Jesuit General Sosa Signed a Hymn of Praise to Fidel Castro in 1989

In 1989, Sosa signed a manifesto, that Fidel Castro be celebrated as a hero

(Havana) The life of Arturo Sosa Abascal, the 31st Father General of the Jesuit Order reigning since October 2016, reads like a Marxist. In the late seventies, in the high bloom of liberation theology, he dealt with the question of how Christian faith could be mediated Marxistically. Many years later, he joined the circle of convinced Castro followers. This is the result of a declaration of solidarity, which was signed by the now "Black Pope".

"Unprecedented victory over tyranny, corruption and vassalism"

In 1989, 911 Venezuelan intellectuals and artists published a Manifiesto de Bienvenida a Fidel Castro , in which they welcomed the visit of Fidel Castro, the communist dictator of Cuba, and celebrated it as the "leader of the Cuban Revolution".

"We want to pay public respect for what you have achieved for the dignity of your people and for the whole of Latin America"

Says the statement.

"In this dramatic hour for the continent, only ideological blindness can deny the place you occupy in the history of the liberation of our peoples. 30 years ago, you came to Venezuela immediately after the exemplary victory over tyranny, corruption and vassalage. At that time, you were received by our people, as only a hero who embodies and symbolizes the collective ideal could."

Fidel Castro already visited Venezuela in the late 1950s

The signatories assured Fidel Castro, "for the same reasons today," to express their affection associated with "the hope" of building a "just, independent and solidarity Latin America". The persecution of the Church by the Cuban regime obviously did not touch the Jesuit Sosa.With this attitude, he was not alone among progressive Catholics. Christians who are not left are not true Christians, but reactionaries who deserve to be persecuted. Thus, the Swiss Capuchin Walbert Bühlmann formulated it in 1986 and thereby meant the Christian persecution of the Cuban supported Marxist regimes of Angola and Mozambique.

Father Arturo Sosa appears as the 811th signatory to the Declaration, which he signed as Director of the Centro Gumilla ( de Investigacion y Accion Social ). He also published his essay "La mediacion marxista de la Fe cristiana" (The Marxist mediation of the Christian faith) in the SIC of the Centro, which he directed from 1979-1996. Seven years after the praise of Fidel Castro, Sosa became Provincial Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Venezuela in 1996.

"The story is history, you can not deny," wrote the Spanish columnist Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña. For people can change over the years. What matters is where they are. The praise to Fidel Castro could however at best be considered a very late "sin of youth," since Sosa was already 41 years old at that time.

The past has passed: what if the now is even more serious?

Sosa after his election to the Jesuit General

Fidel Castro is dead, his brother Raul still dominates Cuba with a Marxist fist, while Sosa's homeland Venezuela is in a serious crisis. The "bolivarian" Maduro regime, with whom communist Cuba is closely aligned, shoots protesters.

More serious than the Marxist and real socialist aberrations of the Jesuit generation in the past are some doubtful statements today. At the very least, his assertion that Japan can only be evangelized in cooperation with Buddhism and Shintoism (see also the discernment between spirits ) is misleading . A comment in an interview with the Swiss journalist Giuseppe Rusconi brought a charge of heresy  against Sosa. The Father General of the Jesuits questioned nothing but the validity of Jesus' words. In order to justify the admission of remarried divorced to the sacraments and the softening of the sacraments of the Church as they read out parts of the Church from the post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia, calling on Pope Francis, Sosa questioned the infallibility of Jesus. At that time nobody had a tape recorder to record the words.

The case is pending with the Congregation of the Faith, which is now faced with the unusual task of judging a Superior General of the Jesuit Order. However, the situation in the history of the Church and the Order is not entirely new.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Venezuelavetada / MiL / Jesuit.org (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
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Castro Mistress: Fidel Received the Last Rites

69-year-old in an interview with the Italian church broadcaster: Dictator met with a priest every day and developed a positive attitude towards Christianity

Rome (kath.net/KAP) The long-term Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (archive photo) had received the sacraments before his death in December 2016. "Some Jesuit fathers have told me that Fidel Castro died being comforted by religion, and they said to me, "be quiet because Fidel died in a Christian way," said Anna Maria Traglia, a former lover of Fidel Castro, for the Italian Church broadcaster "TV 2000." According to her information, the "Maximo Lider" was visited daily by a priest.

