Policy of Empowerment: Pope Francis in Cuba

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.9.1.0019
• Pages: 19-36
• Published date: 01 April 2017
• Date: 01 April 2017
• Author: Petra Kuivala
• Subject Matter: Pope Francis,Catholic Church,papal visit,Cuba

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ARTICLE

POLICY OF EMPOWERMENT: POPE

FRANCIS IN CUBA

Petra Kuivala

University of Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

This article evaluates the visit of Pope Francis to Cuba in September 2015 through

interviews with significant actors in the events surrounding it. Encompassed with a

multitude of expectations relating to the processes of change taking place in Cuba,

the papal visit marked a historic moment both for the Catholic Church in Cuba and the

Cuban state, also due to the conflictual history of the church–state relations and the

increasingly active participation of the Catholic Church in Cuban society. A significant

factor of the papal visit was the role of Pope Francis in the rapprochement between

Cuba and the US. As the visit portrayed Pope Francis as an active participant in the

processes of change that is occurring in Cuba, the article also examines the expectations,

interpretations and outcomes of the visit as well as the role attributed to Pope Francis

in contemporary Cuba.

Keywords: Pope Francis, Catholic Church, papal visit, Cuba

Introduction

Pope Francis spent four days on Cuban soil in September 2015. During these

days, he visited three cities: Havana, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. I partici-

pated in the visit as an observer invited by the Conference of Catholic Bishops in

Cuba(Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Cuba). In Havana, I joined the del-

egation of the Conference and participated in the events in the same manner as

the Catholic invitees such as foreign bishops, Cuban clergy and religious, and

diplomatic representatives. This included both events open to the public as well

as events for a selected audience. In Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, I focused on

20 ARTICLE – PETRA KUIVALA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CUBAN STUDIES 9.1 SPRING 2017

observing the visit among the Cubans participating in the public events, with a

concentration on interpreting the responses of the audience and commentaries of

the audience to the events.

During and following the visit, I conducted interviews with Cuban bishops,

clergy, members of the religious orders present in Cuba as well as Cubans both

Catholic and non-Catholic who either participated in the events of the papal

visit or chose not to participate in them. In this article, apart from my own

reflections and analysis as a participant in the visit, I refer to those interviews as

anonymous sources. From this perspective, I analyse the expectations, interpre-

tations and outcomes of the papal visit, focusing on the dynamics of the apos-

tolic journey as well as reactions and responses of the Catholic Church in Cuba

and Cuban Catholics to Pope Francis’s message and the purpose of the visit.

Cuba and the Holy See

In the books of the Holy See,1 Cuba has occupied a particular chapter ever since

Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. The Catholic Church, rooted in Cuba during

the Colonial era, has existed within the socialist system for the past six decades.

The coexistence of the Catholic Church and the Cuban revolutionary regime has

nevertheless been characterised by mutual tension, conflict and confrontation.

The confrontation between the Catholic Church in Cuba and the Cuban rev-

olution experienced its most tense stages in the 1960s. The cultural, collective

memory of the Cuban Catholics still recalls the experience of alienation and

marginalisation in the Cuban society and public life. The living memory still

accounts for suspicion and, at times, hostility, among the older generations of

Cuban Catholics both on the island and in exile. The institutional church has,

however, reached a renewed position and newly gained visibility in the Cuban

public sphere in the twenty-first century. From the confrontation of the 1960s

and the decade of marginalised silence and introspection of the 1970s, the church

reorganised itself in order to provide for internal revival in the 1980s and re-

emerge in the Cuban society in the 1990s in order to fill the void of ideological

and existential searching among Cubans, caused by the collapse of the Soviet

Union, the Special Period2 and the removal of the atheist ideal from the Cuban

constitution, all occurring simultaneously in the first half of the 1990s.

Throughout the revolutionary era, the most crucial challenge in the conflict

between the church and the state has been defining the position of the Catholic

Church in the Cuban society. The aspect of the transcendent in the form of God

is crucial in Christian faith yet an undesired feature in Marxist ideology.

Correspondingly, in Catholic teaching Marxist philosophy as materialist and

atheist is seen as a threat to both humanity and religiosity. Stemming from both

ideological and practical contradictions, the position and the role of the church