CUBA: Pope Instructs Bishops to Rebuild their own Church

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jan 24 1998 (IPS) - The Cuban Catholic Church had the foundation stone of reconstruction set following the visit of Pope John Paul II, given the impulse of tolerance from the government and support from the followers.

The papal journey to the island, where for decades atheism was the official religion for, has strengthened the Catholic hierarchy but left many challenges to be tackled.

With social openings of tolerance toward Catholics already established, the greatest challenge is encapsulated in a message much repeated by John Paul II and which has implications for both the people of the island and the Catholic Church itself.

“You are and must be the protagonists of your own personal and national history,” said the Pope in his first speech in Havana, minutes after starting his pastoral visit last Wednesday.

“God willing this visit which is just starting will serve to motivate everyone into making their own effort” to achieve His “hopes and legitimate desires,” he said directly to the members of the local Church.

The pontiff will be returning to Rome Sunday, once he has completed his agenda of four masses in public squares, a private meeting with President Fidel Castro and other appointments with intellectuals, the sick and members of religious orders.

On the last day, John Paul II will lead what could be the most important of his masses in the ‘Jose Marti’ Revolution Square in the Cuban capital, where, according to the organisers, nearly a million people will be present.

He will also be meeting with representatives of the Cuban Evangelical groups and the Jewish community Sunday, events which will put the Cuban Catholic Church on the road to as yet inexistent ecumenical dialogue.

The Pope also has an appointment with the Cuban Synod of Catholic Bishops, and will celebrate the liturgy with priests, deacons and members of religious orders, seminarists and members of the lay community in Havana Cathedral.

He is expected to reiterate his support for the episcopal synod, presided over by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, following a visit which, departing from the universal, has reaffirmed the proposals the Catholic Church has been presenting since early this decade.

At the same time, he will give the Cuban bishops and the religious community in general the mission of broadening their institutional role in Cuban society, progressively occupying more spaces.

“The Church in your nation has the will to be at the service not only of the Catholics but of all Cubans,” wrote the Pope in a written message “to the Cuban youth” dealing with an issue he sees as vital for the future.

“In order to serve better (the Church) urgently needs priests from amongst the children of this people” and also men and women to “dedicate themselves generously to the service of charity,” said John Paul II.

This demand is in some way the answer to a long-standing problem of the Catholic hierarchy on the island, whereby the government ban on the entry of foreign priests and members of religious communities has limited pastoral work.

This issue was one of those which arose in the first meeting between Castro and John Paul II, in November 1996, and visas were granted for several groups following the session.

Sources within the Catholic Church said 145 of the island’s 383 priests are Cuban. Out of the 36 deacons, 61 monks and 498 nuns, only 192 are natives. There are 688 Catholic Churches operating on the island.

The Pope also opened the ground for one of the oldest aspirations of the Church here, the possibility of opening schools and training establishments, a demand which has not been pushed much by the Catholic authorities to date.

John Paul II first touched on the issue in his mass dedicated to the family last Thursday, when he said parents “must be able to choose the pedagogic style for their children, the ethical and civic content and the religious inspiration in which they want them to be integrally taught.”

“The Church has the duty to provide moral, civil and religious education, helping the Cuban youth to grow in human and Christian values, without fear and with the perseverance of an educational task which needs the time, resources and institutions for this sowing of virtue,” he continued in his second mass.

Experts on the island said this could be one of the most controversial messages left for future dialogue with Castro by the Pope.

For education here has been free and universal since the sixties and, according to high-ranking government officials, the satisfaction of this demand would mean creating a privileged sector within an egalitarian system.

At the same time, as an argument against this, the authorities state that approving the establishment of Catholic schools would mean granting a right which all the religious communities on the island could then demand.