The Pope sends condolences
read at the funeral of Cuban
human rights activist Oswaldo Paya
Translated from the Italian service of
July 24, 2012
Informed of the 'tragic event' which took the life of Catholic human rights activists Osvaldo Paya Sardinas and Harold Cepero Escalanta on Sunday in Cuba - with two more wounded - Deputy Secretary of State Angelo Becciu, former apostolic nuncio to Cuba, sent a telegram of condolence in the name of the Pope to the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
The cardinal read the message at the funeral Mass and services that he officiated earlier today. The full text follows (translated from Spanish):
CARDiNAL JAIME LUCAS ORTEGA Y ALAMINO
ARCHBISHOP OF SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA HABANA
After being informed of the tragic episode in which Messieurs OSVALDO PAYÁ SARDIÑAS and HAROLD CEPERO ESCALANTE lost their lives and other persons were injured, Pope Benedict XVI asks that you extend to their families of the deceased his condolence and his spiritual nearness, even as he prays to the Almighty for the total recovery of those who were injured.
Likewise, the Holy Father offers his fervent prayer to God for the eternal repose of the deceased and that he may grant comfort and strength to those who in this time of sorrow mourn such an irreparable loss.
As he invokes the protection of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, and as a token of abundant divine favors during a time of pain, His Holiness affectionately imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a sign of faith and hope in Jesus Christ, Redeemer of mankind.
I sincerely join in the sentiments of the Supreme Pontiff and I express to you, Eminence, my consideration and esteem, in the name of the Risen Christ.
+ ANGELO BECCIU
Deputy Secretary of State
A few hundred dissidents attended the funeral services and the procession from the church of the Salvador del Mundo parish to the Havana neighborhood of Cerro, where the Paya family live, and the cemetery of Colon, Havana's largest.
Meanwhile, the regime is reported to have arrested a few more dissidents after Paya's death, claimed by his family and other activists to have been caused by someone in pursuit who forced him to drive off the road and into a tree.
Dissident blogs claim the arrests were made at the funeral after some activists started to chant «Libertad!» and «Democracia!» . Among those arrested was Guillermo Farina, who won the Sakharov Prize in 2010.
[Named for the Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, the Prize has been awarded yearly since 1999 by the European Parliament. The first winner was South Africa's Nelson Mandela. In 1990, it was given to Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and in 2002, to Paya himself.]
[NB: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected by the prestigious Academie Francaise in 1992 to fill the seat vacated by the death of Sakharov in the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/07/2012 20:59]