.- Three
years after the Castro government’s massive crackdown on opposition
groups, the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya,
said the persecution of the Church in Cuba continues.
In an interview
with the internet magazine Encuentro en la Red, Paya gave an extensive
analysis of the status of the opposition and the Church in Cuba.
“Its been three years since that day, which was an event that did not
end at that moment, but continues even to this day, since our friends
are still in prison. We can’t talk about this as if it were the
past, but rather as a continuing cruel present,” Paya explained.
“We are facing a
moment of regression and in recent months the so-called ‘acts of
repudiation,’ that is, those fascist, communist acts in which families
are terrorized and beaten, have gotten worse. In addition, state police
continue to go house to house, to all of the signers of the Varela
Project, in other to threaten them with unemployment, deny them leave
of the country, and threaten them with everything totalitarianism has
to pressure them to retract.”
Paya called for
a greater response from the international community, which, he said,
pays attention to other unjust situations in the world but is often
“silent or indifferent” in response to the injustice in Cuba.
Asked about
statements by Cardinal Renato Martino suggesting that the Church no
longer suffers repression in Cuba, Paya said, “I’m not going to comment
on messages or statements by the local Church or the Vatican. But
I can speak of my own experience and reality. This oppression not
only touches the churches and believers; it has a special component
dedicated just to us.”
While there is a
certain freedom of worship in Cuba, Paya noted the oppression in many
places is “palpable,” with government agents openly monitoring Masses
in an attempt to intimidate people. “Although this is not public,
I must speak about it, because I know firsthand how many religious
sisters and brothers are victims of threats, intimidating phone calls
and blackmail.”
Paya also called
for greater commitment from Church leaders to fulfill the Church’s role
as prophet and defender of human rights. At the same time, he
added, the laity is already in a position to “take on this
attitude.” “They only have to decide to do it. Because, I
have never been of the thinking that I have to act under the identity
of the Church—even though my inspiration comes from being a
Christian—or to see the Church as a political trench, or to identify
any one movement, program and personality, no matter how great they
are, with the Church.”
“I have always
defended that distinction,” Paya stated, “because everything in the
political and social sphere is debatable. And when a person or a
group wants a commitment from the Church, or acts in the name of the
Church, whether openly or not, then they are identifying the Church
with what could very well be a legitimate option, but it may be only
one option and not necessarily the option of the Church.”
Catholic dissident leader says Church in Cuba still being persecuted
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