Mambí Virgin: May we be brothers!

From Espacio Laical

HAVANA – Very soon now, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, will arrive in our homeland. The Pope visits us within the context of the Jubilee Year proclaimed by the Cuban bishops to celebrate four centuries since the finding, in the waters of Nipe Bay, of the blessed image of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, the Queen and Patroness of Cuba. That is why the Holy Father will come to our homeland as a Pilgrim of Charity.

The celebrations for the 400 years of the presence of Mary of Charity constitute a transcendental event for the Church on the island and for a huge majority of the Cuban people. The Virgin of Charity of Cobre is a spiritual reference for our society, and many have found shelter under her cloak, beyond geographic and political frontiers.

She, the Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord, invites us to lead a spiritual life, to dignify ourselves, to reconcile with ourselves, with the others and to surrender for the good of all. We could see her power of convocation in the multitudes that, with freedom, spontaneity and much enthusiasm, accompanied her image in the journey she just made through towns, barrios, fields and cities of our homeland.

However, there is still much to be done before those who venerate the Mother of all Cubans have an encounter with Jesus Christ, grow in his spirituality and his dignity, try to reconcile with those they have confronted and engage in the task of procuring the well-being of everyone, without exception.

To confirm our Church in this mission, which is proper, due to its institutional nature, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, comes to Cuba.

He will keep us on that course and will demonstrate his personal support, as well as the Holy See’s and the whole worldwide Church’s. He will also help us to project our path for national renewal and will try to open new doors to achieve it. However, it is good to point out that the final result will depend on the ability of all of us Cubans to rise to the heights of this great challenge.

To do so, we must embark on the construction of a society that’s evermore just, more balanced and more prosperous, in the family environment, in the community, the workplace and the entire social fabric.

All this, in our reality, implies a political activity by all parts of the national spectrum, marked by intensely high spirits. That’s because the desired social harmony and needed economic development will be hard to achieve without a new political consensus of all our diversity. To achieve it, as we have repeated on other occasions, it is necessary to take the patriotic road of an encounter, a dialogue and reconciliation among all Cubans.

Such an objective, at the present moment, might seem an unattainable goal. The actors who are better installed in the political mechanisms – in official circles, in the domestic opposition and in the better-known groups of our diaspora – often give an impression that they don’t accept this methodology.

To corroborate this concern, we need only to analyze the recently concluded First National Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC). At that event, that partisan organization approved important changes but did not take the needed and sufficient leap to set the nation on the course of change that its own leaders had previously announced.

The results of the CPC Conference have provoked frustration in broad national sectors. A great many people consider that the authorities’ current willingness to make changes will not lead to an escape from the crisis that is affecting the country. Others, a bit more enthusiastic, consider that new transformations of some importance could be designed, such as the modification of the Housing Law, but fear that the government is not ready for the great change that the nation demands.

Some persons may believe that, despite the minor transcendence of this important event by the single party that legally directs and controls society and the State, the authorities will, little by little, achieve the necessary change. However, – it is our civic duty to say this frankly – we have found very few compatriots that opine thus and whose hopes were boosted by the partisan event.

Faced with that reality, we Catholics cannot but feel summoned, because the challenges imposed on us by the present and future of our country are really very big.

The Church, which is the Mother and Teacher of mercy, has an obligation to deal with those challenges, because it has to promote harmony and progress in our nation. In addition, because – due to the lack of sufficient actors and institutions capable of illuminating and supporting the plurality of the nation – many Cubans expect great things from the Church and ask it to help them to accept one another and understand each other, so that together they may seek the best for our homeland, from everyone and with everyone.

Cubans, including many without a religious faith, also ask [the Church] to intensely promote the spirituality of all the Cuban people, not just the faithful who attend the temples, so that they can maintain a continuous climb toward a society that’s truly free, just and brotherly.

Cuba is a pluralistic country, where most of its citizens, despite political, economic, social and religious differences, advocate a homeland that’s independent, democratic, developed, with social justice and without foreign interference in our sovereign affairs. So long as an effective political endeavor is not entered into, one that seeks to build consensus among Cubans with diverse stances, we shall not achieve the ascent and equilibrium that our present urgently demands.

In addition, we pray that the different international actors, particularly the government of the United States and our sister republics in the hemisphere, will contribute to the processes of change in Cuba through the lifting of the sanctions described by Pope John Paul II as “immoral, illegal and counterproductive.”

We call upon our compatriots in the diaspora to visit the Island on the occasion of the Jubilee Year, particularly during the days of the papal visit. We ask God to let the visit of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, consolidate the paths trod by our Church to achieve these deep national aspirations and also contribute to open new horizons of hope for the Cuban people.

May the Most Holy Mary of Charity of Cobre, Cuba’s Queen and Patroness, accompany our people and her Church on the unavoidable road to national renewal!