S
SAVINGRACE
Guest
"Havana, Cuba - Father Bruno Roccaro, 94, recalls the rebel uprising decades ago against dictator Fulgencio Batista and the Roman Catholic Church’s role in helping it along. US-backed Batista had enriched himself at the expense of the Cuban people, and the Church was well aware of the suffering inflicted by his regime’s vast corruption.
With their pledges of socialist change, supporting Fidel Castro and his fighters seemed the way to go. But things didn’t exactly work out as envisioned.
“During the revolution, the Church really helped Castro, we backed them up in the understanding that they would create a democratic government,” the spry nonagenarian padre told Al Jazeera from his parish in Old Havana, built in 1703.
“After they ousted the Batista regime, they nationalised the Catholic schools, which were very influential. That’s when we realised things weren’t really what we thought the revolution would bring.”
Cuba’s population was 85 percent Catholic before the revolution, but that figure plummeted afterward. The officially atheist government expelled hundreds of priests and nuns, and shut down more than 400 Catholic schools in 1962, saying they espoused dangerous beliefs to the people.
Restrictions on the Church and its work lasted until 2010 when a normalisation of relations firmly took hold - a foreshadowing of the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States a few years later. Indeed, it was the Catholic Church that played a crucial peacemaker role that led to the December 17, 2014 joint announcement by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro of a relations restart.
Things appear to have come full circle for the Church. Earlier this week, Castro met Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank the pontiff for his efforts in bringing Washington and Havana together."
aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/05/church-state-rapprochement-blessing-cubans-150514102040267.html
With their pledges of socialist change, supporting Fidel Castro and his fighters seemed the way to go. But things didn’t exactly work out as envisioned.
“During the revolution, the Church really helped Castro, we backed them up in the understanding that they would create a democratic government,” the spry nonagenarian padre told Al Jazeera from his parish in Old Havana, built in 1703.
“After they ousted the Batista regime, they nationalised the Catholic schools, which were very influential. That’s when we realised things weren’t really what we thought the revolution would bring.”
Cuba’s population was 85 percent Catholic before the revolution, but that figure plummeted afterward. The officially atheist government expelled hundreds of priests and nuns, and shut down more than 400 Catholic schools in 1962, saying they espoused dangerous beliefs to the people.
Restrictions on the Church and its work lasted until 2010 when a normalisation of relations firmly took hold - a foreshadowing of the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States a few years later. Indeed, it was the Catholic Church that played a crucial peacemaker role that led to the December 17, 2014 joint announcement by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro of a relations restart.
Things appear to have come full circle for the Church. Earlier this week, Castro met Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank the pontiff for his efforts in bringing Washington and Havana together."
aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/05/church-state-rapprochement-blessing-cubans-150514102040267.html