EARTHtimes.org, April 7, 2007.
Havana- The Cuban Catholic Church has asked the international community
for "understanding" and "dialogue" in moments of "change" in the
communist island. "Right now the important thing is a high level of
understanding in order to take the right steps", said the assistant
Bishop of Havana, Juan de Dios Hernandez, during the Via Crucis
procession in central Havana late Friday.
For the Catholic Cuban Church, he added, "every situation of change (in
the island) would need a big understanding of the international
community and a dialogue that allows us to go ahead in a civilized way".
Cuba has been ruled these past eight months by interim president Raul
Castro, after his brother Fidel temporarily handed over his powers on
July 31 in order to recover from intestinal surgery.
After the official announcement of the delegation of his powers, the
Cuban Bishops' Conference asked the Catholic community to pray for Fidel
Castro's health.
Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega also said that the Catholic Church would
"never" support nor "scarcely accept" a foreign intervention in the island.
In a recent interview to Spanish newspaper "El Pais", Ortega also set on
"dialogue", indicating that "pressure leads to nowhere".
According to Bishop Hernandez, during these past months of interim
government the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Cuban
State has been "the same".
"We are going the same way, there are no substantial changes", said
Hernandez.
After decades of confrontation, the Catholic Church and the Cuban
government started in the 1990s an approach that culminated with the
historic visit of late Pope John Paul II in 1998.
After that visit, the Cuban state allowed again the public celebration
of religious acts that had been banned in the early 1960s. It also
re-established Christmas Day as a day off work, the only Christian day
to be designated a vacation.
For Hernandez, "after difficult times, the Cuban state is slowly
starting to understand which is the role of the Church in society".
As for the future, he said that the religious institution would like "as
far as it is possible", to go through the "path of normalization".
"And I think that is also the State's aspiration", he added.
Hundreds of people gathered on Friday night in central Havana to follow
the Via Crucis procession, a religious ceremony that has only been
celebrated outside the Cuban temples since 2005.
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