Hijas de la Pasion de Jesucristo y de Maria Dolorosa, and my wife Ande, at their convent en la Parroquia de Santa Barbara, Barrio de Parraga, Havana Cuba, April 2001 - No fine yet for breaking the walls of embargo.
This week's Gospel is the story of Dives [the rich, in Latin] and Lazarus, the beggar at his gate. It was the scripture that came to my mind at the time my wife and I were threatened with $1000 plus fines for a vacation/mission trip to Cuba in April 2001 when we delivered some medical supplies to a group of nuns working with the poor in Havana. Technically we were trading with the enemy.
We contested in administrative court in Washington D.C., and in Feb. 2005, were given a $5000 plus penalty.
August 4, 2006
Dear Editors of the Wall Street Journal,
In
this time of transition in Cuba, its time to give the Cuban people a definite
sign of our ability to welcome change.
We applaud the recommendation in your 8-2-06 editorial, “The Fabulous
Castro Boys,” that we should repeal the Helms-Burton Act, and encourage
commerce and constructive interaction between our two countries. The outdated barriers of embargo and travel
restriction have been harmful to Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and U.S. business and
civic interests across the board.
My
wife and I made a trip to Cuba, and gave some small support to a group of
Catholic nuns there in 2001. Traveling
independently, without Cuban guide or approvals, we met people of all political
persuasions, living simple, poor but dignified lives. For that we were sanctioned by our own
government, and became one of the first cases to face a Treasury Department
administrative law judge in December 2004.
The outcome is still in limbo, appealed within Treasury, no action
taken, and no fine imposed. We believe
that the majority in our government, and country, are convinced our current
policy is wrong and counterproductive.
Our country is in
danger of becoming a gated community {see Luke 16:19-31-- the Rich Man and
Lazarus}. Instead, on every front, our
people need to reach out to other cultures, friend and foe, to be
peacemakers. It’s a question of our salvation. As the rich people,
shutting ourselves off from the mutually healing contact with the poor, we
court the disaster of the gate, turned into the eternal abyss. {see the
John J. Pilch, Georgetown University,
exposition of the above passage, pp 142-44, in The Cultural Word of Jesus, Cycle C, The Liturgical Press, 1997--[very worthwhile books].}
As Fidel Castro’s
ability to lead diminishes, and as Raul’s direction is in question, I have
confidence the Cuban people will make positive adjustments, and I hope we
ourselves have the courage to make the first moves towards reconciliation. The Archdiocese of Miami {witness their
program En Comunion} and the Vatican {remember Pope John Paul II’s visit
in 1998} have stood ready for years to help heal old animosities while
respecting Cuban sovereignty. May
Congress heed your call, and confirm legislation that will open doors too long
closed.
Yours truly,
Michael McCarthy PA-C,
Blue Water Pax Christi
Port Huron,
MI 48060
This is how it appeared edited in the August 8, 2006 WSJ, clipped of much of it spiritual commentary.
Our society continues to ignore the whole world--rich & poor--implications of the Gospel. Good for most, not so good for some who'd attempt to drag their feet with their possessions into eternity.
Dives and Lazarus
"It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty
as God's will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and
medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you
want them to believe you - try to share some of their poverty and see if you
can accept it as God's will yourself!" - Thomas Merton,
Seeds of Contemplation, chapter 14, p. 107 (1949).
Words that need to be heard, especially now, in the halls of Congress.
Illumination, and much support during our Cuba trial in D.C., provided by Kathy Brahney, and her husband and friends, and many others.
