Cuban activists urge the pope to reconsider his planned visit

Posted on Friday, 03.02.12

Cuban activists urge the pope to reconsider his planned visit

The activists, including Martha Beatriz Roque, sent a letter to Pope
Benedict XVI stating that his planned visit will lead to further repression.
By Juan O. Tamayo
[email protected]

Nearly 750 Cuban activists have signed a letter to Pope Benedict XVI
warning that his planned visit to Cuba will "send a message to the
oppressors that they can continue" to abuse Catholic opponents,
dissidents reported Thursday.

"We would be very happy to receive you in our country, if the message of
faith, love and hope that you could bring us also would serve to halt
the repression against those who want to go to church," the letter said.

It did not directly urge the pontiff to cancel his planned March 26-28
visit to Havana and Santiago de Cuba, but added, "May the Holy Trinity
illuminate your mind so that you can make a correct decision."

The letter was the latest word from those Cuban dissidents who are
concerned that the pontiff's visit will only legitimize Raúl Castro's
government and do little or nothing to improve human rights on the
communist-ruled island.

A column by popular blogger Yoani Sánchez published Thursday in Spain's
El País newspaper noted that while Cubans enthusiastically welcomed Pope
John Paul II's visit in 1998, today "a dose of national cynicism
conspires against any enthusiasm."

Havana dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said the idea for the letter
popped up several weeks ago among activists, some Catholic and some not,
from various groups who know each other and talk regularly about island
issues.

"This does not come from any specific group, but rather from many people
who are in contact with each other, and then each group sought the
signatures in the provinces," Roque told El Nuevo Herald by telephone
from Havana.

Roque emailed the letter to contacts abroad, along with the list of 749
names of people who signed it and their respective Cuban identity card
numbers.

Among the signers were some of Cuba's best-known dissidents, such as
Roque, Guillermo Fariñas, Sara Martha Fonseca, Vladimiro Roca, Jorge
Luis "Antunez" García Pérez and his wife, Iris Tamara Perez Aguilar.

Other dissidents have cautiously welcomed the papal visit as a ray of
hope for the Cuban people and the Catholic church. Not signing the
letter were Catholic activists Oswaldo Payá and Dagoberto Valdés, Ladies
in White leader Bertha Soler and her husband, former political prisoner
Angel Moya, and dissident Oscar Elias Biscet.

Roque said that she has been asking for an interview with the Vatican's
diplomatic envoy in Havana, Msgr. Bruno Musaro, for the past month to
hand over the letter but has received no reply.

The letter argued that since abuses against Catholics only increased
after the papal visit was announced, Benedict's presence in Cuba "would
be like sending a message to the oppressors that they can continue to do
whatever they want, that the church will allow it."

It cited three cases in which government-organized mobs harassed or
threatened dissidents who had gathered in churches, including one Feb.
19 in which the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba had to intervene to
protect 14 Ladies in White surrounded at the Our Lady of Charity shrine
in El Cobre.

"One should add that on top of all that, some of the faithful are
visited by the political police between Friday and Saturday of each
week, to be warned that they will not be allowed to attend mass — and
indeed they are arrested on Sunday," the letter added.

It also noted that the government alleges the dissidents go to church
only "to provoke and engage in politicking" and added that "some
non-official people" have repeated that line. "May God not hold that
against them," it added.

The letter did not identify them, but dissidents have complained in the
past that some church officials have warned they cannot use churches as
safe havens.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/02/2670306/cuban-activists-urge-the-pope.htm