Latin America Herald Tribune
Caracas,
Wednesday
January 4,2012
Pope Prepares for Cuba Visit 50 Years After Fidel’s Excommunication
VATICAN CITY – This week’s 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s excommunication of Cuban leader Fidel Castro coincides with preparations for a visit to the Communist-ruled island by the current pontiff, Benedict XVI.
Castro was excommunicated a month and a day after his Dec. 2, 1961, speech proclaiming himself a Marxist-Leninist and announcing his plans to lead Cuba to communism.
John XXIII supported that measure in the 1949 decree of Pope Pius XII, which established the penalty of excommunication for anyone spreading communism.
The revolution headed by Castro had already proclaimed itself “socialist,” and later the state declared itself to be “atheist” up until 1992 when that designation was replaced in the Cuban Constitution by the word “secular.”
Benedict XVI will travel in March to Mexico and Cuba on his second visit to Latin America after a 2007 excursion to Brazil.
President Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother, said a few weeks ago that Cuba would welcome Benedict XVI with “affection and respect” on a visit coinciding with the 400th anniversary of the finding of the image of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the island’s patron saint.
Although the details of the pontiff’s agenda are not yet known, it can be assumed that one of the central events will take place at the sanctuary where the image of the saint is housed in El Cobre, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. The Virgin Mary’s image there was honored personally by Pope John Paul II on Jan. 24, 1998, during his visit to the communist-ruled island.
There has been no official word that the pope will meet with Fidel Castro, whose excommunication has never been lifted.
Vatican sources told Efe that they did not know the date of the retired Cuban leader’s excommunication and that there was nothing scheduled pertaining to that situation, but they emphasized that the spiritual sanction imposed on Fidel Castro “did not pose any problem when John Paul II visited the island” in 1998.
Indeed, Fidel received John Paul II with open arms on his “historic” 1998 visit and was in the first row, along with his Cabinet, for the farewell Mass the pope celebrated on the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana on Jan. 25.
With John Paul II’s visit, Cuba lifted the prohibition on public processions, Christmas was reinstated as an official celebration, the entry into the country of priests, monks and nuns was authorized and sporadic liturgical announcements were permitted in the official media.
The message of John Paul II on that visit was “that Cuba is opening itself to the world and the world is opening itself to Cuba.” That is a stance that his successor, Benedict XVI, has repeated in a move that was interpreted as “recognition” of the mission of the Catholic Church on the island and its contribution to projecting a favorable image of Cuba internationally.
EFE
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JG: "Sticks and stones may break my bones / But words will never hurt me"
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