WSJ: The Pope's Cuba Gamble...............Religious persecution at it's worst

[Patricia M. McBride]

The way things are going in our own country right now, you may wish to read this very carefully.   This is what a totalitarian dictator is really like once they have eliminated everything we, as Americans, consider to be American and our rights which were bought and paid for by the spilled blood of many.  It won't matter to the little dictator in the white house, but it may matter to you, your children and your grandchildren when they live under the kind of conditions some of these folks do.  Time to draw a line in the sand for all of us.  Don't fall for any more of the propaganda being spewed by this administration.

 

Ignoring those who have suffered for their faith may win some favor for the Church, but it risks alienating the island's faithful.

3/18/2012

With only a week to go until Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to make the second papal visit to Cuba in 14 years, joyful anticipation ought to be buoying the island's Christians. But for those brave soldiers of Christ who have stood up against political repression, the prevailing mood is deep frustration.

For 53 years, Cuba's totalitarian regime has made life hell for the population. But Castro also has spared no expense in running a clever international propaganda campaign. Regime survival has depended on East German-style repression covered over by a smiley face for international consumption. It has worked, and Cuban human-rights defenders have suffered their indignities with little moral support from the outside world.

Cuban dissidents had hoped the pope's visit would help them expose the twisted jailors who run the island prison. So what are we to make of the fact that the pontiff will not be meeting with any of the island's Christian human-rights advocates? These communicants have endured unspeakable acts of state terror to be witnesses to the faith. They have earned papal recognition. Disappointment doesn't begin to describe their dashed hopes.

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Reuters

Berta Soler, leader of the Cuba's Ladies in White.

It's not that they haven't asked. They've begged. From Havana, former Cuban political prisoner Angel Moya put the dissident concerns this way: "The Cuban regime will try to manipulate the pontiff's presence in Cuba," he told the website "Pieces of the Island." "We are calling on the support of the international community and of our exiled brothers, so we, the outcast, the persecuted, are able to meet with Pope Benedict XVI and tell him what is really happening here on the island . . ."

Berta Soler—Mr. Moya's wife and the spokeswoman for the Ladies in White, who since 2003 have withstood beatings, arrests and harassment by the regime to attend Mass as a group and protest political imprisonments—has gone even further. She delivered, through the papal nuncio in Havana, a formal request from the Ladies to see the pope, "even for one minute."

Numerous other Christians on the island have made similar requests. From the U.S., Yale Prof. Carlos Eire wrote a powerful plea on behalf of the Ladies for National Review Online on March 5: "Like the Canaanite woman who cried out to Jesus, 'Lord, help me!' or the woman who touched the hem of Jesus's robe in hope of a cure, they are reaching out, full of faith, begging against all odds. In an island where everyone has been turned into a beggar, they beg for the rarest and most precious gift of all: your presence." Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega's office told the Ladies in White that the pope's schedule is too tight.

READ MORE HERE:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304459804577286351751...

[Patricia M. McBride]

Try reading a little booklet called "Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution".  You can go here and download the PDF file or go here and read it:  http://theobamafile.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5681466 

[Patricia M. McBride]

Tamara, quite obviously you have factored yourself out of the reproductive rights issue.  Many people including priests and nuns have not since it is they who will be on the front lines of this issue and violating their beliefs if forced to provide birth control, the abortion pill and sterilizations.  Quite simply they won't do it..............so yes, there is a war against religion in this country but folks of Obama's ilk have been after the Catholic church for some time even though you personally may not feel it when you attend mass.  Mr. Obama and his Alinsky rules have decided they have the power now to do pretty much anything they want including violating the first amendment to impose thier belief system on others which takes us back to why we fought to get out from under the religious oppression of Great Britain.  You may not think we are headed for where Cuba is but I have read enough now to know full well Obama is headed there.

[tamara stephenson]

Hmmm....just came back from Mass.  I wasn't beaten, persecuted, imprisoned, or harassed for going to a Catholic service.  And thank goodness, our priest talked about 'doing unto others' and loving our neighbors.  I was once again humbled at my good fortune in living in a country where I worship freely.    This article doesn't make me afraid for America; this article makes me angry, once again, at the Catholic leadership in  Rome.  What is Benedict's purpose in visiting Cuba, if he is not there to meet with those Catholics who need his leadership most?  Remember John Paul II?  He really fought for the oppressed people of the world.  This pope cares little to be bothered by people are being truly persecuted for their beliefs. Cuba is where there is a real war on Christianity.  Not the made up stuff here in America where people cry "war on Christianity" because we have an Easter bunny.