NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH 

THE VARELA PROJECT AND THE CLASH WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CUBA

By Nelson P. Valdés

The "Varela project" may appear to many observers to be an open challenge to the political rule of the Cuban revolutionary government. What people do not realize is that the "Varela project" has created much dissension and crisis within the Catholic Church inside Cuba .

The initiative has disclosed a split between a portion of the organized lay Catholics  (laicos) and the Catholic hierarchy. This has affected the clergy as well since a small portion supports the project while the majority does not.

Moreover, the project's supporters are attempting to use the initiative to force the Catholic Church hierarchy to take a more confrontational stance vis a vis the Cuban government.

Until recently the Cuban lay Catholic movement was split between two personalities: Oswaldo Payá vis a vis Dagoberto Valdés. Paya has not enjoyed the support of the Catholic Church proper, but Dagoberto Valdés had - until now.

Valdés has a very close personal and religious relationship with Mons . José Siro González Bacallao, bishop of Pinar del Río. Moreover, he enjoys a unique role within the Catholic community in the island.

Dagoberto Valdés is Director of the Centro de Formación Cívica y Religiosa and President of the Comisión Católica para la Cultura of Pinar del Río. These are the functions that under the umbrella of the Catholic Church allow him to lead in an ideological confrontation with the Cuban state in general and the Communist Party in particular. Valdés is also a member of the Executive Secretariat of the Union of the Catholic Press of Cuba (Catholics have 14 publications in the island, none censored).

Valdés is also a member of the Vatican 's Council on Peace and Justice and leads the Pinar del Rio Catholic lay workers as well as a major figure at the Civic and Religious Education Center of Pinar del Rio province. This is a center whose purpose is to train adults into the social, economic and philosophical thought of the Catholic Church - the stuff that has served as the foundation of Christian democratic political parties in Europe and Latin America . His work, in other words, has political implications - particularly for the future.

Valdés, however, has not taken openly a political stance that directly confronts the state - as Oswaldo Payá has done. Payá has initiated numerous political initiatives since the late 80s. Valdés is very involved with the magazine Vitral - a sort of theology, culture and political philosophy publication that is published by the Catholic Church. [See: http://www.vitral.org/] It is a very important publication to know. However, Paya and Valdés had been working together as of late; and in a sense Valdés has become more independent of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Oswaldo Payá lives in Havana but has not secured official church backing; in fact, Cardinal Jaime Ortega - who also heads the church in Havana - refuses to support the work of Payá.  Payá only enjoys the backing, and only on a personal level, of Mons . Pedro Meurice, Arzobispo de Santiago de Cuba .

Mons . Meurice has been President of the Commissions on Culture, Justice and Peace within the Catholic Church. In that commission he worked with Payá and Valdés. Until 2 months ago Meurice was Vice President of the Conference of Bishops of Cuba. Under his leadership the Commission called for a meeting of lay workers in Cienfuegos - the 8th Catholic Social Week held in 10-13 de October 2001. Yet, Meurice, himself, did not participate, but instead went to Miami . In his absence Payá and Valdés agreed to work together and support each other in order to move lay Catholic workers into a more activist political stance.  This was done independent of the Catholic Church hierarchy and, in fact, produced a profound tension.

Because of that alliance, done under the umbrella of Mons . Meurice, the latter was forced to declare - aiming at the lay workers - that   "No es misión de la Iglesia quitar o poner rey. Sí es su misión proclamar el Evangelio con todos los valores que el Evangelio tiene." That is, it is not the mission of the church to get involved with political issues. [See: Revista Vitral No. 47 * año VIII * enero-febrero 2002 ]. In that fashion the Catholic hierarchy was attempting to avoid the kind of confrontation that some of the lay Catholics from Havana and Pinar del Rio have sought with the Cuban government. The reference to putting or removing kings, obviously meant involvement in Cuban politics.

At the Cienfuegos meeting the lay Catholics from Pinar del Rio and Havana got closer together and Valdés decided to throw his support behind Paya's "Varela project." However, the Catholic Church - officially, did not agree with the project. The hierarchy considers that Payá is not sophisticated enough and moreover that the project has serious constitutional/legal flaws that make his challenge less than serious. Of course, none of these things are openly stated. Payá's people leaked to the foreign media that the Commission favored the "Varela project", which was not entirely accurate.

In fact, at a review of the October 2001 meeting Meurice reminded lay Catholics (on November 20, 2001) that the gathering was not just of lay people but of the entire ecclesiastical community ["las Semanas Sociales son, en sí mismas, una celebración de toda la comunidad eclesial y no solo de los laicos"] and reminded them that priests had received from God the mission of teaching and guiding the Catholics of the island [Los pastores, que hemos recibido de Cristo la misión de enseñar y guiar al pueblo de Dios].

A challenge to the hierarchy surfaced on June 8, 2002 when the Council of Lay People from the Diocesis of Pinar del Río issued a declaration on the "Varela project." Dagoberto Valdés was behind this initiative. Using references to Catholic Church documents and the Cienfuegos meeting of last year it stated that the "Varela Project" should be known by the Cuban people. This was a formula that avoided stating that it supported the Varela Project initiative, but went on record identifying with it.

Dagoberto Valdés' organization, moreover, recruited three priests within Pinar del Rio to read the statement - without first checking with the province's bishop (who, at the time was ill and receiving treatment in Havana ). A parish priest, using the Pinar del Rio cathedral read the document on June 9th. (See; http://64.21.33.164/ref/dis/06110201.htm)

The Pinar del Rio diocesis is presently split over what position to take toward Dagoberto Valdes' initiative and Paya. Paya's supporters immediately leaked the news that "Catholic priests" (only 3 throughout the country) had read a document prepared by lay Catholics in "support" of the Paya project. This was a maneuver to force the Catholic hierarchy to take an open position on the project.

Contrary to what people may consider, the "Varela project" may have to do more with the relations of power and authority within the Catholic Church than with a call to drastically change the Cuban political system.

##########

Nelson P. Valdés is a Sociology Professor at the University of New Mexico .