Dominican priest David Pantaleón, superior of the Jesuits in Cuba, left the island this Tuesday due to the government’s refusal to extend his residence permit. The religious is already in his country, according to what he informed 14ymedio a source in your environment.
The also former president of the Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women was known for his critical assessment of the regime and for promoting solidarity initiatives with the artists of the San Isidro Movement and, later, with those detained during the 11J protests.
Pantaleón was fired by his community during a mass celebrated this Sunday. One of the nuns participating in the ceremony, Ariagna Brito Rodriguezlamented on Facebook that the priest suffered firsthand the “faculties of dictatorial power, without principles or values.”
“They fear the truth, they fear the faces of good and get rid of what bothers them,” denounced Brito, who also stated that “those who must be expelled from the country” are those who make up their government, who govern a people with a heavy hand ” slave, punished, flogged and forced to flee”.
The source consulted by this newspaper specified that, as was said during the mass, Pantaleón was forcibly withdrawing from Cuba, given the government’s impediments, which made it clear that “he was no longer welcome” on the island.
He adds that, henceforth, the directors of the Society of Jesus and other ecclesiastical authorities will issue a statement regarding the situation, which they have wanted, out of respect for the priest and his faithful in Havana, to handle discreetly.
In an image you can see how an agent of the State Security of Camagüey records the procession from the second floor of the building
The repression against members of the Cuban clergy has intensified in recent months, through surveillance, blackmail and regulation of travel permits.
From Camagüey, the Catholic priest Castor Álvarez confirmed to this newspaper that he had received the news that a group of nurses from that city had been summoned by State Security, after having taken a photograph with after the mass of the Virgin of Charity, the last wednesday.
“One of the nurses is a neighbor of the priest”, detailed on Facebook the Cuban layman Osvaldo Gallardo, “at the end of mass went with his colleagues to greet him”. Then “he blessed them and then they took a picture.”
Gallardo adds that the headquarters of the political police in that city is located in front of the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Caridad, where Álvarez celebrated mass. In addition, he provides an image where you can see how an agent records the procession from the second floor of the building. The priest is still awaiting information on the outcome of the meeting.
The Catholics of the Island fear a reprisal after the message published this Monday by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, which recommends vote no in the referendum on the new Family Code.
The statement, which opposes several traditionally problematic points between the Church and the State in the family sphere, also contains a criticism of the regime’s propaganda.
“Information, by flowing in one direction, without other counterweights, operates as a conditioning factor, and the vote derived from it will express, necessarily and inevitably, a conditioned will,” the prelates affirmed.
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