[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 7 (Thursday, February 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E115-E116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE QUESTIONS U.S. CUBA POLICY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 5, 1998

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I commend to my colleagues' attention the 
recent statement by Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, Chairman of the 
United States Catholic Conference (USCC) Committee on International 
Policy. The USCC met on the heels of the Pope's historic visit to Cuba, 
and concluded that ``it is incumbent on us, therefore, to take a fresh 
look at the issues that continue to divide [the United States and 
Cuba], and to see if it is not time for fresh initiatives to promote 
goals of reconciliation among us.''
  We would do well to consider fresh initiatives in U.S. policy toward 
Cuba.

    Statement on Cuba in the Light of the Papal Visit by Archbishop 
 Theodore E. McCarrick Chairman, USCC Committee on International Policy


                            January 30, 1998

       Together with other members of the USCC Committee on 
     International Policy and staff of the Conference, I have just 
     returned from a most moving and, I truly believe, historic 
     event, the visit by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II to the 
     Church and people of Cuba. It was a visit that not only 
     provided new hope and energy for the Church in Cuba, enabling 
     the faithful to express their religious beliefs in a climate 
     of ever greater freedom, but may also have marked a positive 
     advance in the long sought for goal of reconciliation among 
     the Cuban people, both within Cuba and with the Cubans in the 
     diaspora. It is our hope that the visit will also mark a new 
     phase in the relations between our two counties, so deeply in 
     need of reconciliation.
       As bishops of the Church in the United States, we feel 
     strongly called to express our convictions about possible 
     implications the visit may have for the conduct of our 
     country's policy toward Cuba. No other country in the world 
     looms as large in the minds of the Cuban people and their 
     government as does the United States. No other country has 
     had, and continues to have, such a turbulent and mutually 
     hostile relationship with Cuba as does the United States. And 
     no other country outside of Cuba itself has within it such a 
     large concentration of Cuba's sons and daughters. It is 
     incumbent on us, therefore, to take a fresh look at the 
     issues that continue to divide us, and see if it is not time 
     for fresh initiatives to promote the goals of reconciliation 
     among us.
       As a Conference, our overarching concern has been and 
     continues to be the freedom of the Church in Cuba to exercise 
     its threefold ministry of free and open worship, of prophetic 
     preaching, and of Christian service to the needy. Within this 
     essential framework of religious liberty and respect for 
     fundamental human rights which we call upon the Cuban 
     government to assure, we turn to the policies of our own 
     government. The central U.S. policy issue is, of course, the 
     decades-old economic sanctions imposed by our government 
     against Cuba. As far back as 1969, the Cuban bishops called 
     for the dismantling of the trade embargo, a move that was 
     publicly supported by the USCC in 1972. It was only in the 
     present decade, however, that circumstances have made such 
     appeals even remotely possible.
       The moral principles governing Catholic teaching on 
     economic sanctions in general, and on Cuba specifically, are 
     well know. The Cuban bishops have repeatedly expressed their 
     opposition to ``any kind of measure that, in order to punish 
     the Cuban government, serves to aggravate the problems of our 
     people.'' Observing that embargoes are acts of force, the 
     bishops addressed provisions of the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, 
     stating that any embargo that prevents essential foods and 
     medicines from getting to people in need is ``morally 
     unacceptable, generally in violation of the principles of 
     international law, and always contrary to the value of the 
     Gospel.''
       After the passage of the so-called Helms-Burton Act in 
     1996, the Cuban bishops expressed their concern that the law 
     runs the risk of ``making even more difficult the likelihood 
     of finding peaceful means to lead to the reconciliation of 
     all Cubans.'' Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana added that 
     ``Any economic measure that aims to isolate a country and 
     thus eliminates the possibility of development, thus 
     threatening the survival of people, is unacceptable.''
       And in his departure remarks at Jose Marti Airport on 
     January 25th, Pope John Paul stressed that, in our day, ``No 
     nation can live in isolation. The Cuban people therefore 
     cannot be denied the contacts with other peoples necessary 
