Remembering Bishop Agustín Román ten years later

"Monsignor Román was the Félix Varela of our times." - Archbishop Thomas Wenski, April 11, 2022 

Bishop Agustín Román 1928 - 2012

Hard to believe it has been 10 years since Bishop Agustín Román was called home. His absence over the numerous crises that we have suffered made it feel much longer and gave us a deeper appreciation of his importance to this community.

Today, Archbishop Thomas Wenski published an Oped that celebrated the legacy of Monsignor Román and placed him in the context of Cuban history. He concluded his reflection praising the legacy of this humble and good Priest.

Archbishop Román suffered exile because of a destructive nationalism that took hold of his beloved Cuba, but he never stopped being a patriot — nor did he ever stop tirelessly preaching the good news of Jesus Christ who gives us eternal life. He totally dedicated himself to the Fatherland and to Life.

Bishop Román once said that "If what we do for Cuba, we do not do for love, better not to do it."  He had a great understanding of what was taking place in the land of his birth and the gift to lay it out in a manner that both lifted the listeners up spiritually, but also provided greater understanding and discernment.

In the realm of political struggle he was an advocate for nonviolent civil resistance who said that violence was "not be a favored option, much less a practice or method of justifiable struggle."

In 2006 he spoke of the challenges facing Cuba and of the Cuban dissident movement and his observations remain  relevant and needed.

"The greatest importance of the internal dissident movement in Cuba today, is that it has proven that political action can be consistent with what conscience knows and that is that the force of reason is, and should be more powerful than the reason of force."- Bishop Agustín Román (2006)

 

Nine Days of Prayer to Undo the Knots for a Free Cuba

“Change Swords of Steel into Swords of Truth” – Bishop Agustin A. Roman, Oakdale Federal Detention Center , November 29, 1987

Our Lady of Charity

In nine days Pope Francis will be arriving in Cuba. This visit will be taking place in an environment of rising repression and efforts to deepen divisions between the Catholic Church and Cuban democrats. In Cuba the Feast Day was observed by the Castro regime with over 140 detentions of dissidents in order to prevent them participating in religious services. Controversies have emerged in recent months with Cardinal Ortega and some local parish priests have barred women dressed in white from attending Mass calling on them to wear clothing of a different color. This is due to pressures arising from a civic movement in which the women dress in white and nonviolently demand that Cuba's political prisoners be released and the legal system changed in order to end the practice of imprisoning people for exercising their rights.

The Church in Cuba is the one institution, outside of the dissident movement, that is independent of the communist regime. It has been subjected to the infiltration of its institutions, repression and hostility for decades. In 2012 Catholic priest Jose Conrado and protestant minister Mario Felix engaged in a dialogue with Antonio Rodiles on the role of the Christian Church in totalitarian Cuba and the challenges still faced. In the diaspora Bishop Agustin Roman offered an overview of the Cuban dissident movement in 2006.

Within this context the Archdiocese of Miami is calling for a prayer action. Archbishop Thomas Wenski asked the South Florida community at the end of the Solemn Mass on the Feast Day for Our Lady of Charity on September 8, 2015 to prepare for Pope Francis’s visit to Cuba with a novena(nine days of prayer) to the Mother of God under her title of “Desatanudos” (Undoer of Knots). This devotion originated in Germany and is a favorite of Pope Francis.

Daily prayer:

Our Lady, Mother of God and our Mother,
intercessor and advocate in all our spiritual and material needs,
we ask that you untie all the knots that imprison our Cuban people,
the knots of despair, of fear, of loss of God and loss of the values of the faith;
help us break the ties of suspicion, of indifference,
and the sin of not seeing our brother in the other;
of expecting more from the powers of this world than from the strength of God.
We beg you to help us untie, along with you,
all the knots of evil, injustice and sin. Amen.

“Cubans have always been united, regardless of race, class or views, along the same path: the path that leads us to El Cobre.” * 

The concepts and language of human rights first emerged out of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and the idea that human rights are universal out of the Salamanca School at the end of the fifteenth century. In 1550 Bishop Bartolomé De Las Casas enunciated this principle:

“All the races of the world are men, and of all men and of each individual there is but one definition, and this is that they are rational. All have understanding and will and free choice, as all are made in the image and likeness of God . . . Thus the entire human race is one.”

Four centuries later when nations states twice failed to keep the peace plunging the world into global conflagrations of wholesale slaughter in two terrible world wars that involved genocides, in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted and signed by the nations of the world. The document is neither capitalist or communist but informed by the Catholic philosophy of Jacques Maritain and was an initiative led by Latin America.

There are human failings of the Divine Church. Hilaire Belloc best described these failings of the Catholic Church as “an institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.” This is also why, I believe, the Archbishop is calling on Catholics to pray over nine days to prepare Pope Francis's trip to Cuba.

Let us pray to the Mother of God that His will be done.

Remembering Bishop Agustín Román one year later

"The greatest importance of the internal dissident movement in Cuba today, is that it has proven that political action can be consistent with what conscience knows and that is that the force of reason is, and should be more powerful than the reason of force."- Bishop Agustín Román (2006)

Hard to believe it has only been a year since Bishop Agustín Román was called home. His absence has made it feel much longer and a deeper appreciation of his importance to this community and all of us in it.

Over the next few days there will be services held in his honor and prayers both for his eternal repose as well as for his intercession.

Bishop Román once said that "If what we do for Cuba, we do not do for love, better not to do it."  He had a great understanding of what was taking place in the land of his birth and the gift to lay it out in a manner that most could understand.

