Catholic church in Cuba
strives to reestablish the faith
The Catholic church,
suppressed for decades, is undergoing a
slow revival in Cuba in recent years. While
it still exists under restrictions and its
numbers have dropped, it is able, as one
bishop said, "to humbly put forward
that faith is an indispensable ingredient
for good."
By David Einhorn, Havana.
National
Catholic Reporter, March 31, 2006.
Even in the worst of times, Maritza Sánchez
never stopped attending church. José
Luis Torres, raised in a secular family
and in schools that deemed religion counterrevolutionary,
didn't even start attending until times
had changed. Today both are helping the
Catholic church work its way back into Cuba's
public consciousness, Sánchez as
director of the aid group Cáritas
and Torres as coordinator of youth programs
in Havana.
Once one of Cuba's seminal institutions
-- even President Fidel Castro attended
Jesuit high schools -- the Catholic church
suffered three decades of repression and
reprisal following the socialist revolution
in 1959. Most churches stayed open, but
anyone who openly declared religious faith
was prohibited from certain studies or careers.
More than 400 Catholic schools were closed
and confiscated.
After having long maintained that churches
were fronts for subversive political activity,
the government reversed course in 1992,
amending the constitution to characterize
the state as secular instead of atheist.
Religious liberties further expanded following
a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
Cuba today, however, is still no bastion
of religious liberty. The government delays
immigration and residence permits for priests,
denies the church access to the Internet,
and still prohibits religious schools. The
U.S. State Department charged in 2005 that
worshipers across the religious spectrum
are still subject to state surveillance,
although Catholic church officials maintain
that direct repression and reprisals have
all but disappeared.
The church remains cautious in dealing
with the authorities out of concern that
policies to allow more religious freedom
could just as easily be reversed. The focus
instead is on religious belief as a personal
responsibility that transcends the institutional
status of the church.
"We cannot alter the life process
of a country in order to aggressively impose
faith," said Bishop Juan de Dios Hernández
Ruiz, auxiliary bishop of Havana. "The
church's strategy is not so much to regain
ground lost over time, but to humbly put
forth what we are convinced of: that faith
is an indispensable ingredient for good."
The number of people identifying themselves
as Catholics has declined over many years
to less than half the Cuban population.
At the Our Lady of Carmen Parish in central
Havana, for example, Fr. Teodoro Becerril
estimates weekly attendance at 2,000 worshipers
-- which seems considerable until he notes
that the number was 7,000 in 1958, the year
the 70-year-old priest took up his post.
Aside from problems with the government,
reasons for the decline include the growth
of Protestant denominations and the numerous
exoduses from the island. One high-ranking
church official noted that the fear that
persists in the public mind about declaring
faith is as much an obstacle today as the
actual consequences of doing so.
"We are emerging from a period when
the transmission of faith from generation
to generation was cut," said Becerril.
"The situation has improved, but people
are still cautious. They want to see where
this train is going to stop before they
commit themselves."
After a boom following the constitutional
change and papal visit, church attendance
has leveled off. Of the indicators used
to measure church participation in Cuba's
largest archdiocese of Havana, only the
number of baptisms exceeds numbers in a
comparable U.S. diocese. And though Havana's
34,000 baptisms in 2004 represented a sizable
number, Becerril noted the special circumstances.
"Most people who bring their children
for baptism are not practicing Catholics.
They say to me, 'I don't want what happened
to me to happen to my child.' They want
to be ready if there is another period of
repression."
The problem is that only 10 percent of
baptized Catholics in Cuba are believed
to attend Mass regularly, and, as the priest
added, "the older they get, the less
they participate." The number of confirmations
bears him out: only 740 in all of Havana
in 2004, this in an archdiocese of 85 parishes
spanning three provinces with a population
of over 3 million. The city's 413 Catholic
marriages in 2004 was the lowest since 1993.
Becerril said keeping the faith is difficult
because "the average young person today
wants to leave the country. In Cuba, if
you don't accept the career offered you
by the state, you have no future. Some say
they might go to the United States. So they
are in a position of choosing to participate
in a future that is uncertain."
Torres, 31, coordinator of archdiocese
youth programs for the past seven years,
agreed that the church can expect stops
and starts in the years ahead. As much as
three-fourths of the population has never
known any government other than the current
regime.
"In Cuba today, religion is still
something relatively new. So despite its
long history, the church in a sense is just
starting out." Torres said he first
came to church as a young adult, out of
curiosity.
Torres runs youth programs such as an interparish
soccer league that has 23 teams and 200
participants. Most are not Catholics, however,
so the church treads softly. "The league
enables us to open a dialogue with young
people about virtues and values. But we
don't pray at the games because they take
place in public and we don't want to have
any problems," Torres said.
Outreach beyond traditional religious boundaries
to address social issues also is no easy
task in Cuba. With an annual budget of only
$400,000, Cáritas provides social
services through a parish-level network
of volunteers. But unlike the situation
in other countries, Cáritas in Cuba
is prohibited from importing goods, is required
to make all purchases at exorbitant retail
prices, and is restricted to accepting donations
from state-approved funding sources.
"What I can tell you is that we are
tolerated," explained Sánchez,
49, director of Cáritas since it
opened in 1991. "It is difficult to
develop any programs that involve collaboration
between the church and government. The problem
is the ideology that no one can be the protagonist
in these matters except the state."
Despite the ubiquitous role of the state
in Cuban life, other factors affect the
Catholic church in this diverse nation of
12 million people. The church must address
issues confronting societies across the
globe, such as materialism, the breakdown
of families, and changes in cultural values
fueled by mass media.
"It is a mistake to think that just
because we are an island we are somehow
separated from worldwide trends," said
Bishop Hernández. "Some trends
might get here a little later than other
places, but they get here."
David Einhorn is a freelance writer based
in Washington.
New Cuba bishop speaks out
Juan de Dios Hernández Ruiz became
the auxiliary bishop of Havana Jan. 14.
The 57-year-old Jesuit priest is a native
of Holguín in eastern Cuba. "I
love this country and I love Jesus Christ
and the church," he said. "These
are the three loves that define my life."
Below are excerpts from an interview with
the bishop just days after he took office.
"It is impossible to explain the Catholic
church in Cuba or anywhere else from anything
other than the perspective of faith. It's
true that its temples and its social and
educational institutions allow for its visible
manifestation. But faith as a culture transcends
institutional elements, and the more profound
reality of the church can only be experienced
through that tool. Faith is the only way
to access and fully comprehend the mystery
-- that is to say, the spirituality -- that
is the church.
"At any given moment, a religious
institution anywhere might find itself facing
direct or indirect forms of repression.
But when faith is culture, even in Cuba,
which has faced enormous problems in holding
onto its enormous reserve of Christianity,
faith endures despite all of these difficulties.
"Without a doubt, religious freedom
was directly and sometimes violently infringed
upon for many years in Cuba. There were
times when it was very difficult for people
to attend church. Thank God, there are fewer
such problems today: Direct challenges by
state institutions to the very right to
religion have all but disappeared. We are
free to publicly express our faith, and
every diocese today has some kind of newsletter
or magazine. This is what gives us hope
that times are indeed changing."
Copyright © The National
Catholic Reporter Publishing Company, 115
E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111 -
All rights reserved.
|