NewsMax.com Wires.
Monday, Feb. 5, 2001
HAVANA Three years after John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba, the
Church here says the island's government has not heeded the pope's requests.
Orlando Marquez, spokesman of the Archdiocese of Havana and director of
Palabra Nueva magazine, wrote in an editorial in the January issue of the
publication: "During his visit to Cuba, three years ago now, Pope John Paul
II told us that we Cubans are, and must be, the protagonists of our own personal
and social history."
"It is difficult," he continued, "for us to be protagonists
of our personal and social history if we do not take up the place that
corresponds to us, which is different from the place they might wish to give us.
Neither can we be [protagonists] if we are impeded, or if conditions are not
created to allow it."
"This is what happens with Catholic Christians," the article
stated. It recalled the plea made in December by Havana's archbishop, Cardinal
Jaime Ortega, when closing the Eucharistic Congress.
Addressing Cuban authorities, the cardinal said: "Do not be afraid,
open the possibility to the Church in Cuba to fulfill in this new millennium,
without fetters or difficulties, the perennial program that the Lord Jesus has
entrusted to us: to love and serve our people and so proclaim Jesus Christ to
them."
"Three years after the Pope's visit these words should be unnecessary,
but we still hope for a fruitful dialogue," wrote Marquez. "The public
processions and Christmas holidays in no way reflect the reality. There are
fetters and difficulties in the spirit, which conditions the acts."
"Where does the problem lie?" Marquez asked. According to him, the
cause of the present marginalization of the Church is rooted in the program of
the 1959 Castro revolution, based on the Soviet model. This model was "erroneously
copied" in Cuba, Marquez wrote, "because it is neither realistic nor
consistent, it doesn't even correspond with today's Cuban 'proletariat,' nor
with what was said earlier, during and in the days immediately [preceding] the
Pope's visit to Cuba."
"It is necessary to dispose wills, abandon mistrust, leave fear behind,"
the Palabra Nueva editorial concluded. "The state's responsibilities must
not be assumed by the Church, or vice versa. In keeping with the etymological
meaning of the word, for the Church and those who are part of her, to be a
protagonist means to accept being 'first in agony': to act to overcome
difficulties: to love and serve, gather, attract, protect and reconcile." |