Uncommon Sense

Methodists remove pastor for being too cozy with anti-Castro activists in Cuba

The Catholic Church is not the only religious institution in Cuba that does the bidding of the Castro regime.

There also appear to be the Methodists, as evidenced this past weekend by the removal from his church post in Santa Clara of pastor Yordi Alberto Toranzo Collado, apparently because of ties with Cuban dissidents.

in April 2010, Toranzo marched with about 2,000 other Christians in an unauthorized demonstration. He also visited human rights activist Guillermo Farinas during one of his hunger strikes, and earlier this year particiapted in the funeral for dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, who was murdered by Cuban police.

Toranzo said his bishop, the recently appointed Ricardo Pereira, ordered him to leave Santa Clara because of pressure from the dictatorship.

"I worked as a slave of Jesus Christ and today I receive this reward from men," said Toranzo, who nonetheless added he would accept the bishop's instructions.

There are about 27,000 Methodists in Cuba, congregants of 350 churches and 700 missions, according to information compiled by the regime.

Dictatorship targets Cuba pastors for repression

The Castro dictatorship is cozy with the Catholic Church because it serves its nefarious interests.

Most congregations in Cuba are not as fortunate.

Most, like the Apostolic Movement, suffer persecution at the hands of the regime consisten with A) the regime's godlessness; and B) the regime's fear of any institution that might challenge its primacy.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports:

Three pastors have been detained and questioned by state security officials who pressured them to stop their church services.  CSW calls for continued prayer and solidarity as the Apostolic Movement faces ongoing persecution.

Bernardo de Quesada Salomon

The Apostolic Movement in Cuba has been further harassed by the Cuban Government in the last week. Three pastors were picked up by a group of high ranking state security agents and Communist Party officials. 

On Saturday 30 April, Pastors Benito Rodriguez and Barbara Guzman were held for two hours during which time they were interrogated and pressured to call a halt to their church activity.  On 1 May, the head of the Office of Religious Affairs in the Provincial Ministry of Justice, Ms Etael, interrupted their church service, demanding proof of ownership of the home in which Pastor Rodriguez has lived his entire life.  Following this, a third pastor, Pastor Bernardo de Quesada Salomon faced similar interrogation and threats.

Omar Gude Perez and his wife, Kenia

Pastor Omar Gude Perez, a leader in the Apostolic Movement, knows first-hand the reality of living under the threats of the Castro regime.  He recently reported to CSW that the pressure on this fast-growing church network is increasing and that his is just one example of many similar stories.  He is currently serving a six-and-a-half year prison sentence under conditional liberty, and together with his wife, Kenia, they face continued persecution because of their willingness to share information with international human rights groups and the media.  Kenia and another pastor, Mario Alvarez, have also recently been denied permission to leave the country to attend religious conferences.

For more, including information on how you can help Christian Solidarity Worldwide help Cuban pastors, go here.

Photos: Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Freedom of religion is just another liberty missing in Cuba

Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega's buddy-buddy relationship with the Castro dictatorship aside, not all is easy for churches in Cuba — especially for those for whom fealty to God and His flock is still preeminent to their earthly interests.

Those itching to take advantage of loosened U.S. travel restrictions and make a "religious" mission to the island, might want to consider what is happening to Pastor Homero Carbonell, long-time leader of La Trinidad First Baptist Church in Santa Clara.

If they care.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has the details:

CUBAN CHURCH LEADER PUBLISHES LETTER DENOUNCING PERSECUTION

A respected Baptist pastor in Cuba has published an open letter denouncing government persecution targeting him and his church. Pastor Homero Carbonell, long-time leader of La Trinidad First Baptist Church in Santa Clara, and a high-level denominational leader, says he has been forced to retire due to prolonged government pressure and threats made against his church.

The twelve page letter, sent by Pastor Carbonell to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), gives details of the Religious Affairs Office’s treatment of Pastor Carbonell and his church over the past three years. Spurious accusations against Pastor Carbonell, including allegations that he is associated with the counterrevolution and is tied to unspecified “illegalities” culminated in a serious of penalties being applied to his church. While Pastor Carbonell finally stepped down from his role as leader of the church in October 2010, the sanctions have not been lifted.

Numerous requests for clarification on the part of church leaders went unanswered and a series of meetings with officials from the Religious Affairs Office, headed by Caridad Diego, failed to rectify the situation. In one meeting, government officials concluded the meeting by telling Pastor Carbonell to behave himself.

In the open letter, Pastor Carbonell echoes calls by other religious leaders in Cuba for legislation regulating religious practice, as such a law “would not only regulate believers, but would also regulate the government, and would give believers a legal instrument to deal with any legal dispute to support their claims and not leave them subject to political decisions emanating from groups in power, who can take coercive, wrong, or privileged decisions in matters of conscience.”

