Indirect Confrontation:The Evolution of the Political Strategy of the Cuban Catholic
exile and dissident activists on the island to assume a more direct con-
frontational approach with the government. Though many dissident
movements in Cuba have tied their activities to Catholic symbols—
including Oswaldo Payá's Christian Liberation Movement (CLM) and
the wives of those dissidents imprisoned during the 2003 ‘Black
Spring’ who for 7 years have marched from the Santa Rita Church in
Miramar through Havana as the Ladies in White—the relationship
between the dissident community and the Cuban Catholic Church has
been far from amiable. Despite the perception on the part of govern-
ment officials that the church has provided institutional space, finan-
cial resources, and moral support to the dissidents, many Catholic
activists have called out the leaders of the Cuban Catholic Church for
not being vocal enough, a frustration born of the church’ s adherence
to a strategy of indirect confrontation.
A 2002 article in Palabra Nueva by the magazine’s director
Orlando Márquez clearly outlined the church's relationship to Cuba's
dissident community. Entitled “The Project of the Church,” Márquez
responded to criticism the Catholic Church received for not endorsing
Oswaldo Payá’s Varela Project, a petition of 11,020 signatures of
Cuban citizens organized by the CLM and presented to the Cuban
National Assembly in 2002 proposing laws that would entail compre-
hensive political reforms, including the establishment of freedom of
association, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free elections,
and amnesty for political prisoners. In the article, Márquez proclaims
the church’s neutrality in questions of political disputes: the church
does not and will not endorse or adhere to any partisan political pro-
grammes. Making clear that he speaks for the hierarchy in the pages of
Palabra Nueva, Márquez goes on to outline the project of the Cuban
Catholic Church:
“Should the church define itself—and this magazine is an instrument
of the church—according to the criteria of political actors, or should it
strive to maintain its independence in such subjects, immersing itself in
a pastoral of reconciliation and preserving its obligation with the peo-
ple to fulfill the mission received from Jesus Christ? That is the project
of the church.”^9