On New Year’s Day, 2012, the Cuban Conference of Bishops announced the dates of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba. The Pontiff will arrive in Santiago de Cuba on Monday, March 26th; he will be received by the Cuban bishops and Cuban President Raul Castro and celebrate a Mass in honor of the 400th anniversary of the Virgin of Charity. He will go on to Havana and celebrate a Mass in the Plaza of the Revolution on March 28th. Coming after a year of economic and political changes in Cuba, the Papal visit will draw attention to the changing situation in Cuba today.

 

It hasn’t been so visible on our radar screen here in the U.S., but change—in the role of the religious community, in the political process, and in the economy—has been taking place in Cuba. While important concerns about human rights and freedom of expression remain, the Cuba of today is different from the Cuba visited by the previous pontiff in 1998.

 

During Pope Benedict’s visit next spring, we’ll see the evidence of these ongoing changes. Restrictions on religious freedom have been eased, and the role of the churches is changing. Political prisoners have been released. (There were approximately 100 political prisoners released through the fall of 2011, and in late December the Cuban government announced that 2900 prisoners, including some classified as political prisoners, would be released as a gesture in advance of the Pope’s visit.) At the same time, the Cuban government and the Cuban Communist Party are taking steps to revive the economy, including moving toward a mixed, public-private model.

 

The visit will highlight the new role of the Catholic Church in Cuba, where it is playing an important role in the process of the country’s long-awaited political opening. Overall, the environment for religious freedom in Cuba has improved in the last two decades. Pope John Paul II’s 1998 trip underscored these changes—the Pope met with active Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish communities then. Those communities, along with evangelicals and Afro-Cuban religious traditions, have only gained ground in the last decade.

 

In recent years, the Catholic Church leadership has been involved in direct dialogues with the Cuban government; it was particularly effective in discussions that led to the release of political prisoners last year. The Church’s role hasn’t been confrontational or openly political. It has expressed pastoral concerns about Cuban society, and its conversations with the government have led to constructive outcomes.

 

When Pope John Paul visited Cuba in 1998, he called on Cuba to open to the world, and he called on the world to open to Cuba. It is clear today that Cuba is beginning to open economically, and we have seen at least some gestures that suggest it might be opening politically. By now, most of the world has opened to Cuba. Most U.S. allies have normalized relations with the island and are pursuing strategies of engagement rather than isolation. Even the Cuban-American community, which has traditionally taken the hard line against openness to Cuba, is beginning to relax its stance. In 2011, Cuban-Americans will make more than 400,000 visits to Cuba and send hundreds of millions of dollars to family members there; discussions are already underway in Miami about pilgrimages to Havana for the papal visit. This is a dynamic moment for Cuba’s relationship with the rest of the world. But, as the Pope’s visit will remind us, the U.S. government seems determined to be left behind.

____________

 

Geoff Thale is WOLA’s program director. Mr. Thale has studied Cuba issues since the mid-1990s and traveled to Cuba more than a dozen times, including organizing delegations of academics and Members of Congress.

 

(Photo by Tod Godber)