Though thousands of Americans are excited for Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States this week, the Washington Post’s editorial board is unhappy with the pontiff’s recent visit to Cuba.
The pope is expected to exhort U.S. lawmakers to care for the powerless and to reach out to the least in American society, which the board said raises questions about Francis’ handling of his meetings with Fidel and Raul Castro.
The pope has spent several days “in a country whose Communist dictatorship has remained unrelenting in its repression of free speech, political dissent and other human rights despite a warming of relations with the Vatican and the United States,” they said in an article Monday evening. “Yet by the end of his third day, the pope had said or done absolutely nothing that might discomfit his official hosts.”
Things changed somewhat on the fourth day, when Francis led prayers Tuesday at the basilica to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba. During prayers, Francis specifically invoked the hundreds of Cubans who have fled Castro’s authoritarian regime for the United States.
“Mother of reconciliation, reunite your children scattered around the world,” he said, referring to the split between those currently in Cuban and its exiles.
The pope also praised Cuban Catholics who, despite the efforts of the country’s explicitly anti-Catholic government, have kept the faith.
“In this shrine, which keeps alive the memory of God’s holy and faithful pilgrim people in Cuba, Mary is venerated as the Mother of Charity,” he said. “From here, she protects our roots, our identity, so that we may never stray to paths of despair.”
“Generation after generation, day after day, we are asked to renew our faith. We are asked to live the revolution of tenderness as Mary, our Mother of Charity, did,” Francis added.
Earlier, on Sunday, Francis’ message appeared none too subtle as he celebrated Mass, urging Cubans to serve one another and not ideologies. He also pressed the faithful not to fear change and to overcome preconceived notions, leading to speculation over whether he was advocating political action against Cuba’s Communist regime.
The Vatican, for its part, maintains that the pope was urging the faithful to look to personal and transformational changes.
There has also been some discussion over Francis’ gift to Fidel Castro: A collection of sermons by Jesuit Armando Llorente.
Once a high school teacher to the 89-year-old Castro, Llorente was forced to flee Cuba after the revolution turned to persecution of the Catholic Church.
Llorente died five years ago, an exile in Miami.
The pope’s gift and his public remarks aside, the Post’s editorial board appeared certain Monday evening – before the pope’s departure – that he had played too kindly with Cuban leadership.
Francis did not meet with “any members of the dissident community — in or outside of prison,” the editorial board noted. It added that “two opposition activists were invited to greet the pope at Havana’s cathedral Sunday but were arrested on the way.”
“Dozens of other dissidents were detained when they attempted to attend an open-air Mass. They needn’t have bothered: The pope said nothing in his homily about their cause, or even political freedom more generally. Those hunting for a message had to settle for a cryptic declaration that ‘service is never ideological,'” it added.
The article claimed that Francis’ behavior in Cuba is consistent with the Vatican’s recent strategy of playing nicely with Cuba’s government after Fidel’s brother, Raul, became the country’s leader in 2006. Simply put, the Vatican’s strategy appears to be: Work with the Cuban government, and hope for gradual change.
The Post is decidedly unimpressed with these efforts.
“The results have been slight. Cardinal Ortega obtained Raúl Castro’s promise to release all political prisoners, but arrests have continued and dissident groups say the number of jailed is now above 70. One leading Christian dissident, Oswaldo Payá, was killed in a suspicious 2012 auto crash,” the editorial noted.
And though the Vatican can boast that it pushed the White House to adopt a similarly soft stance on Cuba, the United States has been met with equally disappointing results.
“U.S. exports to Cuba, controlled by Havana, have declined this year, while arrests of opponents have increased, along with refugees,” the board noted. “Many Cubans are trying to reach the United States ahead of what they fear will be a move by the Obama administration to placate the regime with a tightening of asylum rules.”
Noting that previous papal visits, one in 1998 and one in 2012, have apparently done little to sway the Castros, the Post suggested that perhaps it’s time for a tougher approach from the Vatican.
“A direct campaign of words and acts, like that Pope Francis is planning for the United States, would surely have an impact. But then, it takes more fortitude to challenge a dictatorship than a democracy,” it said.
