Cubans eagerly await the pope's decision
January 19, 1998, in the Miami Herald
By APRIL WITT
Herald
Staff Writer
Cuban patriot
Jose Marti once visited the grave of Father Felix Varela and called the 19th
Century priest—who labored to free his homeland from Spanish rule -- "the
Cuban saint.''
Now Cuban Catholics on the island, in South Florida and throughout the Cuban
diaspora are waiting anxiously to learn if Pope John Paul II agrees.
The Vatican has been investigating whether Varela should become the first
Cuban officially declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Scholarly church detectives, including a Miami parish priest and a retired
college professor from Key Biscayne, have traveled widely and searched intensely
to help the Vatican document the life, writings and good works of Varela, who
died in exile in St. Augustine in 1853.
Dozens of South Florida Catholics devoted to Varela—they call
themselves Varelianos—are praying this week that the pontiff will use his
visit to Cuba, which begins Wednesday, to declare the beatification of Varela,
bringing him one step closer to sainthood.
"This is an emotional time, let me tell you,'' said Francisco Muller,
58, a church organist and member of the Father Varela Foundation, a Miami group
dedicated to promoting knowledge about the priest.
"Father Varela was a man of such heroic virtue that it's almost like he
came from another world. He united people—even politically divided people—
and that in itself is a miracle.''
In the Varelianos favor: Pope John Paul II is the most prolific saint-maker
in the history of the church. To broaden the church's base, he has named saints
in previously overlooked parts of the world, including Africa and Asia. And he
has conferred sainthood during his many pastoral travels as something of a gift
to the local church.
Against them: Canonization is a slow-moving process. Vatican bureaucrats are
believed to be searching still for proof of a miracle that can be attributed to
the intercession of Varela, such as a healing that has no scientific
explanation.
"We are waiting for a miracle,'' said Monsignor Octavio Cisneros, who
has a specific charge from the Vatican to promote the cause of Varela's
canonization and is the most authoritative expert on the subject in the United
States.
"I've been informed that there are some possibilities, but nothing has
come of them,'' said Cisneros, the rector of a college seminary in the Diocese
of Brooklyn. "Everywhere I go I say `Pray to Felix Varela, and if you have
a miracle, let me know.' ''
Until the last decade, the Catholic Church required proof of two miracles
for beatification and two more for canonization. As one of several efforts to
streamline canonization, the pope now requires just one miracle at each stage.
"The pope can advance the cause without even one miracle, but he has
never done that before,'' Cisneros said. Because of that, Cisneros does not
expect the pope to beatify Varela during his papal visit to Cuba this week.
A high profile
Even so, Varela will likely have a high profile, particularly Friday when
the pontiff is scheduled to visit Varela's remains at the University of Havana.
Varela was a prolific author who called for Cuban independence from Spain 50
years before Marti. He wrote of human dignity, the need for enlightenment and
the dangers of fanaticism. He didn't advocate armed revolution, but believed
freedom begins in the soul and the best weapons are spiritual.
The pope could use Varela's words and personal history to draw a larger
moral and historic point about Cuba. "If he wishes to issue a condemnation
of the Cuban regime nowadays, all he has to do is quote Varela,'' said Jose B.
Hernandez of Key Biscayne, a retired Georgetown University dean and history
professor who helped collect and examine Varela's writings for the Vatican.
Already, Varela is venerated by many Cuban Catholics in South Florida who
consider him the perfect symbol of a papal visit to Cuba in which politics and
faith are so intertwined.
Spurred in part by the effort to have him canonized, Varela devotees in
Miami have formed the foundation to spread his story, make twice-yearly
pilgrimages to St. Augustine, where he died, and successfully lobbied to have
his image placed on a U.S. stamp. Dozens gather monthly at a Miami restaurant
where they eat breakfast, listen to a lecture and discuss a current topic
through the lens of Varela's life and ideas.
"Every exile identifies with him,'' said the Rev. Jose Menendez, pastor
of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Miami, where the bells will ring out the
Cuban national anthem this week, in honor of the pope's visit to the island.
To Varelianos, the facts of Varela's life are as familiar as the Rosary.
Born in Havana in 1788, he gained prominence as an educator and philosopher—a
Renaissance man who taught the first course in Cuba on constitution law, wrote
physics textbooks and was a talented violinist who helped found the Philharmonic
Society of Havana.
After risking his life by advocating Cuba's independence from Spain, he was
forced to flee to the United States in 1823. In New York, he continued his
intellectual crusade for independence, but also became a selfless pastor to the
poor. He ministered to Irish immigrants, visiting the most wretched during a
cholera outbreak, and became known for giving his own meager possessions—including
his coat in winter—to the needy.
`An enchanted mirror'
The richness of his accomplishments make his life something of an enchanted
mirror in which many exiles see their struggles reflected.
Muller, who holds a master's degree in physics, calls Varela a "treasure
to be discovered.''
"To me, he is an example of an intelligent believer,'' said Muller, who
writes a newsletter for Varela devotees. "His harmonizing faith and science
have given me a lot of inspiration."
Miami artist Xavier Cortada, 33, is painting a portrait of Varela for an
exhibit exploring the artist's personal struggle for Cuban identity. Born in
the United States, Cortada knows Cuba only through family stories and letters
from relatives he has never met.
His visceral, surreal portrait of Varela shows the priest with lion's paws
instead of hands. In the tearing grip of one paw Varela holds a boy, Cortada as
a child. In the other paw is a document, representing both Varela's exile
writings and Cortada's family letters from Cuba.
"It's a very painful experience, missing someone you've never seen,''
Cortada said. "What this painting is about is how this suffering is a Cuban
right of passage. Varela is telling me, these writings, let them make you cry.''
The Rev. Francisco Santana, a priest active in anti-Castro exile politics,
can't help but believe that Fidel Castro's Cuba will quake the day the
patriot-priest becomes St. Felix Varela.
"It would be like a national exorcism,'' Santana said. "The Holy
Spirit descending not only in the person of Felix Varela but on the whole
nation.
A secular hero
In Cuba, Varela has been best known as a secular hero. One of the highest
medals of honor that Castro's government awards is named for Varela.
That secular image of Varela is changing as the Catholic Church in Cuba
gains strength after years of repression. In the mid-1980s, the bishops of Cuba
asked the Vatican to consider Varela for sainthood. The Vatican accepted Varela
as a candidate for canonization, and his official title became Servant of God.
In Rome, the Vatican appointed a "postulator'' or advocate for the
cause of Varela's canonization, and two vice postulators.
Working through a tribunal in Cuba and the U.S.-based Commission of the
Beatification of Father Felix Varela, Varela's advocates conducted meticulous
research on his life.
In August 1996, Varela's advocates gathered in Havana for a ceremony. They
placed the record they had constructed of his extraordinary life into a box,
sealed it and mailed it to Rome to be examined by the Vatican's Congregation for
the Causes of Saints. The ultimate decision rests with the pope.
The Varelianos are now praying for the cause of Cuba, and for Varela.
They're looking for miracles, and seeing them all around.
"The visit of the Holy Father is guided by the hand of God,'' Cisneros
said. "We're already seeing the results, the upholding of the faith of the
people. Most of the young people in Cuba have not been baptized or confirmed,
but now they are asking questions about God. And if that is not a miracle, what
is?''
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald |