Cleric Says Cuba Ties Are Improved
Relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Cuban government have improved significantly over the past five years after decades of strain, a church leader said Tuesday.
However, Msgr. Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, secretary of the Cuban Roman Catholic Episcopal Conference, said the church is still unable to use Cuban radio, television or newspapers.
“I believe that relations between the church and state have improved and are making progress, although not spectacular progress--and perhaps it is better that way,” he said in an interview.
In the past five years there have been major breakthroughs, he said.
The church has permission to set up its own publishing house, to bring in foreign priests and, at the request of the Cuban government, to recruit overseas “sisters of mercy”--nuns who are nurses.
Moreover, for the first time in three decades, Catholic priests are being allowed to make regular visits to prisons.
In 1987 the Cuban government authorized the church to import a printing press and publish its own religious and church related materials.
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