{"id":10302,"date":"2016-11-26T21:39:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-26T21:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=10302"},"modified":"2016-11-26T21:43:34","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T21:43:34","slug":"castro-the-pope-and-the-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/castro-the-pope-and-the-dictator\/","title":{"rendered":"Castro: The Pope and the Dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pope-francis-and-fidel-castro\"To Pope Francis, Castro\u2019s death was \u201csad\u201d news<\/a>, kind words indeed from someone who the former dictator would once have described as \u201csocial scum\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, just two or three weeks ago the pontiff was being quoted favorably<\/a> on Telesur (a TV network funded by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and, disappointingly in such company, Uruguay):<\/p>\n

Asked [during an interview with the press ] if his pursuit and support for a more egalitarian society meant he envisioned a \u201cMarxist type of society,\u201d the pontiff said in response, \u201cIf anything, it is the communists who think like Christians\u2026Christ spoke of a society where the poor, the weak and the marginalized have the right to decide. Not demagogues, not Barabbas, but the people, the poor, whether they have faith in a transcendent God or not. It is they who must help to achieve equality and freedom.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Francis is not a communist (his ideology is better seen as a blend of left-Peronism and ‘a Catholicism of the people’, two strains of thought that themselves overlap). Nevertheless, to say that that description represents a very benign interpretation of what communism really is, is to put things very mildly indeed.<\/p>\n

Then again, Francis’ line of argument is not so different from what Dorothy Day (1897-1980), the leftist Roman Catholic writer and activist possibly now headed<\/a> for canonization, de<\/a>ployed in the Catholic Worker<\/em> in July\/August 1962:<\/p>\n

We are on the side of the [Cuban] revolution. We believe there must be new concepts of property, which is proper to man, and that the new concept is not so new. There is a Christian communism and a Christian capitalism. We believe in farming communes and cooperatives and will be happy to see how they work out in Cuba. God bless Castro and all those who are seeing Christ in the poor. God bless all those who are seeking the brotherhood of man because in loving their brothers they love God even though they deny Him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Pope Francis, of course, is something of a Dorothy Day fan. Praised<\/a> for her \u201cpassion for justice\u201d, Day was one of “four representatives of the American people”, singled out by the Pope during the course of his speech to Congress in 2015.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile from Forbes<\/em><\/a> earlier this year:<\/p>\n

The Obama administration has continued its effort to expand contact between the U.S. and Cuba by easing restrictions on travel, exports, and export financing. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker spoke of \u201cbuilding a more open and mutually beneficial relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the administration expressed concern over Havana\u2019s dismal human rights practices. Although Raul Castro\u2019s government has continued economic reforms, it has maintained the Communist Party\u2019s political stranglehold. Indeed, despite the warm reception given Pope Francis last fall, the regime has been on the attack against Cubans of faith.<\/p>\n

In a new report the group Christian Solidarity Worldwide warned of \u201can unprecedented crackdown on churches across the denominational spectrum,\u201d which has \u201cfueled a spike in reported violations of freedom of religion or belief.\u201d There were 220 specific violations of religious liberties in 2014, but 2300 last year, many of which \u201cinvolved entire churches or, in the cases of arrests, dozens of victims.\u201d In contrast, there were only 40 cases in 2011\u2026..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sad times, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To Pope Francis, Castro\u2019s death was \u201csad\u201d news, kind words indeed from someone who the former dictator would once have described as \u201csocial scum\u201d. Meanwhile, just two or three weeks ago the pontiff was being quoted favorably on Telesur (a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[143,358,900,1185,998,403],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10302"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10310,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302\/revisions\/10310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}