Catholic worker from A to Z

By: Yarelis Rico Hernández

Manuel Díaz Páez
Manuel Díaz Páez

At the age of seventy-seven, Manuel Díaz Páez recalls his membership in the Catholic Worker Youth (JOC) with the satisfaction of having belonged to one of the most dynamic groups with the deepest social commitment in the history of the Cuban Church. and he still identifies himself as a “jocista”. Manolo el Negro –as everyone calls him– learned of that experience when he was sixteen years old. By that time he was already working and the possibility of joining an association of young workers, with similar concerns and interests, was extremely attractive.

As referred to New Word, the JOC emerged on January 23, 1947 under the dynamic see-judge-act and with the aim of evangelizing the youth of the working world. In 1967, the bishops decided to dissolve the Cuban Catholic Action (ACC), which they replaced by the Organized Secular Apostolate; the JOC, like one of its branches, also disappeared. Over the years, the 1990s already beginning, the spirit that accompanied those militants of the Catholic Worker Youth wanted to be rescued to impregnate it in what is today the Christian Workers Movement (MTC), but without much success. “Those circumstances that led to the effectiveness of the JOC, together with the strong commitment of its members, is not today a palpable reality in Cuba or in its Church,” says Díaz Páez, who defines himself as a “Catholic worker of the A to Z “.

How did you get to the Catholic Worker Youth?

“A colleague invited me to participate in a study circle of the group that met in a room attached to the chapel in the Pogolotti neighborhood, where I lived, exactly on 59th Street, between 90 b and 90 d. This chapel also had a dispensary. At the meeting I saw great concern for the youth, and that impacted me. I left and was away for about six months, time that I spent reading, especially the Gospel. Jesus was a stranger to me, but as I read about him, his figure attracted me very much. I came from a very syncretic background. My grandmother was a santera. I grew up in an environment of guapería and of smoking marijuana. He had started working while still a child. First I learned carpentry in my own home with my stepfather, then I was in a dry cleaner and so on, I went through different occupations and jobs to earn my livelihood ”.

If you were not a Catholic, how did you manage to join the JOC?

“As I told you, I spent six months preparing myself, at that time I studied and read a lot. I was, as they called him then, an aspiring jocist militant. He was already baptized and had received communion, because in the neighborhood it was said that the child who took these sacraments became a better person: pure tradition. So I just had to confirm myself and, of course, start living from and for the Christian faith. I made Christ my model, my pattern of life, and that did make me a better person. Although he continued to be a hard-working worker, he was also an active and practical JOC militant ”.

In what sense did this militancy make you assume your status as a worker in a different way?

“Work never scared me, but since my militancy I stopped seeing it only as a source of livelihood. It was the environment where he could also grow as a person and make Christ known. The Catholic Worker Youth, as a branch of Catholic Action that it was, constituted a form of the secular apostolate of the Church for that moment in its history. Within this mission, the JOC was founded with the dynamics of seeing-judging-acting and, based on the reality of the world of work, evangelize ”.

It is the apostolate of the similar for the similar …

“That’s how it is. The foundation and subsequent service of the JOC responded to the Church’s interest in creating specialized movements to evangelize: each environment must be evangelized from within and no one will do it better than those who operate in it; the immediate apostles of the workers must be workers ”.

What distinguished that JOC that you approached at the age of sixteen?

“His determination to root the Church in the world of the workers. This was the meaning of all their action, the same in meeting environments and study circles as in the world of work ”.

How was the JOC organized for its exercise?

“Young Catholic workers who wanted to join it belonged to the JOC. The groups were structured from the bottom up; These, in turn, belonged to a regional organization subordinate to the provincial leadership. All this organization was coordinated by the national group. Pogolotti’s group, in which I was, belonged to the Marianao Regional, which was also joined by the jocistas from Buena Vista and Nogueira.

