Onward Christian Cubans

The Catholic church in Cuba has stopped the publication of a brave and influential little Catholic magazine, Vitral. The bishop who shepherded its founding has retired and the church leadership is yielding to pressure from the Castro regime. Mary Anastasia O'Grady, "Onward Christian Cubans" WSJ:

Under Bishop González's care, Pinar del Rio became a problem for the regime. The diocese regularly prayed for the many political prisoners on the island, and voiced open concern about the country's wretched economic circumstances. The bishop also protected Mr. Valdes who, writing in Vitral, broached touchy subjects like democracy and plurality. In his parting shots in the April edition, the Vitral editor complained about Cuba's "anachronistic economic measures," the "violation of worker rights," and the isolation of the people, who are not permitted to travel around or leave the island.

There was one more thing Bishop González did in Pinar del Rio that did not ingratiate him with the owners of the slave plantation known as Cuba. He openly supported Mr. Paya's Varela Project, which accumulated more than 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for free elections. This linked the province's Catholics to the island's wider Christian movement clamoring for peaceful, democratic change. The movement grew even stronger last month when Mr. Paya and dissident leader Marta Beatriz Roque, who had been previously estranged, signed a unity pact, along with other opposition leaders.

More on Vitral here. For a free Cuba.

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