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NEWSPAPER STORIES REGARDING PARTICIPATION OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN PEACE CORPS

ACTIVITIES

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Shriver.

Mr. Shriver, I have noticed one or two editorials and accounts on the relationship of the Peace Corps to religious groups; I think this would be a good opportunity for you to clear up the questions they raise.

There was an article in the New York Times that I am sure you are familiar with. It is entitled "Any Church Role in Corps Decried." It says:

A major Protestant denomination and the American Jewish Congress protested to the Peace Corps yesterday against the signing of oversea contracts with religious groups.

I will have the reporter put that entire article in the record in order to give the background of it.

(The article referred to follows:)

[From the New York Times, June 21, 1961]

ANY CHURCH ROLE IN CORPS DECRIED TWO GROUPS SEE VIOLATION OF
CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE

A major Protestant denomination and the American Jewish Congress protested to the Peace Corps yesterday against the signing of oversea contracts with religious groups.

The Corps disclosed this week that about half of all project work assigned to private voluntary agencies would be done by church agencies.

The oversea arm of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America sent President Kennedy and Peace Corps officials a statement urging the Corps to sign no contracts with religious groups. The statement indicated that the church would not take part in any such projects.

It reaffirmed the denomination's support of the Peace Corps, and commended it for accepting persons without regard to creed.

PARALLEL GOALS CITED

The Christian mission, it said, aims "to proclaim the Gospel," while the Peace Corps aims to give personal assistance in the underdeveloped countries. The statement continued:

"These goals may parallel each other, but are not identical. This distinction must be maintained to affirm our historic belief in the separation of church and state, in the United States and other nations of the world."

A spokesman for the church commented that it had been working to separate the Christian mission "from the stigma of imperialism in the minds of the people overseas," and that taking Government aid would betray the church's position. The American Jewish Congress' stand came in a resolution in which it expressed "vigorous opposition" to participation by religious groups.

It sent a copy of the resolution to R. Sargent Shriver Jr., director of the Peace Corps.

INDEPENDENT OBJECTIVES

The Peace Corps program and church mission and welfare activities, the resolution said, are "independent objectives which must be pursued independently." It declared:

"Any use by religious groups of Government funds or of Peace Corps personnel in their church-sponsored projects would, we believe, violate the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state."

The resolution also warned that the Peace Corps program might be "severely handicapped" by the presence of church groups as participants.

"It is not unlikely," the group declared, "that many citizens of the countries where such Peace Corps projects are launched will view the program with sus picion as being motivated not so much by the goal of furthering the cause of peace as by promoting the missionary ends of the church groups involved."

The resolution was adopted at a meeting of the national executive committee of the congress.

The CHAIRMAN. There is also an editorial entitled "Agents of the Peace Corps" from the Washington Post. You are familiar with that, are you not?

Mr. SHRIVER. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

(The editorial referred to follows:)

[From the Washington Post, June 22, 1961]

AGENTS OF THE PEACE CORPS

Reports that a substantial portion of the Peace Corps funds will be spent through private groups, including welfare agencies operated by various churches, raise serious questions of both policy and constitutionality. It is not surprising that the directors of the Peace Corps are eager to take advantage of the experience of religious groups in providing aid to people in need in other lands. But the pitfalls in that course ought to be carefully surveyed in the light of this country's traditional separation of church and state.

One of the first questions that arises is what the Peace Corps will accomplish by supplying funds to religious groups already working in this field. Is it the intention of the Peace Corps to take over going projects supported by private funds? Would not the larger purpose of supplying a maximum of aid to our friends abroad be served by leaving the existing services undisturbed and using Peace Corps funds to supplement or add to what private groups are already doing?

The larger question is whether it is possible to take a group that has been serving a religious and humanitarian purpose and convert it into a wholly humanitarian enterprise, without the religious connotations. Generally speaking churches which sponsor welfare projects in other lands are basically interested in proselyting regardless of how much emphasis is laid upon economic, social, and educational aid. Will this underlying motive be changed when the Government begins to provide the funds? Will the recipients of the aid understand the changed motivation?

