{"id":9897,"date":"2015-09-19T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T17:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=9897"},"modified":"2015-09-19T17:09:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T17:09:02","slug":"will-the-pope-make-time-for-cubas-dissidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/will-the-pope-make-time-for-cubas-dissidents\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the Pope Make Time for Cuba’s Dissidents?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RaulFrancis\"<\/a>Cross-posted on the Corner<\/p>\n

Washington Post<\/em>: <\/p>\n

HAVANA \u2014 Pope Francis plans to meet with Cuba\u2019s president and its priests, its young and its sick, its churchgoers and its seminarians as he travels around the island starting Saturday. But not with its dissidents. <\/p>\n

The absence on Francis\u2019 agenda of any meeting with the political opposition has sparked bitter critiques from dissidents who say they feel let down by an institution they believe should help push for greater freedom in Cuba. Papal observers say it\u2019s likely Francis will speak strongly to Cubans about the need for greater freedom in their country and may speak to President Raul Castro in private about the same topic. But in shying from meetings with dissidents, the pope is hewing largely to the Cuban Catholic Church\u2019s strategy of advocating for change within bounds laid out by the communist state rather than pushing the system to change as John Paul II did in Eastern Europe. There is no one Cuban officials consider more out of bounds than the country\u2019s dissidents, whom they call mercenaries paid by the U.S. government and Cuban-American interest groups in Miami.<\/p>\n

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said this week that Francis had not accepted any invitations to meet with dissidents, and well-known opposition members told The Associated Press they have received no invitation to see him. Popes rarely meet with political opposition figures during their foreign trips and neither St. John Paul II nor Pope Benedict XVI met with dissidents during their respective 1998 and 2012 visits to Cuba, prompting similar criticism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Deservedly so (although it should be remembered that John Paul II hardly behaved like a pillar of the establishment during his visits to communist Poland). <\/p>\n

As for Benedict\u2019s visit to Cuba, it\u2019s worth taking another look at a piece in Foreign Affairs by Victor Gaetan that I linked to back in January. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an extract: <\/p>\n

[Havana\u2019s Cardinal Ortega] was never popular with regime opponents because of his determination to avoid confrontation. While Benedict was in Cuba, Ortega refused to arrange a meeting between the Pope and opposition leaders. Instead, devout Catholic opposition leaders such as Oswaldo Paya found Cuban security surrounding his house to prevent him from attending Benedict\u2019s public Mass. Five months later, Paya was killed in a car accident suspected of being engineered by state agents.<\/p>\n

No investigation has ever been completed. Although Ortega presided over Paya\u2019s funeral, his family says the cardinal did nothing to protect or promote the democracy movement Paya fostered\u2026.<\/p>\n

But Ortega likely isn\u2019t losing sleep about this criticism. He has a different vision of Cuba\u2019s future: A few days after Francis was elected, the Havana Archdiocese published a document containing 23 proposals produced by a group, Laboratorio Casa Cuba, comprised of \u201cprofessors and researchers of diverse ideologies (Catholics, critical Marxists, republican\u2013socialists, and anarchists).\u201d It\u2019s a Christian social\u2013democratic program, with an anti-American cherry on top. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pope Francis has a special responsibility when it comes to Cuba. By doing his bit to help engineer the restoration of diplomatic relations (and more) between the US and Cuba, he gave the dictatorship in Havana no small boost. If he were to meet some dissidents, it might go some way to dispelling unkind suggestions that Francis is inclined to look too kindly on the authoritarianism of the left. For good or ill, this pope has shown himself capable of delivering surprises. He should spring one on the Castro brothers by meeting some of the brave men and women who dare stand up against them.<\/p>\n

Links
\nhttp:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/424292\/will-pope-make-time-cubas-dissidents-andrew-stuttaford<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/the_americas\/pope-plans-to-duck-dissidents-in-cuba-spawning-criticism\/2015\/09\/18\/c0e903a8-5dba-11e5-8475-781cc9851652_story.html<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/395604\/vatican-and-cuba-some-more-background-andrew-stuttaford<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted on the Corner Washington Post: HAVANA \u2014 Pope Francis plans to meet with Cuba\u2019s president and its priests, its young and its sick, its churchgoers and its seminarians as he travels around the island starting Saturday. But not with … 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":[900,998,403],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9897"}],"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=9897"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9900,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9897\/revisions\/9900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}