(EFE) .- Some 250 people demonstrated this Saturday in front of the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Miami in protest against the treatment given in the Vatican to a group of Cuban exiles, events that prompted three US congressmen to express their disappointment at the position of Pope Francis in the fight of the Cuban people for their freedom.
The protesters with Cuban flags and posters with slogans such as “Homeland and life” stayed away from the ecclesiastical building, which was completely closed, while several police cars guarded the scene.
Before the protest, there was a letter addressed to the apostolic nuncio in the United States by three republican congressmen of Cuban origin who said they felt a “deep disappointment” by the fact that Pope Francis did not condemn the “atrocious abuses” of the Cuban regime. nor has it sympathized with “the Cuban people’s demands for freedom.”
Congressmen María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez said in a letter addressed to the nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, that also “the Cuban people have been disappointed by the failure of the leaders of the Catholic Church to support them against the oppression, abuse and tyranny.
The signatories of the letter state that as representatives in the US Congress they want “to be sure that (the leaders of the Vatican) are fully aware of the struggle of the Cuban people.”
The letter, dated October 29 and known this Saturday, was sent to the nuncio by the parliamentarians to complain about the treatment given to a group of Cuban exiles who tried to demonstrate in a public ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square with the pope last Sunday, but the police wouldn’t let him.
The demonstration was convened by Alex Otaola, who hosts a popular YouTube program from Miami, and also the protest held this Saturday before the Archdiocese of Miami.
The signatories of the letter state that as representatives in the US Congress of districts of southern Florida in which Cuban-Americans abound, they want “to be sure that (the leaders of the Vatican) are fully aware of the struggle of the Cuban people.” .
In this sense, they mention the protests that broke out on July 11 in Cuba to “demand democracy and basic human rights, including the right to free exercise of religion.”
They remind the nuncio that many protesters are still imprisoned “in inhuman conditions, often incommunicado,” and refer to the priest José Álvarez Devesa, who was “beaten by state security when he intervened to stop the brutal beating of a 14-year-old protester “.
“This selfless act of mercy, sacrifice and love must be celebrated at the highest levels of the Church, and its abuse and arrest must be condemned,” they stress.
“The Vatican’s response to the reality of the Cuban people has been weak. It has been an evasive, distant and cold response.”
Salazar, Díaz-Balart and Giménez mention the Ladies in White, who for years have marched to Mass on Sundays in protest at the imprisonment of their “husbands, children, parents and grandparents”, “Catholic political prisoners”, and collect the opinions of former political prisoner Eduardo Cardet, of the Christian Liberation Movement.
Cardet declared to the National Catholic Registry on July 20, 2021: “The Vatican’s response to the reality of the Cuban people has been weak. It has been an evasive, distant and cold response.”
“These statements summarize the opinions of many Cuban Catholics, both on the island and around the world, who feel abandoned by the hierarchy of the Church, which has not been able to condemn the daily attacks of the Cuban dictatorship on human dignity, nor even proclaim the rights granted by God to citizens “, the congressmen underline in their letter to the nuncio.
The letter refers to the events that occurred on Sunday with the Cubans who wanted to access the pope and ends by saying that “the Cuban people seek the solidarity of the leadership within the Church to support the oppressed and affirm the innate dignity of the human spirit.”
“Unfortunately, it is our opinion that they have been met with apathy from the highest levels of the Church hierarchy,” they stress.
In response to criticism from Cuban exiles, the Vatican responded this week that “last Sunday some people wanted to enter St. Peter’s Square for a political demonstration during a spiritual and religious event, the Sunday Angelus officiated by the Holy Father.”
The Press Office of the Holy See added: “As far as we know, they were offered to enter the square as individuals, not as protesters, but they refused and continued their demonstration in Via della Conciliazione, a short distance from the square, without that, as it seems to us, no particular incident occurred. “
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