The government’s focus on Pastor Carbonell and his church appears to be driven by the church’s consistent refusal to expel family members of political prisoners and members of the human rights or pro-democracy groups from the congregation. The Cuban government has long heavily pressured church leaders of all denominations to shun anyone linked to human rights or pro-democracy activism.

Pastor Carbonell’s experience is in line with the conclusions by a 2010 CSW report which found that while overt forms of persecution such as the destruction of unauthorized churches had diminished somewhat, government pressure on individual church leaders had reached unprecedented levels. One church leader told CSW that government persecution had not been as subtle nor as effective since the 1980s.

CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, “We are deeply concerned and stand in solidarity with Pastor Carbonell and the entire La Trinidad Baptist Church. While the Cuban government has implemented some economic reforms over the past year, there appears to be little official will to consider reforms that would protect basic human rights like religious freedom. It is troubling that the situation for many church leaders across the island appears to be growing steadily worse. We call on the Cuban government to cease its harassment of Pastor Carbonell and his family, to remove the sanctions against La Trinidad First Baptist Church, and back his call for new legislation that would establish clear legal parameters and recourse for appeal regarding all religious activity.”

That the Castro dictatorship would target a church that doesn't follow the party line should be no surprise.

|———|

You can read Carbonell's letter, here. And CSW's report on religious freedom in Cuba, here.

And for a closer look at Carbonell's outstanding ministry, read this account of a 2003 visit to Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Cuba communist official reveals plan to target church denomination

Cuban political prisoner Omar Gude Pérez in 2009 was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison on a charge of "falsification of documents and illicit economic activities."

But as a recently revealed video of remarks by one of the Castro dictatorship's top officials on religious matters suggests, Gude is really in jail because of his role as a leader in a Christian group called the Apostolic Reformation.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has the video:

What is most remarkable is that Diego was speaking at a meeting of the Cuban Council of Churches, that she felt she could reveal with impunity the dictatorship's strategy to target a particular denomination. And in a venue that from the camera's angle looks like a church!

That the video was shot and smuggled off the island shows that at least some of the others at the meeting realize that once the regime is done with Apostolic Reformation, the dictatorship could next turn on their church.

And it provides an important factor for religious groups in the United States to consider before they take advantage of new American government rules and plan their visits to the island.

St. Maximilian Kolbe: A political prisoner for all times

I posted this on my birthday in 2009. Since it's once again my birthday today, I am re-posting.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

Today is the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the patron saint of political prisoners. And since today is my birthday, he is my patron, too.

There, I concede, ends the comparison, although I do hope my efforts here have and continue to raise awareness about the injustices and the tortures suffered by those imprisoned in Cuba because of their political, religious and other beliefs. I think I have made a difference.

Canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982, Kolbe was a Polish priest murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. He had volunteered to take the place of a Jewish prisoner condemned to death by starvation as a reprisal after another prisoner escaped.

Held in punishment cell with nine other condemned prisoners, Kolbe regularly lead the group in songs and in recitations of the rosary. "I had the feeling I was in a church," one eyewitness, a janitor at the prison, later said.

After two weeks of torture, Kolbe was the only survivor, and since the cell was needed for other prisoners, he was brought to another room, where on Aug. 14, 1941, he was injected with carbolic acid and died.

Back to me.

A little more than four and half years ago, not too long after my 38th birthday, I started blogging about Cuba, especially those imprisoned because of their political beliefs, and their faith in democracy, freedom, human rights and their fellow Cubans. It's not a subject I had planned to cover when I started Uncommon Sense, it's just the direction, I am convinced, I was lead in by an invisible hand. Besides the fact that I am Cuban, I have no other explanation for why at times I have been consumed by the task of their telling their stories.

As a somewhat faithful Catholic, I have known for some time that St. Maximilian Kolbe and I share the same feast day. But just recently, I learned something I didn't know about this martyr of the church.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, as his own story might suggest, is the patron saint of political prisoners.

Coincidence?

Or, as my faith suggests, something not so easily explained?

I am no St. Maximilian Kolbe.

At times, the plight of Cuban political prisoners seems hopeless, and I want to give up.

But as the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe shows, in the face of evil, whether at Auschwitz in Poland or Combinando del Este or Kilo 5 in Cuba, we are each called to love another, we are each called to act, whether it be with a prayer or a blog post, to demonstrate the faith that goodness will prevail.

Otherwise, our birthdays are nothing special.