     for economic, social and cultural development, especially 
     when the imposed isolation strikes the population 
     indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the 
     weakest to enjoy the bare essentials of decent living, things 
     such as food, health and education. All can and should take 
     practical steps to bring about changes in this regard.''
       The officials of our government repeatedly affirm their 
     readiness to at least modify aspects of the embargo, to take 
     some practical steps, in response to clear signs of a greater 
     opening within the society and increased respect for basic 
     human rights, including religious freedom. While we make no 
     predictions on how lasting some of the expressions of 
     openness shown by the Cuban government prior to and during 
     the papal visit may prove to be, it is an undeniable fact 
     that important changes did occur over this past year; 
     allowing for the door-to-door missions conducted by the 
     dioceses to talk about the Pope's visit, permission for a 
     number of open-air Masses, including hitherto forbidden 
     religious processions, granting a larger than previously 
     allowed number of visas for foreign priests and religious to 
     minister in Cuba, a limited amount of access to the state 
     media, even re-instating Christmas, at least for this past 
     year, as a national holiday, and other expressions of a more 
     open official attitude toward the rights and freedoms of 
     believers.
       As welcome as these changes are, it is obvious that they 
     fall far short of the measure of a just society repeatedly 
     outlined by the Holy Father. But they are steps along a 
     better path and should be acknowledged as such. In our view, 
     therefore, it is clearly time for the United States also to 
     take some practical steps of its own and test whether the 
     hopes enkindled by the papal visit can lead to real 
     improvements in relations between our two countries.
       First of all, we call upon the President to rescind the 
     onerous and evidently meaningless ban on direct flights to 
     Cuba, requiring all passenger traffic and humanitarian aid to 
     transit third countries en route to Cuba. This ban was lifted 
     for flights related to the papal visit these past weeks, for 
     which we are indeed grateful. But as humanitarian agencies 
     here, such as Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Medical 
     Mission Board, plan their next shipments of critically needed 
     medicines and other aid to the Cuban Church's relief and 
     development agency, Caritas Cuba, they are still faced with 
     the excessive added costs that third country transit imposes.
       Secondly, only a very small part of the nutritional and 
     health needs of the Cuban people can be met by these periodic 
     infusions of humanitarian aid from private donors from 
     other countries. The Cuban people need these commodities 
     from abroad, including from the United States, without 
     excessive prohibitions and restrictions. The present 
     socio-political system, privileging those with power and 
     ready access to hard currency but leaving great numbers of 
     the poor with inadequate access to food and medicine, will 
     not be changed overnight. The demands of elementary social 
     justice, however, call upon us to do what we can to 
     alleviate the suffering of the Cuban people, especially 
     the poorest and most vulnerable. Ending the restrictions 
     on the sale of food and medicines, as legislation 
     currently in both Houses and of the U.S. Congress calls 
     for, would be, in our view, a noble and needed 
     humanitarian gesture and an expression of wise 
     statesmanship on the part of our elected leaders.
       It is our fervent hope and prayer that the encouraging, 
     inspiring and, we hope, transforming words spoken by the Holy 
     Father in Cuba will continue to strengthen and give hope to 
     the Cuban people, especially our brothers and sisters in the 
     faith. And we pray that his powerful and eloquent calls for a 
     more open, participative and just society, for a liberation 
     ``that reaches its fullness in the exercise of freedom of 
     conscience, the basis and foundation of all other human

[[Page E116]]

     rights,'' will be ever more heeded by the civil authorities. 
     We urge and look forward to further hopeful signs of positive 
     developments within Cuban society that could lead toward the 
     needed rapprochement between our two countries and 
     reconciliation among all our peoples.
       The Holy Father summarized his goal for the visit as 
     offering the ``opportunity to strengthen not only the 
     courageous Catholics of that country but also all their 
     follow citizens in their efforts to achieve a homeland ever 
     more just and united, where all individuals can find their 
     rightful place and see their legitimate aspirations 
     realized.'' We stand with the Cuban people in their just 
     hopes for full civic, political and religious freedom.

     

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