In response to the Editorial in the May 2012 issue of the Cuban Catholic church’s journal Lay Space, group of journalists from the newspaper Granma created, as a joke, this apocryphal editorial, supposedly in response to the official text from the lay Catholics. This is only a joke, that former colleagues sent me, but I transcribe it here for the enjoyment, also, of those who read me.
Recently the journal Lay Space published an editorial to defend Cardinal Jaime Ortega against certain attacks launched by elements opposed to the Revolution, from both inside and outside Cuba. In their arguments the editorial writers highlight some positions that shouldn’t pass unnoticed by those of us who defend the irreversibility of the socialist system in our Nation.
Using euphemisms such as “national harmony”, “orderly and gradual transformation of the national order,” “serene, positive gradual, inclusive, orderly and peaceful changes managing to articulate a renewed socio-political model for Cuba,” the editors of Lay Space are trying to mask what clearly translates to the dismantling of socialism in Cuba. It they really had a commitment to the truth, then it would be better if they clearly stated that they want to dissolve the work of the Revolution.
The Catholic Church, its hierarchy or its secular intellectuals are wrong if they think they can replace the Communist Party in the search for and implementation of solutions to the problems of Cuba. Those who have shown patience and a willingness to dialogue are not exactly the bishops with their Cardinal in the lead, but the leaders of the Revolution. We are a Marxist-Leninist party and we will not give up the class struggle, the hatred of the working class for its exploiters. What kind of reconciliation are talking about? Is it intended that the Revolution return confiscated property to the abusers of our working people so that they can then invite these former exploiters to come here and invest their dollars? Or perhaps we are going to forgive Posada Carriles and the rest of the terrorist mafia who cost this nation so many valuable lives?
Do the editors of Lay Space believe that keeping a prudent distance from the mercenaries in the service of Washington is going to keep us from seeing that their agenda is also dictated from the exterior as evidenced in the calls for reconciliation recently issued by the former Spanish colonists in the motion presented to the congress of that country? Do they believe that invoking words like debate, dialog or respect will manage to make a dent in our Revolutionary intransigence, in the legacy taught to us by Antonio Maceo who did not accept the capitulation at the Mangos de Baragua? Do they think, perhaps, that we have forgotten the cryptic utterances they have already put in writing in the Pastoral Letter of 1993, “Love Hopes All Things”? Do they think we don’t remember the support they gave the defeated bourgeois and the counterrevolution in the first years of our Revolution?
Our people have religious freedom and the State maintains magnificent relations with various denominations without favoring any one in particular. It is up to the Communist Party to determine the policies and the changes that need to be implemented, as agreed at our Sixth Congress and in the First Communist Party Conference with the democratic participation of all our people. Let no one mistake us, we do not want to return to the era of confrontation with the Church but we will not allow interference of any kind, especially that which is aimed our renouncing our path toward a more full and just Socialism.
28 May 2012