Here is the Prisoner's Prayer to St. Maximilian Kolbe:

O Prisoner-Saint of Auschwitz,
help me in my plight
Introduce me to Mary, the Immaculata,
Mother of God. She prayed for Jesus in
a Jerusalem jail. She prayed for you
in a Nazi prison camp. Ask her to comfort
me in my confinement. May she teach me
always to be good.
If I am lonely, may she say "God is here."
If I feel hate, may she say "God is love."
If I am tempted, may she say "God is pure."
If I sin, may she say "God is mercy."
If I am in darkness, may she say "God is light."
If I am unjustly condemned, may she say "God is truth."
If I have pain in soul or body, may she say "God is peace."
If I lose hope, may she say: "God is with you all days, and so am I."
Amen

Even though we are not political prisoners, this is a prayer we all can say.

Other prayers to and by St. Maximilian Kolbe can be found here.

A version of this post was originally published July 12, 2009.

Omar Gude Pérez, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 5/2/10

UPDATED, March 30, 2011 — Omar Gude Pérez was released from prison in February 2011.

A version of this post was published here earlier.

Pastor Omar Gude Pérez and his wife Kenia*

In Cuba, the repression of basic human rights is absolute. There is no leniency, and even the truly "innocent" — like the children of political prisoners — are not immune from the Castro dictatorship's reach.

Usually, I write about prisoners and other dissidents who have been punished for taking political or societal positions against those advocated — or better put, enforced — by the government and communist party.

But in the Castro gulag, there some political prisoners, like Omar Gude Pérez, who are imprisoned not because they have actively taken a stand contrary to the dictatorship's, but because they have chosen to live by their conscience and their faith in God, and nothing less. They have chosen to live as truly free men, which is probably the greatest affront a Cuban can commit against the regime.

Gude, a leader of a non-denominational Christian group called the Apostolic Reformation, last year was sentenced to 6 years and 7 months in prison on a charge of "falsification of documents and illicit economic activities." The dictatorship had settled that as his "crime" after an earlier charge of "human trafficking" was dismissed.

Whatever the "charge," it was just an excuse utilized by the dictatorship to move against a religious leader who had chosen to live and preach not as part of an officially recognized religious organization. The U.S. State Department earlier this year cited Gude's case as an example of increase religious repression on the island.

Numerous other dissidents, from Darsi Ferrer Ramírez to Dania Virgen García, have recently fallen victim to similarly thuggish tactics — the criminalization of dissent — by a regime too afraid to admit that it is only trying to silence and punish those Cubans who reject it.

It is not enough that Gude has been unjustly imprisoned. To up his suffering, the dictatorship has now targeted his wife Kenia and his young children, earlier this month evicting them from their house and forcing them to move into a smaller apartment in Camagüey.

Absolute and without leniency, that is the Castro dictatorship.

The official reason for the eviction is that the family home is considered the result of "illicit gain," but the authorities have repeatedly told Kenia she is being punished because of efforts to inform foreign governments and non-governmental organizations about her family's plight, according to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide, which has taken a leading role in advocating for Pastor Gude and his family.

“There is no justifiable reason for the confiscation of the family home, and the authorities’ targeting of innocent children is absolutely reprehensible," said Stuart Windsor, national director for the United Kingdom-based CSW. "The international community must make it clear to the Cuban government that the persecution of this family must stop. CSW continues to demand the release of Pastor Gude Perez, but also insists that the government leaves Kenia and their two children in peace.”

* Photo courtesy of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Cuba's saints are keeping the faith

Today was All Saints Day in the Catholic Church, when we remember those whose godliness decades and centuries after they have passed, continue to inspire us, and remind us of the type of people we all can be.

The priest at Mass this morning reminded us that there are saints all around us, who with their examples of courage and willingness to take the path less traveled and their calling to serve their fellow man, show us what we all can be.

As he spoke, I couldn't help but think of Oscar Biscet and Darsi Ferrer and Jorge García Pérez "Antúnez," and others in Cuba who have set aside their personal interests and their personal safety to show what is possible for Cuba by breaking with how things are and dreaming and acting on how things should be. I do not know how religious these and other Cuban dissidents are, but with their example, with the faith they have shown in themselves and in their fellow Cubans — and for how they have been persecuted and prosecuted because of that faith — they have proven themselves heroes, if not saints.

The Gospel reading at Mass today reassures us that despite the challenges and obstacles they face, political prisoners and other dissidents in Cuba will one day be vindicated and rewarded for their efforts on behalf of the cause of liberty:

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt: 5:10)

The struggle for Cuban freedom is a test of our faith in the face of a great evil. Some days, it appears impossible that Cuba will once again be free. On the island, I imagine the feeling is worse that many of us can imagine.

But we must keep the faith, because as today's Gospel reminds us, when people insult us or persecute us or lock us up in prison because of our trust in God, great is the reward.

Those rewards are not only in heaven. In fact, they have already been experienced on the Cuban street and in cyberspace and in the dark cells of the Castro gulag, with men and women breaking the bounds that tie them to tyranny and choosing, despite whatever their earthly circumstance, to be free.

