The Rise of the Laity

Despite the chaotic circumstances of daily life, militant lay Catholics struggled to maintain a sense of purpose. Their search for meaning as Catholics in the revolution was reciprocated by Vatican II’s new openings on the role of the laity. This was reflected in October 1965, when Havana’s auxiliary bishop, Fernando Azcárate, also serving as asesor⁹⁹ for the Catholic Action, wrote to Raúl Gómez Treto from Rome. In the midst of participating in a session of the Second

94 Han existido las cuatro ramas de Acción Católica, la Tercera Orden Franciscana, La Confradía de la Virgen de la Caridad. En la actualidad no queda ni rastro de todas esas asociaciones y Acción Católica. No queda nada en absoluto. Cuestionario, Candelaria, Fr. José María Biain 22.5.1965.

95 En medio de la inactividad de los grupos de la Accíón Católica, ya desaparecidos y de las Asociaciones que han existido, hay algunos feligreses que ayudan en la catequesis parroquial --, en visitar a los enfermos y en rezar el santo rosario en las casas de los difuntos que así lo pidan. Cuestionario, Candelaria, Fr. José María Biain 22.5.1965.

96 For instance, Interview 20; Interview 22; Interview 29.

97 Schmidt has discussed the multiplicity of ecclesial realities on the island, depending on the material, social, and cultural resources available for local communities. See Schmidt 2015, 225–226.

98 Como hubiera sido un otro mundo… Donde vivieron los obispos, la jerarquía. Interview 13.

99 Asesor was a priest designated to cooperate with local groups of Catholic Action. The role and importance of asesores is discussed, for instance, by Bidegain 1985.

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Vatican Council, Azcárate relayed to Gómez Treto the recent developments of the council and the Cuban bishops in Rome. In particular, Azcárate wrote to Gómez Treto, a prominent lay leader as the president of the national committee of Catholic Action, to bring him up to date on the latest progress made in the conciliar discourse regarding the laity. With apparent enthusiasm, Azcárate wrote:

Yesterday in the conference I had the opportunity to listen to Cardinal Suenens,¹⁰⁰ one of the cornerstones of the council, talking about the pastoral projection of the council; he talked to us about the fundamental role that laypeople will play in its execution. He said that the council represents a new spring for the Church, and when detailing the conquests of the council, he included as one of them the legislation on the laity.¹⁰¹

A letter like this, sent from a member of the clergy to a prominent lay activist and from the center of the Catholic world to the periphery of a marginalized church in a revolutionary reality of the Caribbean, illustrates the spirit of the late 1960s both for global Catholicism and within the Cuban Church. Scholarly work has thus far provided little information on these histories:

the dimensions and directions of exchange in the reception of the council in Cuba and the junctions for clergy and laity in the council’s interpretation offer remarkable information on the inner dynamics of the Cuban Church and the stances and alignments taken. They also show how crucial a role the laity played for the continuity of everyday ecclesial life in Cuba.

Currently available archival sources, such as Azcárate´s correspondence with Gómez Treto, show that not only did representatives of the Cuban Church participate in the conciliar sessions; they also communicated the course of events from the Vatican to Cuba directly. In the midst of the most crucial time in the polarization of Church–State relations, the bishops were able to participate in the conciliar sessions and convey their meaning in Cuba. Correspondingly, the proceedings of the council, with the documentation published as the voice of the council, were received in Cuba both with interest and with the sense that they pertained to the most urgent topics for the Church to address, despite an awareness of how limited the Church’s resources were for responding to the new vision.

Archival sources on lay correspondence suggest that Vatican II was experienced as a particularly powerful moment by Cuba’s militant laity. For them, the council carried immediate repercussions in the openings it offered for lay agency and autonomy, allowing as it did for greater freedom of expression for the laity. According to Cuban lay leaders, the “actualization”

of conciliar theology enabled a renewed understanding of lay spirituality. Furthermore, the

“progressive opening” of the universal Church manifested itself “in the unceasing and active search for an appropriate spirituality” incarnate in the laity.¹⁰² The ultimate vision of revitalizing

100 Belgian cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens, archbishop of Malines-Brussels, was among the most prominent fathers of the council. He acted as a moderator of conciliar sessions and was considered to hold significant influence on the course of the council in addition to hosting good working relations with the pope. Theologically, he aligned with the majority of the conciliar fathers in decision-making and was considered a leader among the majority. O’Malley 2008, 117–118, 157, 327. As Oliver notes, Suenens had expressed his opposition to the monopoly exercised by Catholic Action in lay participation in 1957. See Oliver 2008, 280.

101 Ayer en una conferencia que tuve oportunidad de oírle al Cardenal Suenens, una de las columnas del Concilio, hablando de la ”Proyección pastoral del Concilio”, no decía el papel fundamental que han de jugar los laicos en su ejecución. Dijo que el Concilio es una nueva primavera de la Iglesia, y al detallar las conquistas del Concilio incluía como una de ellas lo legislado sobre el laicado. AHAH AC JN Fernando Azcárate to Raúl Gómez Treto 10.10.1965.

102 AHAH AC JN Memorandum 3.10.1965.

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lay agency was to enable a progressive opening of lay Catholics towards God and “our brothers and sisters,”¹⁰³ and a renewed spirit of service of Cuban laity to the world.¹⁰⁴

As Azcárate’s letter indicated, the council marked a window of opportunity for the Cuban laity. The council affirmed the apostolate of the laity in the Church with a sacramental basis on baptism and confirmation. The role of the laity was twofold: to help others in their growth towards God, and to bring love and justice to the daily milieus of the laity. In order to effectively fulfill their vocation, the laity required training and spiritual formation, provided via close collaboration between clergy and laity.¹⁰⁵ For Cuba, Vatican II thus provided a framework for development of both the theology of the laity¹⁰⁶ and the apostolate of the laity.¹⁰⁷ A new focus on ecclesiological self-understanding emphasized the equal role of clergy and laity in composing the Church as the People of God.¹⁰⁸

As was noted in Cuba, the newly expressed recognition of the laity was a global trend: by sharing it, the Cuban Church also joined those endorsing Vatican II and sought to implement conciliar theology on the island. Yet, as a distinctively Cuban trait, one both stemming from and responding to the tense circumstances, the sense of increased lay agency did not erase the predominance of Catholic Action or the ardent adherence of its members to ecclesial hierarchy:

throughout the discourse, the loyalty to bishops was emphasized as a distinctive commitment of a “well-informed, conscious, vigilant laity.”¹⁰⁹

In 1965, the Church in Cuba began to explore a project of reorganizing its lay participation, fueled by conciliar teaching on the participation of the laity in the life and mission of the Church and the creation of the Apostolate of the Laity as a structure enabling organizational changes.¹¹⁰ The vocation of laypeople in the life of the Church and endorsement of lay movements began to deconstruct the assumptions of clericalism, clerical superiority and authority in ecclesial life, and the division between the clergy and laity in the Church.¹¹¹

At the same time, lay leaders provocatively suggested that conciliar theology was received with great interest predominantly by the laity and not the clergy. In a bitter remark, one lay leader in Santiago de Cuba noted, “I don’t think the Council has arrived to many of the

103 In this context, it is not clear whether the expression refers to brothers and sisters within the Catholic communities in Cuba, or non-Catholics, revolutionaries, Marxists, communists, and all Cubans alike. A reference to the spirit of service in the world supports the more inclusive reading.

104 AHAH AC JN Orientación general y plan de adviento, noviembre de 1964; AHAH AC JN Memorandum 3.10.1965.

105 AA; O’Malley 2008, 230.

106 Theology of the Laity in Cuba was rooted in pre-conciliar understanding stemming largely from the auto-definition of Catholic Action. After the council, the Cuban Church still considered Catholic Action synonymous with lay participation through organized structures. The interpretation is concurrent with Vatican II’s treatment of the laity. According to Faggioli, “Vatican II maintained the concept of a lay apostolate next to the ideal of Catholic Action, slightly more independent from the ecclesial hierarchy but still in need of a ‘mandate’ coming from the hierarchy and faithful to the teaching of the Church.” Faggioli 2012, 8.

107 AHAH AC JF La Habana Boletín No 5 Enero 1965 Plan de Trabajo para 1965; AHAH AC JF La Habana Raúl Gómez Treto to Josefina Moreno 30.9.1965.

108 “People of God” was among the most significant ecclesiological principles of the council. The concept referred to the emphasis placed on people, the community, as the primary subject of the church. In Latin America,

“People of God” became a fundamental concept for self-identification and pastoral work, both theologically and on the grassroots level. For the original text on the People of God by Vatican II, see LG.

