“last week… the church invited — the cardinal invited — Castro thugs to come into the church and remove people... They wouldn't leave the church until the Pope came to see them, according to CNA. So the pastor called the police and had them removed. ”
Those statements could both be true, and so I'd like a bit more information.
Rubio also denounced the church for “actively participating in exiling dissidents,” sarcastically adding, “somehow exiling someone to Spain is a humanitarian measure.”
Again, I don't know the details, but sometimes if you're Cuban, getting exiled to Spain is considered a good thing. I know people who paid a high personal price to get themselves exiled to Spain. Then again, thats not something a civilized government does to its citizens. No one should have to be separated from home and family for having an opinion.
I don't know for sure specifically what he's referring to but it might just be the story that came out that within the last week that protesters had occupied Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Charity in Havana and the Cathedral of Pinar del Rio in an apparent effort to demand an audience with Pope Benedict during his March 25-29 visit to the country.
So was the pastor doing the Lord's work or knuckling under to political expediency? I can't tell from this article.
Mary Anastasia O’Grady had an article in the WSJ that essentially said the same thing - BXVI is not friendly to the Castro regime, but Archbishop Jaime Ortega of Havana has basically done what most churchmen do in Communist countries...maintain a low profile and don’t rock the boat. He’s gotten some concessions, because the Castro government is eager not to cause any public confrontations with the Church, since Castro is seeking international legitimacy.
IIRC, Ortega negotiated the sending of some of these exiles to Spain, which, as you say, was definitely an improvement over rotting in a Cuban jail. It all got more difficult when Spain got a rabidly socialist government (Zapatero) that sided with Castro.
But if Archbishop is genuinely keeping Catholics from seeing the Pope and keeping the Pope from seeing the truth of the Castro regime, he deserves very severe criticism.
My bishop (a Cuban born refugee who grew up here in the US) is going to Havana to meet with the Pope there, mostly to discuss the canonization of Fr Felix Varela, a 19th century Cuban-born priest (who, oddly enough, spent most of his career working among Irish immigrants in New York City!). I’m watching this with great attention.