Government prohibits Holy Week procession through the streets of Vedado

The Cuban government prohibited the Catholic community of El Vedado, in Havana, from carrying out the Holy Burial procession, an activity that is part of Holy Week.

The Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in El Vedado issued a statement in which he explained to his faithful the reasons why the procession would be suspended.

"Yesterday I was informed through the pertinent channels that the procession of the Holy Burial that had been opportunely requested would not be approved through the streets of El Vedado as has been done for more than eleven years with the exception of the time of Pandemic and last year that was also denied, in the case of last year due to lack of personnel to guarantee security,” reported the church priest.

The priest further said thatThe decision to deny this activity was because the authorities did not agree with his homilies and took the opportunity to make some clarifications.

He began by saying that the request is not personal and that it is a matter that concerns his parishioners. “Denying it as a punishment to a parish priest is, in addition to being absurd, a violation of religious freedom.”he added.

Likewise, he assured that anyone who wants to see some political content in his homilies is in the wrong position. “The Gospel has a force that, like all of us, challenges us and makes us all uncomfortable., but the pulpit has never been used to do politics, in the style of political parties or how they understand politics because it is not the preacher's responsibility to do that," he expressed.

He declared that he had never made use of the space that his preaching gives him to call for an action “other than piety,” which is why He confessed that he did not understand “the fears that could have led to the refusal of the procession.”. As a priest and adult man knowledgeable about the laws and the current Constitution of the Republic, I know what is allowed to me and what is not.”

He regretted the inconvenience that this refusal could bring to the parishioners and assured that on Good Friday the activity would take place on the Parish grounds.

The Holy Burial Procession is a penitential religious parade held on the afternoon of Good Friday, and its objective is to theatrically remember the burial of Jesus Christ after his death on the Holy Cross and before his resurrection as narrated in the Gospels.

However, this is not the only procession prohibited by the Cuban government. According to the digital portal 14 and a half, In the diocese of Bayamo-Manzanillo, in Granma, activities were suspended that will involve a gathering of people during Holy Week.

"The Government does not want people in the streets for fear of possible demonstrations. This has forced us to stop doing something that we have been doing year after year. Last year there were processions and everything was done with the peace of God," he says. a religious who requested anonymity from the aforementioned medium.

"We are very upset by that decision, faith has nothing to do with politics and should not be mixed," said the upset priest.

A note published in Acipress, a Catholic media outlet, warned last week about the suspension of various events during Holy Week on the Island.

“[The regime] He is very afraid of gatherings of people right now", said Osvaldo Gallardo, a writer and religious activist who currently resides in Miami but has lived more than 40 years on the Island and worked on culture and communication projects of the Cuban Episcopal Conference.

Likewise, he stated that not only religious people attend these types of concentrations, but also people without beliefs of this type.

“A procession can, under the enthusiasm and devotion of Holy Week, create a breeding ground for another political demonstration to suddenly break out,” commented the writer.

Despite all these prohibitions, the Parish of El Vedado welcomed Holy Week this Palm Sunday, while the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, made a plea before the Virgin of Charity of Cobre in defense of the Cuban people.

Among the phrases most marked by the archbishop were: “In the absence of energy, we ask the Lord to give us inner energy” or “Many of our children go to other places because they do not find it [their development] here. And others who hope to do so. What a shame, if this is our land, the one that God gave us!”, all in reference to the problems that Cuba is currently experiencing.