109 AHAH AC JN Memorandum 3.10.1965.

110 Oliver 2008, 272–273, 279–280.

111 Oliver 2008, 280–282.

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priests” in the archdiocese.¹¹² His observation was further echoed in Havana: “The obstacle against the promotion of the laity is clerical paternalism, already surpassed in theory by many but in practice only by few. From there emerge the oversensitivity and frictions that both discourage and paralyze.”¹¹³ These excerpts suggest that at a time of external turmoil and the challenges posed for ecclesial life by the revolution, internal tensions within the Church also generated contesting visions of power and authority. The laity was no longer perceived as the receiving audience in ecclesial life. They were growing in self-identification as the subjects of their own religious reality: within the Church, “the grand mass of her children, those forming the laity, have arrived into adulthood with all of its meanings. This has been made evident in the light of the Council.”¹¹⁴

In 1965, Catholic Action represented the dominant form of lay participation on the island.

In its nature, Catholic Action as a global movement was characterized by hierarchical structures and an institutionalized role officially established and publicly supported by ecclesial authori-ties.¹¹⁵ In this context, the reorganization of Catholic Action in Cuba represented a local process in the chain of changes that occurred in the Catholic Church and its view of the laity from the 1960s onwards. This, in turn, was inextricably linked to the redefinition of ecclesiology in the wake of Vatican II.¹¹⁶ In Cuba, it was hoped that the reorganization would result in revitaliza-tion and the reinvigorated commitment of laypeople in the daily life of the Church.¹¹⁷ Also, nuncio Zacchi was conscious of the project and expressed his warm support for it, referring to it as a “natural adaptation to these times,”¹¹⁸ thus again signaling the Holy See’s vision of ac-commodation in Cuban Church–State relations.

According to the interviewees, the new vision on the apostolate of the laity also provided the Cuban Church with an opportunity to deconstruct the political affiliations of its pre-conciliar lay movements and highlight their spiritual meaning for the Cuban laity. This concerned first and foremost Catholic Action and its numerous sub-organizations.¹¹⁹ Yet for this very reason, as also Uría suggests, the plan sparked controversy and resistance: for some, the restructuring appeared as an attempt to dispose of Catholic Action. In Santiago de Cuba, Archbishop Pérez Serantes had initially rejected the rumored changes and, by defending Catholic Action, argued for stability in the face of changes occurring in all sectors of Cuban society and in the lives of all Cubans.¹²⁰

The key individuals participating in the planning were also clearly aware of joining the global Catholic project of redefining lay participation and the laity’s role in ecclesial life. In his

112 AHAH AC JN Emilio Roca Notó to Raúl Gómez Treto 14.9.1965.

113 Los obstáculos que a la promoción del laicado oponen frecuentemente el paternalismo clericalista, teóricamente trasnochado para muchos pero prácticamente solo superado por unos pocos. Así surgen las hipersusceptibilizaciones y los rozamientos que tanto desaniman y paralizan. AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 9.9.1965.

114 AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 9.9.1965.

115 Bidegaín 1985; Faggioli 2016, 14.

116 AHAH AC JN Emilio Roca Notó to Raúl Gómez Treto 4.7.1965; AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 5.7.1965; AHAH AC JN Enrique Pérez Serantes to Raúl Gómez Treto 12.7.1965; Faggioli 2016, 2.

117 AHAH AC JN Plan de Trabajo de la Junta Diocesana de La Habana a realizar en los meses comprendidos entre agosto de 1965 a abril 1966 31.7.1965.

118 Con su natural adaptación a los tiempos. AHAH AC JN Cesar Zacchi to G. P. 15.2.1965.

119 Interview 1; Interview 2; Interview 6; Interview 27.

120 Uría 2011, 532.

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letters to the local leaders of Catholic Action, Gómez Treto repeatedly referred to Vatican II and its teaching, calling the reformation of Catholic Action an “apostolic mission.”¹²¹ Corspondence between Havana, Camagüey, Matanzas, and Santiago de Cuba discussed the re-newed role of the laity. Gómez Treto outlined for Santiago’s archbishop Pérez Serantes that the focus of the project was to restructure the institutional engagement of laypeople by creating structures of lay participation in the administration of the Church on the congregational, dioce-san, and national levels: bodies of representatives consisting of all ages of laypeople, both men and women.¹²²

Deconstructing the old and refining the new frames of work for Cuban laity was understood, foremost by the laity themselves, as both a global process of restructuring and a response to the situation in Cuba. According to Gómez Treto, the process was also a step towards accepting the prevailing circumstances and, as such, a sign of progress.¹²³ For the episcopal hierarchy, on the other hand, the restructuring provided an opportunity to renew the image of Catholic Action from that of a militant, socially reactionary and politicized Catholic movement to a more generic frame that enabled lay participation in the life of the Church.

