Cuba, Vatican Have Faith in Improving Relations

Throughout their 33-year marriage, pious Marta Martinez and her fervently Communist husband have maintained detente.

They were married by a priest because she insisted, crying--but kept the religious ceremony secret because he was embarrassed and afraid his career would be jeopardized. Their three children were baptized but also joined the Young Pioneers, the Communist youth group. “You take charge in your communism, and I take charge of my business--religion,” she told him.

So the family was preparing to comfort a disappointed little boy when their grandson, Wilbur, now 10, saved his grandfather a front-row seat at his First Communion last year. But to everyone’s surprise, Grandpa went to Mass.

Much like Martinez and her husband, the Roman Catholic Church and Cuba’s Communist Party--which is virtually inseparable from the government in this one-party state--have been coming to an understanding over the years.

Plans for a papal visit to this island next year show how much church-state relations have improved since the early days of Cuba’s 1959 revolution. At the time, the government claimed that counterrevolutionary plots were hatched in parochial schools, and the devout had to hide their religion to keep their jobs.

“For a while, they wanted us [believers] to disappear, there is no doubt about that,” said Rolando Suarez, director of Caritas Cuba, the local office of Catholic Relief Services. But that time appears to have passed.

Over the last five years, the Communist Party has begun admitting believers, the Cuban state has switched constitutionally from atheist to secular, Caritas has opened offices across the island, and by some estimates, church attendance has doubled.

Discrimination against the faithful and differences of opinion between church and state still exist. But for the time being, both the Vatican and Havana are emphasizing points of agreement.

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Government officials note eagerly that the last three popes have opposed the U.S. embargo of Cuba, a sort of acid test for Cubans. More recently, John Paul II, once the fiercely anti-Communist cardinal of Krakow in Poland, has begun to speak out against “savage capitalism.” And Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega has softened his criticism of the government since being named cardinal two years ago.

In a similar conciliatory vein, during a recent visit to Rome that included an audience with the pope, Cuban President Fidel Castro emphasized his 12 years of Jesuit education--an option forbidden to today’s Cuban children.

“The road has been opened, and change is inevitable,” predicted Cintio Vitier, a leading Cuban intellectual. Vitier, who is respected both as a Catholic layman and a committed revolutionary, believes that the church and the Cuban government will become even closer.

The reasons for improved relations are complex and not completely clear, but they appear to be related to the Vatican’s dual roles as church headquarters and an influential government.

Unlike the rest of Latin America, Cuba has never been an overwhelmingly Catholic country, said Enrique Lopez Oliva, a religion professor at Havana University. Despite the lack of statistics on the issue, Cubans generally recognize that the dominant religions here are based on beliefs that slaves brought from Africa. Protestant churches have been well-established for a century and have generally weathered the revolution better than the Catholic Church did.

For those reasons, easing restrictions on the church is not likely to boost domestic support for the government, analysts reason. Thus, many experts on church-state relations suspect that Cuba may be looking to the Vatican as a potential foreign policy ally.

Cuba lost its major allies when the Soviet Union fell and has been trying to expand foreign contacts beyond other small Communist governments such as Vietnam and North Korea. But to improve diplomatic relations with the Vatican internationally, Cuba has to improve relations with the church domestically, Lopez Oliva said.

Vitier favors a less pragmatic interpretation. “The church finally realized that after the revolution, the underprivileged were taken care of for the first time, and isn’t that Christianity?” he said. “It became evident that socialism has more in common with Christianity than capitalism does.”

Government officials referred questions to the Communist Party religious affairs office, which did not respond to requests for interviews. Church leaders emphasize the soothing effects of time and the growing evidence of a need for spiritual and moral guidance as crime and other social problems have increased during the current economic crisis.

“As far as intentions, I do not feel capable of saying what the authorities want,” said Jose Felix Perez, deputy secretary of the Cuban Catholic Bishops’ Conference. For the church, improved relations offer many opportunities, he said.

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“The Catholic Church can increase its role in society, and Cuban Catholics can experience the support of His Holiness while [the message of] our Lord Jesus Christ is preached in the streets and town squares,” he said. Cuba forbids religious processions and outdoor ceremonies, but the pope will be allowed to travel across the island without conditions.

The church hopes for more access to the mass media--controlled by the government here--and more opportunity for social programs such as Caritas, Perez said.

Through Caritas, the church has taken a major step toward reconciliation of Cubans here and exiles in Miami. The agency served as a funnel for relief donations sent from Miami to Cuba after a hurricane wreaked havoc on the island. Despite some controversy over the donations, Suarez said, “it became evident for Cubans that the Miami community is not so anti-Cuba and the people of Miami broke a barrier against helping their fellow Cubans.”

That gives the church the possibility of playing an important role in the future of a reconciled Cuba. Also with a view to the future, the church wants to expand religious education--although parochial schools seem unlikely--and to build new churches, Perez said. “Not a single Catholic church has been built in Cuba since 1959,” he said.

As a result, joked one priest, “the pope is going to find a church that has outgrown its clothes.” Indeed, Sunday Masses in Cuba are generally packed, not only because of the scarcity of churches but also because of a lack of priests: just 220 in a nation of 11 million.

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Half the priests are foreigners, a reflection of how the growth in congregations has outstripped the far slower process of preparing priests at Cuba’s two seminaries.

Part of that growth reflects the Communist Party’s more permissive attitude toward religion, Perez acknowledged. “People are less afraid,” he said.

Once, even Catholics with proven revolutionary credentials--like Vitier--faced discrimination. A book he wrote on the Cuban revolution, published in Mexico 20 years ago, was not available in Cuba until last year. Caritas’ Suarez lost a government job--until recently the only kind of job available in Cuba--because he was found to be “unreliable”: His boss discovered he was Catholic.

Such cases still exist. Martinez’s husband did not want his name used because he fears that his tolerance for his family’s religious devotion will damage his prestige.

Another prominent Catholic family, who also asked for anonymity, sent their 24-year-old son to Mexico seven months ago for a “cooling-off period.” After high school, he was hired as a technician at a government plant and rapidly rose through the ranks to shop foreman. But weeks after that last promotion, he was dismissed as “unreliable.”

He remained unemployed for nearly a year. His new job lasted barely a month, just long enough for his old file to catch up with him. He left for Mexico--refusing exiled relatives’ offers of a refuge in Miami because he hopes to return to Cuba eventually.

Most Catholics have similar stories as well as memories of other Cuban honeymoons with the Catholic Church. That tends to temper enthusiasm for the latest thaw in relations.

“The heat of the moment can lead to euphoria,” Perez said. “We have to wait until the news has passed, and we can evaluate this in the context of history and society. If that is being reserved, then I am reserved. Nevertheless, the fact that the pope is coming to Cuba is great news to me.”

The emphasis was on that great news during Cardinal Ortega’s Mass the first Sunday after the papal visit was announced.

An estimated 3,000 faithful packed the stately cathedral, spilling out onto the neighboring plaza. They applauded for more than five minutes when Ortega gave the traditional papal welcome: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” then burst into cheers when he added, “God bless Cuba.”