NEWS STORY: Pope says church in Cuba does not seek political power but needs freedom

c. 1998 Religion News Service SANTIAGO, Cuba _ Pope John Paul II traveled to the symbolic heart of Cuban nationhood Saturday and told tens of thousands of Cubans gathered for the pontiff’s third open-air Mass that the church isn’t interested in political power but needs freedom to carry out his mission.”The church, immersed in civil […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

SANTIAGO, Cuba _ Pope John Paul II traveled to the symbolic heart of Cuban nationhood Saturday and told tens of thousands of Cubans gathered for the pontiff’s third open-air Mass that the church isn’t interested in political power but needs freedom to carry out his mission.”The church, immersed in civil society, does not seek any type of political power in order to carry out her mission,”the pope said.”She wishes only to be the fruitful seed of everyone’s good by her presence in the structures of society.

But John Paul told the largest throng yet to gather for his landmark five-day visit to the communist nation that the Roman Catholic Church”needs sufficient freedom and adequate means”to carry out its twin tasks of bringing Jesus’ message to the world and serving society.


Even before John Paul spoke, however, a local Catholic leader _ Santiago Archbishop Pedro Meurice, dramatically underscored how the pope’s visit has created a politically emboldened Catholic church.”Many Cubans,”Meurice said,”confuse this nation with a sole (political) party”and he said the church had been”impoverished”by an”ideological confrontation with Marxist-Leninism intentionally induced by the government.” And in something of a direct slap at the government, the archbishop, speaking of the history of the Catholic Church in Cuba, said its finest hours were in the 1950s _ a time when the country was ruled by the dictator Fulgencio Batista and Castro himself was launching the revolution here with the 1953 failed attack on the Moncada Barracks.

John Paul, for his part, took advantage of Castro’s promise he could say anything he wanted and used his strongest language yet in calling on the government to grant the church more freedom of action in Cuba. Included in the audience was Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, considered the second-most powerful figure in Cuba and a likely successor to Fidel.

The pope said”true freedom”includes”the recognition of human rights and social justice”and lay Catholics”have the duty and the right to participate in public debate on the basis of equality.”Defending her own freedom, the church defends the freedom of each individual, of families, of different social units,”the pope said.

In speaking of the active role people should play in creating a better society, John Paul said”each person, enjoying freedom of expression, being free to undertake initiatives and make proposals within civil society, and enjoying appropriate freedom of association, will be able to cooperate effectively in the pursuit of the common good.” The pope’s paean to freedom was delivered in a square named after Antonio Maceo, a general who died fighting to free Cuba from Spain a century and in a city long associated with the island nation’s most momentous events, including the Spanish conquest, the long struggle for independence and Fidel Castro’s revolution.

And just 12 miles away is the shrine of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba and the country’s most venerated religious icon.

The small 3-foot statue was brought the dozen miles to Santiago for the papal Mass and at the end of the celebration, John Paul crowned the diminutive statue.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

The pope’s remarks in Santiago expanded on his speech Friday night to intellectuals in which he paid tribute to Father Felix Varela, a revered 19th century priest, who advocated Cuban independence and a commitment to Christian principles.


The pope said at the University of Havana he had”venerated”Varela, a designation that will allow Vatican authorities to determine whether he should be beatified and possibly canonized.

Clearly trying to demonstrate that Cuban culture and Catholicism are compatible, the pontiff urged intellectuals to”foster a Cuban identity”that embraces both.”The love for Christ and for Cuba which illumined Father Varela’s life is part of the indestructible root of Cuban culture,”the pope said.”The good of his country still needs the undying light which is Christ.” He added,”Christ is the way which leads man to the fullness of life, the way which leads to a society which is more just, more free, more human, more caring.” The pope said Varela and another Cuban hero, patriot Jose Marti, both advocated democracy and the rule of law, and found their faith in Christian spirituality.”And I am sure that the Cuban people have inherited the human virtues, Christian in their origin, of both these men, since all Cubans share in common that culture which these men nourish,”he said.

DEA END ANDERSON

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!