By Mary Lackie

It is Holy Week in Cuba, but there are no processions. By government decree, the week commemorates the Bay of Pigs invasion. This was the comment of Father Angel Villaronga, O.F.M., who worked for ten years in Cuba before the government ordered him to leave in 1961.

Father Villaronga, director of the Spanish-speaking Christian Family Movement in Miami, visited Atlanta last week at the invitation of Bishop Joseph L. Bernardin. to speak to Latin-American inmates of the Federal Penitentiary and members of the Latin-America Catholic Action group and St. Vincent de Paul Society at the Shrine of Immaculate Conception.

How do the priests who remain in Cuba serve their people? Father Villaronga answered, “They can say Mass and preach, but they cannot speak out on freedom or justice. Always in the congregation is a member of the secret police. The priest cannot visit the homes of his parishioners because it would endanger the families.”

The priest said, “There are no young people in the churches now. The government has set aside recreation areas outside the churches. During Mass, the children are playing ball.”

Government indoctrination methods in the state schools were described by the priest. He said, “The teachers say to the students, ‘Ask God for candy, for ice cream - it doesn’t come. Ask Fidel for it - he will provide.’ And he does.”

“One of the serious problems, and it is growing worse, is that children are encouraged and taught to ‘accuse your parents.’ The children are too innocent to realize what they are saying. The parents never know what will be repeated,” the priest said.

His father, who spent three days in a Cuban jail where he was interrogated, is now in Miami. But, the priest said, “There is one woman now in a Havana prison and one of the guards is her own son. He has put his own people in jail. Father Migael Loredo, an outspoken critic of the Castro regime has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.”

Father Villaronga said, “Every year Fidel becomes stronger. At first, the people were not afraid of Fidel, and they knew the United States was close. Now, just minutes from our shores, there are concentration camps and every kind of torture - both psychological and physical.”

The priest said, “Fidel has nothing new. He has taken the worst from every Communist system; the torture methods, the camps, the state schools, and the ‘G-2’, which is like the Gestapo. One of the offices of the secret police is Villa Maria, a former novitiate. Now it is a place of torture.”

Six months ago, the government established the first purely Communist education center at St. Andrew’s. Babies and one and two-year-old children are forcibly taken from their parents and sent to St. Andrews where the state provides their education, food, and shelter.

The priest said, “These children have no religious training. They will never know their mothers and fathers. Later, the government will assign them careers. The teen-agers are sent to Moscow or China for 3-4 years training in guerilla warfare. When you ask, ‘Why do you work so hard?’ they say, ‘I want to earn the right to go to Moscow.’”

About 200 refugees a day arrive at Freedom House in Miami, the priest said, many of them parents, children, husband or wives in Cuba. The CFM program gives them new hope.

Father Villaronga said, “In the five years since the program began, more than 500 couples have joined the CFM. These people have suffered a traumatic experience. Many of them are dreaming only to go back to Cuba; living in the past. I think this attitude is almost gone, but not totally. Some of the parents are frustrated when they see the loss of the old traditions. Their children know hamburgers, pizza and rock and roll. They want to drive the car. Dating is one of the most serious problems.”

How has their suffering changed the lives of the refugees? The priest said, “When people have everything, they forget God; now they need God more than ever before. Some people when they lose everything turn to other values of life - to family, friends, love, God. The suffering bands them together and they are more Christian; there is more love, more charity. There is this hunger for God, and wherever I go, the people are working to solve their problems. The CFM is most effective in strengthening the family.” Father Villaronga began a series of two-day retreats sponsored by the CFM for Spanish-speaking couples in the Miami area. The retreats are held at a local motel during the ‘off-season’ and conducted by a priest and three couples. The idea spread to the American CFM groups who are planning similar retreats, the priest said.

A major concern for Father Villaronga is the shortage of Spanish-speaking priests to serve the Latin Americans. He said, “I travel all over the country to speak to the groups and would like to see Spanish taught in the seminaries. But, the seminarians must also have an understanding of the traditions and the thinking of the Spanish-speaking people here.”