Indirect Confrontation:The Evolution of the Political Strategy of the Cuban Catholic
an active socio-religious force in Cuban society. The church affirmed
that its leaders in Cuba were staying, and they implored their faithful
to stay as well. This also signaled the extent to which Cuban church
leaders distanced themselves from the church in exile (centered in
Miami), a church they believed was far removed from Cuba’s social
reality. Part of the goal of the ENEC conference was for church lead-
ers to proclaim their independence and autonomy as Cuba’s national
church. The Cuban Catholic Church came into its own not only by
drawing contrasts with the revolutionary government but with the
extreme confrontational views of the United States and the Cuban
community in exile. According to Fr. Fernando De la Vega of the
Montserrat Church of Havana, the priority of the ENEC conference
was not only to recognize that the Cuban Revolution had produced a
new fundamental social reality, but to convince Cuban Catholics that
it was worth the trouble to stay in Cuba. Just as the church was using
the occasion to fix itself, Cuban Catholics should try to fix Cuba from
within: “In 1986, the principal objective was to formulate a plan that
addressed the national reality...The goal of ENEC was to say, ‘Don’t
leave. Let’s see what we have to offer here.’”^4 The Cuban Catholic
Church would become a missionary church and begin planting roots
amongst the destitute of Cuban society as they had never done before.
In 1991, the situation changed dramatically. The collapse of the
Soviet Union sparked a profound change of thinking amongst the
church hierarchy, especially in its strategy for dealing with the govern-
ment. It now looked as though the Cuban government, like the many
satellite communist states of Eastern Europe, was destined for a simi-
lar demise. The loss of Soviet subsidies led to an economic crisis
unprecedented in Cuban history. The Cuban Catholic Church may not
have been prepared for the sweeping social changes of the Cuban
Revolution, but it now sought to prepare itself to assume a larger role
in a post-revolutionary Cuba. Church leaders had never changed their
harsh views of the revolutionary government, but they had come to
recognize the importance of strategizing how they would interact with- Fr. Fernando De la Vega, interview by author, Havana, Cuba, 2006.