Renewing the role and participation of the laity was considered possible in the dioceses of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Camagüey, and Holguín.¹²⁴ The restructuring effort was led from Havana, which sometimes resulted in misinformation and a lack of direction in other cities.¹²⁵ In the archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba, the lay leaders of Catholic Action analyzed the situation, coming to the conclusion that is was necessary to restructure and renew lay participation in local congregational life. In the diocese, approximately 30 people participated in the process.¹²⁶ Havana’s Archbishop Evelio Díaz, as the president of the Cuban Episcopal Conference (Conferencia Episcopal Cubana, CEC), was nominally in charge of the process and was kept informed on the national revision.¹²⁷

The hopes for restructured lay participation revealed the discrepancies and competing visions of power among the Cuban clergy and laity. At stake in the process was also the im-provement of relations between the laity and clergy and the revolution’s vision of committed laity as automatically being a suspect group. In his letter to Havana’s Archbishop Evelio Díaz Cía, Gómez Treto wished to make this complex public perception known. “Do you even know how much we need to be allowed to show ourselves and try to erase the false impression that

121 AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 13.12.1965.

122 AHAH AC JN Organización: plan parroquial 20.9.1965; AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Enrique Pérez Serantes 25.11.1965; AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó.

123 AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 13.12.1965.

124 AHAH AC JN Junta Nacional to Teresa de Rojas 27.7.1965; AHAH AC JN Junta Nacional to Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera 25.8.1965; AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 9.9.1965.

125 The planning was led by the laypeople who initiated the first stages and carried out the planning. Most of the correspondence imagining the future and the new practices of Catholic Action took place between Raúl Gómez Treto, the president of the national committee and Havana’s sub-organization, Emilio Roca Notó, Santiago de Cuba’s local president, Camagüey’s local lay leaders Juan Pulido and Carlota Vidaud, and Teresa de Rojas in Matanzas. AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Teresa de Rojas 25.8.1965; AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 13.12.1965.

126 AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Emilio Roca Notó 13.12.1965.

127 AHAH AC JN Raúl Gómez Treto to Enrique Pérez Serantes 25.11.1965.

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they have of us and our work in some places?”¹²⁸ he asked, emphasizing the importance of the episcopate in assuming a realistic vision of the difficulties faced by the laity in the daily context of the revolution.¹²⁹

The support of the episcopate was considered crucial for the project.¹³⁰ In Santiago Cuba, Pérez Serantes, known as a dedicated supporter of Catholic Action and lay agency, embraced the attempt and went so far as to independently plan the writing of a nationwide pastoral letter, 8,000 copies in total, addressing the vitality and importance of lay empowerment.¹³¹ At the same time, as proposed by Uría, he dedicated considerable energy to communicating with local priests in an attempt to encourage them and boost their morale.¹³² Also involved in the process of lifting spirits through renewal was Father Pedro Meurice, nominated by Pérez Serantes to serve as the vice-chancellor and chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba as a repre-sentative of the clergy.¹³³

Even though laypeople expressed that they were aware of the need to include the episco-pal hierarchy, they at times preferred work among just the laity and clergy.¹³⁴ In the process, the direction of input flowed from the laity to the clergy.¹³⁵ Laypeople engaged in the restruc-turing effort found that sometimes cooperation with the clergy posed a challenge to moving forward, too. As an early reflection of the pre-conciliar, later contested clergy–laity dichotomy, and one of the first steps in the laicalization of the Church in Cuba, the president of Catholic Action in Santiago de Cuba, Emilio Roca Notó, wrote to Gómez Treto: “We are trying to handle this with silk gloves, we don’t want them [the clergy] to think that this has been a victory for us and a defeat for them; we are all Christians here and there shouldn’t be winners and those

Even though laypeople expressed that they were aware of the need to include the episco-pal hierarchy, they at times preferred work among just the laity and clergy.¹³⁴ In the process, the direction of input flowed from the laity to the clergy.¹³⁵ Laypeople engaged in the restruc-turing effort found that sometimes cooperation with the clergy posed a challenge to moving forward, too. As an early reflection of the pre-conciliar, later contested clergy–laity dichotomy, and one of the first steps in the laicalization of the Church in Cuba, the president of Catholic Action in Santiago de Cuba, Emilio Roca Notó, wrote to Gómez Treto: “We are trying to handle this with silk gloves, we don’t want them [the clergy] to think that this has been a victory for us and a defeat for them; we are all Christians here and there shouldn’t be winners and those

In document Never a Church of Silence : The Catholic Church in Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-1986 (sivua 152-166)