Traglia, now 69 years old, is the niece of Cardinal Luigi Traglia, who in turn, in the 1970s, was the vicar of Pope Paul VI. In Rome. When she was 27, she had met Castro by the intermediation of his relative, the secretary at the Cuban embassy in Rome, whom Traglia had met and befriended. For years she had been Fidel's lover, said Traglia, who spoke of a "great love" until the end of her life and lived in Cuba for a long time. 

On her urging, a parish was opened in Havana, where she had attended Mass every Sunday afternoon, said Traglia. After the service Fidel was waiting for her in front of the church door in a car with the number plate "Comandante 1."  She had also unintentionally introduced a meeting between Castro and Cardinal Agostino Casaroli. When she was invited by the nuncio at that time, Castro had simply come along, causing the Vatican diplomat to be embarrassed, as there were no instructions for this situation. However, a "mutual sympathy" had developed immediately between the two men.

Traglia traveled to Cuba a year and a half ago, when Castro was already in bad health. By May 2016 there had also been regular telephone contact with the ex-dictator. On her last encounter she found Castro "very changed", said Traglia. "One day he told me: I often think of your words, referring to my Christian faith."

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Kath.net...

AMDG

Pope's Visit to Cuba: Widow of Oswaldo Payá Criticizes Castro Regime and Cardinal Ortega

Oswaldo Paya (1952- 2012)

(Rome / Havana) Prior to the Pope's visit to Cuba, Ticino journalist Giuseppe Rusconi (Rossoporpora) introduced an interview with Ofelia Acevedo, widow of Oswaldo Payá, a leading figure among the Cuban Catholics and President of the Christian civil rights movement Movimiento Cristiano de Liberacion (Christian Liberation Movement), who came his end in  a "very suspicious car accident" on 22 July 2012 (Rusconi). In the accident,  Oswaldo Payá (Founder and President) and Harold Cepero (president of the youth organization) the entire leadership of Christian Liberation Movement was extinguished. Pope Francis, who received the Payá family on 14 May 2014 in a private audience, knows the situation   well. The Widow criticizes Cardinal Jaime Ortega, archbishop of Havana, whom she  accuses of a hostile attitude towards the dissidents and critics of the regime.

Oswaldo Payá founded the Christian Liberation Movement in 1987 which became the authoritative voice of the anti-communist and anti-Castro dissidents. The Catholic Payá was the central figure of the dissident scene. Three years ago he was killed 700 km from Havana in a suspicious car accident. His name is connected with Proyecto Varela for obtaining fundamental rights and freedoms for the Cuban people by a referendum. Payá gathered the necessary 10,000 signatures and handed them over in 2002 to the Cuban Parliament. In 2003 he submitted  it again with 14,000 signatures, although the communist island regime responded with repressive measures. Ofelia Acevedo had to emigrate a year after the death of her husband with her ​​family to Miami (USA) because there was no end to constant police harassment and threats.

"In Cuba there is no freedom of religion"

For Pope's visit to Cuba Ofelia Acevedo said:

"When I found out, I was surprised, I felt great joy. Surprised because three papal visits within 17 years are a privilege, joy because Pope Francis is especially identified with the poor, marginalized and persecuted. These groups apply to the majority of my people. You expect a message of encouragement and hope by Pope Francis, who inspires them to rise up and go a long way to begin to become actors in their own history, to find the strength to do this in Jesus Christ, the great restorer of human dignity. "

The announcement of the Pope's visit has so far, says Acevedo,  brought  no improvements for the Cuban people.  "The lack of freedom keeps Cubans trapped in poverty and injustice." The situation is no much the same: "In Cuba there is no freedom of religion. There is an Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (the only legal party on the island), which is connected to  State Security (the Seguridad). It has the task to  monitor every member of the Church,  to search, to persuade, to threaten, anyone who in his opinions or his conduct is displeased with the government of the Castro brothers. They have the power to intervene at any time in any area of ​Church life which does not satisfy the government. The Church has no access to the mass media. Families can offer their children no Christian religious instruction, because there is no such. The current head of the Office for Religious Affairs of the Communist Party has declared in connection with the Pope's visit, that religious instruction was eliminated by the Revolution."

