The Santa Clara prelate, a skilled diplomat, is a regular interlocutor of Pope Francis and high Vatican officials
14ymedio, Havana, November 8, 2024 — The Cuban Catholic hierarchy was reorganized this Thursday with the election of a new president for the Episcopal Conference. This is Arturo González, bishop of Santa Clara, who is accompanied by the standing committee until 2027: Juan Gabriel Díaz, bishop of Matanzas, as vice president, and the assistant from Havana, Eloy Ricardo Domínguez. In an aging institution, they are the three youngest prelates in the country.
“They are the three youngest in age, but not in experience, because Monsignor Arturo has more than 25 years of experience as a bishop,” a priest of the Diocese of Santa Clara explains to 14ymedio. González, he says, “has more years of experience than many of those who already consider themselves ’old’ at the Conference. In addition, the three have a desire to do the work and are physically capable.”
González, who will head the Cuban bishops from Santa Clara, will also be in charge of the important Economic Commission. Characterized by his diplomatic skill and his prestige before Cuban exiles, he has in his favor an old familiarity with Miguel Díaz-Canel since he presided over the Communist Party in Villa Clara.
“Díaz-Canel will love the news,” says the priest interviewed by this newspaper. “He admires Monsignor Arturo. He said it publicly when he was secretary of the Party, and when the mass was celebrated for the 330th anniversary of Santa Clara, Díaz-Canel went to the blessing of the city and ended up embracing the bishop.”
Faced with someone who has a good understanding of the president, a resumption of negotiations in favor of political prisoners is to be expected
Faced with someone who has a good understanding of the president, a resumption of negotiations in favor of political prisoners is to be expected, which González has carried out at the local level in his diocese. He is hoping for the support of Eloy Domínguez, who was appointed head of the Prison Ministry.
The Santa Clara bishop – until now vice president of the Conference – is also a regular interlocutor of Pope Francis and senior Vatican officials, and he was present at the last visit of the Cuban bishops to the Holy See.
The new structure replaces the one chaired since 2017 by Emilio Aranguren, which was characterized by non-confrontation with the Regime and cordiality with the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party. Aranguren and Cardinal Juan García, two veteran bishops, will continue to be part of the permanent committee of the Conference.
For his part, Juan Gabriel Díaz, a man of solid intellectual training but – like Domínguez and González himself – seen as a moderate, will be in charge of the National Commission for the Prevention of Abuse of Minors and Vulnerable Adults. Raising the issue, which has been a priority during the pontificate of Francis, is practically a taboo in Cuba, and the Catholic Church has not disclosed any cases of abuse recorded on the Island. The Commission will have a legal adviser, a psychologist, a psychiatrist with forensic experience and several members.
The bishops of the affected dioceses shared their concern about the “bleak panorama” that is crossing through the country
The Commission has been working for several years, but the new directive will operate according to a recently approved manual of procedures, since the Vatican has given new and more solid guidelines on the subject.
The Episcopal Conference also reported that during its plenary meeting, held from November 4 to 7, the new apostolic consul in Cuba, Antoine Camilleri, was welcomed. The meeting took place “under the influence” of Hurricane Oscar for Guantánamo and Rafael for the Cuban west, according to the report. The bishops of the affected dioceses shared their concern about the “bleak panorama” that is crossing through the country. “While the Assembly was developing, we received news of the impacts, collapses and destruction that Hurricane Rafael has been leaving in the areas where it passed,” they said.
In addition, they sent their best wishes to Spain after the passage of the storm that affected Valencia and commented on the “social deterioration in the nearby Haitian people.”
They also met a delegation of the Catholic Church in Poland, chaired by Jan Piotrowsk, Bishop of Kielce. In a territory like Cuba, with a reduced national clergy, the presence of missionaries from European countries – and even more so from former Soviet nations – can translate into economic aid and missionaries, which Poland has been supplying to the Island for years.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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