{"id":321646,"date":"2025-04-23T20:18:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T00:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=321646"},"modified":"2025-04-23T20:18:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T00:18:53","slug":"he-marked-the-history-of-the-church-and-of-humanity-a-look-at-francis-from-within-cuban-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/he-marked-the-history-of-the-church-and-of-humanity-a-look-at-francis-from-within-cuban-catholicism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe marked the history of the Church and of humanity\u201d: a look at Francis from within Cuban Catholicism"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was still processing the death of Pope Francis when Father Yosvany Carvajal Sureda (Havana, 1975) agreed to speak by telephone with <\/span>OnCuba<\/b>. Although it was predictable in the game of probabilities, the news was no less shocking and felt like a catastrophe for a world increasingly beset by misfortune.<\/span><\/p>\n

His 38 days in the Gemelli Hospital, from which he was released on March 23, kept millions, faithful and non-faithful, on tenterhooks day and night. Then came his unexpectedly busy Vatican agenda. Just one day before his death, with a faint voice and a weary look, the Pope spoke to the faithful from St. Peter\u2019s Basilica and offered a final Urbi et Orbi blessing. Holy Thursday found him in Rome\u2019s main and oldest prison, <\/span>Regina Coeli<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For our interlocutor, of all the popes, Francis has been the most beloved to contemporary Cubans, both as a pastor and as a statesman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ordained a priest at the age of 24 by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who soon asked him to become pastor of the Cathedral of San Crist\u00f3bal de La Habana, live in the Archbishopric, and become secretary of the institution, Carvajal Sureda is the President of the Cardinal Jaime Ortega Foundation and Rector of the Father F\u00e9lix Varela Cultural Center, one of the think tanks of Catholicism on the island and a facilitator of analysis and debate on decisive issues of national life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He studied Philosophy at the Pontifical University of Mexico, and then Bachelor\u2019s and Licentiate degrees in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is a professor of Philosophy and Theology at the San Carlos y San Ambrosio Seminary in Havana, and at the Father F\u00e9lix Varela Institute of Ecclesiastical Studies, which he founded.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Father Yosvany Carvajal Sureda, parish priest of the Sagrario Cathedral of San Crist\u00f3bal de La Habana. Photo: Palabra Nueva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A symbolic date<\/b><\/p>\n

How have you experienced the news of the Holy Father\u2019s death? Did you expect him to go beyond this health crisis?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Pope\u2019s health had been deteriorating for some time. We saw him walking with a cane, breathing with some difficulty, until a series of illnesses began to appear that degenerated into an acute respiratory crisis with pneumonia, from which he managed to recover.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought he would recover for a while longer, that his departure wasn\u2019t so imminent. But he surprised us, and it was no less than on the Octave of Easter, that is, right on the day of the most important Christian feast, the resurrection of the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you perceive a symbol in this coincidence?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, I believe there can be no better date than this to depart from this world to the Father\u2019s house. Easter is the meaning of the Christian life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Life with God, the ultimate destiny and final goal of human existence, Christ\u2019s triumph over death, over evil, is what we Christians celebrate at Easter. The Pope died during the Easter celebrations, the most important celebrations of the Christian faith.<\/span><\/p>\n

A redeemer<\/b><\/p>\n

If I were to ask you for a quick portrait of Francis, where would you place the most prominent features?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, he was a man who marked the history of the Church, and I would say more: the history of humanity. Much should be said about Pope Francis, about his teachings, about his ethical and moral teachings, which relate not only to the personal life of a Christian in his relationship with God, but also to his social relationships, his relationship with the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was the pope who wrote an encyclical on Creation, on environmental care, <\/span>Laudato Sii<\/i><\/b><\/a>, a letter that set a unique guideline in the history of the papacy. I would dare say that Francis is the pope of mercy and hope, because just as John Paul II was the man of dialogue, of the relationship between faith and reason, and Benedict XVI greatly helped interpret the mysteries of faith because he was a scholar of the Church, Francis was the man of concrete gestures of fraternity, even as a political category, I would dare say.<\/span><\/p>\n

He knew how to use something inherent to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is fraternity, to extend it to all spheres, not only the religious, but also the social and political; also in his dialogue with the Muslim world, with politicians, in his interpretation of the social relations of human beings.<\/span><\/p>\n

He marked an important stage in the history of the Church as the pope of the fraternal gesture of encounter, of concern for the common good, of learning to forgive one another. That is why I describe him as the pope who spoke most about God\u2019s mercy, which must then be reflected in mercy for one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would dare to define him in this general way. I know that many more things could be said about his pontificate, but this is what I retain as the most valuable of his entire Petrine ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imprint in Cuba: against the tenements<\/b><\/p>\n

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Photo: Kaloian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bergoglio visited Cuba a couple of times, making the island the only country in the world with that privilege. Although you alluded to it in some way in the previous answer, what is the pastoral imprint that the Holy Father leaves among the parishioners and clergy of this country?<\/b><\/p>\n

When he came to Cuba, the Pope taught us the art of dialogue and forgiveness. He spoke for the first time here, at the Father F\u00e9lix Varela Cultural Center, to a large group of young people of all political and ideological tendencies and preferences \u2014 Catholic and non-Catholic young people, of course \u2014 and invited them to dream, to never tire of doing so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then he used another very important concept: the culture of encounter. Faced with a throwaway culture, as he called it, in today\u2019s world, where the one who counts is the one who produces, the one who has, the one who consumes, the one who possesses material goods or shows them off, Francis opted for the culture of encounter, where two people who think differently can meet and forge a goal together.<\/span><\/p>\n

He believed that we Cubans would always choose dialogue. He encouraged not only the young people present at the cultural center, but also the civil authorities. He invited us all to dialogue, because for Pope Francis, dialogue was the only way to achieve higher goals, so that we all work toward the common good, so that no one is excluded because of different ways of thinking. He even used a term that the young man who presented the speech at that moment had used, and it was the word \u201ctenements.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To not lock yourself inside the tenements, which can be religious, ideological, or political. These tenements make us think that only what we know in our own personal world or in our belief system exists. The Pope invited everyone to transcend them, to not lock ourselves in them and open ourselves to others in order to achieve higher goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that was the most forceful teaching of his visit to Cuba in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n