Cuba: the changing climate
Maillard, Stanislas
Sandinistas may indeed intend to wrest control of the Nicara- helps them to endure their misery? Whatever the merits of guan church from Rome's hands. Thus he is exerting all of...
...during his campaign for the presidency...
...foreign nalistic...
...to harp on our miseries or draw up a list of demands," one of Young or old, they seem more worried about the unhindered them explained...
...That amounts, according to Father Rene David, to "abandoning doctrinaire positions and attitudes of refusal and condemnation, adopting instead a pastoral stance of respect for the other...
...arose from diocesan assemblies which had taken Catholic university students, 17 percent of the population lace throughout 1985, and before that, starting in 1981, regularly practiced their Christian faith (all denominations y a vast movement of reflection and consultation all the included...
...policy of discrimination against Christians, discrimination Vocations are at the lowest level: thirty-six at the two major does continue, and Fidel Castro, in his recent book-length seminaries in Havana and Santiago as against sixty in 1975...
...ed (between thirty and fifty...
...We are a small in order to take part in this historic day for the Cuban church...
...It remains to be seen how the That explains the large number of Christians (Protestants en- faithful will respond to the encuentro's exhortation to take part counter the same difficulties) who are engineers, technicians, as Christians in the building up of society in order to be "the or office employees...
...On the other hand, many young people do not does not prepare them...
...The text also speaks of each for three days), and the commission on laws has not yet the necessity of discovering a synthesis "between Christian been apprised of any measures on the subject...
...there was great waste...
...I It is not necessary, however, to look at the declarations of talked for four, and then for seven hours with my director, who the government under a magnifying glass to find out if there is has read Castro's book three times...
...When the Cuban bishops invite their faithful to dialogue with the Communists, it is first of all, they say, a "dialogue on living...
...Whatever the merits of guan church from Rome's hands...
...By 1976, the figure was less than 2 percent...
...FUERST is a professor of social welfare policy at the School of owned operations to cooperatives, insisting instead on subSocial Work at Loyola University of Chicago...
...He emphasizes the fact regulations...
...Young, for the most part, they were to receive their First that perhaps the time had come to devise a law which would Communion, or be baptized, this Easter...
...When I hear them singing, mournfully to the Miguel Obando and John Paul II in so many hovels of the poor, music of organ and trumpets, as though imploring heaven to or the multitudes who flock to the traditional church not for take pity on'their beleaguered church as well as on their own sermons on liberation theology but for the consolation of the suffering, I feel with them, there - not in Uriel Molina's sacraments, the rosary, the chanted litany to the Virgin that Sandinista shrine - the palpable presence of Christ...
...Communist militants have begun to regard Chris- The momentum created by the publication of Fidel and tians differently and have even sought dialogue in order to find Religion was reinforced by the final phase of the church's out more...
...there has been no official withdrawal, for examthat to enter the seminary "supposes a deeply considered ple, of the application form asking the beliefs of a candidate for personal decision for which the formation they have received the university...
...of practicing Catholics is 100,000 or 1 percent of the Fearful for their careers or for the future of their children, Cuban population...
...the conference of religious orders, and the times by Msgr...
...That is the central question for the Cuban church they do not commit him to anything...
...As the solemn procession wound its way and finally in the reception of Communion...
...The PLN has wanted to transfer the bulk of them, since election of a strong, able liberal from the social democratic 1981, to cooperative sponsorship...
...This transfer to cooperacamp is a most significant event...
...This small number of vocations does not surprise one professor On the one hand zealous functionaries continue to apply past at the San Carlos Seminary in Havana...
...Enter the schisms Rome can rely on two millennia of experience and church of the Subtiava, one of the oldest in the Western usually prevail, however patient it must be and however long hemisphere, and hear the men, women, and children chanting the battle lasts...
...He is Oscar Arias sumer and producer...
...Add to that the social pressure: a young even try to seek justice when they believe that they are victims 9 May 1986: 269 of discrimination, or of their own accord they decide not to a decade ago by the bishops, clearly has not been wholly apply for courses in history, sociology, philosophy, psychol- accepted by certain members of the faithful and the clergy, ogy, surgery, journalism, diplomacy, and political science...
...I have inter- don't want to promise more than we can deliver...
...L'Actualite Religieuse, a successor journal to Camaguey, president of the Cuban bishops' council, evoked the widely read Informations Catholique Internationales, covers the what he called "the miracle of empty hands...
...It In spite of the presence of forty-three Cuban journalists would then have been very difficult for us to reach an under- accredited to follow the proceedings of the NECC, the national standing and we are weary of division...
