Bergoglio’s Havana Tango

Bergoglio's Havana Tango / Jeovany Jimenez Vega
Posted on October 1, 2015

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 27 September 2015 — The recently concluded visit
of Pope Francis left Cuba awash in a wave of controversy. To the
amazement of some and the disappointment of others, a pope known for
being direct, almost penetrating, in his incendiary statements to the
centers of world power, and who has shown courage in opening a Pandora's
box inside his own institution, to the delight of many enjoying the
show, was nevertheless too cautious in facing the Cuban dictators.

From someone who has taken steps considered truly reckless in contrast
to the millennial conservatism of his Church, who arrived in Havana
preceded by his reputation as a radical reformer, and whose statements
on behalf of the dispossessed have even earned him the absurd accusation
of being communist, many expected a bolder more direct speech against
those responsible for the well-known disregard of human rights on the
island.

But such disappointment may have originated from an incorrect assessment
of the exact coordinates of his passage through Havana, the uncharted
context in which his visit occurs: it happens that the country visited
today by the Argentine Pope is not the same one visited by Wojtyla in
1998; nor even the same one visited by Ratzinger in 2012.

Just because the dictatorship is exactly the same doesn't mean that Cuba
is. The political audacity of Obama in diametrically reversing a policy
perpetuated by his nine predecessors in the White House is not the focus
of this discussion, but the consequences of this shift are undoubtedly
far-reaching.

This has obviously affected the political scene inside and outside of
Cuba because in the short term it has conditioned a different attitude
toward the island and has raised more expectations in the
entrepreneurial sector of the informal Cuban economy.

Because a country is the sum of the needs and aspirations of the people
who inhabit it, something well-known to Bergoglio, an expert on human
nature, he must have opted for prudence out of the conviction that it
was the appropriate thing right now.

Let's put everything in context. Bergoglio is a Pope who has publicly
agreed to mediate one of the longest and most bitter conflicts in modern
history, and therefore follows the golden rule of all mediators: do not
embarrass any party taking a neutral position. He knows that the world
is watching his every gesture.

He also knows the penchant of the Cuban side to concoct absurd pretexts,
and he knows that any confrontational statement could cool the climate
of the current negotiations. At this time the pope is a political actor
and conducts himself as such.

In Cuba we saw a Bergoglio focused on his purpose of bringing the two
parties closer to try to resolve a longtime dispute. We are in the
presence a man in the prime of his personal maturity and at the summit
of his life's work, conscientiously serving in a delicate negotiation.

Like any good politician, who never sacrifices the final objective for
intermediate skirmishes, he simply puts his mission ahead of any
personal opinion he may have on the matter and keeps his attention fixed
on achieving the goal.

Nevertheless, his personal visit to Fidel Castro was disconcerting—he
was not required by protocol to visit someone who at this point does not
occupy any official positions. If instead he had not visited Fidel's
home, he would have sent a clear political message about his desire to
break with a past that Cuba urgently needs to leave behind. But for
either practical or purely personal reasons he chose to give a media
selfie to the dictatorship.

Seeing him with the man who has most damaged the Cuban nation has been
deeply disturbing, but time will unveil the true intention of his
encounter and only then will we know how ethically justified his
decision was.

Controversies have also arisen about his later statements denying
knowledge of the arrests of hundreds of Cuban dissidents during his stay
on the island. But not meeting with any dissidents fit pragmatically
with his objective when seen from the viewpoint of a mediator: this
would have unduly strained the climate of the visit, in the view of the
Cuban government—and is something, by the way, that was not required
given the essentially pastoral character of his tour. Viewing everything
in this light, it was simply a diplomatic matter of refraining from
making inflammatory statements.

But all this made more evident still the dilemma of the Cuban Catholic
Church; caught between the brittle pride of a suspicious dictatorship
and hurting those who are supposed to be its people has presented a
profound ethical dilemma.

We are facing a new scenario in which age-old questions are repeated:
what is the role of the Catholic Church, located between a suffering
people and the despotism of their oppressors? Where is her exact place
in this puzzle of contradictions? To what extent should the successor of
Peter be politically involved? Or maybe the question is much simpler
still—Which side would Jesus be on at this crossroads of our history?

At this time Francis, who delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly
in keeping with his style, has opted not to take a risk regarding Cuba,
has decided to dance to the rhythm of his own tango, and from the
stairway seemed to sing "goodbye children!" as one who knows all the
answers beforehand.

Source: Bergoglio's Havana Tango / Jeovany Jimenez Vega | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/bergoglios-havana-tango-jeovany-jimenez-vega/