III THE TIME OF CONTESTATION: 1959–1961
1. A Catholic Fatherland
Cuban Catholics were swept up into the revolution as swiftly as anyone on the island in January 1959.1 In its early days, a revolution filled with the promise of bringing forth a much-needed change was not only deemed the best course of action—after claiming victory, it seemed to be the only desired framework. As the thrill of revolution spilled over onto the streets of Cuba’s cities and villages, it filled people with a sense of hope. The hype that had begun with the glorified days of guerrilla warfare of Castro’s revolutionaries and had culminated in the joyful arrival of the troops in the capital of Havana soon washed over the entire nation. Even though the first months of the revolution’s victory coincided with the beginning of the Lenten season, and Catholics were urged to enter into the season without excessive frolicking and showing appropriate piety,2 it did little to dim the excitement. The revolution and Fidel Castro as a national hero enjoyed overwhelming support from Cubans, and both the institutional Church and most Catholics became immersed in the revolutionary moment.3
In the beginning, it was logical for Catholics in Cuba to support the revolution. In early 1959, Cubans were not Catholics or revolutionaries—many of them were both. When the revolution begun by Fidel Castro triumphed in January 1959, it was possible for Cubans to be simultaneously religious and revolutionary.4 In the early days of the revolution, Catholics were not only Catholics; they were Catholics among other identities, such as revolutionaries, active citizens, and Cubans. Lay Catholics were also husbands and wives, daughters and sons, workers and students; they represented a cross-section of individual Cubans, some whom fostered strong identities as Catholics, some of whom went to church occasionally. Many of them were urban, middle-class white Cubans.5 Apart from such persons, a specific group of Catholics were in the ordained ministry or had joined religious orders; for them, Catholicism was a defining matter of identity and self. In early 1959, the revolution was an acceptable option for many of them as well, as it echoed a change that the Catholic Church also acknowledged as a much-needed development on the island.6
From early on, the revolutionary narrative emphasized the active support of the Catholic Church for the revolution by highlighting the presence of Cuban Catholics in the revolutionary struggle.7 Lay Catholics participated in the fights; Catholics joined the urban resistance of middle-class Cubans in the island’s largest cities; laypeople were part of the movement not because they were Catholics, but because they were Cubans invested in bringing about a
1 Vida Nueva 3.1.1959; BLPE Enero 1959, Num.1 Acción Católica Cubana Junta Nacional; Interview 1;
Interview 4; Interview 28.
2 AHAH AC JN COL Secretariado de Religión y Moralidad: Circular No. 5 Enero de 1959; AHAH AC JD LH Circular No. 15 Sr. Presidente de la Junta Parroquial 2/1959.
3 Tweed 1997, 24–25; Conde 1999, 2–4; de la Fuente 2001, 259; Pedraza 2007, 56–57; Brenner et al. 2008, 8;
Guerra 2012, 11; Pérez 2015a, 247.
4 BLPE Enero 1959, Num.1 Acción Católica Cubana Junta Nacional; Interview 4; Schmidt 2015, 185–186.
5 The racial and socio-economic composition of Catholics as white, middle- and upper-middle-class urban Cubans belongs to the established scholarly knowledge on Catholicism in the first years of the revolution. See, for instance, Crahan 1985.
