Support Christians in totalitarian Cuba says Czech church official

9 August 2006

Support Christians in 'totalitarian' Cuba says Czech church official
Stephen Brown

Geneva (ENI). A church official from the Czech Republic, which was under
communist rule from 1948 to 1989, says support for Christians in Cuba
which has been governed since 1959 by ailing leader Fidel Castro should
not only be given through government-backed institutions. "From our own
experiences churches in Central and Eastern Europe are aware of what it
means to live under a repressive totalitarian regime of the type, which,
in our opinion, exists in Cuba," said Jitka Klubalova, general secretary
of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic.

Klubalova made her comments on 3 August in an open letter to World
Council of Churches general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia. In the
letter she referred to recent comments by the WCC leader in which he
denounced proposals for the United States to tighten sanctions on Cuba.
The Washington proposals said the US Department of Commerce should no
longer grant licences for humanitarian aid to Cuba that would go through
the Cuban Council of Churches. According to the US proposals, the church
body is controlled by the Cuban government.

In a letter to US President George W. Bush, Kobia described the idea as
"a gross violation of religious freedom".

The Cuban Council of Churches was founded in 1941 and has 22 Protestant,
Anglican, Evangelical and Pentecostal member denominations. The Roman
Catholic Church is not a member.

In her letter to Kobia, Klubalova wrote, "I am working for Ecumenical
Council of Churches in the Czech Republic which ... was an institution
controlled and governed by a communist regime before 1989. Therefore I
understand those who have doubts about help to Cuban Christians only
through official organisations."

She noted: "As I see it, the flow of non-agriculture and medical help
from the US government could possibly cease through the Cuban Council of
Churches, but will definitely not stop being provided through other
channels."

Klubalova said her country's biggest Protestant denomination, the
Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, was developing "contacts with the
Cuban opposition and churches that are not members of Cuban Council of
Churches because this is believed to be a good way of helping those in
need who do not receive support from official institutions".

She said her organization would be willing to host a meeting in the
Czech Republic where member churches of the WCC could discuss how to
help and support Cuban Christians.

http://www.eni.ch/articles/display.shtml?06-0632