Catholic Church Wielding Growing Influence in Cuba, Says Country's Catholic Representative

The Christian Post ^ | 7/29/13 | Michael Gryboski

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WASHINGTON – A representative of the Cuban Catholic Church explained at an event Monday that presently the Catholic Church is exerting a growing influence in the country.

Orlando Márquez Hidalgo, editor and director of the Havana Archdiocese publication Palabra Nueva (or New Word), explained to The Christian Post after a panel discussion event held by the Brookings Institute that there is "open dialogue" between the Church and President Raúl Castro.

"There is an open dialogue, there is not a road map, there is an open dialogue where everything can be included," said Márquez. "They talked about the situation in Cuba and the relationship with the regime, how to improve the relations between the Church and the government."

Márquez was commenting about the Catholic Church's talks with the Cuban government, headed by Raúl Castro, younger brother of long-serving President Fidel Castro.

Results of these talks have included potential reforms as well as social justice matters. The Catholic Church helped broker the release of about 50 political prisoners several years ago.

Márquez was one of three individuals who gave remarks at an event by Brookings known as "The Role of the Catholic Church in Cuba Today."

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I like to point out that for the vast majority of its life, the Catholic church had to deal with royalist nobility and dictators, and out of necessity learned and adapted itself to do so.

But then, in the period from the French Revolution, about 1790 to 1800, to the Europe-wide revolutions of 1848, the world changed violently in favor of popular democracy. And since the church was so very tied in with the royals, it suffered much of the wrath of the revolutionaries.

Past the middle of the 20th Century, the ground was very unstable, and the church never did really adapt to the new order. It has yet to find a comfortable place with such radical forms of government.

But dictators and princes it can understand. And this might explain why the church is again starting to feel good about Cuba. It well recognizes what dictators and tyrants do and why; but it has also learned coexistence with them.

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The Roman Catholic Church estimates that 60 percent of the population is Catholic,^[1] but only 5% of that 60% attends mass regularly,^[2] while independent sources estimate that as few 1.5% of the population does so.^[3]

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