[BOB] ABERNETHY: For the ordinary Cubans, after all these years of official atheism by the state, persecution of religion in Cuba, are the ordinary Cubans wanting to have, be able to worship again? Are they wanting to be religious again?
[PATRICIA] ZAPOR: Well, Cubans want all sorts of freedoms, religious freedom among them. Atheism officially went away in 1992, and since then the Catholic Church has been creating more space for itself, and in ways that are trying to reach out to more Catholics, more of the general population of Cuba, and people want to participate in these things. There’s an energy.
ABERNETHY: But I think it’s, what, just a little over half of people who identify themselves as Catholics, and five percent of them only who go to Mass.
From Human Rights Watch:
“The arrests, beatings, and threats against dissidents in the lead up to the pope’s visit suggest the Cuban government will do everything in its power to quash any dissent while the world’s attention is on the island,†said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch. “These repressive acts underscore just how little space there is in Cuba for any view that doesn’t align with the Castro government.â€
Pope says Cuban MARXISM needs change…
In Havana, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, asked about the pontiff’s comments, told journalists that the island’s governing system “is a DEMOCRATIC social project … which is constantly perfecting itself.†[CAPS MINE.]
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/23/2710463/pope-says-cuban-marxism-needs.html#morer#storylink=cpy
A week before Pope Benedict XVI visits Cuba, a U.S. government panel [the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom] on religious freedom has alleged “serious†violations on the island, including arrests of pastors and “pressure to prohibit democracy and human rights activists†from church activities.
“Serious religious freedom violations continue in Cuba despite some improvements,†noted the report, issued Wednesday, which also listed a number of arrests and pressures on individual religious leaders, all of them Protestant pastors.
“Things are not improving as much for the Protestant communities, especially the evangelicals, because the government seems to have some distrust there,†Commission Chairman Leonard Leo told El Nuevo Herald.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/22/2706535/us-panel-on-religious-freedom.html#storylink=cpy