The World - News from Aug. 16, 1988

Paraguay’s president, Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, 75, took the oath of office for an eighth time in a subdued ceremony that followed weeks of tension between the government and the Roman Catholic Church. The church had canceled an annual thanksgiving Mass that was to have coincided this year with inauguration day. The cancellation was a gesture of protest against the expulsion from Paraguay last month of a Spanish Jesuit priest for allegedly encouraging the government’s overthrow. The church denied the charge, saying that the priest had been explaining “liberation theology,” which advocates political change as a means of social reform.