Pope Francis heads to Cuba as ‘missionary of mercy’

Pope Francis heads to Cuba as 'missionary of mercy'
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
AND JIM WYSS
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com

Pope Francis' upcoming trip to Cuba features a number of intriguing
elements from the pontiff's role in the rapprochement between the United
States and Cuba to a Catholic Church that is in the process of becoming
a force in Cuban civil society.

Add to the mix Raúl Castro, Cuba's Communist head of state who was so
impressed by the pope during a May audience that he said he might even
consider a return to the Church, and a Cuban cardinal who served as a
secret emissary between the Vatican and White House, and the four-day
papal trip is bound to be eventful.

When Francis arrives in Cuba on Saturday, he will be the third pope
since 1998 to visit the island. The pontiff's Sept. 22-27 trip to
Washington, New York and Philadelphia also will be the third papal visit
to the United States in the same time frame. The only other country in
the Americas that a pope has visited three times is Brazil.

So why has a Caribbean island with a tiny fraction of the population of
the U.S. and Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, commanded so
much attention from the Vatican?

One reason may be the moment: Cuba and the United States have renewed
diplomatic ties and begun the process of normalizing relations after
more than 54 years of enmity.

"Cuba is important not because of its size but because of its
geopolitical significance," said Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who
will travel to Cuba for Francis' visit. "There we have the last
communist regime in this hemisphere.

"The breakdown in the relationship between Cuba and the United States
certainly affected the U.S. relationship with the rest of the region and
hopefully a rapprochement will indicate better days ahead for Cuba, the
United States and Latin America," he said.

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega characterizes the visit as a "special
deference" the pontiff is showing to the Cuban Church and people at a
time when "interesting perspectives are being opened in our national
life by the new possibilities of dialogue and mutual listening taking
place between the United States and Cuba for the good of both countries
and all of Latin America."

Not only did Francis play a key role in the rapprochement negotiations
between Cuba and the United States, but he also offered the Vatican as a
site for negotiations, and Ortega personally delivered a letter from the
pope to the White House urging a meeting of minds on humanitarian
grounds between President Barack Obama and Castro, who received a
similar letter.

At the Aug. 14 flag-raising marking the official opening of the U.S.
Embassy in Havana, Ortega sat in the front row, flanking Secretary of
State John Kerry, and was quoted in Granma, the newspaper of the
Communist Party, as saying he took part "in a historic day" and "we are
beginning a path that is promising."

But Ortega also has been criticized for not speaking more forcefully on
behalf of dissidents and human rights activists on the island.

In the week before the pope's arrival, Cuba announced it was freeing
3,522 prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to the pontiff. But in addition
to excluding those convicted of violent crimes, drug trafficking and
illegally slaughtering cattle, Cuba's Council of State also said the
amnesty didn't apply to those convicted of crimes against state
security. Dissidents often are detained for security-related offenses.

At a recent symposium on the papal visit at Florida International
University, some audience members singled out the church and Ortega, in
particular, for not being outspoken enough on human rights abuses on the
island.

But Sister Ondina Cortés, a theology professor at St. Thomas University,
said the church has raised its voice on various occasions and is "not so
silent, so mute" as some think. "Much of what the church says or raises
doesn't come out in Granma," she added.

Father Pedro Pablo Aguilar, with Venezuela's Episcopal Conference, said
he didn't expect Pope Francis to venture into political territory on his
Cuban trip. "Like all his trips, this is a pastoral visit," he said.

But his mere presence on the island could help "continue widening the
openings" that Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI started, "and
maybe some things can change for the better," Aguilar said.

He also thought the trip would let the famously liberal pope "see the
reality of that country" under the communist dictatorship.

During Francis' last foray in the region — a weeklong trip through
Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay in July — he built on long-running themes
about serving the poor, the need for dialogue and condemning the
"throwaway culture" that ostracizes the old, homeless and generally
undesirable.

He made most of his international headlines on that trip, however, with
his forceful attacks on capitalism and rampant consumerism.

The earth and people "are being brutally punished," he said in Bolivia.
"And behind all this pain, death and destruction, there is the stench of
what Basil of Caesarea — one of the first theologians of the church —
called 'the dung of the devil.' An unfettered pursuit of money rules."

Cuba's communist government may be hoping the pontiff sticks to that
vindicating message while on the island.

