Tag: Father Alberto Reyes

Cuban Catholic Priests: Island’s Greatest Evil Is Social Fracture Caused by Repression and Fear 

Christmas homilies by several Roman Catholic priests in Cuba criticized the defenselessness to which the regime has condemned Cubans.

Father Rodríguez Alegre, a priest of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba, said: ”‘I cry for Cuba because Cuba hurts me. The pain of my brothers hurts me.’ He stressed that Cuba’s greatest evil is not material deprivation, but the loss of truth and the social fracture caused by repression and fear. ‘We have lived in lies and now we do not know how to find the path to truth.’”

Father Jesús Fernando Marcoleta, parish priest in Varadero, “emphasized the transformative character of Christmas as a beacon of light in the midst of darkness: ‘Now that we are suffocated by living without light, the Christmas of Jesus becomes more propitious as it is more night in each one of us and more night in the nation. Every human being has the right to hope, to good hope.’”

“Both priests . . . agreed that the path to the reconstruction of Cuba passes through reconciliation and a return to the values ​​of the Gospel.”  Alegre quoted Jose Marti, “”We must discard the barbaric gospel of hatred in order to speak the sweet talk of love.” Marcoleta said, ““Guide, Lord, our steps to the light of your grace. You who always exceed our expectations and are stronger than our fears, allow us to believe in your word.”

Earlier another priest, Father Alberto Reyes “pleaded with Cuba’s rulers to take whatever they want and leave the country forever as the only way to stop ‘everyday being a continuous struggle for survival. You are not going to refloat this country, you are not going to remedy the lack of fuel, nor the precariousness of the thermoelectric plants, nor are you going to give us back a life without continuous blackouts. You are not going to solve the hunger of this people, nor are you going to make the days stop being a continuous struggle for survival. You are not going to solve the monetary problem, nor inflation, nor the miserable life of the people.’”

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Cuba’s greatest evil is the social fracture caused by repression and fear, say Catholic priests on the island, Diario de Cuba (Dec. 28, 2024).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuban Priest Voices Harsh Criticism of Cuban Regime 

A Cuban Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Camaguey, Alberto Reyes,  said in a visit to the U.S. that Cuba is experiencing one of the hardest times in recent years. “It would seem, and it is my hope, that this is a terminal moment, because it is very difficult (…) Civil society in Cuba feels very vulnerable and defenseless . Every time the Cuban people have tried to do something –we already know that July 11 marked a before and after–the repression has been total, the punishments have been exemplary.” [1]

“People are afraid, and the government is afraid, because the government knows that it has lost the heart of the people. . . . ” This is a moment of pure and simple dictatorship . It is a moment in which, clearly, there is a government that is subjugating a people who do not want it.”

“The current atmosphere on the island is one of seeking an answer to ‘how am I going to leave’ the country . With the humanitarian parole, he added, the churches in Cuba “have emptied, especially of young people.”

“The government’s only interest is to stay in power. The people must find a way to survive, and if they protest and rise up, [the government] will repress them, control them and give them a little gift, a little food, to calm them down, and in this way we will put out the fires that appear.”

The non-state sector empower[s] Cubans, as they offer them means and possibilities that the Government does not provide, but the new economic measures have caused the closure of many of these small and medium-sized companies.”

There is the “institutionalized lie in Cuba. They lie to you by looking you in the eye. They lie to you on television,” as with promises of a quick improvement in the electricity service.

“Freedom is a matter of choice. Everything in this life has a price. Speaking has a price, keeping quiet has a price, demonstrating has a price (…), confronting the government has a price; playing the government’s game has a price.”

“To think that if instead of hiding or masking the truth of what we are experiencing, we decide to be clear and speak openly, we will generate an environment of civic honesty, we will prevent the impunity of those who lie, and we will all be better off. To think that if we do not give complicit answers, if we do not attend the demonstrations of revolutionary reaffirmation, nor the combative marches, nor all the meetings of predetermined responses and, on the contrary, we decide to stay at home, defying the threats from school or the workplace, we will be manifesting our will from silence, and we will all be better off.”

The priest called on people to teach their children “to express themselves from the truth of what they feel and to defend everything that is good, noble and just” in order to create “generations capable of cleaning up decades of duplicity and falsehood.“

“To think that if you belong to the judicial system and are able to defend the innocent and not condemn those who are prosecuted for exercising their rights, you will be helping to clean up the justice system and restore the rule of law that protects the common citizen, including yourself, and we will all be better off. To think that if you have a private business and it goes well, and even at the risk of ‘getting into trouble’ you take the side of the poor who claim their rights, and you do not turn a blind eye to injustice and lies, you will be helping to build a society capable of protecting itself and protecting you, and we will all be better off,” he added.

He also called on members of the military to “protect citizens who demand their rights” and not to lend themselves “to repressing those who demand change and freedom.”

“Thinking that change does not come by itself, nor can it be left to simple time, but that it happens when we help each other, and together we build our dream, the dream of a country of freedom, justice, truth and prosperity that allows everyone to be better off,” he concluded.

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[1] Father Alberto Reyes on what Cuba is experiencing: a ‘pure and hard dictatorship,’ Diario de Cuba. (Sept.23, 2024).