[Marxism] Raul Castro attends first beatification ceremony in Cuba

[Walter Lippmann]

What is Washington's blockade of Cuba? It's an attempt by the most
powerful country on earth to isolate and starve the island of Cuba
into such desperate conditions that its people will rise up and 
welcome back rule from the United States and Miami. The attempt to
isolate Cuba from the world, and to isolate Cuba from the people 
of the United States, is the central prop in the blockade, which
our colleague JSCOTLIVE regrettably fails to comprehend. 

When the Cuban leadership acts decisively to expose and defeat
such efforts at isolation, some people like JSCOTLIVE seem to 
find reasons to fret and to fulminate. Is the Cuban Revolution
degenerating as some like JSCOTLIVE suggests? I beg to 

Fidel Castro sat on the platform ten, nearly eleven years ago, as
Pope John Paul II led the assembled audience in prayer. I doubt
that the Cuban leader himself prayed, as I doubt that Raul Castro
joined in prayer Saturday at the ceremony in Camaguey.

Below is today's GRANMA report on Raul's attendance at the event.
This article is one of only two articles on the front page of the
daily today, distributed all over Cuba. As anyone can see, there
is no endorsement of Roman Catholicism, beatification or any other
element of Roman Catholic theology. Participation by Raul and the
other members of the island's leadership, including the Communist
Party's director of its religious affairs office constitutes an
expression of respect, which was returned, but nothing more than
that. There were many articles in the international press about
Saturday's events. None claimed that Raul or anyone else in the
Cuban leadership engaged in religious activity at the event.

In his roman-a-clef REDEMPTION, Tariq Ali amusingly satirized the
reactions to some in the world Trotskyist movement to the fall of
the Soviet Union. He humorously suggested that a character who was
reminscent of Ernest Mandel proposed that the Trotskyist movement
dissolve and reconfigure itself in religious garb. While Raul and
the Cuban leadership have a sense of humor, it hasn't gone as far
as that, at least from all the facts brought out up to now.

For some people, atheism seems function like a counter-religion, 
and not the simple "absence of God" which the very term itself 
actually signifies. They just can't handle anyone believing in
any kind of relgious beliefe system.


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
=================================================================
ALSO: Manuel E. Yepe on Religious Freedom in Cuba:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2183.html 
=================================================================

GRANMA
December 1, 2008

(Spanish original including photo)
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/12/01/nacional/artic02.html

Raul Castro Attends Beatification of Fray Jose Olalla Valdes

CAMAGUEY.— Cuban President Raul Castro attended the beautification ceremony on Saturday
of Fray Jose Olallo Valdes, a member of the Hospitallier Order of Saint John of 
God. 

Among those attending the ceremony were Vice President Esteban Lazo Hernandez; Army
General Ramon Espinosa Martin; Caridad Diego, head of the Religious Affairs office
of the Communist Party Central Committee; and Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal.
Also present were Julio Cesar Garcia Rodriguez, first secretary of the Communist
Party for Camaguey; and Jesus Garcia Collazao, president of the provincial government.

Vatican representative, Cardinal Jose Saraiva from Portugal led the mass in the 
Plaza de la Libertad of Camaguey, which included the presence of Papal Nuncio Monsignor
Luigi Bonazzi; Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, the archbishop of Havana; Camaguey
Archbishop Juan Garcia, and many bishops and worshipers of the archdiocese and 
the diocese of the country.

Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins passed on the greetings of Pope Benedict XVI to the
Cuban people and authorities, and read the apostolic letter proclaiming the beautification
of Fray Jose Olallo Valdes, signed by the Pope on March 15, 2008. More than a hundred
members of the Hospitallier Order of Saint John of God from several countries traveled
to Camaguey to participate in the occasion along with thousands of Cubans. 

The urn with the remains of Father Olallo was transported by a procession and placed
close to the altar. During the ceremony, Monsignor Juan Garcia and General Superior
of the Hospitallier Order William Forkan spoke words of appreciation for the beatification
of Fray Jose Olallo Valdes.

Deacon Miguel Angel Ortiz of the La Soledad de Camaguey Church handed Raul Castro
a polyglot bible as a gift from the archbishop of the city.

When the ceremony ended, Raul greeted the Church authorities and other members of
the clergy, nuns, laypersons and the people of Camaguey who applauded him.

The procession then took the remains of the “father of the poor” to the San Juan
de Dios Plaza, the place where he carried out his exemplary work for the neediest
and where on May 12, 1873, and at great risk, he washed the body of Maj. Gen. Ignacio
Agramonte Lynaz, who died the day before fighting for Cuban independence.

With his beautification, the Catholic Church can now pay tribute to Father Olallo
in Cuba. 


==================================================================
JSCOTLIVE writes:
This official endorsement of the medieval rituals of the Catholic
Church in Cuba over 50 years after the Revolution can in no way be
described as progressive. To do so is to lapse into the realms of
make believe. On the contrary, and sadly, this event merely
constitutes further evidence that the blockade and resulting
isolation economic stranglehold and isolation it has placed around
Cuba has not only stopped the progress of socialism, it has
unfortunately succeeded in pushing it back.

It is indeed a sad day for Cuba and for socialists everywhere to 
see such an event take place. That Walter even attempts to place 
a positive spin on it merely reflects his continued political
degeneration. In this, it seems, Walter is yet another casualty of
the blockade.

=========================================
     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
=========================================