”The activities in our premises and at the initiative of the grassroots group were not limited only to Catholics; Many young people participated, because Pogolotti is an eminently working-class neighborhood. We did not stop attending civic activities: celebrations on February 24 for the founding of the neighborhood, sports competitions and even quinceanera parties. When someone died, even if the dead person was syncretic, we would pray the rosary to them. This attitude made us win many supporters and followers ”.

What role did the young militant jocista have?

“The first and fundamental I have already said: evangelize in the midst of our own environment, the world of work. Now, how did we do it? We worked in a personalized way with our relatives. These were also sympathetic to our actions. We tried to instruct them but without proselytizing of any kind, since they were generally non-Catholic people who we found within our map of influence ”.

For those who have Christ as a reference, action or acting must also become a form of influence. Was this the case with the jocistas?

“Two were the fundamental forms of influence: the ideas and the fulfillment of the work. Within the work environment we were called to be consistent with our faith, to see others as our brothers and to assume our moral commitment to social work because of what it represents for others … Christ was a worker, he worked to sustain himself and to serve the society”.

The see, judge and act method, which starts from the analysis of reality to contrast it with the gospel and transform it, if necessary, implies a great social commitment. To what extent did this dynamic influence the relationship of jocistas with their sympathizers or followers in the workplace?

“I will speak to you in a very personal way, based on my experience that starts from my condition as a worker in a private factory to working, after the triumph of the Revolution, in a socialist state enterprise. In both jobs I became the representative of the union, a position created, if it is truly assumed as it should, to ensure the rights of the workers, since it is the voice and the person who represents them before the owner or boss of the business . My method was always to look at the situation, analyze it in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church and act. In both forms of employment, private and state, I echoed the dissatisfactions and disagreements of my colleagues, I openly denounced any injustice committed against one or more workers, but I did so from the Christian analysis, from a view of faith that placed in the center of everything to Jesus. If I pride myself on something when I remember those stages, it is not my position, but rather that I have become, from a normal and ordinary person as I am, to being the confessor of many, including militants of the Communist Party. I remember how time and time again I gave advice, but always with an eye on faith. And yes, I had detractors, but in the face of adverse realities, I remained the same, the one who never denied his Catholic faith. I have always been accompanied by the conviction that the health and condition of the group would depend on our attitude as jocist Christians and our approach to God ”.

There is today in Cuba the Movement of Christian Workers (MTC) to which you belong. How does this organization work and how much of the experience of the JOC has been incorporated into it?

 

“In fact, the recommendation to found the Movement in Cuba was to look for a jocista; This practically became a slogan for its creation on the Island. We started by meeting a small group made up of some people from Marianao and La Lisa, then we spent six months reading documents of the Social Doctrine of the Church, instructing ourselves in the jocist style. In 2007 we created the MTC Regulatory Instrument by which we are governed. In 2009 I went to a world congress of Catholic workers in France and I realized – with great joy – that, despite being governed by old styles, we were in tune with what was happening in countries where the Movement is strong, such as For example, South Korea, Haiti (it has 800 members) and Bangladesh ”.

Who are joining the Movement and what is their current situation in Cuba?

“At first, former jocistas joined the ranks of the Movement, some are there, others are not. Other people joined, not many, but I feel that it is a movement of old people and, to our regret, it continues to age day by day. We have around thirty members in six groups from Havana alone, the only diocese where the Movement exists; in Camaguey it failed. It is necessary to renew it, but few young people want to belong to it, they do not assume the commitment. In my opinion, a movement of young people should be created, alone, independent, because the languages ​​and work dynamics are different ”.

Despite these difficulties, do you think the movement should remain?

“Of course. Commitment is essential. I believe that apathy towards work, which is not recognized today in Cuba as a source of sustenance or a stimulus for the common good, affects the spirit that accompanies Cubans, including Catholics. It is a fundamental evil, curable if we look at Christ and if, in the light of our Christian doctrine, we see, judge and act ”.

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