The Catholic hierarchy has lost the moral authority it had before the Revolution and in the years that followed.
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 21 December 2024 — The Christmas message published this Thursday by the Cuban Episcopal Conference gives an indication of how much the tone has been lowered when it comes to questioning the government. An undisputed moral authority in times past, a bastion of freedom of expression in a country that has progressively become submerged in censorship, the Catholic Church now only dares to allude – with extreme timidity – to Cuba’s “difficult realities.”
Allegory and long circumlocutions, as well as never directly addressing the authorities, mark every message from the Cuban bishops since the protests of 11 July 2021. This Thursday, the text barely dared to regret the “too many” difficulties and warn that the Church can only provide one “service”: prayer, in addition to promoting “charitable and solidarity initiatives.”
Not confronting the government – which could complicate or suspend the entry of aid and money for the Church, take away the clergy’s import licenses for certain supplies, as well as their allocation of materials and fuel, and hinder the development of public celebrations – seems to be the code of conduct of the Catholic hierarchy on the Island. The cautious tone that defines each communication and the docility of some high-ranking ecclesiastical officials, such as the secretary of the Conference, Ariel Suárez, when meeting with officials of the Communist Party, demonstrate this.
The difference is notable if one compares a message like the one on Thursday with, for example, the Christmas message from the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Enrique Pérez Serantes, on December 24, 1958. This prelate, born in Spain in 1883, was the one who protected Fidel Castro after the attack on the Moncada barracks and ensured that his life and rights were respected.
“In this province of Oriente we have been enduring the horrors of a civil war for a long time, without our brothers in a large part of the national territory apparently being properly informed, despite the fact that Oriente is home to a third of Cuba’s population,” Pérez Serantes’ message stated. “Let no one continue to have fun carefree, while millions of Cubans writhe and moan in anguish of intense pain and misery.”
The bishop, who openly criticized Fulgencio Batista, later became one of the fiercest opponents of the revolutionary regime. He was accompanied in the Episcopal Conference by other prelates who were no less “inconvenient” for the new authorities, such as Evelio Díaz, Eduardo Boza Masvidal – arrested and exiled in 1961 – and Adolfo Rodríguez.
In the face of the first steps of the Castro regime, Pérez Serantes and his companions quickly understood the direction the country would take and tried to warn about the loss of democratic values and the dismantling of the free society.
There were clashes and controversies on all the major issues of the time: agrarian reform, the nationalization of education, the confiscation of property and assets, and the communist turn of the Revolution, which caused the bishops to multiply their diatribes against Castro. The circulars and pastoral letters of the time, with titles as suggestive as “Rome or Moscow,” “Neither traitors nor pariahs” and “Problems of the moment,” were compiled during the Special Period in The Voice of the Church in Cuba, 100 Episcopal Documents, published in Mexico and distributed in Cuban parishes.
A phrase from Pérez Serantes encapsulates the atmosphere in the churches in the 1960s: “With communism, nothing, absolutely nothing.”
A phrase from Pérez Serantes encapsulates the atmosphere in the churches in the 1960s: “With communism, nothing, absolutely nothing.” Even then, the Episcopal Conference – which identified itself with “the Revolution that cost so much” – asked the Government for dialogue and not the imposition of an ideology.
The government did not sit idly by. In November 1960, in the letter Let us Live in Peace, the bishops lamented the “lack of civility” of some revolutionary groups, who burst into churches to shout slogans if a priest read a circular against communism.
By 1961, and despite protests directed at government institutions and Castro himself, the bishops were considered – in the words of Pérez Serantes – as “shepherds of those conspiring against the people” and protectors of “agents of counterrevolution and pillage.” This open letter is the last episcopal document included in The Voice of the Church in Cuba until 1969.
Harassed by State Security and with no media outlets to publish his letters, Pérez Serantes had died the previous year.
In the 1970s, a new generation of bishops began to arrive – most of whom were mentors to those who now hold the office – which changed the tone of the already all-powerful personal government of Castro. The rules of the game had changed definitively and the new prelates had understood, as priests, how far the political police were prepared to go.
The Christmas message in 1969 – very similar in tone to the one published this Thursday – is a sign of mistrust towards free speech. It called for “better understanding between different generations and between different ways of thinking.” That was all.
Having become accustomed to silence when it came to dealing with political issues, the bishops only referred to the country in 1973, with a condemnation – No to Terrorism – of the attack against the so-called Barbados Plane Flight 455. At that time, Pope Paul VI also sent his condolences to the families of the victims.
In 1978, they supported The Dialogue with the Cuban Community Abroad, a government initiative to attract those who had fled the Revolution and were willing to return to the Island. At that time, the bishops took the opportunity to ask Castro to release political prisoners and improve the situation of those released from prison, who had been marginalized from society even after serving their sentences.
A private note from the archbishop of Santiago – at that time, Pedro Meurice, no less combative than his predecessor and teacher – recommended in 1980 that priests and nuns support families who decided to emigrate through the port of Mariel.
The entire Special Period was spent in the search for a “climate” that was not free of tensions or difficulties.
Since 1990, and in particular since the middle of that decade – with the appointment of the Havana archbishop Jaime Ortega as cardinal – the tone of relations has consolidated its diplomatic nature. The entire Special Period has been spent in the search for a “climate” not free of tensions or difficulties.
In 1989, Castro told Prensa Latina that he was willing to receive Pope John Paul II, who was proud – always in “humble” terms – to have made his pontificate a war to the death against communism in his native Poland and the Soviet Union.
The test of fire for the Episcopal Conference in recent decades was the execution of Arnaldo Ochoa and three other soldiers. At that time, Ortega was the one who was calling the shots and could speak in his personal capacity. His condemnation of the death penalty was total and uncomfortable.
They would return to the charge in 1992, regarding the irruption of the Rapid Response Brigades in liturgical celebrations in which opponents participated. El amor todo lo espera [Love hopes all things], the great pastoral letter of the time, in 1993, was also the last criticism of the general structure of the country. Accused of calling for a “bloodbath,” the letter earned them “a strong dose of aggressiveness” in the State newspaper Granma, they lamented.
In this “climate,” the long-awaited visit of the Pope had to wait almost ten years, until 1998.
“What should we do then? Raise our voices? Will they be heard?” asked the Cuban bishops in the 1980s. Their response: not to remain silent. Relatively immune – due to its international character – to a large-scale attack by the regime, the Episcopal Conference acted with aplomb and knew it had a voice. Now, to remain silent is to survive.
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