The good of Cuba is a useful and democratic party
By Luis Sexto
The Tenth Catholic Social Week, set for June l6-20 in Havana, finds the times somewhat favorable to the impact of an event whose themes include a debate on “the challenges of the national economy,” the place of the church and its ministry in the country, and, with some emphasis, the reconciliation of Cubans who subscribe to opposite sides of ideological, political and social issues.
Favorable adjectives do not seem untoward when this writer refers to the propitiousness of the moment. That’s because, in the current debate that extends in Cuba from the streets to the offices, just to mention the extremes of the field in which the situation in the republic and its various solutions are reflected and discussed, the Tenth Catholic Social Week, through culture in general and in its most specialized form, will also certify valid analyses in the public effort to collaborate with the nation’s present and future.
Simply to prevent secondary reactions, I must clarify to the suspicious readers, to all who read events in Cuba backwards, that I do not write from an official position, from a temple, or from the Party. Therefore, my opinions do not come from the authorities; I just observe reality from the most constructive viewpoint: the good of Cuba, which in my opinion may be the most democratic and useful party at present. And, generally speaking, I see the Catholic Church as developing a process of clarification and depth regarding its role in Cuban society.
To some, however, the good of Cuba may mean a sort of contradictory theory. As easily seen in articles and statements from Miami and Havana, the current institutional position of the Cuban Catholic Church – especially the Episcopal Conference’s recent mediation in the case of several people imprisoned for crimes against State security – received criticism from the so-called exile community and also, somewhat covertly, from inside the island, in the voice of the so-called dissidents, who – I say as a warning to prevent confusion – dissent in nothing but rather aim to change the socio-economic order that exists in Cuba, with the financial and political support of the United States government. There are so many accusations, so many insane prejudices that even the philosophers in their analyses slide down the stairs of politicking. Others, with fewer brains, resort to a truculent rhetoric where insults attempt to replace the ideas and the truth.
The intent is clear: some people, outside and inside the island, want the Tenth Catholic Social Week to be a meeting whose participants, before even starting, will agree to the final result – the condemnation of the Revolutionary Government. As seen in recent times, this is not the trend. Was it at any other time? Perhaps half a century ago, when we were alerted that a flock of new converts infiltrated the Church, seeking support for their conspiracies and militant acts against the Revolution. I can say so because I knew that situation firsthand, in my capacity as a seminarian; however, it may be wiser to forget what no longer seems to show the same profile.
Among the foundations of Catholic Social Week, organized in various countries, the Pope’s social doctrine is most important. And considering that code on social issues, political calculations might suggest that the Catholic Church could offer a solution to the problems of Cuba in a manner contrary to socialism. But Papal doctrine is like Marx’s “Das Kapital” and possibly “Don Quixote”: many people talk about both books, but few have read them consciously, thoroughly and profitably. In my opinion, the encyclical letters of Leo XIII, Pius XI, John XXIII, Paul VI, and the recent pontiffs do not articulate a social or economic system.
Rather, they basically bring together ethical insights and suggestions whose implementation would Christianize the relationship between owners and proletarians. Therefore, the so-called Christian Democracy consists of a moral proposal to temper the basic injustice of capitalism. But it is unlikely that the Tenth Catholic Social Week will try to promote an alternative in Cuba. I recall the statements of Cardinal Ortega in mid-2006, when Fidel Castro fell gravely ill.
While in Washington politicians disinfected their hands to share in the banquet of intervention and President Bush warned – disinterring the Monroe Doctrine – that only he and no one else could touch, the Archbishop of Havana said that the church prayed “that nothing should break the concord among Cubans, nothing should disturb the peace between us, because it is evident that anything like that would not only be rejected but also be very regrettable.” Then he expressed his rejection of a foreign military intervention against the island. The Cuban Catholic Church, he said, “would never […] accept any foreign intervention, not even minimally. Never!”
Can anyone believe that that position has changed? On the contrary, the upcoming Tenth Catholic Social Week, in my opinion, will try to encourage the laity to go beyond the practice of the Gospel and bring to society the message of Jesus. Therefore, the anticipated debate on the economic problems of Cuba will be held not only by Catholic Cubans but also by specialists from diverse and sometimes opposing worldviews.
This conglomerate will have to invoke the goodwill of patriotism, harmony and charity to penetrate a highly sensitive moment in our history, when we Cubans need to think about what we must do (rather than what we have done) to preserve our political independence and social justice in a country capable of living from its own efforts.
This writer, who has publicly professed his diverse loyalties because of his origin and Catholic education, and his modest revolutionary experience and patriotic consciousness assimilated from his devotion to Varela and Marti, and who under previous circumstances questioned certain positions of the Church because of their extemporaneous nature, today harbors no suspicions about the institution that basically formed him.
While at one time, corseted by the Royal Patronage, the Catholic hierarchy lent its churches to serve as fortresses during the wars of independence, many priests were shot dead or risked execution for siding with the seekers of independence. And decades earlier, bishops like Morell and Espada and clergymen like José Agustín Caballero – despite their ideological and time-frame limitations – encouraged the advent of modernity, and Felix Varela, with his strong faith and intense Christian virtues (which I do not call heroic, so as not to anticipate his canonization) practiced the most selfless, unconditional, anticolonial and antiannexationalist patriotism. In the 20th Century, Father Sardiñas, with the consent of his bishop, obtained from the guerrillas in the Sierra Maestra the star of a comandante.
We have learned, by dint of failures and illusions, to shy away from absolutist views and to observe in the fabric of history, the participation of disparate and antagonistic threads. So, as we stand on the same soil and under the same sky, speaking the same language, experiencing the same difficulties and hoping to find solutions, which will weigh more? What will our vote be? I have no doubt: I raise my hand for the law and order that will benefit most of my countrymen. But I also raise it for a plurality that may bring us together and make us freer in honesty and public service.
