John Suarez in Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter:
Pope Francis in Cuba: Fasts For Freedom
I ask the children of the Church in Cuba to please pray for me, because I need it.” – Pope Francis, Message to the president of the Cuban Episcopal Conference, September 8, 2014
Cubans and people of good will inside and outside of Cuba are praying for Pope Francis and for the long national nightmare that has gripped the island for 56 years to finally come to an end.
Cuban democrats are deeply concerned with the Pope’s upcoming visit to Cuba where it is rumored that His Holiness will not have time to meet with them but will make time to meet with Fidel Castro. This has led to members of the Cuban resistance to initiate a hunger strike titled “Holy Father, “We too are Cuba” on September 16th when Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antúnez announced it from Placetas:
“We human rights defenders, former political prisoners, in short opponents of the totalitarian dictatorship of the Castro brothers announce to the world that we are starting a hunger strike in order to draw attention to the recent escalation of arrests, harassment, bullying and persecution that the hordes of the Havana regime unleash against members of the internal resistance to avoid their involvement in the activities that will be officiated by the Holy Father Francis during his upcoming visit to Cuba.”
In Miami, on the same day the Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez announced that he was starting a fast:
“I will begin a fast of conscience without any food, just water, to appeal directly to the pope on two issues recognizing Cuba’s civil society and stopping human rights abuses against the Ladies in White, an opposition group on the island.”
The Free Cuba Foundation (FCF), a student movement, in a blog entry that begins citing Psalm 146:3, “Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation,” is calling on people of good will to engage in a fast for freedom during the Pope Francis’s visit to Cuba.
Continue reading HERE.
Good luck with that. Even if they set themselves on fire, they’d only be dismissed as mentally deranged. No hay peor ciego que el que no quiere ver.