Berta Soler speaks for the Ladies in White

Berta Soler (center) and the Ladies this past Sunday, outside the Church of St. Rita in Havana (a mere three blocks from my childhood home).

Much like earthquake victims being pulled from the rubble, the Ladies in White are starting to surface, more than a bit shaken, and more than disappointed in what happened during the pope’s visit.

Berta Soler spoke by telephone to the Spanish newspaper ABC, and said: “the pope forgot to grant all of the oppressed and marginalized in his flock the one minute of contact that we begged for, but, in spite of our great disappointment, we have not lost our faith or our love for Christ.”

She also confirmed that most of the dissidents with phones had their service cut off during the pope’s visit, and that it had not yet been restored today, twenty-four hours after his departure. She also said that it was impossible to know how many of those who were imprisoned had been freed.

Berta Soler and her husband, Angel Moya – an ex-prisoner and survivor of the Black Spring roundup of dissidents – spent Wednesday imprisoned in a police station outside Havana, and she confirmed that State Security prevented most dissidents from attending the mass in Havana.

The successor to Laura Pollán lamented the fact that the Castro dictatorship “had filled the jails with dissidents faithful to the pope and the plazas where he said Mass with communist sympathizers.”

There you have it.

These women and their fellow dissidents are transcendent heroes, the kind you think only exist in fiction, or history books.  Some day they will have the largest monument on the Malecón, and better, yet, most of them will live to see it, and be there for the dedication ceremonies.  Let’s hope most of us can join them when it happens.

ABC article here.