Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Catholic Church
Fidel Castro died on November 15, 2016, at 90 years of age. After five decades of holding supreme power in Cuba, the former Communist dictator resigned from his last official responsibilities in April 2011 in favor of his brother Raul, at the time second in command in the Party. The Cuban authorities did not reveal the cause of his death but decreed nine days of national mourning. The “Líder Máximo” was cremated on December 4, 2016, in a cemetery of the city of Santiago in Cuba following a private ceremony.
Fidel Castro and Pope John-Paul II in Havana, on January 25, 1998.
Pope Francis sent his condolences to Raul Castro on November 26, 2016. In a telegram, he said that he was “praying to the Lord for his repose” and “entrusted the whole Cuban people to the intercession of Our Lady of Charity del Cobre,” the patroness of the country.
In September 2015, the Sovereign Pontiff met with the Cuban dictator in the course of an apostolic voyage to the country. Fr. Federico Lombardi, then director of the Vatican Press Office, insisted on the informal and “familial” nature of this meeting.
Fidel Castro was also received at the Vatican in 1996 by John Paul II. He welcomed the Polish pope as well in January 1998, when John Paul II visited Cuba, and even attended the pope’s Mass on Revolution Square, in Havana. In 2012, Benedict XVI visited Cuba as well. He was officially received by Raul Castro, and spoke privately with Fidel.
As news agency Cath-Info stated on November 26, 2016, relations “between Fidel Castro and the Cuban Church” were “ambivalent.” In La Croix of November 27, 2016, we learn that the dictator grew up with a very pious mother, even though he was not baptized until he was 5, and he was a “former student of Jesuits.” But, one year after he took power, he shut down all Catholic newspapers. The following year, he closed all Catholic schools. Two years later, 2,400 members of the clergy (out of 2,800) were compelled to flee the country. La Croix emphasizes that the “dictator’s hand remains very heavy on Catholics (one third of Cuba’s 11 million population) and the Catholic Church, forbidden to use the press or the radio.” As for religious congregations, “they were forbidden to teach, only allowed to work in ecclesiastical institutions.”
In 1988, the ban on importing Bibles was lifted. Later on, “judging that the Church seemed to be accepting his permanency in power,” he emphasized this “thaw.” For instance, as of 1997, Christmas was again allowed to be celebrated on December 25th and not July 25th, as had been the case since 1969.
“Fascinated by the authority of the Church,” La Croix concludes, Fidel Castro nonetheless “never accepted its moral authority, nor tolerated the yielding of the least part of his hold over the people.”
(Sources: kipa-apic.ch – Cath-Info – Lacroix – Le Point – DICI no. 346, 09.12/16)
Read also:
The Pope’s Apostolic Visit to Cuba and the U.S., September 19-28, 2015
Cuba: The government returns properties to the Church
The Catholic Church in Cuba
Benedict XVI in Cuba March 26 to 28, 2012
The Catholic Church in Cuba
