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| In this Dec. 1, 2014, a guard walks inside the chapel of the former University of Santo Thomas of Villanueva in Havana, Cuba. Since late 2009, President Raul Castro's government has been quietly returning some church property that was confiscated in the years after the Cuban revolution, including this chapel. The rest of the university property was not returned. |
HAVANA (AP)
-- Golden rays of tropical sunlight slant through the caved-in roof of
Saint Thomas de Villanueva chapel, illuminating tiles graced by the
faces of saints. Vandals shattered the stained-glass windows and
scrawled their names on the thick walls during decades of frigid
relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Cuba's communist
government.
But a new chain-link fence surrounds the building, protecting it for a future that once seemed unimaginable.
The
church is planning to restore the building to its former glory, along
with more a dozen more churches, parish houses and other buildings, as
part of a quiet reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Cuban
government that has brought relations to a historic high point this
Christmas. Authorities have also given permission for the construction
of the first two new churches in more than five decades.
After
years of bridge-building behind closed doors, the Cuba-Vatican
rapprochement burst into the headlines last week when the U.S.
government credited Pope Francis with helping facilitate the secret
reconciliation talks between the U.S. and Cuba. Francis wrote the
leaders of both countries to invite them to resolve their differences.
Church
officials and experts said the mediation and the renovation and
construction of churches were essential parts of a fundamental shift in
the dealings between the church and the communist state, which has been
hostile toward religion for decades.
Developments
"are heading in the same direction: a new chapter in the general and
economic history of Cuba, and also church-state relations," said Enrique
Lopez Oliva, a religious historian at the University of Havana.
The
church and the Cuban state were in a state of open hostility in the
years immediately after the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in
power, a time when some anti-Castro military used churches to store
weapons.
Some priests were sent to labor
camps. Churches were confiscated and used by the government as
warehouses, bakeries, dining halls or schools.
Openly
practicing Catholics were barred from holding public office and
membership in the Communist Party. For the faithful, even winning
admission to a university could be difficult, since the ubiquitous
neighborhood watch committees kept a watchful eye on the populace.
But
a thaw began in the 1990s as Cuba removed a constitutional clause
declaring the country an officially atheist state. Pope John Paul II
paid a momentous visit in 1998 and urged a new era of openness between
Cuba and the world. After Benedict XVI visited in 2012, Cuba made Good
Friday an official holiday.
Christmas
decorations are increasingly visible in office buildings and homes each
year. However, the church has made little headway in its hope for more
access to state-controlled airwaves and permission to run religious
schools.
Earlier this year the editors of a
church magazine that has been one of the few independent publications in
the country resigned, citing internal pressures from some who felt it
was becoming too political.
According to a
church member with direct knowledge of the matter, the handover of
properties was part of negotiations between Castro and Cardinal Jaime
Ortega in July 2010, when the church mediated the release of a group of
jailed dissidents.
The properties include two
churches, a parochial house and other real estate that was being used as
stores in Santiago, Cuba's second-largest city; two plots of land and a
chapel in the Bayamo-Manzanillo Diocesis; and the College of Jesuit
Priests, a huge building that occupies more than a city block in
Cienfuegos.
"It's a very positive gesture by
authorities, restoring to a certain extent what belongs to the church,
and above all it creates an atmosphere of trust," the Rev. Jose Felix
Perez, adjunct secretary of the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference, told
The Associated Press. "It's all happening, it must be said, gradually."
Ortega
has publicly welcomed Castro's economic and social reforms, which have
enabled hundreds of thousands of Cubans to work for small private
businesses and made it much easier for islanders to travel overseas.
Those reforms have not extended to political change, and the Communist
Party is still the only one allowed.
Despite
the gradual opening, experts say the percentage of Cubans who are
practicing Catholics remains well below that of most of the rest of
Latin America. For many Cubans, Christmas is a day off work to hang out
with family and neighbors, with no spiritual component whatsoever.
Joel
Dopico, president of the Cuban Council of Churches, said other
evangelical and Protestant churches are also receiving properties from
the state. He had no precise figures, but said the returns were less
than what the Catholic Church has gotten.
"I
think very highly of this state policy to return some properties,"
Dopico said. "It is part of the transformations that that are taking
place in the country, where more and more the church will be able to
carry out its work and support for the community."
