Pope Francis, Arriving in Cuba, Seeks to Revive Church

Pope Francis, pictured with Cuban President Raul Castro.

HAVANA — In brokering the historic thaw between Cuba and the United States, Pope Francis stepped squarely into the thorny realm of geopolitics, sending letters to the presidents of both nations, playing host to secret meetings in the halls of the Vatican and nudging the Cold War enemies to put a half-century of vitriol and mistrust behind them.
But as he arrived in Havana on Saturday, the first stop of a nine-day papal trip to Cuba and the United States, Francis faced a new challenge altogether: Having helped open up Cuba to the world, the first Latin American pope must now try to fully open up Cuba to the Roman Catholic Church. "It is an occasion to ask for more openness," said the Rev. Jorge Cela, who oversaw the Jesuit religious order in Cuba from 2010 to 2012. "The relationship is not easy."

Francis was greeted at the airport by President Raúl Castro and children who welcomed him with flowers.

From his own experiences in the 1970s, when Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship, Francis knows the complexity, dangers and difficult compromises of coexisting with repressive authorities. For decades, the Cuban church has been wary of inciting the wrath of a Communist government that all but marginalized it after the 1959 revolution, when priests were cast out, religious schools were closed and the state was declared atheist.

Some call this caution wise pragmatism, noting that the Cuban government has gradually loosened its grip. But critics contend that the Cuban church has been too timid — eager to maintain close ties with the government, at the expense of speaking out for greater political and religious freedom in Cuban society.

"We could do more," said the Rev. José Conrado, an outspoken Cuban priest based in the central city of Trinidad, speaking by telephone. "The church should not back off, even if doing so is difficult and problematic for the church itself."

Source : http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/19/new-york-times-digital-pope-francis-arriving-in-cuba-seeks-to-revive-church.html

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