Catholics in favor of dialogue with the government
Catholics in favor of dialogue with the government
The meeting of President Raúl Castro with Catholic Church authorities in the island in May 2010, contributed to ease tensions within the island and abroad in humanitarian matters.
HAVANA, 25 May (IPS) – Two years after its start, the dialogue between the Cuban government of Raùl Castro and the local Catholic Church is strongly supported by a laity which aspires to live in a “democratic, inclusive, prosperous and balanced” country, however difficult is the road to this goal.
“Dialogue is genuinely Christian, but the fact that it is so does not nonetheless makes it easier to follow that path, which our bishops have always proposed”, commented to IPS Gustavo Andújar, the Cuban vice-president of Signis, World Catholic Association for Communication.
Andújar thinks that his country needs a lot of changing, not only economic but also social and political. But “the immense majority” wants to “reach them through negotiation dialogue and consensus and not through confrontation and antagonism,” he pointed out.
In the last two weeks, at least two Catholic publications have faced criticism from certain sectors of the opposition and the Cuban emigration, focused on Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Havana Archbishop, who together with Dionisio García Ibáñez, president of the COCC (Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba) held on May 19 2010 a four hours meeting with President Raúl Castro.
This unprecedented meeting eased tensions within the island and abroad in humanitarian matters and gave way to an improvement in relations between government and church, the latter immerse in the celebration of a year of jubilee and pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Caridad del Cobre Virgin, the patron of the island and considered to be symbol of national unity.
More than 120 prisoners were set free due to negotiations promoted by Cardinal Ortega, according to Church accounts. To be added to that figure there was a Christmas pardon, previous to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in past March, which favored other 2.991 persons. An official report from Tuesday 22 in the Granma newspaper, settled the country´s penal population in 57.337.
According to some specialists, a key step for the continuity of this process of dialogue is present in the main report that Castro introduced to the VI Communist Party Congress, held in April 2011, where the ruler affirms that such releases were achieved “in a frame of dialogue based on mutual respect, loyalty and transparence.”
“With this action, we have favored the consolidation of the most precious legacy of our history: the nation´s unity,” he indicated after affirming that in that sort of dialogue viewpoints are not always coincident but constructive. Castro was thus seemingly trying to confirm a given way to proceed with relationships with the Catholic Church.
According to Gabriel Coderch, general coordinator of OAR (Reflection and Solidarity Group Oscar Arnulfo Romero), these two years of dialogue have been fruitful in the creation of an atmosphere of appeasement in relation to “a decades long tension expressed in both parts intolerance and in the lack of reciprocal acknowledgement.”
This distension is felt in ecclesiastical communities, universities, professional centers and other social groups where there is “a healthier ambience” while some sectors inimical to the Cuban government in the emigration offer criticisms and an appeal to a radical posture of the Church towards the Revolution”, added Coderch.
“With such posture they are showing that an alleged dialogue with that sector is impossible, even if we, out of ethical principles, would attempt to include them,” said Coderch to IPS.
Félix Sautié, a lay theologian who declares himself an advocate of a democratic and participative socialism, declared to IPS to be “convinced” of “the necessity of reunion, dialogue and reconciliation as concepts essential for the solution of so many problems” faced by Cuban citizenry.
In that sense, he considered that the process begun two years ago by the Catholic hierarchy and the government could mean an important opening towards an eventual “great national dialogue of all Cubans, whether they live in or outside the island, with no onerous exclusions, in which only those who don´t want to participate or have nothing to say will exclude themselves.”
The Catholic magazines Palabra Nueva and Espacio Laical rejected, in two articles published this month, the criticisms waged against Cardinal Ortega because of his stance of approaching the government. Both magazines defended the priest´s work and insist on the fact that the Church´s dialogue proposal dates back from several years ago.
Espacio Laical, a publication of the Havana archdiocese which gathers Catholic intellectuals and keeps pages open to national debate from different trends of thought, warned in an editorial that a front of attack against the archbishop and the Church´s projects has been conformed.
According to this magazine, there is a “war against a whole evangelical line which aspires to serene and positive changes which in an gradual, inclusive, ordered and peaceful manner manage to articulate a renewed sociopolitical model for Cuba.” At the same time, they warned that economic and social reforms announced by the government are “insufficient and slow.”
Whereas Palabra Nueva indicated that Cardinal Ortega´s posture, and that of the Church are the same as the Pope´s, “to foster the transformation of society towards more inclusion, more opportunities for the citizenry, les restrictions and freedoms as well as the search of new social models with patience and without traumas.”
Taken from IPS Cuba.
