NEWS FEATURE: Cuba’s Catholic Church seeks to implement new freedoms at grassroots level

c. 1999 Religion News Service HAVANA _ Instead of going to a pharmacy or hospital, Julia Gonzalez turned to an old church in central Havana to try to obtain medicine to combat her circulatory problem. Government pharmacies, plagued by shortages, haven’t been able to fill her prescription for months, Gonzalez said. Other, better-stocked facilities cater […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

HAVANA _ Instead of going to a pharmacy or hospital, Julia Gonzalez turned to an old church in central Havana to try to obtain medicine to combat her circulatory problem.

Government pharmacies, plagued by shortages, haven’t been able to fill her prescription for months, Gonzalez said. Other, better-stocked facilities cater to foreign tourists, charging dollar prices much higher and out of her reach. As a clerical worker at a government agency, Gonzalez is paid a peso salary that’s equivalent to $22 a month, and so she had few options.


And, while she isn’t a parishioner of Our Lady of Carmen Catholic Church, she was assured by her neighbors that it didn’t matter.”I was told the church helps believers and non-believers alike,”she said.

On this particular visit, Gonzalez was disappointed _ she came on the wrong day of the week. Still, she vowed to return and in that vow is a small measure of the impact the church is having on Cuban society.

The distribution of free medicine, used clothing, powdered milk and other food products is part of a massive outreach to the grassroots community by the Cuban Catholic Church in the wake of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the island a year ago as it seeks to firmly root its new-found freedom in the lives of ordinary people.

At the same time as local churches like Our Lady of Carmen strive to become a normal part of Cuba’s social fabric, the church’s hierarchy continues to negotiate with the government for greater influence through access to the mass media and educational system, which has been out of bounds to the church since the early days of Fidel Castro’s revolution.

To help keep the pressure on the government, bishops from North and South America met over the weekend (Feb. 14-16) in Havana in a conference described by a Mexican prelate as”a way to collaborate in the opening of relations with Cuba.” The Rev. Teodor Becerril describes the grassroots campaigns as a way of providing an alternative to Cuba’s Marxist government and to wean Cubans from their total dependence on the government _ psychologically and, to the extent possible, materially.”We’re trying to take care of the needs of the body as well as the soul,”he said.

At the same time, Becerril is aware that Cuba lacks a strong tradition of Catholicism. When Castro came to power in 1959, for example, less than 10 percent of the island’s population were regular churchgoers.

The church’s problems in Cuba have historic roots. Since Columbus discovered the island and until very recently, Catholic priests in Cuba were primarily Spanish. Loyal to their homeland, the Spanish priests rejected Cuban bids for independence from Spain and Catholicism on the island became a religion of the wealthy ruling class. The masses preferred Afro-Cuban sects and even Protestant religions introduced by American missionaries.”In the distant past, the church had a very narrow viewpoint,”conceded the Spanish-born Becerril, who has lived in Cuba for 41 years.


The church’s influence was further weaked by a government campaign in the 1970s and early 1980s aimed at dissuading people from practicing religion.

But it’s all different now, he said. Religious persecution in Cuba has ended. Officially, Cuba is no longer an atheist, but rather a secular state. Christmas has been reinstated as an official holiday and Masses are once again celebrated in public squares.

Castro’s personal relationship with John Paul II _ cemented by a common concern with unfettered capitalism _ and the papal visit a year ago accelerated the process of opening Cuba up to religion _ a process Becerril said cannot be stopped.”We still need more space, but nobody looks at the church with contempt anymore,”he said.”There’s no turning back from this. The church has a role in Cuban society.” To bolster that role, Our Lady of Carmen is offering new counseling programs and catechism classes for children, who also come to the church after school to play basketball in an interior courtyard. Our Lady of Carmen also does a brisk business in the sale of religious medals, crucifixes and scapularies _ miniature engravings of holy figures that are hung on cords and usually worn under clothing _ that cost about a nickel apiece.

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While most of the religious trinkets are purchased by the devout, they’ve also become a fashion fad among Havana’s youth in post-papal visit Cuba. The scapularies are especially popular, twisted and worn as chokers. A 20-something couple who said they are not believers dropped by the church to pick up a few that bore images of the Sacred Heart and Cuba’s patron saint, Our Lady of Charity”because they’re pretty.” The church, a majestically gothic structure built in 1926 during Cuba’s boom days, towers over aging apartment buildings in a crowded Havana neighborhood. But the imposing structure exhibits signs of frailty. Wooden scaffolding is holding up the gilded, frescoed walls around the main altar, awaiting money for repairs, and broken pews are scarred here and there. Heavily dependent on donations, the church has modest resources to spare on efforts to spread the faith. Yet Becerril said the parish has had some success working with what little there is.

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While the church hasn’t experienced a rush of converts since the papal visit, Becerril said, there’s been a marked increase in baptisms and Mass attendance. Other longtime parishioners have become active in their faith.

Maria Elena Suarez, a 57-year-old nurse, said she’s a lifelong believer. She received her First Communion at Our Lady of Carmen, was married in the church and baptized her son there. Yet Suarez said she became a regular churchgoer only recently, attending Mass several times a week and dropping by at other times to join animated discussions about faith with other parishioners.”It’s easier to display your faith because it’s totally accepted now,”she said. Suarez also visits the church for a less spiritual reason _ to obtain powdered milk for an 85-year-old-mother who suffers from digestive problems.


The milk isn’t always available, but when it is, it helps, Suarez said, since the rationed foodstuff is almost never sold to the general population in state stores.

Still, there are problems for grassroots campaign.

For example, Caritas, the Cuban Catholic aid organization, was the beneficiary of nearly $8 million worth of donated pharmaceuticals and other contributions from the United States last year.

But most of those goods are passed along to hospitals and other state institutions. The more local efforts in the parishes are largely dependent on the bounty of visiting religious groups and individuals who carry the material in with them, making their availability more spotty.

Other parishes reach out to the community in other ways. One has set up three daycare centers for children of single mothers in private homes _ a practice that isn’t sanctioned by the government but which, at least until now,the government has decided to ignore.

Another church has organized `prayer houses’ in the suburbs of concrete apartment buildings called”bloques’ built by Castro’s revolutionary government to alleviate housing shortages. The revolutionaries didn’t construct any churches in the neighborhoods, so the prayer houses _ usually a living room in one of the apartments _ is used on Sunday for Mass. After services, the makeshift altar is pushed to the side and the apartment becomes a private residence for the rest of the week.

Felipe Diaz Ortega, a deacon at the cathedral in Old Havana where John Paul addressed Cuba’s religious workers last year, said the pope’s visit breathed new life into the historic cathedral’s outreach efforts.”We feel vindicated after so many years of struggle,”Diaz said.”We still struggle, but now we’re more inspired to push the boundaries, to see how far we can go.” DEA END RADELAT


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