...He was more than half the crowd, had to yield to the contradictory surrounded by all of Cuba's bishops and specially invited evidence: everyone joined fervently in the chants, the prayers, foreign guests...
...Communists to itself or rather that the church become But what, above all, saddens a Christian who knows that reconciled with them . . . ? Christ is essentially the Reconciler is the historical situa- "If Communists do not make atheism a dogma, a tion of confrontation, misunderstanding, and condemna- pseudo-religion, we might suppose that the church could tion on both sides which is prolonged in mutual mistrust, be reconciled with them on the basis of Communism's harassment against the faith on the one part, and on the objective: that the reconciliation of man with man through other a lack of enthusiasm for participating in the building the achievement of a classless society is in harmony with of a society which proclaims to believers their eventual the spiritual demands of the faith...
...In addition to elected This erosion cannot, however, be attributed solely to the 4elegates, about 20 percent of the delegates were named twenty-six years of Marxist rule...
...It was a smash hit, political and religious views, the desire to bring about the unity with more than a million copies sold and the third edition about of the people...
...Catholics were largely absent from the ,direction...
...have given up religious weddings, having their children bapOne bit of evidence is not without a touch of black humor: tized, or sending them to catechism classes...
...The blacks, for example...
...At forty- existed in Costa Rica for many years...
...6 months: $24...
...In fact more than half of who have turned from the church because of its attitude toward these people have a Christian burial...
...In the last five years it four years of age, he holds a Ph.D...
...If the faith is "It is evident that a dictatorship of the proletariat does catholic, should it not be concerned with enabling Comnot claim to offer all the desirable conditions of freedom munists to become reconciled with God...
...then why is there a question as to your religion...
...order to dialogue," said one priest who has been in the country "In this century," said Pastor Adolfo Ham, president of the for twenty years, "then we can envisage at last a reconciliation Ecumenical Council, "you are not asked what race you belong of the Cuban nation, a better fate for everyone...
...grant Christians a full-fledged social existence, means of car- This climate, favorable for the churches, actually helps the rying out their mission such as access to the media, a revision whole Cuban nation which is profoundly divided...
...The Protestant churches suggested in this text eight...
...leaven of a civilization of love...
...Gomez goes on to say, any change in the air...
...regional seminary of Miami...
...S ,M9 May 1986: 271 Today, it is possible for a Catholic to speak of taking an active to...
...Cameado also met Archbishop Patricio Flores of San ease the tensions, to do away with discriminations...
...The meeting was coming to a of doors by means of powerful loudspeakers...
...sidizing only transfers to private ownership...
...Yet attachment to the church goes beyond many parents have long since ceased all religious practice...
...de Cespedes, "we with a priest who is at the disposition of families who would must recognize that among these people there are Christians like to have a Mass for their deceased...
...Judging from contacts made in different parishes the degree to which mistrust persists, even if there are notable outside the encuentro itself, virtual unanimity of the delegates exceptions...
...To be sure, the text of the NECC their churches will probably take time...
...we lay claim to no other originality than to be totally faithful to the STANISLAS MAILLARD is an editor of L'Actualite Religieuse dans le novelty of the Gospel...
...The dialogue takes place at two levels...
...In one the Ecumenical Council of Churches sent Fidel Castro a doc- Havana parish there have been scarcely three or four catechuument, "Hypothesis on the Relations Between the Churches mens a year for the past fifteen years...
...Christ and accomplish his mission in the world...
...To be sure, among the lay Catholic personalities who are known and appreciated by people, priests, and religious of all ages sent by their dioceses the regime for their commitment to the revolution, but who to the NECC, a good many could give evidence not only of openly affirm their faith, can only be guest professors at the their social commitment, but their revolutionary commitment University of Havana, not established professors...
...In 1954, according to a survey by =selves...
...Now that the church is mere open, that kind of In contrast to the sparse attendance of some fifty rather thing is dwindling and people, whether the fearful or the elderly people at each of the Sunday Masses at the Havana militant, are drawn to return to the churches...
...Is a San Carlos Seminary in Havana, entitled "For a Theol- fear of Communism which kills off any thought of reconogy and a Pastoral Policy of Reconciliation...
...national liberation...
...While expressing happiness at the convening of the who agreed to speak with journalists were hardly expansive - NECC, the general run of parishioners are skeptical about any when they simply did not evade the question...
...Essential differences do reof the Cuban Church {NECC}, there were a number of main...
...Or sometimes, Msgr...
...This shows as well...
...The 75859 Paris Cedex 17...
...That, in (NECC) took place in Havana from February 17 to 23...
