Cuban Dissenters Find a Niche in Church

Cuban Dissenters Find a Niche in Church

Catholic-Sponsored Magazines, Granted Leeway by Castro, Get Away With
Greater Freedoms to Criticize Government

HAVANA—Last year, as Libyan rebels fought Moammar Gadhafi, Fidel Castro
took to his state-run newspaper Granma to defend the dictator as a
revolutionary hero.

Now, the former Cuban leader faces an unlikely voice of dissent on that
Libya stance—from a publication financed by the Catholic Church and
published here in his own capital.

Pope Benedict XVI left Cuba last week calling on its government to allow
more freedom for the church and for Cuba to change. He also leaves
behind a mechanism to help accomplish this: A network of
Catholic-sponsored newsletters and magazines, reaching tens of thousands
of Cubans, that criticize the government and call for change.

Espacio Laical magazine, or Layman's Space, in its latest issue called
Gadhafi a tyrant and questioned why more Latin American leaders weren't
supporting "democratic Arab revolution." The editorial was unusual
because the state-run media, where most Cubans receive news, largely
avoids mentioning foreign insurrections, except to support strongmen.

Throughout Cuba, those who have tried to publish information outside of
official government channels have been intimidated or even jailed. A
small blogger community operates largely undercover.

But as President Raúl Castro has loosened restrictions on the Catholic
Church in recent years, he also has allowed the church to distribute
about a dozen publications openly, mainly out of local archdiocese offices.

From a tiny office above a schoolyard in Havana's Old Town, Roberto
Veiga explains Espacio Laical's mission: Tackling general-interest
topics and printing essays and opinions on matters such as changes to
the Cuban constitution and complaints about the education system. It
also publishes articles by prominent Communists supporting the government.

"We want to create a place where Cubans write from all perspectives,
from cultural topics to politics and the economy," Mr. Veiga says. "The
idea is to create bridges, not trenches."

Cuba experts say that while it is increasingly possible to have critical
discussions about the government in a streetside coffee shop, for
example, questioning the government in the media hasn't been possible in
the past. "These publications are opening spaces about discussion for
Cuban people that didn't exist before," explains Uva de Aragón, an
expert on the island at Florida International University.

For decades, the Cuban church and state had a tense relationship in a
country that was officially atheist under Fidel Castro, until 1992. Pope
John Paul II's 1998 visit to Cuba and recent economic declines have
prompted the government to reach out to the Catholic Church for
assistance in social programs from child care to soup kitchens, giving
the church a larger influence. The church's publications, some of which
had existed for decades but had kept to spiritual issues, began to take
greater editorial latitude, and new magazines were founded.

Espacio Laical, founded eight years ago, has a distribution of just
4,500 copies a month. But Mr. Veiga estimates each copy is ready by at
least 20 people, and says subscribers include top political and academic
decision makers.

Not far from Mr. Veiga's offices, Orlando Márquez runs Palabra Nueva,
the Havana archdiocese newsletter. "We answer everyday questions, we
publish on cultural topics, sports, society, history—the kind of things
you won't see in official publications," he says.

State outlets such as Granma, Juventud Rebelde and Verde Olivo generally
portray the U.S. as Cuba's enemy and discuss such topics as the U.S.
economic embargo on the island. In contrast, Palabra Nueva has run
articles about Catholic Church programs in the U.S. Despite running many
pieces that don't toe the Communist Party line, Mr. Márquez says he
hasn't received one complaint from officials.

The Cuban government didn't respond to specific questions about the
publications. But a Foreign Ministry statement said Cuba's churches
enjoy broad freedoms, including the freedom of expression.

Not everything has gone smoothly, as church publications experiment in
critiques.

In 2007, the editors of magazine Vitral, a church publication in Cuba's
western Pinar del Río province, were dismissed by church officials. U.S.
diplomats wrote in a cable published by website WikiLeaks that Vatican
officials said Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega was behind the move because
the government didn't like the magazine's brash tone.

The Havana archdiocese says the cardinal wasn't involved. The magazine's
former publisher, Dagoberto Valdés, who now runs an online publication,
didn't respond to a request to comment.

Publishing a magazine in Cuba can be difficult for other reasons. Mr.
Veiga must print Espacio Laical on a press that dates from before the
1959 revolution, because new ones are in short supply. Its staff are
volunteers because the Cuban government requires everyone to work in
state-approved jobs—most often for the government itself. And work as an
independent journalists isn't an approved occupation.

"It's a challenge but we don't miss an issue," Mr. Veiga said.

Mr. Veiga's magazine and many of the others are also published online,
where they have gotten a positive nod from many in the Cuban exile
community and even a few dissidents.

"The fan is opening up for a civil society in Cuba and the church
publications are a part of that," says José Luis García Paneque, who was
jailed for seven years after founding an unauthorized newspaper.

Write to Nicholas Casey at nicholas.casey@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared April 7, 2012, on page A8 in some
U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Cuban
Dissenters Find a Niche in Church.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303299604577323813589920668.html?mod=googlenews_wsj