Just read a story about a man known as Padre Gilberto, an American from Mississippi who is a priest in Cuba:
The parishioners at La Merced church in Old Havana, one of Cuba’s most important shrines, know their bearded, soft-spoken priest as Padre Gilberto.
But his real name is Gilbert Walker. He’s from Gulfport, Miss.
Walker, 56, has been a priest at La Merced for 12 years. He was the only American Catholic clergyman in Cuba when he arrived in 2003.
Today there are two others, but over the past half-century of strained relations between the United States and Cuba, no American priest has been a missionary on the island for as long as Walker.
“I felt at home in Cuba from the first moment I arrived,” he said, speaking at the rectory where he lives behind the soaring 147-year-old church, set along narrow streets among crumbling apartment buildings.
“I can’t imagine myself any other place.”
“Sure, life would be easier and more comfortable in the United States,” he added. “But I didn’t become a priest to have an easy life.”
Good for Padre Gilberto!
Pope Francis will visit an island that kicked out priests and nuns many years ago.
In fact, I remember that quite well.
In the 1960s, my younger brother and I attended The Maristas School in Havana. It was a pretty traditional Catholic school for boys. I can still remember that we wore a blue shirt, put on a white tie and those light colored pants. I will never forget the big baseball diamond where the older boys played against other schools. We used to dream of making the team and wearing those fancy uniforms.
Our education was interrupted one day when the schools were closed and all of the religious people expelled. All of a sudden a vibrant center of education turned into an empty facility.
Sadly, the building eventually became a political prison and well known for torture. Armando Valladares, one of Cuba's most famous political prisoners, wrote about it in his book "Against all hope". I remember reading the book and feeling terrible that the classrooms and spaces where we spent our youth later tortured Cubans. It took me a while to get over that.
Why did Castro target the church? Like many other groups, the Catholic Church kept reminding Fidel Castro that he promised elections as soon as possible. Of course, Fidel Castro did not like being reminded that he promised elections and a few other things. Dictators don't like that!
So he threw the priests and nuns out of the country.
My brother and I eventually moved to a public school, along with all of the other friends from Maristas. We were quickly reminded that education in Cuba was more than teaching kids about reading and writing. The schools became the regime's indoctrination center. History was rewritten and the US became public enemy # 1.
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