Christian movement liberation sends a letter to Pope Leo XIV and asks him that his prayers for Cuba

The Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) sent a letter to Pope Leo XIV to congratulate him for his choice as Pedro’s successor and to ask for his prayers for Cubans who are imprisoned and persecuted for his faith.

The MCL informs that The letter was delivered to the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The document is signed by the spokesman for the opposition movement, Regis Iglesias; and by the representative in Italy, Michele Trotta.

In his letter, the movement founded by the Catholic Oswaldo Payá manifests to Leo XIV his closeness that was born “from our origins, concerns and work for the social doctrine of the Church”, especially since “you affirmed that your name of Pope takes the reference of León XIII, precursor of the option for the most disadvantaged and needy”.

In that sense, he denounces that in Cuba “the regime of the Communist Party represses freedom, impoverishes the people, while a caste in power is richer and protects their privileges with violence. We ask for their prayers for our brothers who are imprisoned or suffering persecution because of their faith.”

The letter tells the Pontiff that the MCL was born on September 8, 1988, at the feast of the Virgen de la Caridad, Patroness of Cuba, “in the parish of the hill in Havana and soon found echo in all the dioceses of our city and the entire island.”

Since its origins, the MCL has promoted the Varela project, an initiative for Cuba to pass peacefully to a democratic system. The document and the nearly 25,000 signatures that support it have been delivered to the Assembly of Popular Power, but the communist regime still does not respond.

In his letter, the dissident movement tells the Pope that his work “as laity committed to the social and political reality of our country has backed us segregation, jail, exile and the murder of our founding leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was a victim of an attack by the Cuban political police on July 22, 2012”.

Payá died “together with the young Harold Cepero, whom you could meet during a visit to the island. Today, more than ever, Cuba is among the ‘last’ countries in matters of social and human rights and conditions,” says the MCL.

The MCl culminates its letter by manifesting Leo XIV that “an American Pope, therefore Cuban, Peruvian, American,” is “one of us” and “in his hands and those of the Virgin of Charity of copper we put the expectations of all of us.”

There are expectations in Cuba with the Pontificate of Leo XIV

Speaking to ACI Press, Regis Iglesias said that there is expectation in the MCL with the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, because when he was a prior to the order of San Agustín he visited the island twice and has had the opportunity to accompany “the poorest and most disadvantaged, getting to meet our martyred brother Harold Cepero del Mcl when he was seminarist”.

“We could add many more reasons: their defense of the family, human rights, life, even their Caribbean origin, and our expectations in their pontificate go in this direction, in communion with our cause because the despair of Cubans has lived in its own flesh in its own flesh in the face of the despair of Cubans in front of a group of power that is increasingly richer,” he said.

Therefore, he said that “Leo XIV we ask for solidarity and support to achieve these irrevocable objectives of ours.”

In that sense, he said that the Pope could “demand with us the freedom of the captives”, respect for “the inalienable rights of Cubans who today continue to kidnapped by the perverse regime of the Communist Party” and “no longer accept the blackmail of the Cuban Communist Party regime” against the help that “institutions such as Cáritas want to provide to stick the damage that the regime itself is infringing the Cubans.”

Regis Iglesias asked the Pope to accompany the prayers for the freedom of Cuba, whose people have lived for more than 66 years “kidnapped” by the communist dictatorship.