Pope’s Visit Won’t Change Cuban Politics
Pope Benedict XVI may have prayed for change in the Cuban political system during his stopover on the island nation on Tuesday, but he won't see any tangible results anytime soon, according to one high-profile member of President Raul Castro's administration.
Pope Benedict XVI may have prayed for change in the Cuban political system during his stopover on the island nation on Tuesday, but he won’t see any tangible results anytime soon, according to one high-profile member of President Raul Castro’s administration. –KA
Rock Solid JournalismAP via USA Today:
Marino Murillo, Cuba’s economic czar and a vice president on President Raul Castro’s council of ministers, said that while the country is shaking up its economy, “in Cuba there will not be political reform.”
Murillo’s comments to a room full of journalists covering the papal visit were a quick and categorical response to comments by Benedict earlier in the day, when he made a highly symbolic prayer visit to the shrine of the nation’s patron saint.
“I have entrusted to the Mother of God the future of your country, advancing along the ways of renewal and hope, for the greater good of all Cubans,” the pope said at the sanctuary in the little town of El Cobre.
“I have also prayed to the Virgin for the needs of those who suffer, of those who are deprived of freedom, those who are separated from their loved ones or who are undergoing times of difficulty.”
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The "Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update correspondent made an appearance on KPFK radio's "Pocho Hour of Power" to comment on popes past and present.
Pope Benedict's resignation shouldn't have surprised us as much as it did. As an institutionalist who believes in the Roman Catholic Church as the carrier of truth in a sinful world, he would worry a great deal about the impact of his own infirmities on the institution's capacity to thrive.
Whatever messages Pope Benedict tried to convey during his tenure were "drowned out" by the child abuse scandal and other controversies that rocked the Vatican during his reign, John Hooper writes at The Guardian.
It certainly is difficult to uphold a vow of celibacy when confronted by the contradictory evidence embodied in two teenage children, and this is the reason why a Los Angeles-area bishop, Gabino Zavala, recently resigned from his vaunted position within the Catholic Church.
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