Cuba relations with Catholic Church at high point
Source: Associated Press
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Dec. 25, 2014 12:34 AM EST
HAVANA (AP) — Golden rays of tropical sunlight slant through the caved-in roof of Saint Thomas de Villanueva chapel, illuminating tiles graced by the faces of saints. Vandals shattered the stained-glass windows and scrawled their names on the thick walls during decades of frigid relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Cuba's communist government.
But a new chain-link fence surrounds the building, protecting it for a future that once seemed unimaginable.
The church is planning to restore the building to its former glory, along with more a dozen more churches, parish houses and other buildings, as part of a quiet reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government that has brought relations to a historic high point this Christmas. Authorities have also given permission for the construction of the first two new churches in more than five decades.
After years of bridge-building behind closed doors, the Cuba-Vatican rapprochement burst into the headlines last week when the U.S. government credited Pope Francis with helping facilitate the secret reconciliation talks between the U.S. and Cuba. Francis wrote the leaders of both countries to invite them to resolve their differences.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/71a031c6979e4ea0aed9ccb1757beedb/cubas-relations-catholic-church-hit-high-point
Not surprising, really: Both Cuba and the Church have a history of non-democracy, says this Irish-Catholic.
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In this Dec. 1, 2014, a guard walks inside the chapel of the former University of Santo Thomas of Villanueva in Havana, Cuba. Since late 2009, President Raul Castro's government has been quietly returning some church property that was confiscated in the years after the Cuban revolution, including this chapel. The rest of the university property was not returned. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
There's 10 lbs of BS in a 5 lb bag in that BBC link.
with no links
The locals told me it went up at the same time Castro took over the Cuban government.