...Hundreds of priests and thousands of sisters were either expelled from Cuba in the man returning to secular life after a stay in the seminary could early sixties or emigrated in fear of the regime...
...rekindled...
...Archbishop Jaime Ortega sign of welcome...
...humanism and Marxist anthropology . . .," a notion requiring While they wait, the churches are profiting from the new either a large dose of optimism or a rather daring realism...
...We trans- Antonio, Texas, representing the North American Bishops' mit the cases brought to us to the government's Office of Conference, and Archbishop Marcos MacGrath of Panama, as Religious Affairs...
...references to a 1981 article by Professor Rene David of "But we must get over the fear that paralyzes us...
...so, too, the rural population...
...And we might also ask our David's article has had a profound effect on the new- Communist brothers if fear of dialogue with Christians is a found openness in the Cuban church, as can be seen in the revolutionary attitude...
...of life for the body of the church, something along the line In his report to the Third Communist Congress in February, and spirit of Puebla, but with a difference...
...Father ciliation truly Christian...
...be 1,200 faithful - many of them young - in attendance at If for several years there has no longer been an official the parish of Carmel in a middle-class quarter...
...we cannot and do not wish to speak in terms of sociology or power...
...AID officials, Commonweal: 272...
...during the nineteenth century, its attachment rty-six technicians, and fifteen scientists -- and into the Spanish crown and its conservative outlook also clashed olved in parish or diocesan activities ranging from the with the liberal and nationalist aspirations of a significant part administration of communities to catechesis and liturgical of the bourgeoisie...
...Even the most skeptical recognize this...
...the faith is the faith and a political ideolmistrust...
...Carlos Emmanuel de Cespedes, secretary- seminary directors...
...in political economy from has grown from 10 to 15 percent of the GNP...
...That would permit disappearance as believers . . . and reduces them to a Christian to be politically Communist and a Communist second-class citizens...
...the revolution...
...DEMOCRATIC LEGACY IN COSTA RICA What can Arias deliver...
...patibilities as to be present among men...
...This shift in the church's direction, set in motion more than Commonweal: 270 small but significant omission in his speech: the proverbial lay commission of the Havana diocese, but also sub-technical reference to Engels's judgment on religion in The Anti- director of a business enterprise and an engineer, reports: "I Duhring...
...For bishop Carlos Amigo Vellejo of Seville by Felipe Cameado, three or four years," said Archbishop Ortega, "there has been head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist a current, a consistent tendency on the government's part to party...
...The Cuban National clearly says in referring to the Cuban Marxist state: "to parti- Assembly is to meet in June (there are two sessions a year, cipate is not to identify oneself with it...
...The situation in is not and should not be a contradiction of Communism Cuba is quite different...
...ity in which Christians, consistent with their faith, can "The task is therefore not so much to speak of incomdevelop the virtue of evangelical poverty...
...But reconciliation does not it's the people who have to pay the cost of this reciprocal signify identity...
...life of the churches on every continent and their relationships with This is not false modesty or diplomatic words masking an other religions...
...Thus he is exerting all of his liberation theology, and there are many, in Nicaragua at least it moral force - through Cardinal Obando - to prevent that is a frisson for the intellectuals...
...How else explain the pictures of nuestra muerte...
...Thus when Bishop Fernando Azcarate could not be built without them...
...And ay to the parish level...
...Arias was Minister of His program for cooperatives is a long-time, long-term Economic Planning under several presidents, the general sec- interest...
...The revolution has abolished but of its 'atheistic faith' and its consequences for human private ownership of the means of production and even of rights and the achievement of a society which does not distribution...
...Santa Maria, Madre de I would also argue that the vast number of Nicaragua's Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de Catholics feel likewise...
...Essentially, it seems to me, the pope is right...
...To win part is socialist society without being considered naive, an institutional changes guaranteeing the status of Christians and opportunist, or a traitor...
...They were too paterWith Central America being a focal point of U.S...
...on these questions is not completely shared by the people in the About those facts, the delegates at the national encuentro pews...
...Archbishop Ortega insisted that "the confer- practice of their religion than eager to take part in the building ence had to stay clear of two snares: either emphasizing the up of socialism...
...Cardinal Pironio was received by Fidel Castro, who put an official plane at his disposal so that MUCH has been said in the Cuban church about a new way the nuncio could visit the various dioceses on the island...
...An irreversible process of "From the example God has given us, the Christian reconciliation is possible on the condition that the Commust take the initiative in the process ~of reconciliation munists lay aside their militant atheism and the Christians...
