Cuba's cardinal rejects call to support dissidents

HAVANA Cuba's Roman Catholic cardinal defended the church's pastoral role on the communist-run island and rejected outside calls for increased support of the political opposition.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega also called for reconciliation among Cuban believers during a Thursday night conference attended by hundreds of people. In the audience was U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason, a frequent target of criticism by the government. Foreign diplomats, opposition members and well-known cultural figures tied to Fidel Castro's government, also attended the conference.

''The church's mission is not to be on the side of the opposition,'' said Ortega, the Archbishop of Havana and the island's only Roman Catholic cardinal. ``In the same way, you cannot ask the church to support the government.''

Ortega's comments came a week after a Czech bishop and former anti-communist dissident criticized the church in Cuba for not supporting the opposition movement here. Ortega said his Czech colleague did not visit him during a recent stay here.

''The church leadership is very reserved toward the opposition movement,'' Bishop Vaclav Maly told reporters on May 21, hours after he returned from a 10-day visit to Cuba. ''From my point of view, it's a big mistake,'' Maly said.

Maly noted that while a church should not engage in politics, ``in a dictatorship, it's always good when people of goodwill unite.''

Maly, chairman of a Czech rights group run by the Roman Catholic Church, traveled to Cuba after 75 government opponents were sentenced to long prison terms and three men were executed after quick trials for trying to hijack a ferry.

At the time, Cuba's Roman Catholic bishops issued a statement questioning both the executions and the political crackdown.

''Violence is not eliminated with more violence,'' the Cuban bishops said, adding that they were also concerned about ``long prison sentences imposed on political opponents.''

Ortega said that the mother of one of the executed men had later met with him. The prelate said he was impressed by her lack of rancor and called on believers to replace their hatred with a similar spirit of reconciliation.

Maly, 52, a signatory of the Charter 77 human rights manifesto co-authored by former President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, was jailed numerous times by the former communist regime.

Just grin and bear it. Suck it up! Make the best of a bad situation. In other words, don't fight your enslavement - embrace it.

Fidel Castro - Cuba

April 2003 - Mugabe loses support of Catholic Church *** Observers say that the report, the most critical in the past three years of state-driven lawlessness, is an indication that Mr Mugabe has lost the support of the most powerful Church in the country. They say that its silence over his abuses during most of the 23 years of his rule - including the persecution of the outspoken Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo - has lent him respectability and the ability to deflect censure from Western governments. In January 260 Catholic clergy denounced most of the Catholic bishops for "compromise with an evil regime". ***

In the meantime, the man who calls himself pope embraces terrorist Assafart, and strongly opposes national sovereignty through its total support of the United Nothing. Go figure. Those controlling The Church give overt or tacit support to any government or organization that is fundamentally opposed to Judo-Christian beliefs.

Cardinal Sin (!) supported the opposition to Marcos in the Philippines. And Marcos was much less a dictator than Castro, who has persecuted both Catholics and Protestants. In Cuba, until the Pope visited, they couldn't even celebrate Christmas...

Sounds like the Cuban bishops, like the aging American bishops, need backbone. Wait a little, and they will be replaced with real shepherds, like we are slowly but surely seeing the American PC bishops being replaced with men with backbone...

I have just finished reading The Devil's Final Battle (Father Paul Kramer). This book deals primarily with the Miracle of Fatima and the fact that the Third Secret has never truly been revealed. However, the book gives an insight into what has happened within the Vatican since the 1960's and the Second Vatican Council. The New World Order gang is as prevalent there as in any government. The reorganization of the Curia has put the Pope in basically a figure-head position. Quite a sobering read, but one that answered my questions about the position the Church took on the Iraqi situation.

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