The Vatican condemns the U.S. blockade against Cuba while opposition members occupy churches
The Vatican condemns the U.S. blockade against Cuba while opposition members occupy churches
By Progreso Weekly/Radio Progreso Alternativa .
The Holy See condemned this Friday 16 March the U.S. blockade against Cuba, in a statement prior to the visit which Pope Benedict XVI will make to the island. In a press conference, Federico Lombardi, the Vatican´s spokesman, declared that “it is people who suffer the consequences of the United States position,” an economic, commercial and financial siege imposed more than half a century ago.
“The Holy See does not consider it a positive and useful measure,” he added.
It is not the first time that the Vatican declares its opposition to the blockade against Cuba, which was also expressed by John Paul II during his visit to Cuba back in January 1998. Nevertheless, the church´s attitude is at odds with some statements made by internal opponents as well as Miami´s right-wing media, intent on introducing a division between alleged catholic devotees and ecclesiastical authorities in the island, as shown by several occupation attempts recently carried out in churches and by the subsequent propagandistic versions of events and the waging of personal attacks against Cardinal Jaime Ortega and other church authorities.
Among all those attempts of illegal occupation, only those carried in Holguín and Havana went beyond a conversation with priests in the occupied temples who managed to talk invaders out of religious precincts. In the other two cases, versions “reported” by Miami media quote “accounts”, some of them anonymous, of police brutality and physical aggression against one of the occupants exerted by no less than Holguín´s Bishop, Monsignor Emilio Aranguren. In both occasions, authorities of the Cuban Catholic church have denied the occurrence of violence and strongly criticized the politicized character of events. According to the press note signed by Orlando Márquez Hidalgo, spokesman of the Archbishopric of Havana, “the action to put an end to occupation (which) began at 9:00 p.m. local time, lasted less than ten minutes. The thirteen occupants were invited to leave the temple and did not offer resistance.” Emphasis is ours.
The Havana Archbishopric´s statement is at variance with the contradictory affirmations made by Vladimir Calderón, who was leading the occupation in the capital´s church. In a paradoxical assertion made to AFP, Calderón said that they were “deceived by several church officials”, because “they opened the (temple) door, letting in 28 anti-riot policemen who immobilized them and dragged them out against their will, he narrated.
“There were really no beatings, but a violent repressive action which, in the end, leaves physical pain”, he pointed out. Emphasis is ours.
As to the incident in Holguín, the Archbishopric´s note, signed by Monsignor Aranguren, refers that there was verbal exchange between him and one of the occupants who told him that “he was no shepherd, then I raised my voice and with energy and an indicative gesture expressed to him that he was being offensive to me. Several members of the group told him to shut up. There was no slap on my part, neither was there a gesture which caused the cell phone to fall on the floor, nor the temple lights went out.
“Therefore, that which was expressed by those who reported the events, does not correspond to the truth.”
In view of the position of the Catholic Church in Cuba and the Vatican support to its attitude, as well as its statement against blockade and the visit of Benedict XVI himself to the island, one could wonder who is getting what with such incidents and their manipulative follow up. It is obvious that someone is lying.