In the realm of political struggle he was an advocate for nonviolent civil resistance who said that violence was "not be a favored option, much less a practice or method of justifiable struggle."

In 2006 he spoke of the challenges facing Cuba and of the Cuban dissident movement and his observations remain extremely relevant and needed seven years later.

Reclaiming Dialogue from Orwellian Newspeak

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - Winston Churchill 

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. - George Orwell

In July of 2004 Bishop Agustin Roman wrote about the necessity of rescuing, a word that he described as beautiful, but that had been twisted by the dictatorship in Cuba stating:

"It's good that to start this effort, the true meaning of the word dialogue be rescued. We have all witnessed the misrepresentation of this beautiful word, thanks to the manipulations of the dictatorship that has wanted to use it for its own purposes, and also thanks to some complying with the Castro lexicon, perhaps without noticing where the misrepresentation comes from, seem content to have them steal the dictionary, the same ones who previously stole our homeland."

The word dialogue has a long history and to have arisen in the West with Plato and the Greeks over 2,400 years ago. The root meaning of the word dialogue is formed by two words dia and logos which literally means  'two way flow/exchange' of meaning. Dialogue by definition can be applied to literature, drama, music, philosophy and for the focus of this essay in an exchange of ideas and opinions or in a purely political context: "a discussion between representatives of parties to a conflict that is aimed at resolution."

Unfortunately, in our modern era where words often lose their meaning or are twisted to suit particular agendas it appears that the word dialogue has become another victim of Orwellian Newspeak.

In this case "Dialogue is Normalization" that is when two parties meet in order to supposedly represent two parties in a conflict representing their position and interests but in reality one of the parties has invited who will represent their counterparts in the dialogue. This is done in order to promote their particular agenda which often in the case of those in power means normalizing and making permanent injustices committed while legitimizing systematic human rights violations. +972  Magazine offers the following definition of "normalization" which is often times what dialogues with a dictatorship can degenerate into: 

"It is helpful to think of normalization as a “colonization of the mind,” whereby the oppressed subject comes to believe that the oppressor’s reality is the only “normal” reality that must be subscribed to, and that the oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with. Those who engage in normalization either ignore this oppression, or accept it as the status quo that can be lived with." 

There is a spectrum of "normalization" as dialogue at one end you'll find the Brookings Institute that seeks to "overcome obstacles to dialogue" which in practice means acceding to the demands of the dictatorship on a whole host of issues then at the other extreme end is the example of Magda Montiel Davis who at a gathering of Cuban exiles, organized by the Cuban regime, in Havana in order to meet with them and "dialogue" exclaimed to Fidel Castro: "thank-you for what you have done for my people, you have been a great teacher for me."  Montiel Davis then kissed the old dictator on the cheek. The encounter of Montiel Davis with Castro was filmed by regime agents and later sold to Miami broadcasters. 

If you are to represent, as in the case of the Brookings Institution, U.S. interests in a dialogue with Cuba or, as in the case of Magda Montiel Davis, the Cuban exile community then one must represent the parties of the conflict and not seek to ingratiate oneself with the adversary while abandoning your parties positions. Also the gathering should be in a neutral location and each side should select the parties to represent them. In the case of the gathering attended by Ms. Montiel Davis all sides of the conversation were selected by the dictatorship. That is not a dialogue but a sham.

The other danger is to attempt to be "neutral." Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu ably explains the inadequacy of neutrality in a situation of injustice when he observes that:

 “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

Palestinian activists, for example, argue that "dialogue" stands in the way of justice with their conflict with Israel, but one would hope that the Palestinian diaspora would favor an actual dialogue that represents their interests and grievances. Naturally, a dialogue that embraces their adversary while abandoning their claims is another matter. Or to paraphrase the Palestinians into the Cuban context: 

Dialogue would only serve to sanitize the oppressive nature of the Castro regime. Instead, we seek to build the growing movement of people that will bring an end to the dictatorship, that will help restore human and civil rights.

Dialogue redefined as normalization and normalization redefined as caving into the adversary without addressing the underlying positions of the conflict is a recipe for stagnation that benefits those in power and in the end prolongs the conflict. On the other hand a dialogue where both parties meet on an equal playing field in a frank discussion can bear fruit.

Back in 2004, in Miami, Agustin Roman spoke of both the importance and the power of real dialogue while rejecting Orwellian newspeak: 

We begin, then, claiming the Cuban people's right to speak in possession of the real value of the words, that is the only way for good men to understand each other. That's what I would also like to see with the word liberty, with the word justice, with the word democracy, the word patriotism, and with the word peace. That never again those who hijack the essence of these words and deny our people, induce us to use them in a sense different from the goodness of its true meaning. Pray to Him who has the words of eternal life, who is the word of God made flesh, not to allow that they confuse us with the words once again.

Now in 2012, in Cuba, Cuban pro-democracy leader Antonio Rodiles offers a framework of dialogue for the Cuban context which until now, the dictatorship has rejected that Agustin Roman embraced:

Visualizing and working in support of a transition towards democracy in the convoluted scenario in which we live is a process that implies, above all, political and intellectual maturity, honesty, and a high level of civic awareness. We need to understand that such dynamics would not involve just one axis, just one angle. It is impossible to imagine a transition that does not take into account Cubans in Cuba today who hold different points of view. And a transition without full participation of those Cubans outside the Island, who constitute an essential part of our nation, is also inconceivable. It is not possible to outline a transition without the workers, intellectuals, professionals and entrepreneurs both inside and outside the country.

What will you tell him?