The lesgialdor sent a letter to the apostolic nuncio in the United States.
MIAMI, United States. – Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart sent a letter to the apostolic nuncio in the United States, Monsignor Christophe Pierre, so that the Vatican “unambiguously” condemns religious repression in Cuba and expresses its solidarity with the people of the Island.
“The suffering of the Cuban people cannot continue to be ignored,” the legislator declared to Martí News. “It is time for the Church to express solidarity with the Cuban people, oppressed in their legitimate demand for freedom and in defense of their human dignity, granted by God.”
In the letter, to which he would have had access Martí NewsDíaz-Balart asks that the Pope and the Holy See “unambiguously affirm their support for the desire for freedom of Cubans and their fundamental right to profess their faith,” after denouncing decades of persecution of priests, pastors and faithful by the Cuban regime. The congressman included a list of acts against religious freedom and documented cases of torture, arbitrary detentions, disappearances, and denial of medical care to prisoners of conscience.
The legislator cited the case of the opponent Jose Daniel Ferrerwhom he described as “a devout Catholic imprisoned for his faith and pro-democratic activism,” subjected to torture, deprivation of medical care, and inhumane conditions of confinement. He also expressed concern about the activist’s situation. Felix Navarro.
The letter also denounces the persecution against the Ladies in White and identifies among those imprisoned: Sayli Navarro Álvarez, Tania Echevarría Méndez and Sissi Abascal Zamorawhom the authorities have prevented from attending mass and, according to reports cited by the congressman, have punished them by reducing rations and denying them drinking water for days.
Díaz-Balart reproduced in his text an assessment by the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Eduardo Cardet: “The Vatican’s response to the reality of the Cuban people has been weak. It has been evasive, distant, cold… There has never been a condemnation of these human rights violations. Instead, they are perceived with approval or even with a certain complicity.”
The congressman also recalled that the United States Department of State keeps Cuba designated as a “Country of Special Concern” for serious and systematic violations of religious freedom. Additionally, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) again recommended in its report for 2025 that Cuba remains with that designation.
Díaz-Balart’s call also alludes to the Church’s role in the release of political prisoners in recent years and to diplomatic contacts. In July, the chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Havana, Mike Hammer, discussed with Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez the situation of the prisoners and “the challenges that the Church faces in helping the most vulnerable,” as he recalled. Martí News.
In his closing, the congressman insisted that “the Cuban people expect the Church to take the side of the oppressed and affirm the dignity of the human being,” and lamented that these calls “have been received with apathy by the highest levels of the ecclesiastical hierarchy for too long.”
