Pope Benedict to new Cuban ambassador:
Appreciates increasing religious freedom
in Cuba and urges reconciliation with US
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 10 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday there are growing signs of religious freedom in Cuba and that there is an opportunity for reconciliation between the communist nation and the United States.
Welcoming Havana's new ambassador to the Vatican, Benedict also expressed sympathy for Cuba's suffering during the global downturn as well as "the devastating effects of natural disasters and the economic embargo."
President Barack Obama has loosened some travel and financial restrictions, and the two countries have discussed re-establishing direct mail links. Still, Washington has made clear it has no intention of ending its embargo unless Cuba undertakes political, economic and social reform.
Benedict told Eduardo Delgado Bermudez that "certain signs of openness in relations with the neighboring United States presage new opportunities for a mutually beneficial rapprochement."
He spoke in Spanish and the Vatican provided an official English translation.
Benedict cited encouraging signs of religious freedom, including the celebration of Mass in some prisons, a new tolerance of religious processions, the refurbishment of some church buildings, and the extension of social security to the clergy.
"It is my hope that tangible signs of openness in the exercise of religious freedom will continue to increase, as has been happening over recent years," Benedict said in a speech.
Cuba's single-party, communist government never outlawed religion, but expelled priests and closed religious schools when Fidel Castro took power in January 1959.
Relations between the Church and the government have improved considerably since Pope John Paul II toured the island in 1998.
Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's remarks, delivered in Spanish, to the new ambassador:
Mr. Ambassador:
1. I welcome you with great pleasure on this solemn act in which you have presented your Letters of Accreditation as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba to the Holy See, thus initiating the important mission that your Government has entrusted to you.
I thank you for your kind words and the greeting that you conveyed from the His Excellency Raul Castor Ruz, President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, to whom I respond with my best wishes for his great responsibility.
2. In the midst of illusions and difficulties, Cuba has achieved a determined protagonism, principally in the economic and political context of the Caribbean and Latin America.
On the other hand, some signs of relaxation in its relations with its neighbor, the United States, would seem to presage new opportunities for mutually beneficial rapprochement, with full respect for the sovereignty and the rights of States and their citizens.
Cuba, in offering many countries its collaboration in vital areas like literacy and health, promotes international cooperation and solidarity, without other interests besides actual assistance to needy populations.
It is to be hoped that all this can contribute to the realization of the appeal made by my venerated predecessor, Pope John Paul II, on his historic visit to the island: "May Cuba open up to the world with all its magnificent possibilities, and may the world open up to Cuba!" (Address at arrival in Havana, Jan. 21, 1998).
3. Like many other countries, your homeland too is suffering from the consequences of the grave world crisis, which, added to the devastating effects of natural disasters and the economic embargo [by the United States], strikes most especially at the poorest individuals and families.
In this complex general situation, there is an urgent necessity for an economy built on solid ethical foundations, that places the person and his rights, along with his material and spiritual well-being, at the center of its interests.
In effect, the primary capital that must be safeguarded and saved is man - the person in his entirety (cf. Caritas in veritate, 25).
It is important that Governments strive to remedy the serious effects of the financial crisis without neglecting attention to the basic needs of their citizens.
The Catholic Church in Cuba, which these days as always, feels close to the people, wishes to contribute with her own modest assistance. I wish to point out that greater cooperation from the authorities of your country has allowed the realization of important aid and reconstruction projects, especially in the aftermath of natural disasters.
4. I hope that the concrete signs of a more open exercise of religious freedom, which has been happening in the past several years, will continue to multiply - such as, for instance, the opportunity to say Holy Mass in jails, holding religious processions, the repair and recovery of some churches and the construction of religious houses, or the possibility of social security for priests and religious. In this way, the Catholic community can exercise more easily its specific pastoral tasks.
With a view to progress along this line, especially for the benefit of Cuban citizens, it would also be desirable to continue dialog in order to set together - following a form similar to those that has been established with other nations and respecting the specific characteristics of your country - the juridical framework which will define the existing relations, which were never interrupted, between the Holy See and Cuba, in order to guarantee the adequate development of the life and pastoral activity of the Church in your nation.
5. The Catholic Church in your country is preparing with full intensity for the celebration in 2012 of the fourth centenary of the finding and presence of the blessed image of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Mother and Patroness of Cuba.
This beloved Marian evocation is a luminous symbol of the religiosity of the Cuban people and the Christian roots of their culture.
Indeed, the Church, which is not to be confused with the political community (cf. Gaudium et spes, 76), is the repository of an extraordinary spiritual and moral patrimony which has contributed decisively to forge the Cuban 'soul', endowing it with its character and personality.
In this respect, all the men and women, but especially, the young people, need today, as in any other age, to rediscover those moral, human and spiritual values such as, for example, respect for life from conception to natural death, which gives dignity to human existence.
In this sense, the principal service that the Church can do for Cubans is the announcement of Jesus Christ and his message of love, forgiveness and reconciliation in truth. A nation that follows the path of concord is a nation with hope in a better future.
Moreover, the Church, conscious that its mission would be seriously crippled without the testimony of charity that springs from the Heart of Christ, has undertaken in your country numerous initiatives of social assistance which, although of modest dimensions, do reach many who are sick, old and handicapped.
An eloquent demonstration of this love is the life and work of so many persons who allowed themselves to be enlightened and transformed by the message of Christ, like Blessed Juan Olalio Valdez, whose beatification, the first ever realized on Cuban soil, was attended by His Excellency the President.
I am confident that this climate, which has allowed the Church to give its modest contribution in charity, may also favor her participation in the means of social communications and in the realization of complementary educational tasks in keeping with her specific pastoral and spiritual mission.
6. I cannot conclude my remarks without addressing a last thought for the always noble, fighting, suffering and working Cuban people, expressing to them from the heart my closeness and affection, even as I do not cease to commend them in my prayers to the Lord, author of all gifts.
Mr. Ambassador, I ask you again to kindly reiterate my deferential greeting to the highest authorities of the Republic of Cuba, as I express to Your Excellency my best wishes that you may happily and fruitfully achieve the high mission that you start today to the Holy See, and I invoke upon you, your family and co-workers, the abundant gifts of the Most High, through the intercession of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre.
Oh, dear! is the only civil comment I can find to say about
the latest depredation wrought by the Pope's barbarous barber!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/12/2009 01:20]