Untitled - Convivencia

WHAT COMES AFTER THE POPE’S VISIT?nd the Legacy of his visit.Editorial 26. Mar-Apr 2012. Convivencia Magazine. www.convivenciacuba.es“You are and should be the protagonists ofyour own personal and national history.”(John Paul II, Cuba 1998)The two visits by the Supreme Pontiffs of theCatholic Church are landmarks that show astep forward taken by Cuba civil society. Cubahas changed and not only and not always forthe worse. Our opinion is that between bothapostolic visits there is a process that goesforward: the process of the awakening of theconscience of many persons in Cuba civilsociety and it goes toward citizen adulthoodwhich is still developing.Fourteen years is enough to sense thedifference in Cuba society composition andthe balance of forces between the differentsocial actors. The Cuban State has won whatlasts least. The Church has won, in the shortrun, a part of what is inherent to it. But therest of Cuba civil society is the one that haswon most. Yes, civil society has lost becausethere is frustration due to the manipulation ofthe movements and gestures of the Pope’svisit by the State; but civil society has wonbecause since it was not recognized as aninterlocutor it’s aware of the fact that it mustforward in the process of citizen awakeningwithout expecting foreign messianisms. Andthis is what lasts most, what matures andbenefits the nation most, in the medium andlong run; though it may hurt. More thancomplaining hopelessly, we intend to analizeother aspects of this visit regarding four of itsmultiple facets: Cuba in the showcase; thePope’s gestures for Cuba; thePope’s messagesto Cuba and the Legacy of his visit.Cuba in the showcaseThe country that the Pope is visiting becomesthe center of attention for all mass media andthis fact is always positive. When suchtransparency is attained the world has anextraordinary opportunity to know first handthe reality the Cuban people is living, therelations of domination that the authoritieshave established with their own citizens aswell as the difference in the methods used bythe government, the opposition and the restof Cuba civil society. To know what reallyhappens at least for a few days, gives peoplean idea of the way things are and results ofveracity about the observed nation are alwayspresent.The Pope’s gesturesSaint Peter’s successor, on one hand, has hadgestures of great closeness and admiration forCuba, its cultural and religious patrimony, itsfounding fathers several times mentioned.One of those positive symbolic gestures wasto raise the devotion for the Virgin of Charityof El Cobre to the most eminent level ofuniversal Catholic mercy expressions when hepresented the Virgin with the Golden Rose.Another gesture was the possibility forpersons from the exile and the Diaspora,members of the one and only Cuban Nation,to participate in the celebrations. However,the organizers of the pontifical visit could finda time not only for the courtesy call to theHead of State –absolutely normal andappreciable in all countries visited by thePope- but also for other encounters withpersons who no longer hold public posts. ThisEdiciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 2012108