Havana, Cuba, Jan 9, 2008 / 18:04 pm
In an extensive interview with the magazine “Espacio Laical,” published by the Archdiocese of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega said the Church in Cuba is “alive and united with her people.”
Speaking with reporter Lenier Gonzalez Mederos on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of John Paul II’s visit to Cuba, the cardinal noted that during the first few years after the Castro revolution, the Church experienced a drop in the number of priests and personnel and a lack of resources to carry out her mission. The focus was mainly on internal Church affairs, the sacraments and the spiritual, moral and material support of the Catholic communities, he explained.
However, “in 1981 the Church in Cuba began to develop what was called the Cuban Ecclesial Reflection program, which was carried out over five years and ended with the National Cuban Ecclesial Encounter in 1986.” That event “opened doors” and “breathed a new spirit into the communities,” the cardinal said. “Our faithful needed to understand this and come out from the fold and the Church needed to recognize that the Church has a mission that is not limited to the confines of the sacristy.”
“The Catholic faithful,” he added, “has progressively understood that the Church has an irreplaceable mission to carry out here, and the State has also progressively accepted and understood the mission of the Church, which is not limited just to worship.”