Fidel at 80: Confidential Memories by Leonardo Boff, Theologian, 8/11/06

AfroCubaWeb

http://www.afrocubaweb.com/fidelcastro.htm#Fidel%20at%2080

Fidel at 80: Confidential Memories by Leonardo Boff, Theologian, 8/11/06

What I am going to reveal here will irritate or scandalize those who do not like Cuba or Fidel Castro. That does not worry me. If you do not see the light of the star in the darkest night, it is not the star’s fault; but yours. Because of my book, Church: Charisma and Power, in 1985, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger subjected me to <obsequious silence>. I accepted the sentence, and quit teaching, writing and speaking in public. Months later, I was surprised to receive an invitation from Commandant Fidel Castro, asking me to spend two weeks with him on the Island, during his vacation. I accepted immediately, because I saw an opportunity to resume the critiquing dialogues that we had enjoyed several times previously, together with Frei Betto. I headed to Cuba, and reported to the Commandant. In my presence, he immediately called the Apostolic Nuncio with whom he had cordial relations, and said to him: <Eminence, here is Brother Boff, who will be my guest for two weeks. As I am disciplined, I will not allow him to talk with anyone, nor give interviews, this way he will observe what the Vatican wants of him: obsequious silence. I will see to it that that is respected.> And so it was. During those two weeks, whether by car, airplane or ship, he showed me the whole Island. Simultaneously, with total freedom, we conversed about a thousand topics: politics, religion, Marxism, revolution and also critiques of the deficiencies of democracy. The nights were devoted to long meals, followed by serious discussions that often lasted into the early morning. Some times until 6 a.m. Then, he would stand up, stretch, and say:<now I am going to swim for some 40 minutes; and after that, I will go to work.> I would write down what we had talked about and then, go to sleep. Some topics of our fellowship seem relevant to me. First of all, Fidel’s persona. He is larger than the Island. His Marxism is more ethical than political: how to do justice to the poor? Then, there is his knowledge of the theology of liberation. He has read a mountain of books, all of them with notes, lists of terms and of doubts that he would clarify with me. I once told him: <If Cardinal Ratzinger understood half of what you understand of the Theology of Liberation, my personal destiny and the future of this theology would be very different.> And in that context, he confessed: <I am ever more convinced that no Latin American revolution will be true, popular and triumphant, if it does not incorporate the religious element.> Perhaps due to this conviction, he had practically forced Frei Betto and myself to give successive lessons on religion and Christianity to the whole second echelon of Government; some times, with all the ministers present. Those courses were decisive for the Government in dialoguing and coming to a sort of <reconciliation> with the Catholic Church and all the other religions in Cuba. Finally, there was his confession: <I was an intern with the Jesuits for several years; they gave me discipline but did not teach me how to think. In jail, reading Marx, I learned to think. Due to the Northamerican pressure I had to make a rapprochement to the Soviet Union, but if I had had at that time a theology of liberation, I would most certainly had embraced it and applied it in Cuba.> And he finished: <If one day I return to the faith of my childhood, it will be by the hands of Brother Betto and Brother Boff> We reached moments of such solidarity that we could have easily prayed the Our Father together. I had written 4 thick notebooks about our dialogues, but in Rio de Janeiro my car was attacked, and they took everything. The book I had imagined can never be written, but I treasure the memory of the unforgettable experience of a Head of State, worried about the dignity and the future of the poor. Leonardo Boff 08-11-2006 Free translation from the Spanish sent  by volar_2004@yahoo.com.ar, served by  contacto@servicioskoinonia.org; done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas

Tagi: Boff, Castro, Cuba, Fidel, Fidel Castro, Frei Betto, Marxism, theology of liberation