The Church’s Long-Standing Interest in Normalizing US-Cuba Relations

Pope John Paul’s call, “Let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba,” seems to be answered.

The kind of change in U.S. policy toward Cuba that President Barack Obama announced Wednesday is something the Catholic Church has been working toward for many years.

The Vatican and the bishops conferences of the United States and Cuba have long supported normalization of relations between their respective governments, said Stephen Colecchi, director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace. “The US bishops’ conference has said for many years that the path toward improving human rights and a path toward democracy in Cuba is better served by engagement than by isolation. So we do believe that it’s long overdue.”

The US will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced Wednesday.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks, Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the US and the island nation.

Talks reportedly were encouraged by Pope Francis. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Paolin, released a statement Wednesday that said representatives from the United States and Cuba met at the Vatican to discuss resuming diplomatic ties last October. 

“The Holy Father wishes to express his warm congratulations for the historic decision taken by the Governments of the United States of America and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history,” the statement said.

Bishop Oscar Cantú, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, in a statement Wednesday said the announcement by the Administration "will foster dialogue, reconciliation, trade, cooperation and contact between our respective nations and citizens."

“We believe it is long past due that the United States establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba, withdraw all restrictions on travel to Cuba, rescind terrorist designations aimed at Cuba, encourage trade that will benefit both nations, lift restrictions on business and financial transactions, and facilitate cooperation in the areas of environmental protection, drug interdiction, human trafficking and scientific exchanges,” Bishop Cantú added.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, which has a large population of Cuban-Americans, issued a statement noting that Obama and Castro expressed appreciation for the role of Pope Francis “in making possible what seems to be a real game changer in the historically strained relationship between Cuba and the United States.”

“Pope Francis did what popes are supposed to do: Build bridges and promote peace,” Archbishop Wenski said. “He acted much like his namesake, Francis of Asissi, who during the fifth crusade, went to Egypt to meet with the Sultan al Kamil in the interest of peace.”

Archbishop Wenski said the Church in Cuba has “always opposed the embargo, arguing that it was a blunt instrument that hurt the innocent more than the guilty; and the U.S. Church has supported the Catholic Church in Cuba.”

The Miami archbishop noted that Castro seemed to indicate in his comments that his government was open to engage in conversations with the U.S. on issues related to democracy and human rights. “Progress in this area is normally the result, and not the precondition, of such talks—and so the prospect of such talks is a positive development,” he said.
 

“There needs to be more freedom for Cubans to practice their religion and be able to study their faith outside of the confines of parish churches… and a greater opportunity for dissent, for the holding of diverse political opinions to be recognized so that people won’t risk incarceration or other maltreatment as the result of espousing political views that may contradict official government positions,” said Richard Coll, international policy advisor for Latin America in the US Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, in an interview. Coll accompanied several bishops from the United States to Cuba during Pope Benedict XVI’s March 2012 visit. 

"The US government and American Churches must constantly press for greater religious freedom," said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. "For several decades, the Castro regime crushed the churches and tried to turn this largely Catholic population into an atheistic one. While there’s been some tolerance of religion since the papacy of John Paul II, the Churches are still tightly restricted in the areas of religious education, broadcasting, communications, and human rights advocacy.  Like others, they are prevented by the state in having a normal role in civic society. The Ladies in White and other human rights voices are persecuted, beaten and sometimes imprisoned. The Castros must be pressured to end their tyranny and thuggery. Over the past decade, steady pressure from the international Church helped expand religious freedom to the limited extent that it now exists there."
 
Some of that expanded freedom has been noted by American observers, such as the USCCB’s Coll, who said there was a "great spiritual element" to visit of American bishops joining Pope Benedict on the island in 2012. In addition, the delegation was able to witness the local Church in action by visiting some of its service organizations providing help to "the poor and elderly and young children who otherwise wouldn’t receive adequate care”

Another sign of that openness may be reflected in the fact that in January, the American Bible Society sponsored a major Bible exhibition in Havana that was visited by over 50,000 people, said Mario J. Paredes, presidential liaison for Roman Catholic Ministries at the American Bible Society in New York.

“Catholics all over the world are praising the risks that President Obama and President Raul Castro have taken in this effort to normalize relationships between the two countries after 50 years of U.S. failed policies to promote democracy and opening the Cuban society,” said Paredes.

In a former position, as director of the Northeast Hispanic Pastoral Center, affiliated with the Catholic Church, Paredes organized pilgrims on a visit to Cuba for Pope John Paul II’s historic pastoral visit there in 1998.

John Paul, he noted, urged, “Let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba.”

Immediately after the visit, Paredes recalled, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires wrote a book on the dialogue between Pope John Paul II and President Fidel Castro. That Archbishop is now Pope Francis.

“Since those days Pope Francis has closely followed the events in Cuba,” Paredes said Wednesday. “In April of this year, Pope Francis welcomed President Obama to the Vatican. Two of the topics on the agenda were the normalization of the relationship with Cuba and the release of Alan Gross. Dialogue between high level authorities in the Vatican, the United States and Cuba have continued since that time leading to today’s astounding development and announcements.”

But other observers sounded a note of caution, including Kristina Arriaga, executive director of the religious-liberty-defending public interest law firm the Becket Fund.

"Many received with great hope the news that a ‘new chapter’ in US-Cuba relations is beginning," Arriaga said in a statement. In a bio on the Becket Fund’s website, Arriaga is identified as being the daughter of "exiled Cuban American parents." 

"The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty hopes that the upcoming negotiations include robust protections for religious people who have suffered tremendous oppression, incarceration, torture and a 30-year ban on religious holidays—including Christmas—which was only lifted before Pope John Paull II’s visit," she said. "If there is one Dickens-like story that truly needs a redemptive ending it is the story of the Castro brothers and their chokehold on free expression."

Also reacting to the news was Chad Pecknold, associate professor of theology at the Catholic University of America.
 

“This has been a long-term concern of the Holy See, pursued both by Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI,” Pecknold said. “When JP2 visited Cuba in 1998 people expected him to denounce Communism.  But he was friendly with [Fidel] Castro, and the result was that Castro restored Christmas as a national holiday.  Similarly, when B16 visited in 2012, he went out of his way to be supportive of Castro, and some even speculated that Benedict was receiving Castro back into the Catholic (after Castro had been excommunicated in 1962).  So it’s no surprise that Francis would continue the conversation.”

Pecknold added that Pope Francis wrote to Obama and Raul Castro over the summer in an attempt to open up a direct dialogue. “Secret meetings were held in Canada, and the Holy See also received delegations from both countries at the Vatican this past fall.  We also know that Archbishop Kurtz met with Obama privately yesterday, and now it seems likely that their meeting was connected to the announcement today of a reset on Cuban-American relations.”

A call to the USCCB seeking comment on the meeting has not been returned.

Pecknold said the announcement is a “victory for Vatican diplomacy at its best, carried out over decades, and brought to fruition by Pope Francis.”

“Now the only question in my mind is:  if he’s working behind the scenes for US-Cuban relations, where else is he working for peace?  Israel-Palestine?” Pecknold mused.

John Burger is news editor for Aleteia’s English edition.