Pope's role in Cuba deal fractures Cuban-American flock

[onager]

What? No mention of this in Other Groups devoted to religion...when anything about Pope Wonderful usually gets posted immediately and praised with Hosannas? Interesting. I guess all the bandwidth is getting sucked up by the debate over Fundamentalist Atheists and Xmas, etc.

I'm declaring this on-topic for A/A because it mentions an atheist state. So there!

Pope's role in Cuba deal fractures Cuban-American flock

By MATT SEDENSKY - Associated Press - 17 hours ago

MIAMI (AP) — The key role Pope Francis played encouraging talks between Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro left fractures among his flock in South Florida, where many older Roman Catholics equate the Castro brothers with the devil...

"I'm still Catholic till the day I die," said Efrain Rivas, a 53-year-old maintenance man in Miami who was a political prisoner in Cuba for 16 years. "But I am a Catholic without a pope."

Rivas said he cried when Obama surprisingly announced a reversal of a half-century's efforts to isolate Cuba. Then, when he learned of Francis' role, he got angry...

The Catholic Church remains the dominant religious force in Cuba, though attendance at Mass is low after decades of official atheism. It has long provided an alternative power center where at least some criticism of the government was possible...

Historian Jesus Mendez, a Cuban exile who teaches at Barry University and has written about the Latin American church, said most Catholics will welcome the pope's intervention as an effort to increase religious freedom on the island.

"He's very concerned over the decline of Catholic fervor, primarily in Europe but also even in the United States and Canada, so of course he sees it important to have a high profile for the Catholic Church in Cuba," Mendez said.

http://news.yahoo.com/popes-role-cuba-deal-fractures-cuban-american-flock-160937063.html

[Goblinmonger]

1. I'm shocked, too, this hasn't been a bigger deal in Religion.

I actually respect the Pope a little for this. I say "a little" because I know that likely the main driving force is about getting more Catholics in Cube, but it is ridiculous that we haven't normalized relations soon. Good for Frank. Well done. That should cause some heads in Religion to explode.

Looks like Dems might not win Florida next election...oh, wait, that's right.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I think that it is huge that the pope was involved in this.

I also think that it is amazing that he would risk alienating a lot of Catholic families in Florida who fled Cuba with their wealth and now hold the biggest grudge in the world against Cuba.....I think that the only solution that they will accept is a full-out war or for us to nuke Cuba into the sea. These Castro haters are now caught between a rock and a hard place, disown the pope (and in doing so, disown their religion) or accept this as God's will. Since the pope is God's representative on earth, this means that he speaks for God's will.

So....how does someone reconcile their religion with this?

[AlbertCat]

3. So....how does someone reconcile their religion with this?

I'm hoping it will create more ex-catholic atheists!

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I don't know how someone reconciles their religion

with any of the inconsistencies, or abuses, or things that they just don't want to believe....but they do, every day. I don't see this one thing creating more atheists, although I am with you in hoping it would.

Like that one woman in the article said, I will always be a Catholic, but right now I am a Catholic without a Pope. Makes no sense, because you cannot be a Catholic and not believe in the Pope as the leader of your religion, but that will not stop people.

[AlbertCat]

5. I will always be a Catholic, but right now I am a Catholic without a Pope.

So..... she's C of E?

[trotsky]

6. LOL! n/t

[Cartoonist]

7. Catholic without a Pope

Who needs the Pope? When I was a Catholic believer, I never revered the Pope. I believed in God and Jesus. To this day I still have no idea about who or what the Holy Ghost was supposed to be. As for the Pope, the one at the time was John XXIII, someone I have no recollection of. As I saw it, he was just a man with no special powers. I guess I didn't really respect priests either, but I considered myself a Catholic because I believed in Jesus and Mary and that whole scene.