The Church Knows Cubans' Unshakeable Faith

V.I.S. - Wednesday 30 October 1996

VATICAN CITY, OCT 30, 1996 (VIS) - Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States, celebrated a Mass on October 27 at the church of St. Rita in Havana, Cuba, and told those present: "In truth, the universal Church and the Holy See know your unshakable faith and your filial and firm adhesion to the Successor of St. Peter."

Archbishop Tauran spoke of the challenge of the "growing request for services that a huge number of faithful requires of the Church and that currently overflows its own possibilities for lack of personnel and means."

He pointed out that "another of the challenges the Church finds in Cuba is that of aid to the neediest. ... This aid, of course, is not limited to material solidarity, but comprises also projects of human promotion and social development. ... One of the aspects on which the Holy See has focused all of its attention in Cuba is this one, the exercising of charity."

Underlining that Church-State relations cannot be reduced to merely guaranteeing the practice of worship, he said that "throughout the world they also include other aspects that are related to the rest of the aspects of the triple ecclesial mission, such as charity and prophetism."

The secretary for Relations with States observed that "the political community and the Church are independent and autonomous, each in its own territory." And he added: "I have come to Cuba to continue to cultivate this autonomy and this cooperation in the service of man."

"With all of you," concluded Archbishop Tauran, "I await the day when the Successor of Peter, Pope John Paul II, will come to visit you here, in your land, to tell you thank you for your witness, give you encouragement to continue being architects of reconciliation and progress in today's Cuba, seal a climate of religious freedom and trust between the Church and the Cuban State."