Havana Cathedral
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, March 28, 7:03 AM
HAVANA — In a sermon at the Cathedral in Havana, Miami Archbishop Thomas
Wenski called for Cuba to move away from the "spent ideology" of Marxism
without embracing the materialism of the West.
Wenski spoke Tuesday to a packed audience of more than 300 mostly
Cuban-American pilgrims, and they gave him a sustained standing ovation.
Many in the audience left Cuba as young children or are the sons and
daughters of exiles. The Mass was part of a special service in honor of
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the island.
Delivering his sermon in Spanish, Wenski called for "soft landing" from
Marxism and said the pope and the Roman Catholic Church desire a
political evolution that provides dignity to all Cubans, who have been
ruled since 1959 by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro.
"However, as Cuba transitions, the Pope and the Church want a transition
that is worthy of the Cuban's aspirations, a transition worthy of man,"
Wenski said. "To go from the ideological materialism of Marxism to a
practical materialism such as that of many Western societies would not
be worthy of man."
His call for a "soft landing" from Marxism is something he has said
before, but those in attendance said it reverberated more strongly being
said inside Cuba.
"I don't think he said anything today we haven't heard before," said
Carlos Saldrigas, head of the Cuba Study Group, a business-led nonprofit
that encourages political and economic change in Cuba as well as more
exchanges.
"I think the difference is he put it all together in one overriding
speech, and he did that in Havana and spoke in Spanish for all the
world's press," added Saldrigas.
Wenski, who has had a close relationship with Catholic Church leaders on
the island since the mid-1990s and has worked to help Cuba recover from
damaging hurricanes, spoke in favor of human rights, while also warning
against the excesses of capitalism.
Andy Gomez, a senior political fellow at the University of Miami's
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, was among those in the
audience.
"He's got courage," Gomez said. "He talked about human rights, which the
pope did not yesterday."
The Mass was open, and a number of people wandered in toward the end of
the service.
Leaflets titled "Cubans Here and There: Pilgrims for Freedom," printed
by a Cuban dissident group, were passed out with a message welcoming the
visitors.
"This is your country from where you are exiled as (are) hundreds (of)
thousands of Cubans," it read in imperfect English. "We fight, maybe
alone, but we fight for every Cuban's rights and the respect of their
dignity."
"We are all one, and a single people!" it added.
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