RELIGION-CUBA: U.S. Priest’s Exit Reawakens Church-State Tension

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 19 1998 (IPS) - The departure of a U.S. priest from Cuba alegedly due to pressure has once again heightened tension between the Roman Catholic Church and the government of Fidel Castro less than four months after Pope John Paul II’s historic visit.

Patrick Sullivan, the only U.S. priest working in Cuba, will leave the country “due to a unilateral decision by the governing Communist Party,” according to Sullivan.

“No one wants conflict at this time, but due to pressures, father Sullivan has had to be transferred from Santa Clara to Havana,” explained the Capuchin order’s superior in Cuba, Felipe Tejerina.

Sullivan, who has worked since 1994 in the province of Santa Clara, 300 kms from Havana, had permission to stay until February 1999, but decided to leave Cuba earlier due to the transfer.

“I have to leave against my will. It is not my decision nor that of the bishop of Santa Clara, Fernando Prego, nor of my superiors,” said Sullivan. “It is a unilateral decision taken by the Communist Party.”

Cuban authorities announced that Sullivan’s permit would not be renewed when it expired 10 months from now, Tejerina said.

This is the first conflict between the Cuban State and the Catholic Church since the Pontiff’s Jan. 21-25 visit, which revealed a thaw in relations.

And it is the first such case since March 1961, when after a series of rows between the Church and the government, Castro announced the expulsion of all “counter-revolutionary” foreign members of the clergy.

A massive exodus of priests, monks and secular church-members resulted, marking the low point of Church-State relations until 1967, a period described as “confrontation and evasion” by Cuban historian Raul Gomez Treto, a member of the Church.

Another sign of the easing of relations was the Mar. 27 audience granted by Pope John Paul II to Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina in the Vatican. Robaina also met with Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano and Cardinal Roger Etchegaray.

After his meeting with the Pope, Robaina said they had recalled the Pontiff’s “recent visit to Cuba with much satisfaction, and the good climate it created at a national and international level.”

Tejerina stressed that in spite of the incident that led to Sullivan’s decision to leave Cuba, “there are no problems” in Church-State relations and “no one wants problems.”

The Church, the media and local authorities have kept silent on the episode.

“What’s at the bottom of this? I don’t know,” said Tejerina, a Spanish national.

“It is an internal Church affair, in which we cannot get involved,” was the only response from Foreign Minister spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez.

“We have taken no measures, nor did we have anything to do with this. It is a decision taken exclusively by the clergy,” said an official with the Communist Party’s office on religious affairs, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The date of Sullivan’s departure has not been announced, but he plans to leave soon in order to prevent a new row between the Church and State, which neither seems keen on today.