Archbishop in Cuba Prays to Our Lady of Charity for Release of Prisoners after Thousands Demonstrate Against Government
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Thousands of Cubans gathered for the biggest protests in decades against the island's Communist government. Cuba is undergoing an economic crisis and due to US sanctions and Covid. Dozens of people were arrested and some beaten by police as reported by BBC.
It is for this reason that Archbishop Dionisio Garcíaof Santiago de Cuba, asked for the help of the Virgin Mary:
Prayer in the Chapel of the Virgin of Mons. Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez at the end of the Eucharist in the Basilica Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity on July 17, 2022
Brothers, we are going to greet the Virgin, putting all our concerns, our desires, our requests and longings in Her hands, so that through her Son Jesus she presents them to God our Father.
A year ago more or less on these dates, we raised our prayers in a special way for the events that had happened the previous Sunday, July 11, in which in many cities of our country, there were demonstrations, people who wanted to express their views . Like all human things, the majority very peaceful and some unfortunately with violence. With some violence, violence in which many families suffered and in which there was a death.
We ask you for our country, we ask you to be brothers.
What I said at that time I present to you again, Mother. why? Because here is the heart of Cubans, and here people come to ask that we can live in peace as brothers, respecting each other, considering us all equal before God and before men; that we want to live in our country, where we find the possibilities to develop fully, respecting each other.
That is the yearning of our people, the one who comes here and the one who does not come here, the one who asks the Virgin in her house, in the chapel of her town, what she longs for and desires. Or ask God in another way. That is what we want.
That situation still has consequences. The harshest consequences are in the detainees. That is why, Mother, we beg you, to move the hearts of all Cubans and of all those who have in their hands to modify the situations, take a step forward, so that all sentences are reviewed again, and so that all can be released. those who wanted to express their opinion on the situation. There are many families suffering, there are many mothers suffering, many. It would be a step of fraternity, of social understanding, that these people are in their homes, and that no one, even those who were not imprisoned, pay any subsequent consequence. That they are not marked by what they did. Yes, that they are not marked, that they can live in their jobs, in their studies,
Also to this is added the exodus. Could it be called that? Well, each one of us experiences this situation in a different way, but many thousands of Cubans have decided to leave their country, their Homeland. They feel that they do not find the conditions to be able to fully develop, they feel that and there are many thousands of them. And there are many thousands of families divided, and there are many thousands of elderly people who are left alone. Many families who suffer because some have died on the journey, whether at sea or on land.
Brothers, this is the homeland of all and for the good of all . Although there are many Cubans, like from so many other countries, who have left, people want to live in their land, the one where they were born; let us put all our intentions, possibilities, dispositions, so that we can all live as brothers even if we think differently, because it will never be possible to make everyone think the same, but we can think differently and respect each other. No one imposing.
I make my own the words of the Bishops in last year's document in which we said that every person is free, with rights and duties, because he or she is a creature of God, made in the image and likeness of God, and that every person has right to express oneself and give an opinion on situations that concern us all, all of us. What we have to do is, in a civilized way, to be able to understand each other, to look for solutions.
We ask you to make the necessary changes so that we can feel happy and safe here. The Cuban feels that he is in his land, he feels that he owns it; but we Cubans need the conditions to be met, as I said before. That the necessary changes be made so that all that intellectual, technical, social level that we have acquired as a people, we can develop it on this land, and then we feel happy. We have to produce that talent that we Cubans have here, here.
But for that the conditions have to be met, the necessary changes have to be made, they have to be made, especially Mother, so that we Cubans are not enemies of one another, we are not enemies. May all our differences be resolved through dialogue and mercy and forgiveness, and never through violence and intolerance.
We ask you Mother.
I always like to say that to the extent that we Cubans know how to respect each other, we too, in addition to feeling happier and happier on this earth, other people will respect us more. A family that lives together, that family is an example in the neighborhood. May we also try to be an example of solidarity, of respect, of tolerance towards one another. But for that, Mother, reading the Gospel, I feel the need to tell you that we have to tell God who always comes to meet us not to go by, to stay, to stay with his Word, to stay teaching us to live in peace.
Since we cannot achieve that, may the Lord teach us and we know how to look for it. That is the drama of the man, the Cuban and the non-Cuban, that many times we want to do things according to our criteria, our ways of thinking, our ideologies, and not according to God, who ultimately has placed man at the center.
