Ahead of the March 23-29 visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Cuba, the President
of the Cuban Bishops’ Conference has published his reflections on what this visit
means for the Church on the island nation. In a letter posted on the United States
Bishops website Archbishop Dionisio Garcia Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba, gets to the
heart of what this visit is really all about beyond international press headlines.
Its about a Jubilee Year, when the church and country mark the 400th anniversary
of the finding of the image of Our Lady of Charity, known locally as the Virgin
del Cobre. And its about the mission of the Holy Father “as the rock that guides
and sustains believers in their journey towards Christ”; “to encourage them in their
faith, confirm them in hope, and encourage them to be generous in charity”.
In
fact the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary is closely tied to the Papacy, for it
was Benedict XV who in 1916 declared the beloved Virgin of Charity patron saint of
Cuba. The Virgin is the focus of intense popular devotion and not just for Catholics.
Housed in a basilica in the mining town of El Cobre, outside Santiago, her shrine
is the most important religious site on the entire island.
The image was found
in 1608, by two Indians and a slave who were gathering salt on the coast. They saw
the small statue of the Virgin Mary, carrying the Christ child and a gold cross, floating
on a board bearing the inscription, Yo soy la Virgen de la Caridad, "I am the
Virgin of Charity."
Archbishop Garcia Ibáñez says that for Cubans, the word
charity “has a great and beautiful meaning”. The image of the Virgin, “is symbol
of the “cubanía” (that which pertains to all things Cuban) that unites all Cubans,
believers and unbelievers alike; charity, love, is the only virtue that can make Cubans
brothers and sisters to one another. That’s why the Holy Father comes to visit”.
The
Archbishop does not discount the importance of this Apostolic journey also being a
state visit, the Pope having been invited by the government and the people, however,
he concludes: “We cannot miss that the primary meaning of the visit is pastoral. That
is how we have to look at it, both the Government and ourselves as pastors as well
as the members of the Church”. Emer McCarthy reports, Listen :