+Parolin: “yeah 60 years of trying to work with a fairly open communist regime in a casual Caribbean island country with a traditional cultural historical connection to Catholicism has produced nothing… but trust me, we can definitely make progress in China with just one more agreement with the CCP!”
Not sure what the problem is. Communism... Christianity... six of one... a half dozen of the other. The highest ranking clergyman in Latium assures us that there's no daylight between communism and the Gospel. Karl Marx did not invent anything. The communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. When the communists preach their manifestos, we say, "Ah, we see! You are Christian." Who am i to judge? Can we at least thank God that the communists of Cuba, China and Nicaragua are not backward-looking, reactionary yahoos like you might find at a Latin Mass in Texas? That's the real problem!
I have read that the Catholic Church in pre-Castro Cuba was weak in comparison with other Latin American countries. One reason being that the hierarchy during the war for independence from Spain favored the Spanish side. Another reason is the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria, which many people who claim to be Catholic actually practice - a pagan cake with a thin frosting of Catholicism.
Santeria and other forms of witchcraft are heavily practiced in other Latin American countries and the Church usually sided with Spain in independence wars, so I don't think that tells the whole story.
Cuba’s actions are harrowing, dark, evil. But so were the Romans towards Christians for three centuries. Did we protest, form underground political moents and attempt to fight back? No. We ministered, evangelized, and lived within the oppression realizing Heaven was our true home. Yet in Cuba, when no sooner does Catholicism gain an open door, there come the attempts to protest the government’s oppression . Had we accepted the persecutions as did the martyrs, and continued the mission set be Christ, we would not be facing these challenges, tobthis degree. “ Religious” Social Justice is a political force and Cuba’s government is too. Catholicism can survive in the midst of persecution but not head on as a resistance movement against massive ( á la Roman Empire) communist regimes in the southern hemisphere. And…at least in Cuba, the government is not naming its own bishops as in China. The Church types need to keep what little itvhas gained and work through evangelization and the sacraments and recognize that martyrdoms will happen. Very hard to live with. But martyrdoms shouldn’t be encouraged through defiance as they are now.
“ In vain do the laborers build unless the Lord builds the house.”
"Later, the 1976 Constitution defined Cuba as an atheist state"
An inconvenient truth
+Parolin: “yeah 60 years of trying to work with a fairly open communist regime in a casual Caribbean island country with a traditional cultural historical connection to Catholicism has produced nothing… but trust me, we can definitely make progress in China with just one more agreement with the CCP!”
I mean...if you can't trust the CCP, then who CAN you trust?
Not sure what the problem is. Communism... Christianity... six of one... a half dozen of the other. The highest ranking clergyman in Latium assures us that there's no daylight between communism and the Gospel. Karl Marx did not invent anything. The communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. When the communists preach their manifestos, we say, "Ah, we see! You are Christian." Who am i to judge? Can we at least thank God that the communists of Cuba, China and Nicaragua are not backward-looking, reactionary yahoos like you might find at a Latin Mass in Texas? That's the real problem!
I have read that the Catholic Church in pre-Castro Cuba was weak in comparison with other Latin American countries. One reason being that the hierarchy during the war for independence from Spain favored the Spanish side. Another reason is the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria, which many people who claim to be Catholic actually practice - a pagan cake with a thin frosting of Catholicism.
Santeria and other forms of witchcraft are heavily practiced in other Latin American countries and the Church usually sided with Spain in independence wars, so I don't think that tells the whole story.
Cuba’s actions are harrowing, dark, evil. But so were the Romans towards Christians for three centuries. Did we protest, form underground political moents and attempt to fight back? No. We ministered, evangelized, and lived within the oppression realizing Heaven was our true home. Yet in Cuba, when no sooner does Catholicism gain an open door, there come the attempts to protest the government’s oppression . Had we accepted the persecutions as did the martyrs, and continued the mission set be Christ, we would not be facing these challenges, tobthis degree. “ Religious” Social Justice is a political force and Cuba’s government is too. Catholicism can survive in the midst of persecution but not head on as a resistance movement against massive ( á la Roman Empire) communist regimes in the southern hemisphere. And…at least in Cuba, the government is not naming its own bishops as in China. The Church types need to keep what little itvhas gained and work through evangelization and the sacraments and recognize that martyrdoms will happen. Very hard to live with. But martyrdoms shouldn’t be encouraged through defiance as they are now.
“ In vain do the laborers build unless the Lord builds the house.”
And yet John Chrysostom spoke against the rich oppressing the poor until he was exiled for speaking the truth.