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Pope Francis’ planned visit to Cuba before coming to the United States in September is an exciting development in more ways than one.
It underscores the pope’s remarkably successful involvement in jump-starting talks aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, relations that were severed in 1960 when the U.S. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba citing repression and human rights abuses after the Marxist revolution led by Fidel Castro.
U.S. President Obama and Cuba President Raul Castro both offered public thanks for the pope’s hands-on diplomatic efforts, which included writing personal letters to each of the presidents urging negotiations, and hosting a secret meeting at the Vatican last fall with representatives of the two countries.
Among the fruits of that meeting was a prisoner exchange between the two countries, including the release of the American Alan Gross, which eased tensions considerably.
As the first pope from Latin America, the Argentine-born Francis is acutely aware of the difficulties arising from the U.S.-Cuban estrangement, and he’s a natural to navigate the tricky diplomacy involved in ending it.
He’s a neutral party not aligned to either side and, most importantly, he’s someone both sides can trust.
The pope, in his annual address to Vatican diplomats, hailed the diplomatic breakthrough as “one example close to my heart of how dialogue can build bridges.”
Besides its geopolitical implications, the visit by Francis is also terrific news for Cuba’s Catholics, who have already welcomed two popes to their shores—John Paul II in 1998 and Benedict XVI in 2012.
And it’s another blessing for Cuba’s Catholic Church.
A once-flourishing institution, the Church in Cuba was suppressed for decades in the officially atheistic state, but it has benefited in recent years from a thaw in relations with the government resulting from St. John Paul II’s historic visit. Among the positive changes from that trip, Cubans were allowed to practice their faith more openly and Christmas was restored as a national holiday.
Pope Benedict’s visit extended the good will, and resulted in Good Friday being declared a Cuban national holiday as well.
The upcoming visit by Pope Francis will undoubtedly lead to more positive effects on the Church in Cuba. Indeed, in what may—or may not— be a coincidence, the first new Catholic Church in Cuba since Castro came to power has been approved for construction in the isolated town of Sandino.
Here in the New York Archdiocese, we’re praying for an improved outlook for the Church in Cuba and celebrating our historical ties to that country.
Last Sunday, Transfiguration parish in lower Manhattan was the scene of a ceremony dedicating a memorial to Venerable Father Felix Varela, a Cuban priest who founded the parish in 1823 after he was exiled from his homeland for supporting Cuba’s independence from Spain. Arriving in New York at a time when poverty-stricken Irish immigrants were pouring in, Father Varela set about ministering to them at Transfiguration and at another parish he founded, St. James. He was later appointed vicar general of the archdiocese, and his cause for sainthood is under way.
We’re also supporting the U.S. bishops, who welcomed the release of Alan Gross and the start of a path toward renewal of formal ties with Cuba—a position the bishops have held for decades.
“Engagement is the path to support change in Cuba and to empower the Cuban people in their quest for democracy, human rights and religious liberty,” wrote Bishop Oscar Cantu, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, in a Feb. 2 letter to Congress supporting the administration’s new policy and opposing any Congressional action to oppose it.
The bishops, and Pope Francis, are on the right track on this one.