...understand it, don't want it, or have never heard of it...
...faults of others or exhaustively dwelling on our own faults...
...It did emphasize the The Cuban Catholic church has therefore decided to turn meetings between Communist officials and churchmen, noover the page of the dark years and to seize every occasion for tably the reception at the airport of Cardinal Pironio and Archdialogue without expecting any spectacular changes...
...The extent of cathedral in the working-class section of the city, there would this development, however, is hardly spectacular...
...nearly all have well as Msgr...
...ing real wages, by raising taxes on the middle and upper classes, by enhancing education, health, and housing services, I N FEBRUARY - for the tenth time since 1948 - Costa Rica and by intensifying the program of cooperatives - both conelected a president without incident...
...interview with Frei Betto, acknowledges the mutual mistrust...
...Testimony of this kind shows that Cuban On reading this book many Christians' hopes have been society is drawn toward a real dialogue...
...We are not here real evolution in the attitude of the Communists toward them...
...which does not mean acting as if there were no do not hold back but apply themselves to the realization of problems oi• concealing real obstacles behind a facile a classless society...
...Cuban Catholic church, for reasons stemming from its recent Commonweal: 268 past as well as its origins, is a church poor in human and material means...
...In the course of the debates at the National Encuentro none-too-sincere smile...
...110 lay people, 22 religious women, 2 briefings: "The truth," he said, "is that Cuban society has rothers, and 47 priests, including the bishops...
...That point was made several y the bishops...
...of Havana declared, "We are aware of the disparity between Three thousand Catholics were gathered in the cathedral, our own negligibility and the magnitude of the objectives and come at their own expense from different parts of the country, hopes with which the Holy Spirit inspires us...
...Of 181 delegates, there were 115 men general of the Cuban bishops' council, in his daily press nd 66 women...
...There are fewer and fewer...
...For one thing it's a question of getting to know each other and meeting together to deal with a number of daily matters...
...The answers have now been clearly laid out, at least in theory: we must dialogue and take part in the building of that socialist society without losing our identity as Christians...
...over 70 percent of those practicing were fifty years of age or Each diocese was represented in proportion to its older...
...We have come to agree on the necessity of valuing what An indicator of this development was the publication last unites us: social action for a better society, mutual respect for October of the book, Fidel and Religion...
...de Cespedes believes that a minimum number sity...
...flock, unable to claim impressive numbers...
...He knows that in battling money but all of them evoking a rich ancient culture...
...But others pointed out a today...
...Like his ton, transport, shipping, etc., coordinated by a public corporapredecessor, Luis Alberto Monge, he has been a long-term tion (CODESA), neither he nor any of the PLN leaders were Costa Rican representative to the Socialist International...
...And Bishop Adolfo Rodriguez of Monde, where this report, translated from the French by Edward S. Skillin, first appeared...
...made uneasy by the change...
...Today there are twentyand the State...
...and most continued to lose policy, and with Costa Rica being our vaunted model, the money...
...Felipe Estevez, a Cuban who is rector of the been resolved...
...In seeking better social equality it offers free discriminate...
...while Communism should not be a coneducation and health care in a social situation marked by tradiction of the Christian faith but of its distortions and simplicity and in an economy marked by a certain auster- their socio-political effects...
...CATHOLICS UNDER CASTRO Cuba: the changing climate STANISLAS MAILLARD The law bans religious ceremonies outside church walls, but here was a sign of the government's goodwill: permission to THE VAULTS of the austere cathedral of Havana reverber- use the square in front of the cathedral so the procession might ated with the thundering applause which greeted the enter from the main door rather than the sacristy and - a procession of delegates to the first National Encuentro of greater concession - authorization to broadcast the Mass out the Cuban Church (NECC...
...ogy is a political ideology...
...S- K - the attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs...
...The book is sold chiefly on the black of God and the principle of armed struggle as the only road to market...
...close on Sunday, February 23, with a high Mass celebrated by Skeptics, maintaining that the merely curious constituted Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, special envoy of the pope...
...The third saluted liberation launched the idea of a vast self-reflection on the part of the theology...
...For instance, Rigoberto Gomez, the president of the preparatory sessions for the NECC and the meeting itself...
...The lay people were Not only was the church never deeply rooted in the life of rofessionals for the most part - twenty-six engineers, ordinary Cubans...
...The extremely low representation of workers struggle against Batista's dictatorship, and conflicts between {five delegates) and peasants (one delegate) was a keen the church and Castro's regime were quick to escalate, espe- depiction of the sociological reality of the Catholic church cially after the elevation of the Communist party to power and n Cuba...
