Good Friday mass in Havana |
By Marc Frank, Reuters, April 6, 2012
This article that the Cuban government has declared Good Friday a holiday this year. The decision was made following reports that following Pope Benedict XVI's request his visit to the island. The Cuban government had ended all religious
holidays after the 1959 revolution, but reinstated the Christmas holiday after Pope
John Paul II made a similar request during his visit in 1998. State media
reported that the government will later discuss making Good Friday a permanent
holiday.
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Bells rang from Roman Catholic churches throughout Havana on Friday to remember the death of Jesus Christ as Cubans celebrated a holiday on Good Friday for the first time in more than half a century.
The day off, granted at the request of Pope Benedict on his recent
visit to the communist island, translated into quieter streets than usual, but
only sparse attendance at a Mass in the city's main cathedral presided over by
Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
About 100 people, a number of them tourists, showed up for the event,
but many Cubans may have watched it on national television in a broadcast as
rare for the Church and country as the holiday itself.
The Cuban government ended religious holidays after the 1959 revolution
that put Fidel Castro in power.
He reinstated Christmas as a holiday in 1998 at the request of
visiting Pope John Paul, and his successor and younger brother, President Raul
Castro, declared Friday a free day following Benedict's trip to Cuba last week.
It was still to be decided if Good Friday will become a permanent
holiday, the government said.
Ortega, who is Archbishop of Havana and the leader of Cuba's Catholic
Church, spoke about the crucifixion of Christ in a homily that was heavy on the
importance of religion and devoid of obvious politics.
Humanity had been pardoned by Christ for its many failings, but it
still had not achieved "a kingdom of justice, peace, freedom and love
among all human beings," he said in the ornate, colonial-era cathedral in
Old Havana.
Christians, Ortega said, are still persecuted in many places around
the world, including Latin America "for having fought for justice."
When bells began to toll, he said gravely, "It is three o'clock
and they are ringing the bells of all our churches in Havana, the sign of
mourning because it is the hour of the death of Jesus."
WARMER RELATIONS
Relations between the Church and Cuban government have warmed under
Raul Castro, who since succeeding his brother in 2008 has undertaken economic
reforms that could bring increased unemployment and attendant social problems
as he tries to remake the island's struggling Soviet-style system.
Benedict, who was in Cuba March 26-28, asked that the Church be able
to expand its education and social programs, which he said could help Cuba
through its time of change.
The Church also wants more access to mass media, which is controlled
by the state, and got it, at least on Friday, with the televised Mass. For years,
the Church was shut out from television, radio and newspapers.
People attending Ortega's Mass said a renewal of religion is occurring
in the country, which for 15 years starting in 1976 the government declared
officially atheist. The Church says about 60 percent of Cubans are baptized
Catholics, but only 5 percent regularly go to Mass.
"I think that, thanks to the visit of the pope, many things are
coming out in Cuba," Ruben Perez, 26. "The religiosity of the people
can be felt, a people that need it very much."
Santeria priest Mario Gonzalez agreed.
Dressed in the white clothing of the Afro-Cuban religion and
surrounded by figures of its saints, many of which are shared with the Catholic
Church, he intently watched the Mass on television in his home in Old Havana,
the capital's historic quarter.
It was a happy moment for Cuba after years of religious suppression,
he said.
"I think all religious people are celebrating these
moments," said Gonzalez. "I view with much approval the decision of
the Cuban government on the request of the pope."
But elsewhere in Havana, people walked along the Malecon, Cuba's
seaside boulevard, worked on cars, swept off sidewalks and played baseball in
the parks.
Most said they appreciated the holiday, which are few in Cuba, but
either were not religious or never went to church.
A housewife, Alma Cabrera, said that while she knew the significance
of Good Friday, it was mostly the older people in her central Havana
neighborhood who were actively religious.
"A
lot of them said they were going to watch it on television, but I didn't. I had
clothes to wash and a house to clean," she said.
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