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Cuban
Catholic Church asks for 'understanding'
in times of 'change'
EARTHtimes.org,
April 7, 2007.
Havana- The Cuban Catholic Church has asked
the international community for "understanding"
and "dialogue" in moments of "change"
in the communist island. "Right now
the important thing is a high level of understanding
in order to take the right steps",
said the assistant Bishop of Havana, Juan
de Dios Hernandez, during the Via Crucis
procession in central Havana late Friday.
For the Catholic Cuban Church, he added,
"every situation of change (in the
island) would need a big understanding of
the international community and a dialogue
that allows us to go ahead in a civilized
way".
Cuba has been ruled these past eight months
by interim president Raul Castro, after
his brother Fidel temporarily handed over
his powers on July 31 in order to recover
from intestinal surgery.
After the official announcement of the
delegation of his powers, the Cuban Bishops'
Conference asked the Catholic community
to pray for Fidel Castro's health.
Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega also said
that the Catholic Church would "never"
support nor "scarcely accept"
a foreign intervention in the island.
In a recent interview to Spanish newspaper
"El Pais", Ortega also set on
"dialogue", indicating that "pressure
leads to nowhere".
According to Bishop Hernandez, during these
past months of interim government the relationship
between the Catholic Church and the Cuban
State has been "the same".
"We are going the same way, there
are no substantial changes", said Hernandez.
After decades of confrontation, the Catholic
Church and the Cuban government started
in the 1990s an approach that culminated
with the historic visit of late Pope John
Paul II in 1998.
After that visit, the Cuban state allowed
again the public celebration of religious
acts that had been banned in the early 1960s.
It also re-established Christmas Day as
a day off work, the only Christian day to
be designated a vacation.
For Hernandez, "after difficult times,
the Cuban state is slowly starting to understand
which is the role of the Church in society".
As for the future, he said that the religious
institution would like "as far as it
is possible", to go through the "path
of normalization".
"And I think that is also the State's
aspiration", he added.
Hundreds of people gathered on Friday night
in central Havana to follow the Via Crucis
procession, a religious ceremony that has
only been celebrated outside the Cuban temples
since 2005.
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