6 Interview 1; Interview 4; Interview 11; Interview 22; Interview 26; Interview 27.
7 Fidel y la religión 1985, 157–174, 191–193.
III THE TIME OF CONTESTATION: 1959–1961
74
revolution.8 Particularly well-known and often mentioned examples were the Catholics priests, although few, who had joined the guerrilla troops and participated in the fights as revolutionaries. Alongside them, the guerrilla fighters had been seen as having received God’s blessing and enjoyed the support of the faithful.9 Photographs documenting the revolutionary struggle portrayed guerilla troops with rosaries and images of Cuba’s patron saint, Our Lady of Charity (Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre),10 helping build Fidel Castro’s authority as the supreme leader in consolidating the revolution. The early images of the revolution pictured Castro in a Messiah-like setting at political rallies and public demonstrations, celebrating the people’s support.11
The institutional church expressed its support for the revolution in words and deeds. In the Cathedral of Havana, prominent members of the ecclesial hierarchy, Catholic associations, and a large number of laypeople came together with members of the new revolutionary regime and rebel army, participating in a Mass offered for “the eternal rest of those who fell in the fight for liberty,” and to give thanks for the long-awaited peace and harmony of the fatherland.12 Cuban bishops issued public statements and pastoral letters congratulating Fidel Castro and offering their approval for the change of regime.13 Even Pope John XXIII acknowledged the revolution: his message to Cuba, delivered by Cardinal Arteaga on January4, 1959 was a call for peace, fraternal concord, and national prosperity through God’s intermediation—in the revolution.14 The revolutionary process was also placed in the hands of La Virgen de La Caridad, a nationally recognized object of devotion with historically profound significance as a maternal figure for all Cubans.15
Behind the triumphant euphoria and early inclusiveness of Catholicism in the revolution, the course of the revolution remained a mystery in the early stages of Castro’s rule. The ideological and political foundation of the revolution was not yet fully defined: a dominant narrative of its legitimacy was derived from nationalistic, patriotic ideals connected with the island’s past.16 In Cuban history, the revolution was interpreted as both a continuum and an interruption: a culmination point in the long line of Cuban struggles for independence and autonomy, and a marker of new history in a previously unforeseen context.17 During this early period, termed “the messy phase” and “the revolutionary moment,”18 the direction of the revolution was not clear in any sense of the word; in fact, there was not even one distinct, clearly defined revolution but several visions attempting to obtain power and impose authority over others. The period was thus marked by power struggles, shifting dynamics, and a multitude of
8 Vida Nueva 3.1.1960; Holbrook 2009; Guerra 2012, 37; Chase 2015, 7.
9 AHAH AC JD LH Circular No. 15 Sr. Presidente de la Junta Parroquial 2/1959; Fidel y la religión 1985, 194.
10 In English, Our Lady of Charity. In Cuba, the Virgin is also known as La Virgen de la Caridad, La Virgen Mambisa, and Cachita. For a Cuban history of the Virgin, see Peña, Valcárcel & Ángel Urbina 2014.
11 Fidel y la religión 1985, 194; Pérez 2010, 249; Schmidt 2015, 190–191.
12 BLPE Enero 1959, Num.1 Solemne Misa por los Caídos y Te-Deum de Acción de Gracias en la Catedral de La Habana.
13 For instance, Vida Nueva 3.1.1959.
14 BLPE Enero 1959, Num.1 Mensaje del Papa a Cuba 4.1.1959.
15 AHAH AC JD LH Circular No. 17 4/1959.
16 Pérez 2015a, 246–248, 253.
17 Fernández 2000, 92.
18 Chase 2015, 6.
III THE TIME OF CONTESTATION: 1959–1961
75
contradictory voices challenging each other in search of revolutionary rule.19
In the contest for ownership of the revolution, Catholics considered the Church to be in a position to comment on and influence the direction of the revolutionary process as one of the historically stable, traditional voices on the island.20 At the heart of the Church’s legitimacy was the nature of Cubans as an inherently Catholic people: ecclesial authorities considered themselves to represent the majority of Cubans as Catholics, using the voice of the majority as leverage to participate in the discourse on the revolutionary process.21 The rebirth of patria was evoked with patriotism and Christian principles.22 These discourses concur with Crahan’s argument that in Cuba, religious beliefs “influenced concepts of polity and society, as well as Cubans’ involvement in civil society,” resulting also in religion having a prominent role in how the revolutionary polity and society were conceptualized.23
From this perspective, the Church saw no other option for Cuba but to be Catholic. Thus, the act of projecting Catholic social doctrine24 onto the revolution’s ideas became intertwined with emphasizing the national character of the revolutionary process. Both the Church and the revolutionary regime discussed the idea of building the Cuban patria; both insisted on building on the history of the nation, its potential and aspirations. For the Church, Catholicism was an inscribed prerequisite of the patria: there was no other option for the revolution but to build on the Christian legacy of Cuban society. The new patria was to be Catholic.
The episcopate expressed the Church’s vision of and expectations for the revolution through alignment with Catholic social doctrine, arguing that the aims of the revolution and the teachings of the Catholic Church were mutually inclusive and corresponding. While the episcopate refrained from directly addressing politics and economics, it emphasized the social dimension of the revolutionary process as a particular interest of the Church. At the same time, the bishops suggested that their foremost concerns were those directly affecting the life of the Church as an institution and the wellbeing of the faithful.25 Lay Catholics approached the issue more straightforwardly: social doctrine was inscribed in Catholic thought; it was not possible to be Catholic without social awareness. The revolution provided a context for fulfilling the missionary dimension of social Catholicism.26 This concurs with De La Torres’s argument that socially conscious Catholics “saw the Revolution as the vehicle through which they could put
19 Guerra 2012, 56–67; Benson 2016, 21.
20 BLPE Enero 1959, Num.1 Enrique, Arzobispo de Santiago de Cuba 3.1.1959; BLPE Enero 1959, Num.1 Acción Católica Cubana Junta Nacional; AHAH AC JD C Mujeres de Acción Católica Cubana, Junta Diocesana, Cienfuegos: Circular Abril 1959; Vida Nueva 3.1.1959; Casavantes Bradford 2014, 73.
