Inside Casaroli’s “Incorporation into the Context” – Folha de S. Paulo, June 30, 1974

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Mrs. Eugenia Guzmán, an intelligent and dynamic Cuban living in Miami, kindly sent me a photocopy of the Sunday paper Vida Cristiana (May 18, 1974), the only Catholic publication authorized in Cuba.

The organ begins publishing a message from His Holiness Pope Paul VI to the Cuban Episcopate. From it, I highlight this passage: “Considering the course of your ecclesial life ‘with that hope which will not be confounded’ (Rom. 5:5), we wish to express our satisfaction that, amid the profound changes taking place in your society, you are striving to give impetus to Christian renewal within your communities, encouraging vocations to the consecrated life and greater coordination of apostolic work through a better combination of the various forces: priestly, religious, and laypeople. We rejoice in this and urge you to persevere on the good path you have undertaken, whose goal is the building up of a mature Church, with a personal deepening of the faith of Christians that enables them to overcome all obstacles and imbue their lives and activities with charity.”

This topic sets the tone for the portion of the papal document published so far. I am not surprised that, given this tone, the message was published in its entirety despite the severe censorship imposed by Fidel Castro. Nothing in it challenges the rule of the police state and the egalitarian dictatorship over the island.

Upon careful reading, it becomes clear that the text implicitly invites Catholics to collaborate with the communist regime. The Holy Father advises them to act in Fidel’s Cuba and expresses vague hopes for the outcome of that action. He speaks as if the terrible oppression of the communist regime did not exist. He also discourages Catholics from fighting by abstracting from the presence of the adversary in the very field where they must act.

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Archbishop Casaroli took it upon himself to state incisively what the Supreme Pontiff merely hinted at—with such artistry and subtlety, incidentally. In the same issue of Vida Cristiana, we read a homily the prelate delivered at Havana Cathedral on April 4. In it, he praises the Church in Cuba for being “vitally incorporated into the current Cuban social context,” that is, into the communist regime. Even more, he praises it for acting “not as an element of harmful division, but as a beneficial leaven of fraternity,” that is, for not fighting against communism.

Doesn’t a terrible yoke weigh heavily on Cuban Catholics? Archbishop Casaroli acknowledges this in a qualified way when he says the Church in Cuba “lacks many of the means of apostolate that other churches have.” But he urges them to settle for less, stating that the Church in Cuba “does not seek manifestations of triumph, but wants to deepen the roots of its faith.” Accept the yoke, then, and everything will still be fine.

Catholics should comfortably “incorporate” themselves into the communist social context, limiting themselves to “deepening the roots of their faith” in some obscure corner of a church or a sacristy.

Is all this a lie spread by Vida Cristiana under pressure from the dictator? If so, we await Mr. Federico Alessandrini’s denial of these additional statements on the prelate’s behalf.