Your Holiness Benedict XVI:
I did not intend to write about your visit, but your arrival in Cuba is an event that marks the history of this nation. Not only because the successor of Peter accompanies us on the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, patroness of Cuba. But for the wave of repression that has preceded your arrival and that accompanies it.
Thank you for asking God, “To guide the destinies of this beloved nation through the paths of justice, peace, freedom and reconciliation.” The same prayer of so many Cubans who suffer and dream of a free Cuba, without ideology.
Like you, Your Holiness, I think I, “Cannot continue any longer in the same cultural and moral direction that has caused the tragic situation so many are experiencing.” I endorse your words and join you, only in mind and thought, in your pilgrimage to the shrine of the Mother of God.
Like many of my brothers and sisters, the government that has received so much acclaim has blocked our way. I would like to feel myself blessed by your arrival, but it is not the case. Thousands of arrests, cleansing the streets of indigents, police operations, house arrests, telephones cut off, only because of your visit to Cuba.
In my mind I repeat your prayers for the “underprivileged, the marginalized, and those suffering in body and spirit.” I also ask, “for the intercession of Our Lady Of Charity of Cobre, grant us all a future filled with hope, solidarity and harmony,” for our land.
In my prayers to God, I ask Him to return pride to our people and to strengthen our love for the motherland, for our children, our brothers and sisters, that we of the resistance may have sufficient strength to withstand the fear and repression, and to strengthen our voices in favor of Freedom.
Despite our faith, our reality is different: arrest and silence, repression and fear, simple hypocrisy; and your arrival, Your Holiness has come to remind us of it.
March 27 2012
