Church faces transformation:

Lat/Am

In the mid-1970s, a recently ordained priest trekked the Cuban countryside, defying the communist government by distributing hand-printed religious pamphlets to townspeople bold enough to open their doors.

At the height of Cuba’s anti-religious sentiment, the man known as Father Juanito was tolerated thanks to his softspoken manner and unbending will, say those who followed his rise. His admirers say that personality served him well when he became bishop of the eastern city of Camaguey and launched an intensive outreach to the poor, arranging aid for needy pregnant women and diverting religious processions off main streets into the humblest neighborhoods.

“He’s an inexhaustible worker, and not in comfortable locations, but in difficult and tricky ones,” said Maribel Moreno, secretary and archivist for Camaguey’s archdiocese for two decades.

In more than a dozen interviews, those who know Juan de la Caridad Garcia said they expect him to transform the Cuban Catholic Church in his new post as archbishop of Havana, which he assumed late last month. After three decades under Cardinal Jaime Ortega, a skilled diplomat comfortable in the halls of power, Cuba’s most important non-governmental institution is being led by a man focused on rebuilding the church’s relationship with ordinary Cubans.

Ortega built warmer church relations with the Cuban government, winning important freedoms for the church. He even helped negotiate U.S.-Cuban detente, carrying a secret papal message from Havana to Washington. The cardinal attended diplomatic receptions in Havana and cultural galas with high-ranking government officials. He gave television interviews to Cuban and international stations and spoke at major universities overseas.

When Pope Francis appointed Garcia to head the Archdiocese of Havana in April, the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops highlighted Garcia’s “simplicity of life, apostolic dedication, prayer and a life of virtue.”

“The overwhelming effort and the mood will be eminently pastoral, even though diplomatic and political matters must be tended to,” said the Rev. Ignacio Zaldumbide, a friend since they were university and seminary students.

Garcia’s pastoral focus was on display one recent Sunday when he left Havana’s grand cathedral to celebrate Mass at the St. John the Baptist church in the small town of Jaruco, in central Mayabeque province. He handed out sweets to children and joked with congregants about how some town residents focused more on drinking than religion and attended church once every 40 years.

“Obviously there are many things to work on, many places to spread the word, but I’m not going to start from zero. The previous bishops and Cardinal Jaime Ortega have done a lot,” Garcia told The Associated Press after Mass. “The church lives the Gospel, announces the Gospel and denounces what’s wrong in order for progress to be made.” (AP)