An interesting and truly disturbing article this morning at GetReligion.org, which details reports coming from the Italian press that Pope Benedict XVI will receive Fidel Castro back into communion with the Catholic church during the Papal visit scheduled for late March of this year.
Last temptation of Castro
Fidel Castro will be received back into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island in March, the Italian press is reporting. If true, this is a remarkable story — and one that has yet to catch the attention of editors this side of the Atlantic.
On 1 Feb 2012, La Republicca — [Italy’s second largest circulation daily
newspaper, La Republicca follows a center-left political line and is strongly anti-clerical; not anti-Catholic per se but a critic of the institutional church] — reported that as death approaches, the octogenarian communist has turned to God for solace.
[…]
Some Italian websites have even speculated as to when Fidel will make his confession and credo — setting the date as 27 March 2012 at 17:30 when the two ottantacinquenni, Pope Benedict XVI and Castro, will meet at the Palacio de la Revolución when the pope makes his official visit to the head of state, Raul Castro.
During Pope John Paul II’s 1998 visit to Cuba, Castro attended mass, but did not receive the Eucharist or give voice to Christian beliefs. If his daughter’s story is true and Castro returns to the church it will be very interesting to see how it plays out across the media.
[…]
The La Republicca article closes its report on Castro’s return to the church by stating:
In Havana there waiting for the arrival of Benedict XVI. The Church in Cuba is loved and respected. So is the government for its broad social interventions.
The church can thus serve as a “mediator” between the people and the government in the post-Castro era, La Republicca argues. I think it is a bit of a stretch to say the government is loved and respected for its “social interventions”, but La Republicca is a left-wing European paper and its default position is that Cuba’s experiment with socialism is a moral good.
Which ever way it goes, the Castro/repentance story will be fascinating to watch. What does it mean for a dictator to seek repentance? What does forgiveness mean? Is moral redemption possible in this day and age? How will those who have been harmed by the regime respond? What about the prisoners of conscious who remain in Cuban jails —- a Cuban political prisoner, Wilmar Villar, died on 21 January 2012 after a 50 day hunger strike — what does an old man’s repentance have to say about that?
I’m about to puke after reading this…
Just when you thought that the RCC could not sink any lower…
Did I not predict this when it was announced? They were preparing the way for this. I’m already disgusted with the Church so this is just another day at the office. I hope, however, that our community wakes the hell up and starts denying the Church (and especially the enablers in the Archdiocese of Miami) what they want most: dollars. Vote with your wallets and let them know their actions are evil to the core.
Fidel, the prodigal son. If Fidel were to embrace God, and that’s a huge if, it would never be made public. It would mean confessing that he was wrong for the last 53 years and it would signal the end of the so-called revolution. It would be a defection and a giant F.U. to all the “patria o muerte” crowd who sees the bastard as a savior. I guess it would be a great catch for the Church to turn one of the Devil’s best disciples, but it kind of puts me in Hatuey territory…
pitbull,
That is why I no longer contribute any money to the RCC in Miami.
Gusano,
The ironic part will be that Fidel will confess whatever lie he will be willing to tell and the RCC will officially “absolve” him from his numerous deadly sins (I am certain God will not, because Fidel does not act as if he is repentant from his many sins) and yet, the Cuban dissents will continue to be brutalized and killed.
This is the most ironic part of this RCC circus. Fidel will supposedly “confess” and receive “absolution” from his many deadly, bloody sins that he will continue to commit on the Cuban people.
What a freaking farce…
As I recall from childhood, right before the priest closed the little shutter my “absolution” always required “penance,” which varied depending on the severity of my sins that week…so what kind of penance would be required here?
Unreal
This may or may not be true, and even if it is, it may not be publicly admitted. However, it would clearly fit into Ortega’s machinations and would certainly be eagerly endorsed by him. The RCC, obviously, could claim it as a great “coup,” for PR purposes if nothing else. So let’s assume, for now, that it is true.
It would mean that Fidel Castro, after an entire lifetime of lies and false promises, of using everything and everyone for his benefit as if they existed for no other reason, after countless crimes of every sort and untold destruction of every kind affecting millions of people, after running his own country into the ground and doing serious harm to many other countries, has decided he can get off the hook at the last minute and pull off one more con. He’s decided that, having manipulated and suckered so many for so long, he can do it to God.
It would be quite consistent with his megalomania, not to mention his lifelong obsession with self-protection. After all, the RCC helped save him in 1953 after he instigated the Moncada slaughter, and it can be put to the same use now. I repeat, to his mind, everyone and everything exists for his benefit, including the Almighty. And yes, I can see the RCC playing along, as a means to an end, just as the RCC in Nicaragua plays along with Daniel Ortega’s repulsively opportunistic religiosity, although, to its credit, the Venezuelan RCC has behaved considerably more honorably faced with Chávez.
In any event, this latest theatrical performance by the Actor-in-Chief, should it materialize, will only fool those who have always been fooled or pretended to be, and those who are sufficiently weak-minded to fall for such a blasphemous farce. The vast majority of Cubans won’t fall for it, and nobody, not even a consummate deceiver like the Maximum Liar, can fool God.
Oh, and Humberto, penance is for chumps. After all, the guy said from the start that history would absolve him, and you’d better believe he’s sticking to that.
It’s absolutely obscene, on par with the selling of indulges that pushed Martin Luther to cause a schism in the Church. It was said that the Church was so corrupt back then that they that would have even come up with an indulgence for someone who had had sex with the Virgin. In other words, for the right amount of money, the church would “forgive” everything and anything.
With this historical backdrop, its not hard to see them forgiving castro. Of course, since the Church with their liberation theology mentality have gone on record saying that the so-called Cuban revolution has brought Social Justice to Cuba, I don’t think that fidel will have to really apology for much, after all they seem to like his revolution in words and actions.
Besides, they are doing it all for the “good” of the Church. Remember, they are thousands of years old and they’re only concern is survival. They will not jeopardize that by behaving like Jesus whom they are supposed to emulate.
And let’s not forget, the bonanza that this spells for Jaime Ortega if he goes down in history as the cardinal that brought castro back into the fold. What a legacy he will make for himself.
By the way, Asombra, you hit the nail on the head, castro’s megalomania is so great that he thinks that God is also here to serve him. Even in death, it’s all about him. Sad thing is that he is so delusional that he probably really believes that he will be forgiven and that he can in fact inherit the Kingdom of God without truly repenting. According to Juanita Castro since his illness and near death, castro is spending a lot of time reading the bible. The man is warped. He probably feels that mere biblical constraints of treating others with human dignity [which is anathema to the revolution] do not apply to him, so that he can be forgiven for essentially doing nothing in exchange.
That said what kind of priest would give fidel communion? The host is the “body and blood of Christ.” The sacrilege is beyond conceivability.
What greater proof do we need to understand that the Roman Catholic Church is indeed the Whore of Babylonia.