What did Monsignor Zacchi really say? The following are the principal
points covered by the questions and answers above:
1.
The 1959 and 1960 exodus of priests and religious from Cuba was due
to their disagreement with the new regime and to their counter-revolutionary
activities, not to religious persecution. Besides, their migration was intended to
provoke a political crisis.
2. Caches of weapons were found behind main altars.
It is curious to notice the lack of perspicacity of the alleged
conspirators who unanimously chose temples and main altars as hiding places
for their weapons. Of course, we think the Castro government ought to have
widely disclosed what the material evidence was.
What an eloquent argument to annihilate the reactionary forces! We
also believe that the Cuban patriots, provided they found a more convenient
hiding place, were exercising their legitimate right in hiding weapons they
intended to use to resist international Communism's bloody tyranny.
3. The Nuncio admitted that Fidel's government has imposed severe
restrictions on Church activities, among which the prohibition of religious
school teaching was not the least. But these are just
peccata minuscula!
4. The position of the Nuncio, since his arrival in 1960, was extremely
delicate, as he found himself caught between two equally intransigent rivals, the
Church and the government. The Church felt it was being persecuted, while the
government considered the Church to be guilty and allied with its former
sponsors, the rich , the oligarchs, and the imperialists.
This has always been the pretext of those who persecute the Church.
When Calles1 expelled bishops, shot priests, profaned temples, sent Catholics to
jail, etc., he was supported by statutes he himself had enacted, and whose
practical goal was to destroy the Catholic religion of Mexico. He said, " I do not
persecute religion; I persecute rebel clergymen who do not abide by the law."
He failed to say that the law denied religion , the Church, and the clergy.
As a matter of fact, it was Cuban ecclesiastics like Archbishop Perez
Cerantes of Santiago de Cuba, who not only saved the lives of Fidel Castro and
the handful of plotters accompanying him, but also rendered possible the
Communist revolution. These ecclesiastics thought they were aiding liberators
while, in fact, they were aiding Communism. When Castro triumphed, the
Osservatore Romano congratulated the Cuban people on behalf of the Vatican.
5. The Nuncio , although a diplomat, cannot be an impartial observer or
an arbiter of this kind of dispute. Even though he is a diplomat, he is, above all,
a Catholic , a priest, a bishop. His diplomatic status is that of a representative of
the Pope, of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and head of the Catholic Church. When
he affirms that he is impartial, he ceases to be a diplomat, because he ceases to
be a Catholic and a representative of the Pope. "He who is not with Me, is
against Me," said Christ.
6. Worship has never been prohibited in Cuba. Avowing this to be true
for argument's sake, it does not mean that the Catholic Church may take
liberties in the performance of its highest, divinely prescribed duties. We have
already seen that governmental restrictions have enslaved the silent Church in
Cuba, as in all Communist countries. If the Nuncio contends that the present
condition of the Church in Cuba had and has little to do with religious
expression, namely with the freedom of the Church on that island, it means that,
despite his diplomatic status, His Excellency has not realized what the real
condition of the Catholic Church in this country is. Perhaps he believes Cuba to
be a peaceful paradise where progressivist religion enjoys complete freedom
because he is judging in accordance with the diplomatic privileges the Castroite
tyranny graciously awards him. The same applies to Hungary, Poland, and
other Communist-ruled countries.
That famous field Mass celebrated by the ill-famed chaplain of the
rebel army, Father Pardinas, was the last hoax Fidel and his men used to try to
conceal their Communist ideology and their links with the Soviets from the
Cuban people and the world.
7. To help deceive us and to justify the Papal Nuncio's scandalous
statements beforehand, the journalist quotes precise figures he takes from the
newest issue of
Charity Almanac, a Catholic magazine that has been published
on the island for 84 years:
Presently, there are 210 churches, 15 male religious communities, and 16
feminine ones. In Havana alone, there are three medical care centers.
Catechetical schools are flourishing and finishing schools are being organized.
The liturgical movement is comforting; three new bishops have been appointed
by the Vatican with the consent of the government. To facilitate the celebration
of the consecration of the Nuncio, the government provided army jars and jeeps
for the nunciature, so that the consecrating Canadian bishops could be at ease
during their stay in Cuba.
We cannot help admiring the candor of this journalist who, without
any further examination, accepts figures provided by Castro's police and
research sources. Is it possible he knows nothing about the subtle, deceitful
tactics Communists use to paralyze their enemies' defense and to turn such
defense into unconditional support of their own goals? In spite of his efforts to
use smooth expressions, the Papal Nuncio is not able to convince us that the
Cuban Church has not been or is not being persecuted. His is a surrendering
attitude.
To be continued...
1 Plutarco Elias Calles. Masonic President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, was a
nominal Catholic, who, like most Marrano Jews, openly practiced Catholicism but
secretly practiced Talmudic Judaism . Marrano Jews also conspire to overthrow
Christianity and Christian culture in order to establish a New World Order which, in
reality, is the old Babylonian pagan world order imparted to the Pharisees during the
Babylonian Captivity.