...have been pressed with questions by my colleagues at work...
...Two bishops and priests returned from Puebla in 1979 they brought emphasized the progressive character of certain Christian a set of documents which analyzed a situation quite different democratic parties in Latin America and noted that socialism from their own...
...press was very quiet about the event...
...It seeks, the bishops declared, only to "follow T HE FIRST National Encuentro of the Cuban Church...
...following quotations: "To put Christianity and Communism in opposition in ~ IRERATION THEOLOGY takes off from a situation of general terms is to condemn oneself never to see the injustice, of dehumanizing socio-economic imbal- values in Communism as well as its faults and to close the ance, of institutionalized violence on the part of the politi- door to reconciliation - when in reality the Christian faith cally and economically powerful...
...number of practicing believers...
...When Cuba's Fidel Castro devoted only three phrases to Christians...
...Since the Cuban regime defined itself as Marxist, Leninist, The near unanimity revealed by the votes on different and atheist in 1961, and with the wounds which ensued, the sections of the 180-page working document stemmed Catholic and Protestant churches have suffered a hemorrhag- rom the fact that the document, like the delegates themning of faithful and pastors...
...never been thoroughly evangelized...
...It is published monthly from: 163, bd Malesherbes, endeavor to set up a counter-power in Cuban society...
...tives was not accomplished, however, even through the last In the area of general economic policy, Arias made it clear years of Monge's incumbency, largely because the AID proto me he stands for greater equalization of income by increas- gram of the U.S., which provides a $200 million subsidy annually, bitterly opposes any significant transfer of stateJ.S...
...Cuban church in 1980, it dealt with the difficulties of how to A number of observers remarked that Castro's three phrases inculcate the faith and proclaim the Gospel in a socialist said nothing to the Christians of Cuba - where there is no society marked by twenty-plus years of Marxist-Leninist Christian Democratic party or liberation theology - and that atheism...
...It is also saddening to realize that to be religiously Christian...
...possible church of the future...
...anticipate difficulty regaining a place at work or in the univerToday, Msgr...
...altogether happy with these enterprises...
...de Cespedes notes that, "At the main Havana cemetery, weddings and baptisms take place discreetly in another city or where most Cubans here are buried, there is a small chapel another quarter...
...Subscription: $40...
...s reality, is a vast program which assumes that the institutional :Thin meeting was meant to evaluate the current situation Cuban church can take its place in social and cultural life and !of the church in Cuba and project the general outline of a that its faithful are acknowledged as full-fledged citizens...
...In 1981 he told me that although Costa Rica had a retary of the PLN for a number of years, and a staunch believer number of state-owned enterprises in sugar, aluminum, cotin many of the policies of JFK's Alliance for Progress...
...And is that nor to have achieved the difficult balance between equal- possible without an effort by that same church to reconcile ity and liberty necessary for a more authentic fraternity...
...through the joyful crowd, where more than one person was Profoundly united around its priests and bishops, fond of giving way to tears, first one, then two, then ten, then hun- colorful ritual, incense, and children's choirs, this church is dreds of handkerchiefs and scarves were raised and waved in nevertheless far from triumphalist...
...To be fair," said Msgr...
...they, this tiny hard core of the faithful who openly live their faith...
...We remain in disagreement about the existence to go out of stock...
...breeze blowing over the country: there is evidence of a return In this climate of detente, last November representatives of to religious practice and of personal conversions...
...If everyof textbooks eliminating flagrant anti-religious references, and one lays aside his or her mistrust, bitterness, and even hatred in the end of the questions on beliefs for university applicants...
...Yet as he made Essex University, a Masters from the-London School of Eco- these points in an interview, Arias emphasized that, "We nomics, and a bachelors from Boston College...
...Entire segments of the Although the delegates ranged in age between sevenpopulation have been evangelized only in a superficial fash- een and seventy-two years, they were generally middleion...
...Our greatest viewed Arias three times in the last five years, most recently problem is over-expectation...
...most of the poor either don't from happening...
...It is not only a question of co-existing but of learning to live and act together...
...Moreover, the pontiff, like the church he heads, eighteenth century, deteriorating from neglect and lack of has a keen historical memory...
...A full-blown cooperative movement has Sanchez of the National Liberation Party (PLN...
...His plea that Go to Leon, the city of churches, with perhaps the largest the church should be pastoral, devoted to the poor and social cathedral in Central America, and, it seems at nearly every justice while staying out of politics, makes particular sense in corner, another baroque temple from the seventeenth or Nicaragua...
...out the responses of the rosary...
Vol. 113 • May 1986 • No. 9
