The Cuban priest Alberto Reyes Pías published his weekly column "I Have Been Thinking" (issue 177) on Friday with a reflection titled "The Blessing of Persecution," in which he argues that the condemnation of Anna Bensi and her mother has resulted in precisely the opposite of what the regime intended: unity, solidarity, and an increasing loss of fear among Cubans.
The reflection comes one day after a court in Havana del Este found Anna Bensi and her mother guilty and sentenced them to two years of restricted freedom each for recording and distributing the image of a MININT agent during the delivery of a police summons at their home.
Reyes begins with a biblical quote to build her central argument: "The Bible, the wisest book ever written, says that God blinds the arrogant. And dictatorships, in their limitless arrogance, become blind—not to see the suffering they cause, nor to understand how much they are rejected and hated, but to realize that their time is running out."
The parish priest of Esmeralda, Camagüey, acknowledges the personal harm that the persecution has caused, but insists on its broader consequences: "I feel the psychological suffering of Anna Bensi and her mother, but when I see everything that their persecution is provoking, I cannot help but feel joy for the fruits it is yielding."
List those fruits one by one. The first is the visibility of the totalitarian state. "The fruit of seeing clearly how we are prisoners of a totalitarian state, where the individual is only valuable if they submit, if they serve the power docilely, if they accept being a slave."
The second is the growing public solidarity. "The result of a people that is starting to lose the fear of being publicly supportive and standing up for those who are being unjustly attacked."
One of the fruits that Reyes emphasizes the most is the interfaith unity that the case has fostered. "The fruit of the unity of the churches, all together, rising above old differences that have often deviated us from the essential," he writes. This unity materialized recently, when the Western Baptist Convention of Cuba, the Methodist Church, and the Assemblies of God stood united with Anna Bensi and her mother on the eve of the trial.
The priest also highlights the transition from what he calls "calculated prudence" to "the freedom of the Spirit" as a fundamental shift in the attitude of the Cuban churches, which thereby regain their prophetic role of proclaiming "from the rooftops" justice and truth.
For Father Alberto Reyes, Anna Bensi and her mother have transcended their individual case. "They have done more than voice what we all think: they have become a symbol, and a symbol we have learned to love." This transformation into a symbol, he argues, has ignited a "healthy anger" that drives those who previously remained indifferent. "Those who today symbolize freedom, justice, decency, and determination are being assaulted. And that generates anger, a lot of anger towards the aggressor, prompting many lukewarm hearts to say, 'Enough is enough!'"
The column is part of a week of intense public activity for the priest. On September 27, he published a reflection on the first step as a concrete action, and on Thursday, he published another note about the hope for change in Cuba, while the U.S. condemned the sentence against Anna Bensi calling it "cowardice."
Father Alberto Reyes concludes his reflection with a hope directed at the very agents of the regime: "The feeling of disgust towards oneself often serves as the first step towards joining those who have already discovered the taste of freedom."
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