When Cuba is free, those who accommodated, appeased and apologized for the Castro regime to preserve their own standing will not be absolved. Near the top of the list of those who will be held to account are religious leaders like Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Methodist Bishop Ricardo Pereira Díaz.
Not to be outdone by Ortega, whose too-close-for-comfort dealings with the dictatorship are well documented, Bishop Pereira may have set a new low on Monday.
Accompanied by communist and state security officials, Pereira on Monday went to a church in Santa Clara, changed the locks on the church and parsonage and installed a new pastor.
The victim in this was the former pastor, Yordi Alberto Toranzo Collado.
Pereira's supposed reasons for moving against Toranzo were not revealed, but Toranzo said it was because of his good relations with Cuban dissidents, including Guillermo Farinas, whom he visited during his most recent hunger strike. Toranzo also has denounced the police beating death last month of dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia.
There may be legitimate reasons for a bishop to remove one of his ministers, but this episode seems to be a case of Bishop Pereira pulling a Cardinal Ortega.
Religious leaders should primarily be concerned with the spiritual health of their flocks. But history is full of clerics, from St. Thomas More to Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Pope John Paul II the Great, who saw as part of their calling the need to stand up to dictators, not to lie down before them, and to lead their congregants in building a better world hear on Earth.
In Cuba, those who fail to meet that standard by dealing with the devil should and will be held to account.
For more information on what happened Monday, read this.
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