Editorial of the Director of "L’Osservatore Romano": The urgent need for peace

For the third time in less than 20 years a
pope is in Cuba: the first was John Paul II
in January 1998, then Benedict XVI in March 2012 and now
Francis, the first American Pontiff, takes his turn. With this journey he has
highlighted the connection between these two countries — Cuba and the United
States — which after half a century of bitter tensions and disputes have
finally, with the help of the Holy See, come closer together. Also thanks to
the impulse in their respective episcopates, of those who knew how to heed
Wojty?a’s words, which Bergoglio echoed upon his arrival in Havana on a hot and
humid afternoon: may Cuba open itself up to the world, and may the world open
itself up to Cuba.

The
occasion for the visit is twofold, as the Pontiff recalled: the centenary of
the proclamation of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre as the Patroness of Cuba —
decided by Benedict XV at the request of the veterans of the war of
independence from the Spanish crown — and the 80th anniversary of uninterrupted
diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Holy See, which, significantly, the
Pope emphasized with an addition to his prepared text. He was welcomed by
President Raúl Castro, who was later also present at the Mass celebrated in the
capital. Bergoglio then addressed a greeting to Fidel Castro, whom he visited
privately shortly thereafter, and to “all those who, for various reasons, I
will not be able to meet”, he said.

Mentioning
then Cuba’s natural vocation as a “point of encounter”, the Pope referred to
the process of normalization with the United States. The new course
courageously undertaken by the two countries is a matter of the utmost
importance in the international panorama. Bergoglio declared it “a sign of the
victory of the culture of encounter” and an “an example of reconciliation for
the entire world” — a world which “needs reconciliation in this climate of a
piecemeal third world war”. Speaking extemporaneously with journalists on the
flight to Havana, the Pontiff was once again persistent on the urgent need for
peace.

The
same concern was reiterated after the large Mass in the Plaza de la
Revolución, when the Pope appealed for a definitive reconciliation a
lasting peace in Colombia, where decades of armed conflict — the longest currently
underway — has shed the blood of thousands. “Please, we do not have the right
to allow ourselves yet another failure on this path”, he implored, openly
supporting negotiations.

The
Pontiff’s words came at the end of a celebration in which his homily was
inspired by the greatness of the second Gospel passage that had just been read:
one who wants to be great must serve others and not be served by others.
Serving in this context, he explained, means caring for those who are frail,
fighting for the dignity of our brothers and sisters, and looking to their
faces: “Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve
people” overlooked by plans which may be seductive.

g.m.v.