Church (Sadly) Consistent Against Rights

PUBLICADO PARA HOY 27 DE ENERO

BY: CAPITOL HILL CUBANS



Church (Sadly) Consistent Against Rights

Another recent State Department cable confirms what we've long suspected:

"The Catholic Church has neither the strength nor the inclination to challenge the GOC beyond the occasional criticism when GOC policies conflict with Vatican doctrine on issues such as gay rights. In other words, Cuba's Catholic Church insists on collaborating with the Castro regime and remaining silent on basic human rights."

However, adding insult to injury, it's also made the conscious decision to only speak up -- occasionally -- in order to ensure that other rights are suppressed. In this case, gay rights (although it's hard to imagine how the Castro regime could be any possibly worse on gay rights, without applying Shari'a law, that is).

But at least they're (sadly) consistent against rights.

So why does the Cuban Catholic Church lack such long-term vision?

Whether they like it or not, Cuba will -- in fact -- be a democracy one day (as are the other 34 nations of the Western Hemisphere).

A key question in that future will be church-state relations.

It will be hard for Cuban Catholics to defend the primacy of the Church, state support for religious schools, and avoid the otherwise full separation of church and state -- all institutional issues the Church cares deeply about (whether we agree with them or not) -- when the Church's recent history is one of shameful collaboration.

The fact remains that the Catholic Church is strongest today in those countries where it stood courageously against dictatorships, e.g. Poland, while the opposite is true in those countries where it collaborated with dictatorships, e.g. Guatemala.

As a millenarian institution, the Church ought to have a long-term view (or at least learn from its past experiences).