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By Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino. Posted on Mon, Mar. 03,
2003 in The Miami Herald.
These are excerpts from ''There is no homeland without virtue,'' the
pastoral letter by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, Archbishop of Havana, released
on Feb. 24, the 150th anniversary of Father Félix Varela's death. (Full text in Spanish)
HAVANA -- Many of our brethren turn to the Catholic Church in Cuba, asking
for a word about the future, because the Cuban people experience a diffused and
generalized fear of the future. How will events transpire in our nation? Will
our living conditions improve? With there be a reconciliation among all Cubans?
It's always the best and the most restless Cubans who express this concern.
What's missing in Cuba are proposals that will raise people's spirits and
increase their hope, that will encourage projects in their personal and
community lives in which all may feel involved.
- Abortion has been practiced openly in Cuba since the first half of the
20th Century. Added to the frequent suppression of life in the womb is the
existence of the death penalty. This creates the concept that death is a
solution to many problems. Contempt for life also brings with it the unchecked
violence that leads someone to kill or assault to rob or to settle a quarrel.
- At a certain age and depending on the place of residence, parents do not
have options for their children because the only possibility that minors have to
study is in boarding schools.
Let us listen to [Father Varela's] warnings about this period of
adolescence: ''The lack of sound judgment when guiding youngsters through the
most dangerous period of their lives is the cause of the demoralization of
many.'' And "the period we can properly call dangerous is between 15 and 18
years of age.''
It is precisely at this stage of young people's lives that Cuban teenagers
live outside the home. Cuban parents facing this situation fear early sexual
initiation among boys and girls, early pregnancies, violent quarrels, frequent
robberies, etc. In addition, the absence of Catholic schools in Cuba always has
been a thorn in the heart of the church.
· Although education and healthcare are free in Cuba, wages do not
generally adjust to the cost of living. Professionals, employees and workers who
do not receive financial aid from relatives or friends living abroad are forced
to perform some sort of legal or illegal work activities, in addition to their
[regular] jobs, to bring them some financial benefit.
Think of the effort invested -- but also the anxiety, fear and disquietude
felt -- by those who cannot pay the high taxes to legitimize their activities.
· Priests listen to the people's concern with a frequency greater than
anticipated. ''Is it a sin to act thus when we feel that the expenses exceed our
income?'' the faithful ask. I understand these grave concerns. We hear the
stories from the families of elderly people visited by Cáritas
volunteers, or by people who occasionally come to our dining halls or by the
great number of needy people who knock at our doors.
So I ask myself -- and leave the question to those who can answer -- isn't
it possible to rationally reduce the high rate of taxes so the illegal can be
made legal and anxiety may disappear?
Why can't we give a greater degree of participation to personal and family
initiative in a legal manner and conveniently reward the industriousness and
creativity of our people in agriculture, handicrafts, services, jobs of various
sorts, even allowing people to associate legally to earn their sustenance with
dignity? This is the best way to prevent corruption.
· People's lack of confidence in the possibility of greater financial
ease, without surprises or anxiety, leads many to emigrate by any means
possible. More and more we hear the cases of a member of a family who emigrates
to help support those he leaves behind, not to mention the marriages, divorces,
applications for foreign citizenship, invitations to one-way travel, etc., used
to leave Cuba.
The Cuban family finds itself harshly affected by an emigration of dramatic
proportions that includes the risk of leaping into the sea one way or another to
reach the United States. Cubans ought to live in a climate of confidence that
allows them to think about a possible project for their personal and family
lives and gives them the hope to reach with serenity a better future in their
own homeland.
Despair is the leading cause of emigration today. The Cuban family is
gravely harmed by the fractioning that emigration produces, and emigration is
also the cause of suffering for those who choose it or are forced to pursue it.
- Notwithstanding political options and painful confrontations, the Catholic
Church in Cuba does not cease to recall the unity in love that must exist among
all children of this earth. To do this, the church always turns in prayer to the
Virgin of Charity, Our Mother, asking Her to plead to God for the gift of
brotherhood among Cubans, which must entail -- when necessary -- a serious
effort at reconciliation.
- It shouldn't be only the pastor's or the bishop's eyes that turn
mercifully to the crowd; the leaders' eyes, too, should.
The time has come to go from the avenging state that demands sacrifices and
settles accounts to the merciful state that is ready to lend a compassionate
hand before it imposes controls and punishes infractions.
I am not referring here to the necessary actions against homicidal crime,
drug trafficking and anything that corrupts or harms others, but to a
consideration of the kind of power that leaves room for love, despite major
social ills.
It is true that I am using a language not frequently found within the
existing economic and political systems. My language is that of the social
doctrine of the church.
- Only a man who is truly free can make the choice that will put him in an
ethical posture of this kind. For this reason, Father Varela was passionate
about the freedom of man. He, who denounced slavery as the great moral evil of
Cuba in the 19th Century and died wishing to see Cuba free in the concert of
nations, was an educator of freedom for every Cuban, beginning with his students
at the San Carlos Seminary.
- We have to educate young people for freedom; they must learn to think.
There is too much memorization of facts, historical text, phrases taken out of
context and slogans. What is lacking is the internalization and willingness to
understand and act on what the words say.
Repetition and passive acceptance of memorized text is ideology; to discover
and exercise the reflexive ability to make decisions is thinking. The
possibility of assuming an ethical stance depends on the basic freedom of every
human being.
Civilian laws must guarantee freedom, but freedom does not originate in
civilian laws; man is free because God has created him thus. Therefore, respect
for freedom is sacred. National independence and freedom are the children of
individual freedom.
We are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of Father Varela,
who, as he left, passed the torch to José Martí, born the same
year of Varela's death. We remember them together because both were fighters not
only for the freedom of Cuba but also for the freedom of man. Only free men can
build the homeland of their dreams. | 