Certainly this venture raises some delicate questions. They will need to be pursued much further than mere official disavowals that any interlacing of political and ecclesiastical interests in intended.

PEACE CORPS WILL NOT PERMIT VOLUNTEERS TO ENGAGE IN PROSELYTIZING OR PROPAGANDIZING FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES

The CHAIRMAN. Would you care to comment on these articles and clarify the position of your agency regarding this matter?

Mr. SHRIVER. Well, Mr. Chairman, in all of our literature and all of our public statements to date we have made it clear that the Peace Corps is not sending volunteers abroad to engage in religious activities. They are being sent abroad to assist other countries in meeting their needs for skilled manpower.

Therefore, we are not going to permit volunteers to engage in proselytizing or propagandizing for religious purposes.

The Peace Corps, of course, like any other Federal agency, abides by the provisions of the First Amendment which prevents the Government from interfering with the free exercise of individual religious beliefs. We are certainly not going to tell the volunteers that they may not attend a church of their choice and participate in its activities in the same normal way that they do at home.

The Peace Corps is not going to provide funds to enable religious organizations to organize groups or to conduct church services or to proselytize in any other way, nor will we permit the volunteer to proselytize or recruit persons for religious services or preach on behalf of religious institutions.

PROPOSED UTILIZATION OF EXPERIENCE AND RESOURCES OF PRIVATE AGENCIES, INCLUDING RELIGIOUS GROUPS

On the other hand, it is our policy to utilize the experience and resources of our private agencies which have been operating abroad for many years, even for generations, and doing excellent work.

We hope to enable them to expand existing nonreligious activities and, perhaps, to begin new nonreligious activities.

We believe that in each case we will judge the case on its merits, and that we will be able to accomplish effective working relations with some of these agencies, including religious agencies which have been conducting nonreligious activities abroad for a number of years.

EXTENT TO WHICH CHURCH AGENCIES WILL PARTICIPATE IN PEACE CORPS

ACTIVITIES

The CHAIRMAN. Well, is it true that, as this article says, about half of all project work assigned to private volunteer agencies would be done by church agencies?

Mr. SHRIVER. No, sir. That is not completely accurate.

The CHAIRMAN. Could you describe the situation accurately?

Mr. SHRIVER. Yes. In our budget figures which we have submitted to this committee, to the Congress, we have indicated that out of a budget of $40 million, approximately $26 million has been assigned on a tentative basis for use with universities and colleges and with private voluntary agencies. This is an arbitrary division that we have drawn for our own purposes, but it is not based on any actual commitments which we have made to religious agencies or to universities. It is merely our hope that we will be able to work in this way.

Now, as specific cases come before us, Mr. Chairman, we will have to judge each one on its merits: Does it or does it not qualify? Does it or does it not meet Peace Corps standards? Does the religious institution, for example, foreswear any proselytizing or propaganda? If they are unwilling to do that no grants will be made. Experience may indicate that in the main a large proportion of this money, perhaps, will be spent through universities and colleges, and a lesser amount spent through religious institutions.

I indicate also that the private voluntary agency section includes many agencies which are not religiously oriented.

DISCUSSION OF CARE PARTICIPATION IN PEACE CORPS PROJECT IN COLOMBIA

CARE, the international relief agency, has already concluded an agreement with us. That comes within the private voluntary agency field. Money spent through them, of course, is not spent through a religious organization.

The CHAIRMAN. What will CARE do for you? What duties will it perform?

Mr. SHRIVER. CARE is participating with us in a project which we have announced with the country of Colombia in South America. They are assisting us in the recruitment and selection and training of people in this country who will then be sent to Colombia, where they will go through a further training period. CARE had already negotiated an agreement with Colombia whereby CARE would super

vise the training of 65 young citizens of Colombia in village rural development work.

They came to us, having already negotiated such an agreement with Colombia, and asked us whether we would be able to supply 65 Americans, 65 Peace Corps workers, to join in this effort. We thought this was an ideal opportunity to combine our resources with the resources of a private agency and of a foreign country, namely Colombia. So in this training camp in Colombia, instead of 65, there will be 130 Peace Corps volunteers and Colombians all told. From that camp they will go out to work in the villages of Colombia.