Pope Francis knows the "pathetic" situation of Cubans

The Pope visits between 1998 and 2012 were an important sign of fraternal communion with the Pilgrim Church of Cuba.  The messages of John Paul II. and Benedict XVI. had been gratefully received by those Cubans who could hear it. "The Church hierarchy refers to positive consequences, because the government made it possible after the visits, that some priests could enter the country and purchase certain equipment and vehicles necessary for the pastoral care, as well as the return of some confiscated property including churches and schools in the early years of the revolution, which were then in the best condition. When they were returned, they were empty, dilapidated or or totally destroyed. Other visible positive consequences are not known to me."

The Castro government announced on the occasion of the Pope's visit, the amnesty of 3522 prisoners. "Until now there are himself among these, however, no political prisoners. In fact, so far the amnesty has not been put into effect yet for any prisoners."

The widow of Oswaldo Payá was received with her family by Pope Francis in a private audience. "We talked to him about the deplorable conditions under which the vast majority of Cubans survive. We talked for the pilgrim Church in Cuba to which we belong and whom we dearly love. We also talked about the assassination attempt of 22 July 2012, the car of my husband, which was perpetrated by agents of the Seguridad. On my husband's assassination, Oswaldo Payá and the young Harold Cepero [president of the youth organization of the Christian Liberation Movement] were killed. We have told the Pope that we are calling for an independent investigation in order to clarify the precise course of events. I think that Pope Francis knows the real situation in which Cubans live. He is well informed and involved in different moments linked to the suffering of the Cuban people."

"If the Pope wants it, he can meet Cuban dissidents"

Should the Pope want it, "he will be able to meet Cuban dissidents".

For some time, the negative disposition of Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Ortega y Alamino of Havana toward the dissidents has been criticized not only by the Catholic opposition. This past June 5 Cardinal Ortega, who was a central point of contact for Oswaldo Payá, gave an interview for the Spanish Cadena Ser,  in which he even denied the existence of political prisoners in Cuba.

"Unfortunately, Cardinal Ortega has on several occasion behaved in ways towards dissidents, not only the Catholic, that correspond to those employed by state security: exclude and insult."

Rusconi asked the widow what her husband, Oswaldo Payá, would say if he were still alive to the Pope. "My husband could hardly have had the opportunity to be in the vicinity of the pope during the visit. In the two previous Pope's visit he had asked the Church authorities to be able to meet John Paul II. And Benedict XVI., but it was not possible. We assume that the Cuban government would never have accepted such an encounter. But I'm sure if Oswaldo could speak with the Pope, he would have asked for nothing, but he would have said, 'I want to hear your word with an open heart and full of hope.'

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: InfoVaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Castro Requests Book Recommendations From Pope

This Wednesday afternoon (local time) the Pope met the revolutionary leader, it was a "heartfelt and intense' half-hour meeting in the Apostolic Nunciature after Mass in Havanna.

Havanna (kath.net/KNA) Pope Benedict XVI is meething at the close of his Cuba visit with the earlier head of state Fidel Castro. The approximately 30-minute interview took place according to information from Vatican Speaker Federico Lombari, at the office of the Apostolic Nunciature in Havana.

The interview was "heartfelt, lively and intensive", offered Lombardi. The 85-year old revolutionary leader was received then at 12:20 (local time) by Cardinal Secretary Tarscicio Bertone. Castro told Bertone that he looked forward to the beautification of Mother Teresa (1910-1997) and John Paul II (1978-2005).

A little later he met Benedict XVI. During the interview, conducted through an interpreter, Castro's wife was present. At the end of the talk, he was introduced to Castro's two sons. The Pope relayed to Castro his "immense satisfaction" about the trip and his reception in Cuba, said the Vatican speaker. Castro, who in the short TV - reception, gave the impression of an exhausted man, asked the Pope about reforms in the Liturgy and what the Pope does.

As Radio Vatican reported, Fidel Castro told the Pope that he had followed his entire trip on television. Also, the 84 year old Pope and the 86 year old Castro, joked about their age.

 In addition they exchanged opinions the current religious, moral and cultural situations as well as the difficult situation of humanity and the promotion of science. Castro had also asked the Pope to recommend him some books about the themes they'd discussed, so that he might deepen his understanding of them. Benedict XVI had not decided then and there, however, which books he wants to foward to Castro, says Lombardi. The meeting came at an end according to the speaker, with a personal wish of Fidel Castro. This wish was reported by the Cuban side to the Vatican side. The Vatican Television Services filmed parts of the encounter.

  Link to kath.net...