CUBA: The Awakening Church

“Rome or Moscow?” challenged Archbishop Pérez Serantes’ pastoral letter. “The cards are on the table. No one need be deceived. The battle is not between Washington and Moscow; it is really between Rome and Moscow.” As the archbishop read his letter in Santiago Cathedral last week, 60 militiamen invaded the church, starting a day-long campaign of harassment that led to fist fights between Catholics and Castroites.

The pastoral letter was the third time old (76) Pérez Serantes had spoken out to lead the Cuban church against Castro as once he led it for Castro. Seven years ago, after the unsuccessful July 26 assault on Moncada Barracks, the courageous churchman had gone into the hills to plead with Batista’s executioners to spare the life of a young rebel named Fidel Castro. But as Castro turned from liberator to dictator, Pérez Serantes was quick to acknowledge his original error. With him against Castro were Monsignor Eduardo Boza Masvidal, rector of Villanueva University, and 100 Jesuit priests. Supporting Castro were a score of liberal-minded Franciscan fathers, mostly Basque refugees from Franco’s Spain.

The church itself hesitated. The hier archy was reluctant to jeopardize state-granted privileges. Then last summer a so-called Catholic organization called “For the Cross and Fatherland” suddenly materialized. Small in numbers, it looked nevertheless like Castro’s bid to set up in Cuba the sort of National Catholic Church that Communists have tried to ar range behind the Iron Curtain.

Quietly the church began to move. Ardently pro-Castro Franciscan Father Ignacio Biaín, editor of the important Catholic fortnightly La Quincena, was sent on a more or less permanent vacation. A secret order went out to nuns, designed to expedite their sudden flight if necessary.

Last week Monsignor Boza Masvidal, as head of Villanueva University, expelled 17 pro-Castro students for signing a letter claiming that Boza was preparing a plot to close the university, then blame the government. Government agents surrounded Villanueva, searched everyone entering or leaving, including the bishop himself. But this time the church showed no signs of yielding.