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 Cardinal Jaime Ortega has won respect for gaining reforms in Cuba, but he still has his critics, who say he hasn't done enough.
March 27th, 2012
12:59 PM ET
Once in a Castro labor camp, now Cuba's cardinalBy David Ariosto, CNN Havana, Cuba (CNN) – Not long after Fidel Castro and his bearded band of guerilla fighters rolled into Havana in 1959, conditions appeared so dire for the island’s Catholic clergymen that their cardinal fled to Argentina’s Embassy seeking political asylum. Manuel Arteaga died in 1963 from illness while still in Cuba, and for more than three decades the island would officially remain an atheist state. Castro’s communist revolution endeavored to rid the country of its religious influence, confiscating church property and expelling or oppressing religious workers. A young priest named Jaime Ortega, who would one day become the nation’s cardinal, was among them. In 1966, the Cuban government sent him to a military work camp for several months. Today, the 75-year-old cardinal heads the island’s Roman Catholic Church, thrust into the spotlight perhaps more than ever with Pope Benedict XVI's visit this week to Cuba. Considered Cuba’s largest and most influential institution outside the government, the Catholic Church today acts as both a force for reforms and a mediator between the government and opposition groups, including some of the island’s boldest dissidents. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories “It’s the one large institution that has never been fully co-opted by the government,” says John Allen, CNN senior Vatican analyst. “Therefore it has a very unique capacity to engage the government.” Though the Castro name still rules Cuba, the island's treatment of religion today appears to be a far cry from the days when young clergymen baked under a hot Caribbean sun while toiling in work camps because of their religion. “But Ortega and others know not to push it,” Allen says. Ortega’s recent access to President Raul Castro, who assumed power in 2006 after illness sidelined his older brother, Fidel, have been described as virtually unprecedented for a religious official in Cuba's post-1959 era. Cuba and the pope: It's complicated In 2010, an Ortega meeting with the younger Castro and Spain’s foreign minister paved the way for the first major release of political prisoners since a crackdown against dissidents seven years earlier, a campaign commonly referred to as Cuba’s “Black Spring.” Just before the dissidents' release, Ortega – who declined to be interviewed for this article – described the triumvirate meeting as a “magnificent start” to negotiations with the government. Rights groups say jails are now thought to be largely void of political prisoners. Those freed have mostly gone into exile in countries such as Spain, apparently a condition of their release. Meanwhile, government critics and rights groups say authorities have merely changed tactics, instituting a sort of catch-and-release policy whereby dissidents are briefly detained as a form of harassment. As the head of Havana’s Archdiocese since 1981, Ortega appears to mediate opposition grievances with the government and is also thought to have advised Raul Castro on other issues, including, somewhat surprisingly, economic matters. “Fidel always talked over the heads of Cuba’s bishops,” says Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based think tank. “Ortega is in regular dialogue with Raul.” Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter The younger Castro has rolled out a string of liberalizing reforms, with the government legalizing the sale of private property, including real estate, for the first time in decades. It is not clear what role, if any, Ortega may have played in such reforms, but observers say the pope's visit is expected to bolster further the cardinal’s influence across the island. “In Rome, and among other cardinals around, Ortega has a lot respect,” Allen says. “They see him as someone who has kept the church going and has been effective in getting reforms from the government.” Still, Ortega has his critics. They say he hasn’t gone far enough in leveraging the church’s clout for political and economic changes because he’s gotten too close to Raul Castro. Ortega angered his usual critics this month when he asked authorities to remove 13 dissidents who were seeking to deliver a message to Benedict and were encamped in a church in Havana, where the pope is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. A March 14 statement by the archbishop’s office in Havana said that “no one has the right to turn temples into political barricades.” “No one has the right to spoil the celebratory spirit of faithful Cubans, and of many other citizens, who await with joy and hope