Pope's visit to Cuba shines light on religious freedoms
The last pope's visit led to a huge public service for evangelicals, and
now Protestants are hoping to gain some reforms from Pope Benedict's
March trip.
By Frances Robles
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
Pope John Paul II's 1998 landmark visit to Cuba left evangelical pastors
all over the island wondering aloud: What about us?
Thanks to the pope's trip, within a year the growing evangelical
religious community made history of its own by holding 18 public
services around the nation attended by thousands of people — including
then-leader Fidel Castro. Even now more than a decade later the
televised "Evangelical Celebration" is still considered a watershed
moment for Cuban Protestants.
But many others still struggle under a controlling regime to find the
space to worship and question whether the pope's visit resulted in any
real progress.
"Everyone went to that celebration waiting for religious sermons, and
they got political sermons. Even Fidel Castro looked embarrassed," said
Carlos Lamelas, a Church of God pastor who fled to Texas last summer
after butting heads with the government for years. "I hope now that
after the new pope's visit, Evangelical churches can come into their own."
Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Cuba March 26-28 to mark the 400th
anniversary of the discovery of the statue of Our Lady of Charity of El
Cobre, the island's patron saint, which was found floating in the bay of
Nipe. The last pope's visit was considered fundamental in the history of
Cuba's Catholic Church, capping years of modest reforms and paving the
way for prisoner releases.
The preparations being made for Pope Benedict raise the issue for the
estimated 800,000 Protestants whether non-Catholic churches will benefit
from his trip. Pastors and religious experts in Cuba say they hope the
pope's stop will provide the momentum to bring up long-standing issues
troubling Protestants, such as the ability to build temples and have
their religious rights spelled out in law.
"We're hoping the pope will speak to human rights issues and freedom of
religion issues, not just for Catholics," said Teo Babun, who runs a
Miami nonprofit church aid organization. "In Cuba there's no religious
freedom as it is stated in the [United Nations] declaration of human
rights and as it is practiced around the world."
For many years, the Cuban government only recognized churches that
existed prior to 1959, when Castro took over. Jehovah's Witnesses were
banned and sent to work camps, while most of the 15,000 Jews left the
country after the Castros assumed power.
It wasn't until 1984, when Fidel Castro accompanied the Rev. Jesse
Jackson to a Methodist Church in Havana, that religious freedom was
first addressed. Jackson's stay led to a series of reforms, including
the creation of a cabinet-level position to address religious matters.
While most Cubans are Catholic, more and more people are Protestants who
squeeze into tiny home churches to worship. The Cuban government made it
so hard for pastors to get permits to build churches that they started
to preach at home. Outlawed for decades, once house churches became
legal, the trend exploded.
The government restricts how many times a week services can be held and
sets rules for situations like apartment buildings. In 2009, the U.S.
State Department reported that 2,400 of the 4,500 house churches that
applied for permits were accepted.
The pope's arrival has raised questions about what other reforms might
follow.
"There's a mindset that there's persecution, that people are restricted
from preaching the gospel in Cuba. That might have been the case 10 or
15 years ago, but it's not the case now," said Brian Stewart, the Cuba
director for Action International, a missionary group. "In Santiago de
Cuba, the Catholics recently opened a bookstore to sell statues. That
was groundbreaking. Evangelicals are hoping they will also now be
allowed to open Christian bookstores. They'd love to have bible study.
"Maybe they will be allowed to do this after the pope leaves."
Experts say what pastors are allowed to do depends largely on a
neighborhood church's relationship with local authorities.
The permissions process for everything from prison visits to building
permits works well enough for those that are members of the
government-controlled Cuban Council of Churches, an arm of the Communist
Party. The council is so pro-government that its leaders serve on the
National Assembly.
"If I ask for a permit to hold a prayer service outdoors, I will not get
it," said Manuel Alberto Morejon, who heads Alianza Cristiana in Havana,
which broke from the official council. "I wouldn't say that I am
targeted for being a pastor. In fact, being a religious person helps:
when I am cited by state security agents to come in for questioning, I
am treated with respect. But the mere fact that you are brought in for
questioning and have agents clip your hair for DNA samples is harassment."
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom lists Cuba as one
of the 11 "watch list" countries where religious rights are impeded.
While the majority of church leaders would likely cite the difficulty to
expand their temples as a chief concern, other clergy cite frequent
detentions, sporadic arrests and harassment.
Between 2009 and 2010, one church had more than 100 of its members
detained, usually for short spells, according to the U.S. commission's
report. Those pastors mostly lost jobs and homes and saw religious
materials confiscated.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a religious rights organization, said it
is monitoring cases of continuous harassment of about three dozen
pastors. A few were imprisoned and banned from preaching. Last year, the
Cuban Methodist Church evicted the Rev. Yordi Toranzo from his church in
Santa Clara.
"His problem was that he didn't discriminate who joined his flock," said
Christian Solidarity Worldwide spokeswoman Kiri Kankhwende. "These days
the government will not raze your church, but it will harass and
intimidate."
Pastors said that's key to religious freedom in Cuba: You can pray and
preach freely, as long as you don't bring dissidents into your
congregation. Toranzo had gone to pray with hunger-striking dissident
Guillermo Fariñas.
Tennessee State University professor Theron Corse said Protestant
churches tend to be divided among pastors who appease party leaders to
get more religious space and those who refuse.
"Religious freedom in Cuba is complicated. There's far more of it than
people realize, but there are restrictions," said Corse, who wrote a
book about the history of Protestant churches in Cuba. "There are
accommodationists and rejectionists. The accommodationists get more
freedom."
The Rev. Omar Gude, a member of Apostolic Movement, an evangelical
charismatic network of churches in Cuba, served three of a 6 1/2-year
sentence for trumped up "human trafficking" charges and admits that his
case is now far more political than religious.
"This trip by Pope Benedict is one more business for the Castros to
finance their system," he said by phone from Havana. "It's certainly not
for opening the door to religious freedom. That man's visit will bring
no results."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/02/v-fullstory/2672349/popes-visit-to-cuba-shines-light.html
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