Havana, Cuba, Nov 8, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The latest edition of the official Catholic magazine of the Archdiocese of Havana, “Palabra Nueva,” called on Cubans to banish violence from the culture, because “to prevail with force and violence through the imposition of fear is no triumph as human beings.”
In his editorial column, Orlando Marquez, the magazine’s editor, said that to apply force through fear makes us “less humane.” “We don’t realize it perhaps, but we have been wounded and society reflects it,” he wrote.
“Social and political intolerance,” he continued, gives birth to violence and intolerance, cultivating in people’s minds the erroneous idea that “to be authoritarian and harsh, to say no and to be inflexible, is the only way to triumph and be respected in this world.” “We must break with this culture of physical, verbal and psychological violence,” said Marquez, because those who shout the loudest or are inflexible and authoritarian are not more important than others.
Marquez lamented that Cuban society is not compassionate, and that even at the highest levels, “they talk about peace but they don’t act peacefully or compassionately.” “The language of war and of force surrounds us every day from the moment we wake, in our schools and on television.”
In the midst of such a situation, the magazine proposes “fostering good will among all citizens,” banishing violence through a culture of life, which leads to compassion, authentic tolerance, dialogue and hope.