Posted on Mon, Sep. 24, 2007
By MATT SEDENSKY
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI --
A top Catholic prelate in Cuba says religious practice is slowly
spreading in the communist nation despite rigid restrictions.
Archbishop Dionisio Guillermo Garcia Ibanez, named earlier this year to
lead Catholics in Santiago, Cuba's second-largest city, said the church
has been able to expand its reach, though it will be years before it
achieves goals of even more openness.
"The faith of our community has manifested, it has been reborn," he said
in a recent interview during a visit here. "The Catholic faith in our
community has resurrected."
Garcia would not pin the loosened restrictions on Fidel Castro's
decision to temporarily hand over the government last year to his
brother Raul. He said he has witnessed piecemeal improvements since his
ordination in 1985.
Catholics once hoped simply to knock on doors and spread the Gospel,
Garcia said, a dream that has since been realized. They prayed they
could hold religious processions in the streets; he says there have now
been more than 90. They pushed for Catholic radio broadcasts, which are
now allowed once or twice a year.
"Hope is relative," the 62-year-old archbishop said after a Mass at
Ermita de la Caridad, the spiritual heart of Cuban exiles here. "We
always need to work toward what we think is necessary, is fair."
Garcia was cautious in his statements and steered away from any
criticism of the Cuban government, for which his predecessor, retired
Archbishop Pedro Meurice Estiu, became known. One of Garcia's hosts,
Bishop Felipe Estevez, said he was encouraged by the changes the
archbishop noted, but said Catholics need to understand Cubans are still
living in a closed society.
"That is a society that is not pluralistic, it is unidimensional and
somehow they have to live with that reality," said Estevez, an auxiliary
bishop with the Archbishop of Miami who was born in Havana and came to
the U.S. as a teenager. "They are kind of talking out of adversity."
Despite huge expectations, Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit to Cuba never
brought the transcendent changes many wanted. The pontiff urged the
island to "open to the world" and called for Castro to increase liberty
for the church and society.
"Life in Cuba continues without greater transformations," the archbishop
acknowledged.
Cuba became officially atheist in the years after the 1959 revolution
that brought Castro to power. Although diplomatic relations between the
Cuban government and the Vatican remained intact, and religious
observance was never outlawed, practicing Catholics and believers of
other faiths were often viewed with suspicion or amusement.
The Cuban government removed the constitution's references to atheism
more than a decade ago and allowed believers to join the Communist
Party. But religious schools have remained closed since the early 1960s,
when hundreds of foreign priests and religious workers were expelled.
Abortion remains free and readily available.
"We are in that process of finding new roads for presence of the church,
of understanding that faith is not only something private," Garcia said.
"Many years of experience have to pass for this state to not only accept
the beliefs of others, of its citizens, but also to realize that the
sincere evidence of the faith signifies a good thing for the country."
Estevez noted no new churches have been built in Cuba in 50 years, that
Catholics still have no schools, newspapers or regularly broadcast radio
programs.
"If you are Catholic, you cannot study law, you cannot study psychology,
or you cannot study political science," he said. "They don't want that
thinking in the leadership."
Although John Paul's influence was considered key to the collapse of
communism in his native Poland, the church has had much less say in
Cuba. Garcia said Catholics on the island don't ask why they haven't
followed a similar path.
"Every country, every town has to find their own road to
reconciliation," he said. "Every country should find with honesty their
own way to find the way for their people. It's not healthy to make
comparisons."
Associated Press writers Anita Snow in Havana and Damian Grass in Miami
contributed to this report.
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