the visit of his Holy Father Benedict XVI,” the statement said. Elizardo Sanchez, the head of Cuba’s Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission, which monitors human rights issues on the island, called the decision to remove the dissidents “very dangerous” and said the cardinal had made a mistake. But Ortega’s advocates say the Cuban cardinal, much like the church he represents, may be taking the long view on petitioning reforms and is likely wary of acting too fast. In years past, Ortega allowed the Havana Archdiocese to publish articles critical of the government while also urging the country’s leadership to heed popular calls for economic reforms. In April 2010, Ortega wrote in Palabra Nueva (New Word), the magazine of the Havana Archdiocese, that Cubans had reached a national consensus, and that postponing reforms was sure to produce "impatience and uneasiness" among people already suffering hardships. One way to address the problems, he said, would be to work toward the normalization of relations with the United States. "I think a Cuba-United States dialogue is the first step needed to break the critical cycle in which we find ourselves," he wrote. Relations with the church have long been strained in Cuba, as many Catholic priests supported anti-Castro rebels and some were once thought to be more closely aligned with the former government under Fulgencio Batista. But that relationship softened in the 1990s, when references to atheism were removed from the Cuban Constitution, Christmas was officially recognized as a holiday and Communist Party members were first permitted to practice religion openly. Ortega was also instrumental in coordinating Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to the island in 1998 when crowds of adoring Cubans turned out to see the first pope come to their country. It was during that trip that John Paul famously urged the island “to open to the world, and the world to open to Cuba.” Ortega had become the country’s cardinal just four years earlier. He now presides over a church that officials say caters to a population that is roughly 60% Catholic, though only a fraction attends church services. On Monday, the Cuban cardinal arrived behind President Raul Castro as they greeted Benedict at the start of this week’s two-city tour – nearly a half-century after the government first detained Ortega as a young parish priest. And yet Benedict’s visit has already spawned controversy. On Friday, during the pope’s flight from Rome to Mexico, the first leg of his five-day visit to the region, Benedict told reporters that Cuba’s Marxist political system “no longer responds to reality.” "With this visit, a way of cooperation and dialogue has been inaugurated, a long road that requires patience but that leads forward," the pope said, according to the Vatican. "It is evident today that Marxist ideology as it had been conceived no longer responds to reality," Benedict continued. "New models must be found, though with patience." Responding to the pontiff’s comment, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that his country respects all opinions. "We consider the exchange of ideas useful," Rodriguez told reporters, adding that Cuba is still perfecting its system. Cubans are expected to flock to Havana’s Revolution Plaza to receive the pontiff’s blessing Wednesday, an apparent papal nod of support to Ortega and the expanded influence of his church, even if many remain skeptical that the pope's visit will result in concrete changes for the island. |
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Greg wrote on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 2:54 pm, stating, "We're all born atheists. It takes careful psychological manipulation to make a child believe what you do."
Funny thing about atheism,,,,,, its' faith becomes an earned trait of socialisms gone astray,,,, BTW the only thing one is born with is innoscense. All other behaivorisms are earned traits of positive and negative ideologies.
Slave and slavemaster still yet we all are. Though the naming of things do change , the games remain the same.
I'm checkin to learn if my postings are working.
Is he The grand wizard of the KKK? Nice hat!
The KKK took my baby away. They took her away. Away from me.
From Trial to Error, governing establishments ever do seek the keys to neuralonian stigmafication. Keeping happy the slavemasters and their slaves has long been the pre-occupation of redundencies in communially governed sociobiologies of human abundancies.
Doc Vestibule wrote on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 2:21 pm writing, "Polysyllabic terminology obfuscates neuronal efficiency. Translation: BS baffles brains. But "charlatonists" is a perfectly cromulent word, right? What a grandilomenti.tudinous vocabulary you have!"
