Florida Catholic | Archbishop Favalora's Column

¡Virgen de la Caridad, salva a tu pueblo!

Virgin of Charity, pray for Cuba

Published: 02.29.08

My dear friends,

After 49 years, Fidel Castro has stepped down from his official position as “president” of Cuba.

That does not mean the end of communist rule on the island. That does not mean that freedom and economic opportunity will come for the Cuban people anytime soon.

The island is still a communist dictatorship tightly controlled by Castro’s hand-picked successors. Prisoners of conscience remain in Cuban jails and Cuba’s people are allowed neither freedom of expression nor the right to leave the country freely.

Nevertheless, recent events give us reason for cautious hope. Perhaps the beginning of the end is near for the sufferings of the Cuban people.

Even more reason to hope can be found in the reaction of people on both sides of the Florida Straits to the news that Castro would no longer be Cuba’s official leader. Calm prevailed in Miami and Havana, perhaps because both the exiles and the Cuban people have had the opportunity, over the last year and a half, to get used to the idea of a Cuba without Castro.

It is a withdrawal that few would have predicted, obsessed as some were with a violent overthrow of Castro. Unfortunately, violence only begets violence. Though meaningful change may not come overnight, I believe a peaceful transition is God’s answer to the fervent prayers of the Cuban people.

Are Eastern and Central Europe any less communist because the Berlin Wall fell with a hammer and not a bomb? Was that not also an answer to the fervent prayers of millions who trusted in the Virgin Mary’s message to the children of Fatima, to pray the rosary for the conversion of Russia?

How interesting that Pope John Paul II visited Cuba almost exactly 10 years ago, in January 1998. Many have credited him with spurring the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe. He always told people that he kept Cuba in his prayers. Perhaps now that he is in heaven he can intercede even more powerfully for Cuba and its people.

Prayer — and the reconciliation work being carried out by the church in Cuba and outside of the island — is all the more necessary now. Old grudges and new envies must be put aside, both here and on the island, so that when true change comes it will not be marred by violence.

Cuba’s people have suffered for nearly 50 years from a revolution that has crushed human dignity and trampled the highest values of Cuban culture, from the ethic of hard work to the ability to express an opinion. Worst of all, the revolution has torn asunder the sacred bond of family, as Cubans were faced from the earliest days with the difficult choice of leaving parents and children behind in order to reach freedom in other lands.

These hurts need to be healed and the Cuban people — both in and out of the island — need the time and space to do it. It will take more than political change to restore the country and its people. We need to express our solidarity and collaboration for the well-being of the people in their noble aspirations.

Perhaps this Lent, we in the Archdiocese of Miami can make special sacrifices for the intention of healing all the Cuban people and achieving a peaceful political transition on the island.

We pray for the day when Cubans near and far can gather in freedom, united as brothers and sisters, under the mantle of their beloved mother, the Virgin of Charity.

¡Virgen de la Caridad, salva a tu pueblo!

Virgin of Charity, save your people!

Virgin of Charity, pray for Cuba

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