21 Al Pueblo de Cuba 18.2.1959; La Iglesia Católica y La Nueva Cuba 31.5.1959.
22 AHAH AC CD Masculino Circular No. 35 por Julio Castaños de Villiers 1/1959; La Iglesia Católica y La Nueva Cuba 31.5.1959.
23 Crahan 2008, 331.
24 Catholic social doctrine refers to the normative teaching by the magisterium of the Catholic Church, which usually refers to the pope and the bishops exercising their authority to officially speak for the Church, addressing fundamental moral questions of persons and their social nature. According to Brady, the focus of the doctrine is
“the relationship between Christian morality (virtues, rules, and ideals) and the concrete social patterns, practices, and institutions within which persons live.” In this manner, Catholic social doctrine addresses “work and politics, culture and economics, and the general social structures of communities.” Brady 2008, 1–3, 8–9; According to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Catholic social teaching is “aimed at guiding people’s behavior” in a normative manner. CSDC#73; Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41: AAS 80
25 For instance, Vida Nueva 3.1.1959; El justo medio 29.1.1959; La enseñanza privada 13.2.1959; La Iglesia Católica y La Nueva Cuba 31.5.1959; La reforma agraria y el arzobispado de Santiago de Cuba 21.7.1959.
26 AHAH AC JD LH Parroquia, comunidad viviente y misionera 3/1959.
III THE TIME OF CONTESTATION: 1959–1961
76 their faith in action.”27
Drawing from Pope Leo XII’s teachings on social justice,28 Cuban bishops placed expectations on the revolution to improve the conditions of the poor and the working class.
Maintaining the Catholic teaching on natural law as the decisive authority accounting for a recognition of divine order, and religiousness as a natural condition of mankind’s creation, the Church insisted that the revolution commit itself to creating Christian social order and morality.29 The Church invited the revolution to create a patria in which Catholic faith was professed both privately and publicly through active participation of the Church in society. This included, for instance, Catholic education and instruction for children and maintaining the sanctity of marriage and family as per Catholic doctrine.30
The Church suggested that the new regime was to both acknowledge the divine order and subordinate itself to such an order.31 In Latin America, the tradition of colonial Catholicism had entailed the principle of a close union between the State and citizenry in religious preferences:
if the majority of the citizens were Catholics, the State had a moral duty to profess and promote the Catholic faith as well as defend it in public life. Behind the principle lay the ideal of the State’s pursuit of truth, which the Catholic Church was considered to possess.32 This historical nexus was reconsidered during the revolution. David Tombs proposes that, more generally, the Cuban revolution served as a catalyst for Latin American Catholicism to engage with modernity, awakening the institution to realize its own disengagement in the lives of the people and the power of a revolution to mobilize masses by the promise of change. This perceived threat, according to Tombs, led the institutional church to fear a loss of hegemony and social influence.33
In Cuba, the clergy strongly believed that they were obliged to participate in the restructuring of the country. In March 1959, a group of eight priests34 in Havana published an open letter in the pro-Catholic, right-wing newspaper Diario de la Marina, affirming the Church’s commitment to the revolutionary process and the significance of the Church’s participation in building a new society. The leader of the group, Havana’s young diocesan priest Eduardo Boza Masvidal, went on to appear on national television as “one of the Cuban priests that stand out the most in civic resistance” prior to the revolution.35 The clerics’ stance was also recognized by the government: after the discussion, Boza Masvidal met with the Cuban minister of education, Armando Hart.36
The revolution, as stated by the clerics, needed the support of the Church to fulfill its
27 De La Torre 2003, 28.
28 Rerum Novarum 15.5.1891.
29 Vida Nueva 3.1.1959; El justo medio 29.1.1959.
30 AHAH AC JN COF Junta Nacional de Acción Católica Cubana: La Familia Cristiana; Vida Nueva 3.1.1959;
Al Pueblo de Cuba 18.2.1959; La enseñanza privada 13.2.1959.
31 Vida Nueva 3.1.1959.
32 O’Malley 2008, 212.
33 Tombs 2002, 73.
34 The eight priests who signed the letter were Angel V. Fernández, Benito Avila Romero, Diego Madrigal, Fernando Prego, Luis Pérez, Eduardo Boza Masvidal, Armando E. Jiménez Rebollar, Cipriano J. Laria, Orlando Fernández, and Nelson Fernández.