Now, CARE will have a supervisor, maybe more than one supervisor, in Colombia, working in the supervision of the Peace Corps people who are there, and of the Colombians who are participating with us.

So this is an integrated, closely linked project between ourselves, CARE, and the Colombian Government. It has been approved by ourselves, approved by the Colombian Government, and approved by CARE.

BREAKDOWN OF FUNDS SCHEDULED FOR UNIVERSITIES AND PRIVATE

AGENCIES

Senator LAUSCHE. Mr. Chairman, pursuing your thoughts that he break down the $26 million that is to go to universities and private agencies

The CHAIRMAN. I was coming to that. I want him to describe rather carefully, for the information of the committee and for the record, a typical agreement with one of the more important religious institutions, and also give the breakdown, as Senator Lausche has requested. Can you indicate that?

Mr. SHRIVER. Yes. On page 27, Mr. Chairman, of the information we supplied the committee members, there is the breakdown which Senator Lausche has asked for.

In the middle of that page there is a small notation entitled "Fiscal Year 1962 Budget, Private Agency and University Programs."

As you see, we expect or hope that we will be able to conclude agreements of the type, perhaps exemplified by the CARE project, with 18 or 20 agencies, and in these projects we anticipate there will be an average of approximately 25 volunteers, making a total of 450 volunteers.

The contract period, Senator Lausche, is for 2 years. That means that over a 2-year forward-funded period, we will have 900 manhours at a total cost of $8.1 million.

Now, similarly with universities, we are hoping to conclude as many as 20 projects averaging 50 volunteers for a total number of volunteers of 1,000. The contract period again is 2 years, and the total number of man-years funded would be 2,000 for a total cost of $18 million.

You can see that the private agencies, which include the religious groups, any and all religious groups, would total 18.

Now that is an estimate based on our experience to date, and the inquiries which we have received, and the opportunities that we see developing. If you would like to hear about some of these opportunities I could explain some of them to you.

AGREEMENT WITH NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY FOR PROJECT IN CHILE

The CHAIRMAN. I think it would be helpful if you would describe what you contemplate if you have made any agreements with any of the religious organizations; have you made any?

Mr. SHRIVER. The only agreement that one could say we have made with a religious organization has been made with Notre Dame University in Indiana, operating as the principal grantee on behalf of 34 other colleges and universities in Indiana.

In Indiana, I might add, for the benefit of the members of the committee, there is an organization called the Indiana Conference on Higher Education. Thirty-four colleges and universities are members of that group. They include all the big State universities like the State University of Indiana and Purdue; they include the denominational colleges, like Notre Dame; they include Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker organizations, and smaller nonsectarian liberal arts colleges. They are all united in this conference.

This conference has agreed to conduct a program for us in Chile, a program in which they will help in the recruitment, selection, and training of Peace Corps volunteers to go to work in Chile, south of Santiago, in rural development work and in teaching enterprises.

We think this gives us a great opportunity to tap the know-how and the skill and the resources of these institutions. It also enables us to get their judgment in addition to our own in the selection of people who are to go overseas.

Now, the principal grantee of the money being spent through the conference is Notre Dame University. We could not negotiate a contract with the conference as a whole because that was legally impossible, so one of the universities had to be selected. Notre Dame was selected because in developing this program that university had shown the greatest interest in the developmental work.

Now, that is a Catholic university. It is the recipient, or will be the recipient, of funds from us in order to carry out this project in Chile.

This project has been approved by the Chilean Government. In Chile it works through a private organization called the Institute for Rural Education, a well-accepted, qualified agency of that country, but not a governmental agency-a private agency.

However, the arrangement between the Indiana Conference on Higher Education and this private Institute for Rural Education in Chile has been approved by the Chilean Government and, of course, has been approved by our own Government.

COST OF THE CHILEAN PROJECT

Senator LAUSCHE. Would he tell what is the amount of money involved in this contract?

Mr. SHRIVER. The Chile project is in a second report, Senator, that we gave to you which is classified "Confidential," and it is dated the 19th of June. It is a supplement to our 1962 presentation, and on page 18 of that, in the appendix C-3, the figures are presented.

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