Posted on 03/01/2003 12:33:59 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Excerpts from the pastoral letter by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, archbishop of Havana.
o Cuba is one of the countries in Hispanic America that has suffered most the devastation caused by the dismantling of institutions, the elimination of traditions, the erasure of the collective memory. In other words, the history of Cuba in the 20th century has been marked by the exclusion of everything that facilitates the indispensable continuity of culture.
o Although school and health care are free, wages do not generally adjust to the cost of living. Professionals, employees and workers who do not receive financial aid from relatives or friends living abroad are forced to perform some sort of legal or illegal work activity in addition to their [regular] job that brings them some financial benefit.
Think of the effort invested -- but also the anxiety, fear and disquietude felt -- by those who cannot pay the high taxes to legitimize their limited activities!
o So I ask myself -- and leave the question to those who can answer -- isn't it possible to rationally reduce the high rate of taxes so the illegal can be made legal and anxiety may disappear?
o Why can't we give a greater degree of participation to personal and family initiative in a legal manner and conveniently reward the industriousness and creativity of our people in agriculture, in handicrafts, in services, in jobs of various sorts, even allowing groups of people to associate legally in order to earn their sustenance with dignity? This is the best way to prevent corruption.
I understand and share this o It shouldn't be only the pastor's or the bishop's eyes that turn mercifully to the crowd; the leaders' eyes should, too.
The time has come to go from the avenging State that demands sacrifices and settles accounts to the merciful State that is ready to lend a compassionate hand before it imposes controls and punishes infractions.
More: Excerpts from the pastoral letter by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, Archbishop of Havana
Full Spanish version of letter
[Full Text] Monsignor Agustín Román, auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, urged Cuban exiles Friday to promote the pastoral letter on social and economic reform issued this week by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, archbishop of Havana.
Román also asked exiles to refrain from insulting or making personal attacks against the Cuban prelate.
Referring to Bishop Ortega's statements, Román told El Nuevo Herald that ``this document has great usefulness for the Cuban people and we should cooperate with its dissemination from here, by all available means, instead of discrediting the cardinal.
''I hope the local media won't engage in personal attacks, as we often hear on the radio, because that tends to confuse people at a crucial moment for Cuba,'' Román said.
Exile leaders and analysts called Tuesday's comments by Ortega, the highest Catholic Church official in Cuba, the latest sign of frustration with the regime's resistance to economic and social reforms.
Ortega used the 150th anniversary of the death of Father Félix Varela -- a Cuban priest active in the fight for independence from Spain -- to write a pastoral letter that urges the communist regime to ease controls and allow Cubans more independence of thought and action.
Ortega's letter -- which longtime Cuba watchers believe contains some of the strongest criticism ever from the church under Fidel Castro's rule -- comes as the government cracks down on dissidents as well as ordinary Cubans who run illegal businesses that had been tolerated before.
Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, said the church is reacting to a variety of factors.
``One, that the Cuban regime has not provided much space for the Catholic Church since the pope's visit. Two, that Castro has been moving closer to radical regimes such as Iran, Iraq and China. And three, that it has begun to clamp down on the opposition.''
Said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation: ``Ortega is aware, as is all his flock, the dire conditions that exist in Cuba, both economically and morally.''
Some also believe the church in Cuba is acting on the behest or advice of the Vatican.
''This letter didn't come out of a vacuum,'' said Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who travels to the island often as head of Catholic Charities and met with Ortega some weeks ago.
El Nuevo Herald reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla contributed to this report.
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