Church has no political role in Cuba with Castro sick, say leaders

Published: 2006-10-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Cuban church's role in national life after President Fidel Castro relinquished power is not to be political but to accompany the people wherever the future leads, said two Cuban Catholic leaders. "I don't think the people see the church as a political player. Nor has the church presented itself as a political player," said Orlando Marquez Hidalgo, spokesman for the Cuban bishops' conference. Father Rene Ruiz Reyes, Havana archdiocesan delegate to the bishops' National Commission for Priests, said that "the mission of the church is to accompany the people along the road" at a time when no one in the Caribbean island country can predict the future. Both Cubans were interviewed by Catholic News Service Sept. 29 while in Washington to meet with officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They were part of an 18-member delegation of Cuban priests and laypeople who initially arrived in the U.S. to attend a Sept. 18-21 gathering in Miami with Cuban Catholics living in the U.S.

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