Cardinal emphasizes unity of all Cubans

Cardinal emphasizes unity of all Cubans
By Ellie Hidalgo
6/22/2006

Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)
GLENDALE, Calif. – Visiting with the Cuban community of Los Angeles for
the first time June 18, Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana
expressed his hope that Cubans of faith remain united wherever they live.

"The love of Jesus unites us. It's a unity that no one can break," the
Cuban cardinal said in Spanish to a standing-room-only congregation of
more than 800 people at Holy Family Church in the Los Angeles suburb here.

Cardinal Ortega, 69, is immediate past president of the Cuban bishops'
conference and president of the Catholic humanitarian aid agency Caritas
Cuba. He was in Los Angeles for the U.S. bishops' spring meeting, where
he addressed the bishops during a closed-door session June 16.

Two days later, he celebrated the 12:30 p.m. Mass at Holy Family with 10
priests concelebrating, including several Cuban-born priests now
ministering in Los Angeles.

Celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, Cardinal Ortega reflected on
how Jesus appeared to his disciples in the glory of his risen body while
still showing the scars of his passion and crucifixion.

Sacrifice is always present in the life of a Christian and in the
church, said Cardinal Ortega, who was detained in work camps in 1966
following the Cuban communist revolution of 1959 when many priests were
expelled or incarcerated.

Today, Cubans on the island encounter severe travel restrictions under
the dictatorial government of President Fidel Castro. In the United
States, Cuban Americans face tightened travel restrictions to Cuba as
part of the U.S. trade embargo against the island, allowing them to
visit close family members only every three years.

"Sometimes it's painful, the different culture, the distance, the
reality of not being with loved ones when you want to," said the
cardinal. "We have a capacity to persevere through the difficulties of
life."

At the conclusion of the Mass, the cardinal offered a special blessing
to fathers on Father's Day.

Cardinal Ortega, an unhurried man with a ready smile, greeted everyone
who wanted to talk with him on the lawn outside the church and later in
the parish hall. Many embraced him with emotion, recalling decades past
when they knew him in Cuba or received the sacraments from him.

Gisela Valle recalled how her cousin, then-Father Ortega, would not
leave Cuba after the communist revolution. "He said his obligation was
to Cuba. He wanted to fight for the church in Cuba," said Valle, a
parishioner along with her husband, Gerardo, at Beatitudes of Our Lord
Church in La Mirada.

For an hour following a reception in the parish hall, the cardinal
answered questions that had been submitted in writing, and he pointedly
steered clear of politics.

He did talk about the renovation of dilapidated churches and the
Catholic Church's evangelization efforts. Ever since the visit of Pope
John Paul II to Cuba in 1998, annual processions in honor of Our Lady of
Charity have swelled to thousands of people, he said. However, the
Castro government, in power for more than 47 years now, does not allow
the church to open any Catholic schools.

Cardinal Ortega, well-versed in the history of former communist Eastern
Europe, said he has consulted with bishops who lived through that
period. "The church needs to be alive and present always. We can't be
absent from any society," he said. "We can't act with methods that
aren't out of love. We as Christians have to have the same style as Christ."

The cardinal pointed out that around the time of Pope John Paul's visit
to Cuba the pope asked Castro to talk to the communist Vietnamese
government about allowing the Catholic Church in Vietnam to appoint new
bishops, a request Vietnam granted the church.

Strategy is important, he said: "Look how John Paul II's visit to Cuba
served to help open up new bishops in Vietnam. Our attitude has to be
totally pastoral and Christian."

"I understand your impatience," added the cardinal. His solution has
been to keep returning to the Gospel. "The day that the cross is taken
away from Christians, it will no longer be the church of Christ," he said.

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