Mother, perhaps this request has been a little long, but the request of the Cuban people is also long.
Under your protection we welcome Holy Mother of God,
do not reject the supplications that we address to you in our needs,
Rather, deliver us from all dangers,
Glorious and Blessed Virgin. Amen.
Brothers, we are going to greet the Virgin, putting all our concerns, our desires, our requests and longings in Her hands, so that through her Son Jesus she presents them to God our Father.
A year ago more or less on these dates, we raised our prayers in a special way for the events that had happened the previous Sunday, July 11, in which in many cities of our country, there were demonstrations, people who wanted to express their views . Like all human things, the majority very peaceful and some unfortunately with violence. With some violence, violence in which many families suffered and in which there was a death.
We ask you for our country, we ask you to be brothers.
What I said at that time I present to you again, Mother. why? Because here is the heart of Cubans, and here people come to ask that we can live in peace as brothers, respecting each other, considering us all equal before God and before men; that we want to live in our country, where we find the possibilities to develop fully, respecting each other.
That is the yearning of our people, the one who comes here and the one who does not come here, the one who asks the Virgin in her house, in the chapel of her town, what she longs for and desires. Or ask God in another way. That is what we want.
That situation still has consequences. The harshest consequences are in the detainees. That is why, Mother, we beg you, to move the hearts of all Cubans and of all those who have in their hands to modify the situations, take a step forward, so that all sentences are reviewed again, and so that all can be released. those who wanted to express their opinion on the situation. There are many families suffering, there are many mothers suffering, many. It would be a step of fraternity, of social understanding, that these people are in their homes, and that no one, even those who were not imprisoned, pay any subsequent consequence. That they are not marked by what they did. Yes, that they are not marked, that they can live in their jobs, in their studies,
Also to this is added the exodus. Could it be called that? Well, each one of us experiences this situation in a different way, but many thousands of Cubans have decided to leave their country, their Homeland. They feel that they do not find the conditions to be able to fully develop, they feel that and there are many thousands of them. And there are many thousands of families divided, and there are many thousands of elderly people who are left alone. Many families who suffer because some have died on the journey, whether at sea or on land.
Brothers, this is the homeland of all and for the good of all . Although there are many Cubans, like from so many other countries, who have left, people want to live in their land, the one where they were born; let us put all our intentions, possibilities, dispositions, so that we can all live as brothers even if we think differently, because it will never be possible to make everyone think the same, but we can think differently and respect each other. No one imposing.
I make my own the words of the Bishops in last year's document in which we said that every person is free, with rights and duties, because he or she is a creature of God, made in the image and likeness of God, and that every person has right to express oneself and give an opinion on situations that concern us all, all of us. What we have to do is, in a civilized way, to be able to understand each other, to look for solutions.
We ask you to make the necessary changes so that we can feel happy and safe here. The Cuban feels that he is in his land, he feels that he owns it; but we Cubans need the conditions to be met, as I said before. That the necessary changes be made so that all that intellectual, technical, social level that we have acquired as a people, we can develop it on this land, and then we feel happy. We have to produce that talent that we Cubans have here, here.
But for that the conditions have to be met, the necessary changes have to be made, they have to be made, especially Mother, so that we Cubans are not enemies of one another, we are not enemies. May all our differences be resolved through dialogue and mercy and forgiveness, and never through violence and intolerance.
We ask you Mother.
I always like to say that to the extent that we Cubans know how to respect each other, we too, in addition to feeling happier and happier on this earth, other people will respect us more. A family that lives together, that family is an example in the neighborhood. May we also try to be an example of solidarity, of respect, of tolerance towards one another. But for that, Mother, reading the Gospel, I feel the need to tell you that we have to tell God who always comes to meet us not to go by, to stay, to stay with his Word, to stay teaching us to live in peace.
Since we cannot achieve that, may the Lord teach us and we know how to look for it. That is the drama of the man, the Cuban and the non-Cuban, that many times we want to do things according to our criteria, our ways of thinking, our ideologies, and not according to God, who ultimately has placed man at the center.
Mother, perhaps this request has been a little long, but the request of the Cuban people is also long.
Under your protection we welcome Holy Mother of God,
do not reject the supplications that we address to you in our needs,
Rather, deliver us from all dangers,
Glorious and Blessed Virgin. Amen.
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