Tactilitarianislimicsaries do nullify quardened avenues. I am agreed with you D.V. Too much for the neuronialist-less to fathom with fidel-Castrovision,,,,,
I see you read the same books as Sarah Palin.
palintwit ,,,
Hey CNN..someone there is not allowing me to post my comment..maybe you guys like the Cuban government so much, you don't want people see what I wrote?
evrgreen, calm down... automatic word filter here...
Bad letter combinations / words to avoid if you want to get past the CNN automatic filter:
Many, if not most, are buried within other words, so use your imagination.
You can use dashes, spaces, or other characters to modify the "offending" letter combinations.
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ar-se.....as in ar-senic.
co-ck.....as in co-ckatiel, co-ckatrice, co-ckleshell, co-ckles, etc.
co-on.....as in rac-oon, coc-oon, etc.
cu-m......as in doc-ument, accu-mulate, circu-mnavigate, circu-mstances, cu-mbersome, cuc-umber, etc.
cu-nt.....as in Scu-ntthorpe, a city in the UK famous for having problems with filters...!
ef-fing...as in ef-fing filter
ft-w......as in soft-ware, delft-ware, swift-water, drift-wood, etc.
ho-mo.....as in ho-mo sapiens or ho-mose-xual, ho-mogenous, etc.
ho-rny....as in tho-rny, etc.
hu-mp… as in th-ump, th-umper, th-umping
jacka-ss...yet "ass" is allowed by itself.....
ja-p......as in j-apanese, ja-pan, j-ape, etc.
koo-ch....as in koo-chie koo..!
nip-ple
o-rgy….as in po-rgy, zo-rgy, etc.
pi-s......as in pi-stol, lapi-s, pi-ssed, therapi-st, etc.
p-orn… as in p-ornography
pr-ick....as in pri-ckling, pri-ckles, etc.
que-er
ra-pe.....as in scra-pe, tra-peze, gr-ape, thera-peutic, sara-pe, etc.
se-x......as in Ess-ex, s-exual, etc.
sl-ut
sn-atch
sp-ank
sp-ic.....as in desp-icable, hosp-ice, consp-icuous, susp-icious, sp-icule, sp-ice, etc.
sp-oon
sp-ook… as in sp-ooky, sp-ooked
strip-per
ti-t......as in const-itution, att-itude, ent-ities, alt-itude, beat-itude, etc.
tw-at.....as in wristw-atch, nightw-atchman, etc.
va-g......as in extrava-gant, va-gina, va-grant, va-gue, sava-ge, etc.
who-re....as in who're you kidding / don't forget to put in that apostrophe!
wt-f....also!!!!!!!
-
There are more, some of them considered "racist", so do not assume that this list is complete.
No, Helpful Hints, let him go! That conspiracy stuff is just priceless!
I bet he had something really important to say about cockleshells in Scunthorpe!
'Incontinentia Buttocks'? HeavenSent-just-sayin-bad-for-children, nice new handle there. Good one. Accurate, too.
Uh, Dennis? How did you come to that conclusion? I cannot imagine how anyone could mistake me for the prayer troll.
Watch this if you want to understand "Incontinentia Buttocks":
IB, Yeah, Sc.unthorpe is a doozy. @SumDude had a wry sense of humor... and I guess I do too, so I leave it in (ack, and I just *now* discovered the misspelling of it on the list!).
Actually, though, the whole magilla refers to what's called, The Sc.unthorpe Problem:
"The Sc.unthorpe problem occurs when a spam filter or search engine blocks e-mails or search results because their text contains a string of letters that are shared with an obscene word. While computers can easily identify strings of text within a doc.ument, broad blocking rules may result in false positives, causing innocent phrases to be blocked."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sc.unthorpe_problem
p.s. I'm sure that someone as adept as you are with the html tricks to foil the filter already knows that fact, but maybe some others don't.
The world would be a better place if Jaime Orteg died in the prison camp.
