RELIGION

Allocution, August 29, XXII Sunday in Ordinary Time

El cardenal Juan de la Caridad García, arzobispo de La Habana invita en su alocución dominical a repasar los Diez Mandamientos de la Ley de Dios y preguntarnos, si al cumplir lo que Dios nos pide, sean realmente necesarias las miles de leyes que existen en el mundo. “El Señor –nos recuerda- quiere que vivamos lo esencial apegados a la verdad. Así podremos amar”. […]

RELIGION

XXII Sunday in Ordinary Time

The lack of authenticity and coherence in so many Christians today causes the Church to lose presence and visibility, to dilute worldliness and consumerism, to cease to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Our worship will be authentic if it is accompanied by works of fraternal charity; Our meetings will be fruitful if there is in them compassionate and merciful love for all. Our life will be authentically Christian if we preach first by example and then by word, if we live what we believe and believe what we say. May the Lord never have to say of us: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” […]

Fr. Manuel Uña Fernández y Fr. Cirilo González Santamaría
RELIGION

Brothers from dawn to dusk

There are people who are part of the history of others, because Providence places them together in various sections of the way. Such is the case of the Dominican Fathers Cirilo González Santamaría and Manuel Uña Fernández. According to the latter’s account, the two met as children and received the priestly order on the same day and at age 23. Both, too, once again shared their fortunes overseas, in this Cuba that embraced them as children. Days after the death of Fr. Cirilo, his brother and friend of his is certain that they were both like Fr. Bartolomé de las Casas, Dominicans “of the two shores”, of the two worlds. […]

Signis-Padre Castor
RELIGION

Entrevista al padre José Castor

Cuando le preguntaron, al día siguiente, qué estaba pensando cuando salió a acompañar a los manifestantes del 11J en la ciudad cubana de Camagüey, el Padre José Castor dijo que había rezado en busca de claridad para actuar. El resultado de esa oración fue su cercanía a las protestas, para acompañar a aquellos que reclamaban sus derechos pacíficamente y evitar la violencia. Su integridad le costó una herida en la cabeza —su agresor lo golpeó con un bate— y el resto de la jornada en prisión. Hablamos hoy con ese hombre manso y de razón práctica, sobre cómo vivió los acontecimientos y de qué modo aquel día cambió a Cuba y a su gente. […]

SOCIETY

The flight of the swallows

What will be the brand of gastronomy in this gap of time? Prevented from going to restaurants, pizzerias and coffee shops, Cubans are forced to buy to go, or order by phone, with the corresponding increase in the price of the latter option. It would have been the time of luxury for online shopping, but the poor quality of the local internet, and the high costs of the product and the messaging, make it a minority service, not popular. So what will typify the gastronomy of these pandemic years? In any case, food as a feast of the senses is not present, it is an absence. We only feed ourselves – as we can – to stay alive. […]

CULTURE

Skilled in painting and on the move

The Twist (2021) by Martin Owen wants to dissociate himself soon not from the literary reference of Charles Dickens, but from the probable association with what is perhaps the most remembered film adaptation of all time: Oliver! (1968) by Carol Reed. The film entertains very little in its tangled plot. The script is obvious. What really concerns here are the movements on rooftops and esplanades, where Oliver Twist lags behind both the version of 1912 and that of Romans Polański of 2005. […]

RELIGION

Alocución, 22 de agosto, XXI domingo del tiempo ordinario

En su alocución dominical el cardenal Juan de la Caridad García, arzobispo de La Habana nos recuerda que hoy también Dios nos pregunta a nosotros si queremos dejarle, si preferimos el camino del mal, del odio, de los vicios, de la destrucción familiar, del abandono de los ancianos…. el camino de la negación de Dios. “Ante esta interrogante nuestra respuesta es seguirle siempre, pues Él tiene palabras de amor, paz, concordia, entrega sacrificada por el prójimo… Mi familia y yo te serviremos, Dios nuestro; y caminaremos y viviremos contigo ahora, diciendo sí a tolo bueno, y diciendo no a todo lo malo. Tu palabra nos indica el camino, y tu cuerpo y sangre, presentes en la Eucaristía, en la Comunión, nos fortalecen para ser felices en la misión de amor que nos pides”. […]

San Egidio
RELIGION

San Egidio: the inn of the Good Samaritan

Responding to a request from the Office of Humanitarian Affairs of the Office of the City Historian and the municipal and provincial directorates of Public Health in the Cuban capital, the Community of San Egidio agreed to convert its headquarters in Havana into a center of isolation. for cases of positive children to Covid 19. […]

RELIGION

XXI Sunday in Ordinary Time

God has created us free, to think, choose and act accordingly. Freedom, for better or for worse, is what most resembles us to God, it is the characteristic that best reflects the image of him in us. Those who seek to take possession of the freedom of others, in any of its forms or levels, are wanting to occupy the place due to God alone. Those who allow personal freedom to be curtailed in the name of any reason or cause, no matter how just and noble it may seem, are allowing the most essential and valuable part of their person to deteriorate and perhaps disappear. Every human person, as being intelligent, free and capable of loving, similar to God, is qualified and called to choose his destiny and to make the opportune decisions to achieve it; to think, decide and act accordingly to being essentially free from it. […]

El desafío de la escucha en el proceso sinodal
RELIGION

The challenge of listening in the synodal process

Next October, the Pope will begin a three-year synodal journey divided into three phases (diocesan, continental and universal). The Catholic Church in Cuba is preparing to initiate a process in each diocese that will involve as many baptized as possible. The Cuban Conference of Religious (CONCUR), in coordination with the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC) and the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), is promoting throughout the Island a Listening Process with three worksheets to familiarize ourselves with the synodal style and prepare the itinerary that will begin in October. Listening to each other and paying attention to what God asks of us today is a challenge for our Church if we do not want to ignore this opportunity or corner it in a drawer of “beautiful projects” with very little relevance in daily life. This process is not simple or automatic, it requires spiritual dispositions and a conscious effort to seek God’s will among all. The tradition of the Church has two important clues that can guide us on this path: the desire to save the argument of others and the humility to learn from everyone. […]