Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:43:42 -0500
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (Hariette Spierings)
Subject: M-I: CASTROITE REVISIONISM AND CLERICALISM (II)


"Today, in Europe or in Russia, any defence or justification of the idea of
God, even the most refined and well intentioned, is a defence of reaction.
All the meaning this has is reactionary and bourgeois from head to
tail....... The idea of God has always served to deaden and put to sleep
social sentiments, substituting living things by rotting carcasses.... The
idea of God has never served to link the individual with society, on the
contrary, it has served to thether the opressed classes with the belief in
the divine character of the oppressors.... The popular idea of God and of
divine things is popular ignorance, brutality and obscurantism, exactly the
same as the popular image of the Tsar, the Silvanus, or dragging the women
by the hair".

V.I. Lenin - Letter to Maxim Gorki - December 1913, first published in 1924.

NOTE:

The following article of El Diario Internacional is a introductory piece to
the analysis that El Diario has been carrying out in relation to the
different problems regarding Cuba.  El Diario's analysis will be concluded
next May and will then be published in Spanish, French and English.

Committee Sol Peru London

Press Commission  




>From El Diario Internacional Number 44 (February 1998) (Part II)


A Brief Summary of John Paul II Pilgrimage:

CUBA: RELIGION IS NO LONGER THE OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE

- CONTINUES FROM PREVIOUS POSTING

-----


THE STAGES OF THE POPE'S PILGRIMAGE     

The Pope's Festival in Cuba was a grand occasion. According to the Cuban
media at least a million Cubans partook of the masses and religious
processions headed by John Paul II.  It is said that the Pope's pilgrimage
during his 5 days in the island took him over 3,000 km.  Only at the open
air mass at the summit of mount Capiro, the Pope had a congregation of over
150.000. On January 23 the Pope went to the University of Habana and there
the dean of this institution saluted his visit as an "historic event".

In this occasion the Pope repeated the speech he always gives when visiting
the poor countries.  he spoke of the "family" as the nucleus of society. He
spoke of "youth".  He referred to the "motherland" like if he was treading
the streets of Sarayevo. He advanced his thesis about "human freedom" being
achievable without the need to change the ruling social order.  

The Pope's campaign climaxed with an spectacular at Revolution Square. There
a "Queen of Cuba" was crowned. The Holy Reign of the "Copper Virgin of
Charity" (Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre) was proclaimed and at the end of
the Pope's show, this "divine Queen" was decorated by Fidel Castro himself.

THE FAREWELLS

Castro did not want to miss any opportunity to express his praise to the
holy pilgrim.  At the farewell ceremony that took place on january 25 at the
International Airport, the leader of the Cuban revolution gave a speech.
This can only be described as an authentic profession of his Christian
faith.  Castro said:

"Your Holiness":


"....I believe that we have given a good example to the world: You, by
visiting the country some have taken to call the last bastion of communism;
we, by receiving the religious leader who these same people have attributed
the responsability of having destroyed socialism in Europe....."

".......I am deeply moved by the efforts of Your Holiness on behalf of a
fairer world. The states will dissapear and the peoples will become a single
human family. If the globalisation of solidarity that Your Holiness
proclaims was to be extended to the entire world and the abundant wealth
that man can produce with his talent and his labour are equitatively
distributed among all the human beings that today inhabit this planet, truly
a world for them could be established, without hunger or poverty; without
oppresion or explotation; without humiliations and discriminations; without
injustices and inequalities. A world where to live with full moral and
material dignity, in real freedom.  That would be a fairer world. Your ideas
on evangelisation and ecumenism would not be in contradiction with this world". 


PRAISED BE THE LORD JESUS

The farewell speech of the Pope was in full accordance with the success of
the religious pilgrimage to the island.  The parting message of John Paul II
before boarding his plane was aimed at extolling the Christian religion and
to portraying this faith as the spiritual force that the poor require to
gain salvation from all mankind's evils, including hunger. 

Here below, some excerpts from the speech delivered by "God's representative
on earth" on leaving Cuba:

".....As the Successor of the Apostle Peter and following on the footsteps
of the Lord I came as the messenger of truth and hope, to confirm you in the
faith and to leave behind a message of peace and reconciliation with
Christ....."