That is an example all of us can follow.

Cubans don't have religious freedom

Freedom is illegal in Cuba.

And as a new U.S. Department report illustrates, that includes freedom of religion:

The Constitution recognizes the right of citizens to profess and practice any religious belief within the framework of respect for the law; however, in law and in practice, the Government places restrictions on freedom of religion.

The Government continued to exert control over all aspects of social life, including religious expression. The Government harassed some members of religious organizations that were not officially recognized. Although government harassment of religious organizations continued during the reporting period, reports of harassment declined slightly. Various religious groups reported fewer restrictions on politically sensitive expression, the ability to hold religious activities even for organizations without official recognition, increased capacity to conduct charitable and community service projects, fewer import and travel restrictions, permission to repair buildings, and significant increases in membership. The Government continued to maintain strict controls on the construction of new buildings for religious purposes, and permission was difficult to obtain. Religious groups complained about widespread surveillance and infiltration of their membership by state security agents.

Read the whole thing, here.

Angels, demons and bishops, oh my!

A delegation of American Catholic bishops and other church officials is currently visiting Cuba, touring hurricane recovery projects funded in part by donations from the American church.

If only they had stuck to the script.

Instead, and not surprisingly, really, they ventured Tuesday into commentary on the current state of U.S.-Cuban relations and how one side — not surprisingly, the United States — is not doing enough to repair the 50-year breach between Washington and Havana.

President Barack Obama's welcomed decision to lift limits on travel and remittances from Cuban Americans to family on the island was not enough for the bishops, even if the dictatorship has done nothing in return — starting with the release of political prisoners — to warrant a further reversal of American policy, much less normalization of relations.

Reuters reports:

"They seem to be taking a position where they will move piece by piece, which is a little concerning because there's so much work to do. One might not get very far," said delegation member Father Andrew Small.

"We have called for bold gestures," he said, noting that the bishops' conference has long endorsed ending the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and supports proposals to end a ban on American travel to the island.

Not once, according to separate reports filed by AFP, Associated Press or Reuters, did the American church officials criticize their Cuban hosts or blame them and their 50-year dictatorship for the suffering of the Cuban people. Not once did they call for the release of political prisoners, or for the Cuban government to lift its restrictions on travel by Cuban citizens, or for some other "bold gesture" by the Havana regime.

Instead, we get the ridiculous notion that both sides are somehow equally to blame for the hostility between the two countries.

"(F)or the good of people who are separated, and suffering because of that separation, we would hope that both sides listen to their better angels," said Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Fla.

With the changes he has instituted, I believe that is what Obama has done. The American people do not want to stand in the way of family helping family, and apart from how Cuba might respond, Obama did what's right.

But in Cuba, the only angels are those who have touched the spirits of Cubans willing to sacrifice what little liberty they have to campaign for freedom for their country. The angels are watching over independent journalists and librarians, and sitting in jail cells with saintly men like Oscar Biscet and Darsi Ferrer. The angels are protecting those Cubans waiting and praying for change.

If they angels are in the corridors of the dictatorship, they have been ignored for 50 years, in favor of demons. How else to explain the worst of the evils committed against the Cuban people and all of humanity?

It only adds to the Cuban tragedy when men of otherwise goodwill, like the American church officials, do not recognize the difference.

Trial of Cuban pastor postponed

Don't ask me to explain the intricacies of the Cuban "justice" system, but this is good news - especially if it's related to any earlier publicity. Via e-mail from Christian Solidarity Worldwide:

Thank you for your prayers on behalf of Reverend Roberto Rodriguez. Following our urgent action sent out on Monday 29 December, CSW has learned that the trial, scheduled for that day, was suspended.

This may be due to the unexpected attention the case received outside of Cuba. As you may recall the dates of the notification of the trial schedule and the trial itself, which came so close together and just after Christmas, indicate that the authorities hoped that this would go unnoticed by the rest of the world. We are also confident that this is a result of your prayers and intercession.

We appreciate your rapid response and would encourage you to continue to pray for Reverend Rodriguez. Although the trial itself was suspended, the charges against him still stand and it is possible he will be brought to trial at a later date. This experience, of course, is extremely stressful and has had a negative impact on the Reverend’s health.

Praise God for the suspension of the trial and pray that the charges against Reverend Rodriguez and his son Pastor Eric Rodriguez will be dropped. Pray for wisdom for the family and their church as the legal situation is still ambiguous. Please also continue to send letters and cards of encouragement to the Rodriguez family to remind them that they are not alone.

Please address letters to:
Rdo. Lic. Roberto Rodríguez R., Presidente Nacional
Céspedes No. 132 e/ Plácido y Libertadores
Sagua la Grande; Villa Clara
52310
Cuba