The Cardinal and ‘moral certainty’

By Manuel Alberto Ramy
ramymanuel@yahoo.com

From his Correspondent’s Notebook

A couple of days ago, Francisco Aruca, director of Radio Progreso Alternativa, wrote to me inquiring about Cardinal Jaime Ortega’s homily. He had heard comments and saw some reports in various media, but none in El Nuevo Herald.

“What did the Cardinal say?” Aruca asked, and remarked on the importance given to it by some colleagues. “What can Progreso Weekly’s Havana bureau tell us about it? Are you planning to write on the subject?”

The first thing I did was not to be guided by notes or recordings made at the Havana Cathedral, where the Cardinal spoke on January 1, World Peace Day. For greater accuracy, I waited for a transcription of the homily, made by the Archdiocese’s Media Office and published here yesterday.

As for my first opinion, I shall be brief, concrete. I think that the most momentous statement the Cardinal made – which can explain all the words that follow – was when he referred to the prisoner-release process, saying: “I have also a moral certainty that in the next few months we’ll see the release of both those prisoners and others from a larger group of prisoners sentenced for some type of deed related to political attitudes or actions.”

Moral certainty, a great statement, especially when uttered by a man well trained on the existing commitments between theology and moral theology. The Cardinal’s certainty is not based on the world of the senses, but on conscience and reason, on knowledge. Here we go: knowledge of the critical national reality and the people who are taking on the delicate process of transformation.

President Raúl Castro and Cardinal Ortega have talked together more than once. The subject: only the prisoners? Inmates but not context? Context but not the design of the changes and goals? Changes or updates and goals but not the necessary participation of the whole of society and non-governmental institutions?

I venture to guess that these meetings or dialogues began a couple of years ago, when they both returned to Havana from Camagüey together on the presidential aircraft. It may be that that day the president and Cardinal began conversations about what we are all experiencing. A design for the future, which is already under way, and the very costly risks on the road are part of the moral certainty Cardinal Ortega has.

To reduce the contribution of the Church to that of a lifesaver for a model of governance is mere politicking and shows the short-sightedness of those who overestimate the political possibilities of the Church. True, Ortega’s words have an immediate political impact, but they transcend that fact because he does not speak from a political standpoint.

What is at stake is the ENTIRE Cuban society, its dissolution and instability for many years, the material and spiritual life of the citizens. And more. To me, and I include myself among the citizens who do not mistake nation with the form in which the state is organized (feudalism, capitalism, socialism) because they are historic measurements, Cuba – the nation – is in danger.

It is from this assertion of moral certainty that I suggest you ponder the words of Cardinal Ortega, his account of the achievements of the Church in recent years, the decision to start the beneficial work of mediation on the issue of political prisoners, the call to reconcile and overcome in mindset and attitudes what the law decreed in the early 1990s – I mean the already overcome alienation of believers – his belief that religion should be regarded as a full expression of human dignity and that the contributions of the Church and its members should not be directed exclusively to aid (charity) for the less fortunate, but that they should and can contribute to the process of updating the economic model and its inevitable (the word “inevitable” is mine) impact on the social fabric that will require new forms of relationships (also my words.)

Or the call to exercise “our critical ability to clearly express our differences or point out how much, in our opinion, should be modified” in the issues that are already being put to national discussion.

He asks us to engage critically, i.e., with responsible insight, because this newly started process “involves us all” and “does not depend only on the authorities” at their different levels.

So, the moral certainty is a statement so powerful that commits not only who says it, but also the people and circumstances that motivate it.

Click here to read the full text of Cardinal Ortega’s homily (in Spanish).