Havana/One more year, the Cuban regime prohibits the Catholic Church from celebrating its traditional rites of Easter week. As the priest denounced Lester Zayas This Wednesday, the authorities of Trinidad, in the province of Sancti Spíritus, prevented the procession planned for yesterday.
“It is horrendous to fall into the hands of the living God,” the pastor wrote in his social networks citing verse 10:31 of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Last Saturday, the priest had also announced the suspension of the Solemn Viacrucis scheduled for Ramos Sunday at 6 in the afternoon in Havana, from Line Street to Letán, due to the disapproval of the authorities.
Zayas, who says he prefers to “fear God before men,” he described these decisions as counterproductive and warned that keeping silent before them “is to make the terrible mistake of pretending to normalize them.”
It is a sample of absolute ignorance of the roots of the Trinitarian people and their delicate religious sensitivity ”
The authorities wielded two reasons for the ban: that the request was not submitted on time and that the ceremony is not part of the local traditions. Given the first justification, the priest replied that the delay was the responsibility of the authorities themselves, since he carried out the procedure 58 days in advance, much more than the month stipulated for this type of requests. As for the second argument, he pointed out that it is “a sample of absolute ignorance of the roots of the Trinitarian people and their delicate religious sensitivity.”
“This procession is over a hundred years old,” the priest continued. “It was only interrupted after the triumph of the revolution, and that for widely known reasons, which did not obey a decision of the Church.” In addition, he revealed that, despite the prohibition, “the blessed image of the Christ of Humility has made the path of one temple to another, year after year, within a vehicle, as if it were something dangerous.”
In contrast, he pointed out that other activities such as the court, with much less roots, “are organized with lenders and with a notorious expense, being the party of the shabby, the gross, the grotesque; the party of the deafening noise.”
The Dominican friar also denounced that the authorities did have time to gather in front of Paula’s parish “to a considerable and visible number of factors”, which filled the park in order to warn that they were being monitored and that they should not dare to take out the procession. And he wondered if those same people, “with their motorcycles without a sheet”, could not have fulfilled their function, accompanying the ceremony.
The use of public space is allowed to certain more related groups with the prevailing ideology, while that right is denied to others ”
“What was achieved with the negative? Pain, frustration, complaints, legitimate protests of believers,” he said. He considered that it is a discriminatory decision: “The use of public space is allowed to certain more related groups with the prevailing ideology, while that right is denied to others.”
“Nation is not constructed denying rights,” he concluded. “A healthy society is not possible where suspicion and fear are part of the day to day. Dialogue is not possible when some are considered more worthy than others to sit at the table.”
Last year there were similar prohibitions during Holy Week in the Diocese of Bayamo-Manzanillo, in Granma. A priest who asked to maintain anonymity then confessed to 14ymedio: “The government does not want people in the street for fear of possible demonstrations.”
