The Church steps in

This week, a delegation of U.S. Catholic bishops headed to Havana to meet with church leaders, expressing their hope that the White House will soon take further steps to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.

U.S. Reverend Andrew Small, Archbishop of Boston Sean Patrick O’Malley and Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida held a news conference in Havana today. They urged the United States and Cuba to “listen to their better angels,” and in so doing bring an end to the 50 years of hostilities that have caused suffering for people on both sides. They further called on the United States to move more boldly and quickly to patch up U.S.-Cuba relations, lest the opportunity for change that President Obama has endorsed be lost.

Reverend Small, in particular, made important points about the value of and need for people-to-people connections between the United States and Cuba: “I think to the extent that we can be a bridge between those who historically have not been able to talk to each other, we can unfreeze some of those relationships,” he said yesterday. This points highlights the most important role that the bishops are playing in taking this trip: as individuals outside the state—with a different kind of influence—their trip embodies and even enables the very people-to-people opening they prescribe. The utility of their meetings is the most persuasive kind of evidence in favor of eliminating the travel ban and other embargo restrictions.

The delegation will also look over reconstruction work on repairing damage from last year’s hurricanes. Today, the group met with Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, but details of the meeting are not yet available.