"Before leaving this city I want to express my deep felt farewell to all the
sons and daughters of this country.  To those who live in the cities, and to
those who live in the fields.  To the children, the youth and the elderly.
To all families and to each person. I trust that they will continue to
preserve and promote the most genuine values of the Cuban soul. That -
keeping faith with the inheritance of your ancestors - you will know how to
show, in the midst of difficulties, your trust in their God, in their
Christian faith, in their union with the Church, in their love towards the
culture and traditions of the motherland and its vocation for justice and
freedom.  In this process, all Cubans are enjoined to contribute to the
common good within a climate of mutual respect and with a deep sense of
solidarity..... "

"........why are the Cuban skies opening up in tears?  Is it because the
Pope is leaving us, because he is leaving us behind?  That would be a
superficial impression. I think that would be the lowest common denominator
of understanding.  This rain during the last hours of our stay in Cuba can
be an omen of hope..... let this rain be a good omen, a new impulse for our
history.... Praised be the Lord Jesus Christ!".


THE HOLY VISITATION:  WHO IS THE BENEFICIARY?


Up to now we have presented the facts of the Pope's visit to Cuba in an
objective fashion.  For this we have used the official speeches of the main
dramatis personae (Castro and the Pope).  Now it is time to formulate some
questions:

Who are the winners and who are the losers from this Holy pilgrimage?  Is
there anything in the assertion that holds that the Pope's visit serves to
break the Yankee blockade against Cuba?

In order to understand the political - and rather unholy - background of the
Pope's pilgrimage to Cuba we have to briefly go over the history of the
catholic Church.  A quick glance will show that the mysticism and
sanctimonious showmanship that serves to decorate the pilgrimages of John
Paul II to the poor countries of the world are part and parcel of a "misse
en scene" aimed at butressing religious beliefs to the benefit of the rich
and the powerful.

The Catholic Church - and this Pope in particular - follow strategies and
plans that serve the economic, political and ideological interests of the
imperialist powers.  In Latin America, any activity of the Catholic Church -
as well as that of other religions - is always geared to supporting and
butressing the system of oppresion, the interests of the US transnationals
and all other power elites.

The continous visits that John Paul II made to Poland, his meetings and
embraces with Gorbachev and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church,
his messages to the believers in Romania, the former Democratic German
Republic and other countries of the East, were not precisely geared to
helping out in strenghtening independent or democratic regimes.  

On the contrary.  The Catholic Church, in cahoots with the most reactionary
forces inside those countries worked intensely for the liquidation of what
was regarded as "socialism" in those countries.

In latin America this has not been any different. In March of 1983 this same
Pope undertook a pilgrimmage to "Socialist Nicaragua".  There he was
received in nearly as much triumph as in his recent Cuban visit.  Daniel
Ortega, the Nicaraguan President at the time was rather extravagant in his
praise and ceremonies of respect towards the Holy Father.  Even one of the
Sandinista ministers (Ernesto Cardenal) prostrated himself to kiss the ring
in the divine messenger's hand.

The rest of the story is well known. The religious establishment in
Nicaragua redoubled its attacks against the Sandinistas and the "socialist
peril".  Nicaragua returned to the US fold and the welath of the country
continues in the hands of the Yankee monopolies.

It is eveident that no matter how much this trip of John Paul II may be
presented as simply a pastoral visitation, it has a political content and
its fundamental objective seeks exclusively the strenghtening of the world
system of imperialism.

This trip seeks the consolidation of the imperialist thesis alleging that
with the "failure of communism" we have reached the "end of history".  That
the Pope may proclaim his opposition to the US blockade means rather little.
We do not believe that with this proclamation things will change for the
Cuban people.  
This declaration is just an expression of phlistine cant. If the Vatican is
really in favour of the poor and opposses the Yankee's policies, why do they
not order the Catholic hierachy throughout the world to distance itself from
pro-imperialist states and regimes? 

The fact is that reality is very different. Relaity shows Cardinals, Bishops
and Catholic leaders collaborating with and defending all pro-imperialist
governments in latin America and other parts of the world.


TO BE CONTINUED IN PART III  

        



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