Inmates Put Trust in Miami Auxiliary Bishop : Cleric Who Aided Hostages Long a Champion of Exiles

Since as early as Father’s Day, 1980, when he traveled from Miami to celebrate Mass with the Cuban inmates in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Auxiliary Bishop Agustin A. Roman has been championing the cause of the exiles.

Over the years, Roman, 59, the highest ranking Cuban-born priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, has received hundreds of letters from the Cuban detainees, and has even conducted a correspondence Bible study course for Atlanta inmates, officials in Miami said.

“That’s why they (the inmates) want him,” said the Rev. Cannon Walter Neds of the Episcopalian Diocese in Miami. “They know he has been concerned with their status from the beginning.”

Helped Free Hostages

Last Sunday, Roman played a central role in obtaining the release of the final 26 hostages being held at the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, La. Roman’s videotape, played for the inmates that morning, and his presence at the federal facility on the back of a pickup truck later that afternoon are credited with finally bringing the eight-day siege to an end.

In the videotape, Roman told the inmates he had consulted his attorney about the agreement to end the siege and urged them to sign it and release the remaining 26 hostages.

The inmates, distrustful of government officials, had requested his presence on Thursday as a contingency to signing the negotiated settlement, but federal officials refused to bring him in until Saturday night when the videotape was made at a nearby Air Force base.

“I believe if they had brought him in earlier, we could have all gone home,” said Donald Thompson, who was held hostage in the Oakdale facility. “That’s all they kept saying. ‘Just bring in the man from Miami. If he says it (the agreement) is OK, you can go home.’ The minute they saw him, they let us go.”

Roman is a regular at both Cuban religious events and at exile rallies and has spoken tirelessly in support of the Mariel detainees in the United States as well as for political prisoners in Cuba.

Earlier this year in a statement on behalf of the detainees, many of them Cuban felons who have served out their sentences in the United States, Roman said: “The indefinite imprisonment of human beings who are not serving their sentences due to crimes they have committed cannot be justified.”

And when the government announced its immigration agreement with Cuba, Roman exhorted people to oppose it.

“Everyone needs to get moving,” he told listeners of radio station WAQI in Miami. “There needs to be a letter from each family. This is the moment to respond against injustice.”

Born to a peasant family in the small town of San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, Roman, was expelled by the Castro government from Cuba in 1961 along with 131 other priests. The Roman Catholic Church sent him to Chile, where he worked with local Indians for five years before moving to Miami in 1966 to minister to a growing exile community.

Raised Funds for Shrine

There, he immediately set about raising $450,000 to build the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, a copy of the famous shrine in Oriente, Cuba, the country’s easternmost province. The project took six years because it was built in large part with pennies collected from Cuban exiles.

“That’s typical of the way he sees things,” said Father Jordi Rivero, associate pastor of the Shrine. “He’s always been very close to the people. He never got any big donations.”

Roman is described as humble and dedicated and a tireless worker despite two recent heart attacks and a diabetic condition.

Although he has taken public positions on a variety of human rights issues, he shuns the spotlight, associates said.

“He prefers to work behind the scenes,” Rivero said. “He is a very quiet man but very strong. He has a great deal of respect. When he says something, you can count on it.”

For years, Roman has culled the names of political prisoners in Cuba. He has forwarded almost 1,000 names to the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington.

He has also worked for Cuban exiles abroad as co-director of the Fund for Aid to the Cuban Exodus, an organization that helps needy Cuban exile families.

Rivero said Roman has also spoken out on behalf of Haitian and Nicaraguan exiles.