But during his last trip, the pope also talked about the evils of
totalitarianism. And some are wondering if he will venture into that
territory as he addresses the Castro brothers, who have ruled the island
since 1959.

The Argentine-born pope, the first Latin American pontiff, also comes to
Cuba as a "missionary of mercy." With that as his theme, Wenski said he
expects the pope's message to be one of reconciliation: "Give your
sister, your brother your hand — not an insult, not a stone."

Francis, said Cortés, can help bring exiles and Cubans on the island
together and be "a bridge over the troubled waters of the Florida Straits."

The pope will visit three Cuban cities: Havana, Holguín, and Santiago as
well as celebrate Mass at the shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre,
Cuba's patron saint. El Cobre is an old copper mining town outside Santiago.

Since John Paul's visit in 1998 and Benedict's 2012 trip, the church has
been consolidating its strength on the island and building on those
papal visits to gain more space for its activities, which range from
educating Cuba's budding private entrepreneurs in its Cuba Emprende
program to running soup kitchens for the elderly and after-school
programs for children.

"The Catholic Church has recovered tremendous strength since the
previous papal visits," said Enrique Lopez Oliva, a retired University
of Havana religion professor. "It is the most important non-government
organization."

The years after the 1959 Revolution were difficult ones for the church.
Cuba became an atheist state, priests were booted out and religious
schools were shut down. Cuba remained officially atheist for 30 years
until 1992 and since then, tolerance for religious expression has
gradually grown.

Analysts say the papal visits accelerated that process. The December
after John Paul visited, Fidel Castro made Christmas a permanent public
holiday. It had been an ordinary work day since 1969. Easter became an
official holiday after Benedict's visit.

Two new churches are under construction in Havana and Pinar del Rio —
something that hasn't happened since before the revolution. Some
churches and religious facilities taken over by the state are now being
returned to the Catholic Church. "The church, of course, needs funds
from abroad to reconstruct them," said Lopez Oliva.

Other things beyond the new relationship with the United States are
changing, too. The government has begun a process of limited economic
reform, and more economic and political changes are expected.

Lopez Oliva said the Communist Party lacks an "interlocutor" in the
process of change, and the church has occupied that role.

When John Paul visited, "he asked for Cuba to open up to the world and
for the world to open up to Cuba," recalled Mons. Said Luis Castro
Quiroga, the president of the Colombian Episcopal Conference: "We
increasingly see signs of that."

John Paul's visit, for example, resulted in the 2011 opening of a
seminary that is now turning out much-needed priests. At the time of
Benedict's visit, there were only 300 priests in a nominally Catholic
country of 11 million people. The most recent ordination came Sept. 12
when deacon Marcelo Díaz became a priest in Cienfuegos.

Quiroga also noted the outsized political role Cuba is playing in the
peace talks in Havana between Colombian government negotiators and
members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — the country's
largest guerrilla group — in an effort to end a 50-year civil conflict.

He said he hoped Francis would mention Cuba's positive role in the peace
process. "It would be good for Colombia but also good for Cuba,"
Quirogra said. "Cuba has traditionally been seen as an exporter of
terrorism, but now it could be an exporter of peace."

Raúl Castro has said he plans to attend all the papal Masses, and
Francis is scheduled to have a meeting with him next Sunday afternoon at
the Palacio de la Revolución.

When the pope and Castro held private talks at the Vatican, Castro
emerged saying: "I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries,
and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go
back to the church, and I'm not joking." Castro was baptized as a Roman
Catholic and educated by Jesuits.

Castro also noted his connection with Francis, a Jesuit. "I, in some
way, am too," he said.

PAPAL MESSAGES
▪ "Cuba and the world need change, but this will occur only if each one
is in a position to seek the truth and chooses the way of love, sowing
reconciliation and fraternity." — Pope Benedict XVI's homily during a
Mass before hundreds of thousands in Havana's Revolution Square, March 2012

▪ "My best wishes are joined with the prayer that this land may offer
everyone a climate of freedom, mutual trust, social justice and lasting
peace. May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to
the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba...." — Pope John
Paul II as he arrived for a five-day visit to Cuba in January 1998

▪ "From the very first moment of my presence among you, I wish to say
with the same force as at the beginning of my pontificate: 'Do not be
afraid to open your hearts to Christ.' " — John Paul II in his arrival
speech at José Martí International Airport in January 1998

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