Secular State Should Be Free, Vatican Tells Cuba

(June 19, 2010) A state can be secular, Christ himself said as much, but this should not violate religious liberty, according to a Vatican official visiting Cuba. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states at the Vatican Secretariat of State, affirmed this when he opened the 10th Social Week held by the Church in Cuba. The prelate is in Cuba for a six-day visit that concludes Sunday. His visit marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the Holy See and Cuba. Earlier on Tuesday, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states, was given a warm welcome in Havana. The papal representative, born 58 years ago in Morocco but of French nationality, began by noting a paradox: "The term 'secularity,' both in the past as well as the present, refers above all to the reality of the state and takes on, not infrequently, a hue or meaning in opposition to the Church and to Christianity," however, "it would not exist if it wasn't for Christianity itself." Further he said, "Without the Gospel of Christ the fundamental distinction between what man owes to God and what he owes to Caesar, that is, to civil society, would not have entered into the history of humanity." Hence, a secular state should be founded on human rights, the prelate affirmed, including the right to religious liberty. And therefore, the ideas of neutrality or separation cannot be the principles that fundamentally define the state's position regarding religion. Archbishop Mamberti explained that a principle such as secularity has a "purely negative practical value of non-interference." Religious liberty, meanwhile, implies "a positive activity in order to defend, protect and promote with justice the concrete contents not of religion but of its manifestations with social relevance." Archbishop Mamberti also assured the Cuban people of "the paternal closeness of the Pope and the affectionate blessing that His Holiness Benedict XVI has entrusted to me for you."