Nearly 750 Cuban activists have signed a letter to Pope Benedict XVI warning that his planned visit to Cuba will “send a message to the oppressors that they can continue” to abuse Catholic opponents, dissidents reported Thursday.
“We would be very happy to receive you in our country, if the message of faith, love and hope that you could bring us also would serve to halt the repression against those who want to go to church,” the letter said.
“…some of the faithful are visited by the political police between Friday and Saturday of each week, to be warned that they will not be allowed to attend mass – and indeed they are arrested on Sunday,” the letter added.”
Before Castro, faithful people in the pews would have vehemently asserted that this sort of thing would NEVER happen in Cuba.