Cuban government is allowing religion practice not because they are getting soft..but because they know that for lots of people, praying and going to church is a "vent' or a refuge where they can learn to accept their reality by turning the other cheek..so they let them to prevent other ways of relief for the many, many atrocities they have done
yup, that is also what the pope said to the little boys presented to him "turn the other cheek"
The Pope's actual words to the boys was not "Turn the other cheek" but "Open up your cheeks, here comes Popey!"
I am a Cuban American. I still have family living there currently. I know that most Cubans practice an African based religion disguised in Catholic saints names. The island itself is as hipocritcal and schizophrenic as the Pope! Yes I said it!
Perpetualized Deisms are as an afront to symbological charlatonists who would rather embellish self-serving idealisms be they rghteous or fraudulent.
i love how you describe the pope – its beautful!
Hey, that's exactly what the totalitarian communists say!
Common ground amongst like minds!
@ hippypoet,,,
@ TheThinker,,,,, ?
?
Polysyllabic terminology obfuscates neuronal efficiency.
Translation: BS baffles brains.
But "charlatonists" is a perfectly cromulent word, right?
What a grandilomenti.tudinous vocabulary you have!
Good one, Doc. As usual.
The only reason Sarah Palin won't vacation in Cuba is because they don't have open sewers. She prefers India, where the prevailing stench of sh!t reminds her of her favorite trailer park.
Hey, to each his own and you have to respect it whether you like it or not.
"Once in the Hitler Youth, now the Church's pope"...now that's a more important story.
"Briefly and involuntarily, enrolled..", to quote John Allen. Accusing the Pope of being a member of Hitler Youth is akin to accusing a victim of assault of being promiscuous. To quote John Allen, again, "The historical evidence is overwhelming that Joseph Ratzinger’s family was ferociously anti-Nazi, and that the future pope was appalled by the arrogance and destructiveness of National Socialism. He was never a Nazi party member,..."
.......If CUBA had a billion people like CHINA, the USA would be kissing CUBA'S ass to get relations going..................
if cuba had 1 billion people then i'm pretty sure the island would go under! Atlantis anyone?
If Cuba had a billion people like China, they would probably run out of space.
if texas had the population density of new york, every person in the world can fit in texas.
This Cardinal is a puppet for the Castro brothers! Carma is a you know what, they will get what they have coming to them. They should get on their knees and begg for forgiveness for the many lives they have destroyed and the many innocent pepole they have kileed and tortured. The Pope should call the Cardinal on the carpet for not doing enough.
The Pope should actually stay out of politics.
I don't get it...don't most you lefties want this to happen to religious people?
Having Cuba throw off socialism only to have it be replaced by Catholicism is like having Egypt toss out a dictator but then vote the Muslim Brotherhood into power. Which happened.
Just because you remove one bad system, it does not mean the next will be any better. The last power change in Cuba was from really bad to really bad. The peasants remained peasants.
Catholicism is not a political system like Socialism or Sharia Law. Your analogy is misplaced friend.
catholicism may not by a political system but it is a political power house! At one point in history the pope was the ultimate puppeteer!
A better analogy would be Poland
"the pope said, ACCORDING to the Vatican."
so they could have gotten it wrong.....WATCH OUT FOR YOUR KIDS!
"cardinal fled to Argentina"
so if your faith in god is beyond question and you KNOW that heaven awaits you after death...why fear it so?
Prayer changes things
Lying is a sin, you've been proven a liar over and over again on this blog. A great example of prayer proven not to work is the Christians in jail because prayer didn't work. For example: Susan Grady, who relied on prayer to heal her son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died and Susan Grady was arrested Friday morning...
An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children, who died under the care of faith healers or being left to prayer only, would most likely have survived if they had received medical care.
Plus don't forget. The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.!
I'm stupid!
Wait, I think I meant to say something else. Oh yeah, now I remember . . .
I'm stupid.
That will show those atheists!
Everybody wants to be me
We're all born atheists. It takes careful psychological manipulation to make a child believe what you do.