A very interesting story of how Father Felix Varela, the 19th century priest who continues to be a hero and an inspiration to Cubans everywhere, was also a hero to Irish immigrants in New York City.
Cuba’s Fr. Varela helped unwanted Irish immigrants in New York
In the 1820s and 1830s, no priest was more loved and revered by the Irish community than a Gaelic-speaking Cuban priest, the Rev. Félix Varela. Though many issues today separate Cuba and the United States, both countries still honor Fr. Varela. More than a century and a half after his passing, Cubans still revere him in Cuba for his patriotism, and New York honors him for his assistance to poor Irish immigrants. The contemporary journalist Juan Gonzales is among those who’ve praised the priest. He has written, “No Latino left a greater impact on 19th-century American culture than Varela.”
Born in Havana in 1787, Varela was orphaned at an early age and was still a child when he moved to St. Augustine, Florida, which was then Spanish territory. There he was entrusted to the care of his maternal grandfather, the commander of the city’s Spanish garrison. He became a student of Irish priest Father Michael O’Reilly, then vicar of East Florida, who eventually became his role model. Father O’Reilly influenced his decision to enter the priesthood rather than become a soldier, as his family traditions demanded. “I wish to be a soldier of Jesus Christ,” Varela said at the time. “I do not wish to kill men, but to save their souls.”
He returned to Cuba and began teaching philosophy in Havana and proved to be an extraordinary educator. Many future Cuban leaders were his students. He took radical positions, advocated giving women the same education as men and introduced many pedagogical innovations. Varela not only ended up transforming teaching throughout Cuba, but also thinking. His classroom was always more than a classroom: it was a place where Cubans were free to discuss the needs of their island. “This is the chair of freedom and human rights,” he proclaimed at a time when such words were forbidden and dangerous because the Spanish authorities suppressed any idea of Cuban freedom of thought.
Continue reading HERE.
But the fact his New York church was desecrated by Cuba’s designated dictator, with the approval and permission of New York’s Cardinal Dolan, does NOT matter. Just playing footsie with evil, I mean diplomacy.