Is Catholic Church out of step with Cuban freedom?

Ever since this past spring, when the Catholic Church closed down Vitral, a church-sponsored magazine in Piñar del Rio that published articles critical of the Cuban government, I have been bothered by the notion that the Catholic Church — my church — is not doing all it can to bring about freedom to Cuba. And worse, that it fails to do more because it is more concerned about its interests, than those of its flock.

Eduardo Peñalver, a recent visitor to the island, writes that those qualms are justified:

I've been traveling for the past two weeks, which explains my lack of posts. A couple of weekends ago I was in Cuba to meet with Oswaldo Paya, a pro-democracy activist and the man behind the Varela Project, an ingenious petition drive that sought to take advantage of a provision of the 1976 socialist constitution to push for peaceful political reform in Cuba.

During my visit, we spoke at some length about the role of the Church in Cuba, a topic on which I have posted in the past. Although Paya is a committed Catholic, his opinion of the approach the hierarchy (both at the Vatican and in Cuba) has taken towards the Castro government and, by extension, towards dissidents in Cuba, was not a favorable one. The Church has been so eager to avoid persecution in Cuba that it has bent over backwards in recent years to avoid confrontation with the Castro government and has distanced itself from dissident groups on the island.

Read the rest at dotCommonweal.

To fulfill its mission, the church may have to make certain accommodations with the regime. But that does not mean it has to sell it soul to the devil to ensure its survival.

In Cuba, as in Poland almost 30 years ago, the Catholic Church, an entity that in part, is not of this world, may be the one institution in Cuba able to stand up to and oppose the dictatorship. But the church, at best, has chosen to stay out of the arena, forfeiting its role in shaping the future of the nation.

It is disheartening that the church in Cuba has not used its moral authority to advocate more forcefully for the cause of freedom.