35 Uno de los sacerdotes cubanos que más sobresalió en la resistencia cívica. DM 8.3.1959 Gran concentración católica celebraron jóvenes estudiantes; DM 8.3.1959 Sacerdotes cubanos al programa de la ACU en televisión;
DM 8.3.1959 Urbi et Orbi; DM 5.4.1959 Urbi et Orbi.
36 DM 11.3.1959 Urbi et Orbi.
III THE TIME OF CONTESTATION: 1959–1961
77
moral promise. “The grand lines of the revolution and its future projections include fundamental Christian principles,”37 declared the priests. Following the arguments of the episcopate, the priests argued that dignity and equality of all human beings, respect for life, the integrity and liberty of individuals, and social justice were among the shared values of the revolution and Catholicism. According to the priests, the most urgent tasks of the revolution were the creation of jobs for the unemployed, a more just distribution of land, and the restructuring of governance and administration. The Church lent its support and assistance to all these proposals because the project corresponded to the spirit of the gospel and social doctrine of the Catholic Church.38
Yet the support of the Church was a matter of negotiation and a mutual exchange of interests. The priests seemed to suggest that the Church would commit itself to cooperation if, in return, it would have the right to host Catholic private schools affirmed by the State. Already aware of the possibility of conflict, the priests emphasized the importance of maintaining national unity and avoiding polemic confrontations. “Not in any moment has it been the spirit of the Church to create difficulties for the government, nor to sow religious divisions among the Cubans, but to simply use the right of expression that exists in a democratic country,”39 they wrote. Concluding the statement, the priests again affirmed the commitment of the Church to the revolution, yet with a subtle tone of caution. Although the Church was to support the revolution, it was to do so for the good of the nation, as an act of patriotism:
Us Catholics want, more than no one else, a close union of all Cubans, and to offer our most enthusiastic collaboration with our rulers, which does not impede us from giving constructive criticism when it is necessary, which the government itself should be most interested in. - - For this reason, we find it necessary, leaving personal attacks and unfruitful polemics aside, to devote ourselves to the arduous work that the fatherland requires, most of all of collaboration, serenity and patriotism.40
Insisting on building the new patria, the priests portrayed a more progressive stance to the inclusion of Catholicism in the revolution. These examples show that within the Church, there was not just one vision of the Church engaging with the revolution—there were, in fact, several perspectives on whether the Church should engage at all. In early 1959, it was still possible for Cubans to be both revolutionaries and Catholics—and that this was, in fact, the case in daily life for many of the militant Catholics41 and revolutionaries. At the same time, and together with the voices of the episcopate and clergy, the Church officially continued to accept and cooperate with the revolution, but on its own terms. In return for such approval, the Church
37 Los grandes lineamientos de la Revolución y sus proyecciones futuras envuelven principios fundamentales cristianos. DM 7.3.1959 Piden los sacerdotes cubanos cesen polémicas infecundas.
38 DM 7.3.1959. Piden los sacerdotes cubanos cesen polémicas infecundas.
39 En ningún momento ha sido el ánimo de la Iglesia poner dificultades al Gobierno ni crear divisiones religiosas entre los cubanos, sino sencillamente hacer uso del derecho que le asiste en un país democrático de exponer sus ideas. DM 7.3.1959. Piden los sacerdotes cubanos cesen polémicas infecundas.
40 Los católicos queremos más que nadie una unión muy estrecha entre todos los cubanos y prestar nuestra más entusiasta colaboración a nuestros gobernantes, lo cual no impide que podamos hacer cuanto sea necesario una crítica constructiva que el propio Gobierno debe ser el más interesado en que se le haga. Para esto creemos necesario que, dejando a un lado ataques personales y polémicas infecundas, nos consagremos todos a la ardua labor que la patria reclama, en alto plano de colaboración, de serenidad y de patriotismo. DM 7.3.1959 Piden los sacerdotes cubanos cesen polémicas infecundas.
41 In Cuban Catholicism in the 1960s, militante usually referred to lay members of Catholic Action. In November 1959, a militant was defined by the women of Catholic Action as an active member of the organization, conscious of her role and duties, and actively following the program of Catholic Action with zeal and a sense of purpose.
AHAH AC JN JF Explicación de la Moción VIII Asamblea Nacional y Concentración Noviembre 27–28 de 1959.
III THE TIME OF CONTESTATION: 1959–1961
78
expected the revolution to commit itself to the principles, values, and morality of Christianity.