On September 15, 2013, Cuba\u2019s Catholic bishops made public what remains their latest Pastoral Letter (\u201cHope Does Not Disappoint\u201d). At the time, the Cuban and US governments were beginning a year and half of secret negations, negotiations which involved Pope Francis and led to the watershed of December 17, 2014.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been almost two years since Cuba\u2019s Episcopal Conference sought to make public its vision about Cuba and clarify how the Church conceives and envisages the options it recommends or demands for the country in the midst of its reform process.<\/p>\n
The pastoral titled \u201cHope Does Not Disappoint\u201d was also a homage to a previous pastoral letter, issued in 1993 and titled \u201cLove Endures All Things,\u201d whose diagnosis of Cuba\u2019s social situation and the scope of its proposals expressed a clear will to influence the design of solutions to the crisis.<\/p>\n
In 1993, the island\u2019s bishops were fairly critical of the Cuban government, at times practically suggesting it was solely responsible for all of the economic and social conflicts that the crisis brought to the surface or intensified fiercely during the first years of the Special Period.<\/p>\n
In 1998, by acknowledging the legitimacy of Cuban authorities through an invitation to peaceful exchange, Pope John Paul II was able to translate the wishes of the Church and its commitment to the country into a language that was more acceptable to all, in an effort to avoid returning to the times of \u201cantagonistic aggression\u201d towards established political power.<\/p>\n
He called for dialogue and flexibility (saying \u201cmay Cuba open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba\u201d), something which only very recently began to become a reality and to be delineated as an encouraging prospect, as part of newly-established relations between Cuba and the United States, focused on the dismantling of the blockade policy (the main obstacle to normalization).<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Cuba\u2019s Catholic bishops decided to invoke the words of John Paul II to lay the bases for their position. They chose to replace the terms \u201cblockade\u201d and \u201cembargo\u201d with \u201cthe isolation brought about\u201d and \u201cmeasures imposed from abroad.\u201d In 2013, when President Obama himself had expressed his intentions of changing US policy towards Cuba radically, the Catholic Church hierarchy was still choosing its words carefully.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been six months since the announcement was made in December and Cuba\u2019s Catholic Church, represented by its bishops, has not yet pronounced itself regarding this new context.<\/p>\n
The one exception is Cardinal Jaime Ortega who, in an interview for Spain\u2019s Ser<\/em> network, described the present as \u201ca time of hope, a time of positive prospects, coming after many years of struggle and concerns over an improvement in Cuba with respect to economic, financial and other difficulties caused by this situation, a situation that has not yet been overcome, the US embargo, which should at least be relaxed (\u2026) and eliminated a little bit later.\u201d<\/p>\n One would expect a public declaration made by Cuban prelates to express the wish to secure, with the same enthusiasm with which their spiritual leader, Pope Francis, has shown in his actions, all of the aid needed to turn this recent rapprochement between the two countries into the preface of a new stage in history.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, cordial relations between the Cuban government and the Vatican \u2013 soon to enter their 80th<\/sup> year \u2013 have only grown. Suffice it to recall Raul Castro\u2019s recent visit to the Holy See and the suggestive pronouncements he made following his meeting with the Pope. \u201cIf the Pope continues to speak this way, I can assure you I will start praying again and return to the Catholic Church, no joke,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n We can get along with this Pope and this Church, the Cuban President appeared to be saying under his breath. A socially conscious Church that actively mediates and encourages an understanding that respects Cuba\u2019s sovereignty allows the country to come out of its ideological trench, breathe life into its economy and broaden relations with the \u00e9migr\u00e9 community.<\/p>\n Pope Francis will visit Cuba in September. His trip to the island was preceded by the visit of Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy of the Holy See, one of the most important figures within the Catholic hierarchy, diplomatic representative of the Pope in Havana between 1993 and 1999. In addition to holding masses at several cities around Cuba, Stella met with Raul Castro.<\/p>\n Pope Francis will be the third Pontiff to visit Cuba in 17 years. It is hoped his visit will be more than evangelical, that, as the highest authority of the Church, he will address other institutional issues, such as appointing a new Havana Archbishop.<\/p>\n Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who is already 78, has been waiting for his replacement for 3 years. Many believe he may be replaced by Monsignor Emilio Aranguren, bishop of Holguin, but Pope Francis may designate another Cuban priest (who may not even have been ordained as a bishop).<\/p>\n The internal and leadership changes Cuba\u2019s church is committed to may not lose impetus and lead to a broader range of options for dialogue and to an extension of the good will with which religious institutions have sought to take part in the transformation of Cuba, particularly before its devout, which have been growing in number and begin to benefit from the relative relaxation of tensions with government authorities.<\/p>\n The ecumenical spirit that prevailed during the Caridad del Cobre<\/em> celebrations in 2011 and 2012 gradually led to the return of nationalized properties to the church and even opened up the possibility of building a new church in Pinar del Rio, for the first time in over 50 years.<\/p>\n In this context, it would be of the essence that the Cuban people, devout or not, Marxist or not, supportive of the government or not, be allowed to hear the voice of the Catholic Church and see it determined in its full support for a post-blockade Cuba, a Cuba that has the strength and opportunities to patriotically \u2013 and with faith in social justice \u2013 confront all of the challenges that present and future relations with such a powerful neighbor (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) involves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On September 15, 2013, Cuba\u2019s Catholic bishops made public what remains their latest Pastoral Letter (\u201cHope Does Not Disappoint\u201d). At the time, the Cuban and US governments were beginning a year and half of secret negations, negotiations which involved Pope Francis and led to the watershed of December 17, 2014. It\u2019s been almost two years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3685,"featured_media":49069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[13930],"tags":[9933,10702],"ppma_author":[33674,7171],"class_list":["post-49067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technologies-of-communication-and-media","tag-catholic-church","tag-religion-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n