Church has no political role in Cuba with Castro sick, say Catholic leaders

Church has no political role in Cuba with Castro sick, say Catholic leaders
By Agostino Bono
10/2/2006

Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Cuban church's role in national life after
President Fidel Castro relinquished power is not to be political but to
accompany the people wherever the future leads, said two Cuban Catholic
leaders.

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"I don't think the people see the church as a political player. Nor has
the church presented itself as a political player," said Orlando Marquez
Hidalgo, spokesman for the Cuban bishops' conference.

Father Rene Ruiz Reyes, Havana archdiocesan delegate to the bishops'
National Commission for Priests, said that "the mission of the church is
to accompany the people along the road" at a time when no one in the
Caribbean island country can predict the future.

Both Cubans were interviewed by Catholic News Service Sept. 29 while in
Washington to meet with officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops. They were part of an 18-member delegation of Cuban priests and
laypeople who initially arrived in the U.S. to attend a Sept. 18-21
gathering in Miami with Cuban Catholics living in the U.S.

Marquez said that the role of the church now is to offer a helping hand
to Cubans and "it would be an error to see the church as having a
political role."

Father Ruiz said that Cubans were shocked all of a sudden to learn that
Castro was sick and in the hospital after having ruled the country
uninterruptedly for 47 years.

Nobody knows what will happen, said the priest. People are waiting to
see if Castro will make an appearance in December because that is when
he said he will publicly celebrate his 80th birthday, which took place
Aug. 13.

At the end of July Castro was operated on for internal bleeding and
ceded power to his brother, Raul Castro, while he recuperated. But by
the beginning of October no date had been set for Castro's return to
power, sparking speculation as to whether his health would permit him to
resume running the country.

"Time will tell if his brother (Raul) takes over," said Father Ruiz.

No matter what happens the church will be ready to help the people
spiritually and "enlighten them through the church's social teaching,"
he said.

Regarding the Miami gathering, Father Ruiz said that the informal yearly
meetings between Catholics from Cuba and Cubans living in the United
States began in 1997 as a way of fostering mutual understanding. The
first meetings were only for priests but since 1999 they have included
laypeople, he said.

The meetings also have been an effort to help Cubans in the U.S. -- who
have complained that the Cuban church was not critical enough of the
Castro regime -- to understand the complex church-state problems in Cuba.

How to deal with the Castro regime has often been a divisive issue
between Catholics in Cuba and in the U.S.

At the Sept.21 closing Mass Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora referred
to the divisions.

"In the Eucharist there is no us and them, no church in Cuba and church
in the diaspora," he said.

"Any good discussion must begin with mutual respect and acceptance of
each other as equals," he said.

"No single one of you has all the answers, no single one of you has the
best way to deal with the challenges that confront the mission and
reality of the church in Cuba today," the archbishop said.

In Cuba, the most detailed public statement by a church official since
Castro's illness was in a Sept. 8 homily by Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega
Alamino. He said the church prays for domestic peace following the "new
political situation" caused by Castro's ceding of power.

The cardinal added that the church opposed foreign interference in Cuban
affairs and that Catholics would continue praying for people in Castro's
jails.

The Sept. 8 Mass commemorated the 90th anniversary of Our Lady of
Charity of Cobre as Cuba's patroness.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

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