More on Vitral: Bishop Serpa Speaks

This is a difficult subject.

The last thing I want to do is get close to the criticism of the church that you can find in Miami media, for alleged cowardice or collaboration. I admire the Cuban church; it is the only independent nationwide institution in Cuba, and its good works are far more numerous and consequential than we can see from afar. Overseas critics who say the church is insufficiently courageous might do well to go to Cuba and try their hand.

But the church is a human institution, and Bishop Serpa of Pinar del Rio issued a very, very human statement yesterday, sort of reminiscent of political figures in our part of the world who step to the microphone to “clarify” and do the opposite.

“No one ever spoke of ‘closing’ or ‘terminating’” the diocesan journal Vitral after 13 years of publication, Serpa says, but he has asked that Vitral maintain “the truth based in the gospel and the social doctrine of the church, without falling into aggressive and argumentative expression.” At the same time, his statement doesn’t clarify at all whether Vitral will continue to be published. He also notes that “no one ever spoke of ‘closing’ or ‘terminating’” the Center for Civic and Religious Education, but it has effectively been dissolved, its functions redistributed to other diocesan committees.

The Bishop’s statement has an undertone of sparring with his own laity, and it makes clear that his priority is the core religious mission of the church. He tends to confirm the rumors I first heard last December in Havana, that the arrival of a new bishop meant that the diocese’s civic and educational activities would be reduced.