Church and State: A light still flickering

By Luis Sexto

The current relations between the Cuban state and the Catholic Church seems to agree on an old adage: “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness,” assuming that for a time communists and Catholics accused each other of living in the dark. The days of anger seem to have ended in the vaults of history, which the best trends in both sectors of Cuban society would like to see archaeology-proof.

According to the responses from Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of Havana, to the agency Zenit, the pastoral visit by John Paul II to Cuba articulated the beginning of a gradual move towards rapprochement and “a slow but progressive improvement.”

However, we cannot understand the present without looking at the early 1960s, when many Catholics of true faith, and many without any, protected by the Church, conspired against the nascent revolution.

Those were, in fact, years of confusion, dilemmas, and blunders by both sides. And while Che Guevara asserted that the revolution was trying to unite all honest aspirations and not alienate Cubans because of their faith or beliefs, some temples lent themselves to hiding weapons. This writer can attest to that.

The hierarchy signed pastoral letters condemning communism and the governments of that ideology as enemies of “all the social, charitable, educational and apostolic works of the Church.” The rest of the story is well known: the nationalization of education, the expulsion of some 130 priests and the voluntary expatriation of some 470 priests and clerics.

The following years kept Catholicism in a defensive position. One usually refers to the term “the silent church.” But the temples remained open, although the services were limited to the interior, and cathechism continued. Few priests were ordained or came from abroad at that stage.

And on the official side, the revolutionary mentality forgot the ideas Che expressed and began to judge all believers as enemies. As links with the Soviet Union became closer, atheism became a basic aspect of the socialist worldview. And Catholics faced discrimination in access to universities or certain jobs.

The first congress of the Communist Party in 1975 tempered somewhat the focus on its thesis on religion, church and believers, by making “anti-religionism” secondary to the need for believers to join in the construction of socialism.

To summarize, in 1986 the church called its first national church gathering (ENEC), where it accepted that socialism was already a stable system in Cuba and that the church should accept that reality. It even admitted that the revolution, with its structures of social justice, had taught the church a new dimension of charity. The ENEC is defined as one of the most daring moments in the unity of the nation.

In 1990, Fidel Castro publicly accepted that the only discrimination still existing in Cuba was religious. A year later, the fourth congress of the Communist Party agreed to the admittance of believers in its ranks, which some Catholics consider an act of opportunism.

In 1992, the Constitution changed its atheistic status and declared itself secular. A year later, when the so-called Special Period began the social and economic decline, the bishops signed a pastoral letter entitled “Love hopes all things” in which the Church called for dialogue and economic, political and social changes. And therefore the relationship between church and state fell back into darkness, perhaps even until the visit by John Paul II.

At present, relations seem to be at a point of mutual understanding. The Government has gradually returned confiscated buildings, has allowed the Church to broadcast radio programs on very significant dates. And apparently, the Church has, in fact, been recognized by the government of Raúl Castro as a fundamental institution, accepted as a guarantee of amnesty for those convicted in 2003.

The Archbishop of Havana said that this process is an act of the Church’s public, humane and helpful participation in our society, which is a positive way “to strengthen religious freedom” in Cuba, a Constitutional right clearly recognized in Cuba.

Instead, within this climate of “new expressions and gestures,” according to the magazine Palabra Nueva, the organ of the Archdiocese of Havana, the government, while respecting the exercise of worship, even outside churches, and recognizing the charitable vocation, does not accept the prophetic role, i.e., the critical role of the Church, which apparently is what most worries some priests interviewed by Progreso Weekly and who requested anonymity.

To these voices, the role of Cardinal Ortega, his collaboration with the Government its equivalent to “the prophetic mission.” Of course, we would have to admit as a means of critical expression the homilies, sometimes raw, and the church publications, incalculably more than those that existed before 1959 and that circulate without legal permission of the Ministry of Justice.

Examples are Palabra Nueva and Espacio Laical. In both magazines articles appear that competently criticize the government’s anti-crisis strategy or propose different formulas.

The Catholic Church, which historically contributed many figures to the culture, the consolidation of citizenship and the development of Cuban thought, and although many in the Church agree that Cuba has de-Catholicized, still has a lot to win.

Because it is also significant that a sector of the faithful and the clergy “thinks Cuban.” Keep in mind that Cardinal Ortega, despite the discontented, is a Bishop of very Cuban feelings. Remember that when Fidel Castro was very ill, and some believed the downfall of the government was imminent, the cardinal, in a press conference, argued strongly that the Catholic Church would not allow any action by foreign intervention in the affairs of Cuba.

These statements are accompanied by other, more recent statements that the Church believes a dialogue between Cuba and the United States to be necessary.

“President Raúl Castro proposed to the United States a dialogue without conditions,” the cardinal said. “In his presidential political campaign, Barack Obama also said that he would change the style being used and would seek above all to speak directly with Cuba.”

But, as acknowledged by Ortega, despite any positive measure, Obama has retaken the same language as his predecessors. No doubt about it, the Catholic Church and the socialist state have lit a candle, even if the winds cause the flame to flicker.