Clarification

A reader asks if it’s true that the Cuban government has “in the past has gone over the heads of the local church officials and negotiated directly with the Vatican on issues such as permissions to open new seminaries,” a view attributed to me in this Miami Herald article.

Yes, the Cuban government has at times sidelined the Cuban Catholic Church in its direct contacts with the Vatican.

But I don’t think that is true regarding seminaries. My understanding is that while Pope John Paul II raised the issue of a new seminary in a very public way during his visit to Cuba, the project got under way and was completed as a result of many contacts between the Havana Archdiocese and the government.

The inaccuracy in the article, I’m quite sure, is my fault and not that of reporter Juan Tamayo.

An interesting and positive aspect of the recent talks between the Church and the government is that they did not center on internal Church issues but rather on prisoners and human rights, and that the Cuban government is recognizing the Church as a valid interlocutor in such talks.