil, and the idea of social control
is central," said Quinde. This is "a
form of subjugation, a way of
keeping a population that is volatile
as a result of social change and
economic crisis in line," he continued.
Quinde explained, "What we're
trying to do is counter the environment
by putting a penalty, politically,
on certain people, and ...
initiate legislation to restrain the
financing of the drug business internationally
... We could have
cold turkey in a week if today the
President of the United States decided
to stop the drug traffic."
June 1980 / War on Drugs 25