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International Highlights – Current Affairs Analysis. Sunday, 7 February
2016.
Meeting
between Pope Francis and Kirill in Havana: worrying political aspects
In the current context of countries
such as Cuba, Russia, China, Venezuela and Bolivia, the promotion of dialogue
with wolves and jackals arouses the most painful conscience problems in many of
their inhabitants; indeed, this dialogue with wolves, when taken over to the political
sphere, can pressure those people who currently resist heroically and
peacefully, through loyalty to their anti-Communist principles, against this
fraudulent dialogue.
1.
The meeting
as announced, to be held in Havana this coming Friday, 12 February, between
Pope Francis I and the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill I, brings important
religious considerations which the specialists have agreed to comment on; at
the same time, this meeting brings political considerations that are equally
important. We shall now present, in schematic fashion, some worrying examples
within the political sphere.
2.
Pope Francis
I returns to Cuba five months after his first visit to the ‘prison-island’,
which was in September 2015, a visit which was dotted with statements, gestures
and omissions which only came to benefit the regime and strengthen it
politically. From the standpoint of the fight for freedom in Cuba, and
considering its political and diplomatic aftermath, the result of this trip was
regrettable, leaving a bitter aftertaste:
the regime had been strengthened, and repression had been intensified.
3.
The choice
of Communist Cuba as the venue for the meeting between Pope Francis I and
Patriarch Kirill I has also helped to give prestige to the tyrants of Havana as
supposedly trustworthy hosts and mediators. According to news sent by AFP from
Vatican City, the spokesperson of the Holy See, Father Federico Lombardi, had
highlighted, in a positive light, this role of Cuban Dictator Castro as a host
and a mediator. It is therefore no surprise that Castro himself stated that he
was ‘honoured’ at the possibility of the forthcoming meeting of these two
religious leaders in Havana. On the other side, from the political and
publicity standpoints, this meeting has the aim to cover up the jaws and claws
of the regime. This is what, in a similar fashion, occurs with the publicity
use that the Cuban regime makes of the talks between the Colombian Government
and the narcoguerillas of the FARC, also in Havana, in the wolf’s mouth: they
help to scrape their tusks, as if the Castro regime was a trustworthy host.
4.
Kirill
himself has a regrettable past of collaboration with the Soviet regime. In
2009, when he was elected patriarch of Moscow, the Italian periodical ‘Il Giornale’,
in a lengthy and detailed news report, revealed that both Kirill and his
predecessor had been agents with the notorious Soviet security agency, the KGB.
In the article, it was also informed that the new patriarch was also well known
within KGB circles as Agent Mikhailov. Only a few months before he was elected,
in October 2008, Kirill visited Havana, where he praised dictator Fidel Castro
who responded saying that the visitor was an important ally of Communist Cuba
in its fight against so-called imperialism.
5.
Apart from
his pro-Communist past, Kirill also has an equally regrettable present, with
his support for dictator Putin. For example, the Orthodox Patriarch was one of
the main people responsible for the fact that Russian Catholics are often considered
as second-class citizens, and live in what is essentially a political and
psychological catacomb.
6.
Patriarch
Kirill, together with Russian Orthodox leaders, show particularly strong hate
for Ukrainian Catholics, most of whom, in political terms, continue to keep
anti-Communist views. In 2014, when the Ukrainian Parliament deposed their
pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Putin invaded the Crimea and
threatened to invade the whole of Ukraine. Kirill did not go as far as to
directly justify an invasion, but he did this indirectly, by blaming the
Ukrainian Catholics, known as uniates, for the loss of the political power by
the pro-Russian leaders in the Ukraine.
7.
In short, we
can say that the forthcoming dialogue between Pope Francis I and Patriarch
Kirill I, as seen from the standpoint of freedom, could particularly affect the
domestic situation in Communist Cuba, favouring the dictatorship once again;
and in Ukraine, this could weaken the position of the Ukrainian citizens who
had the courage of breaking free from the shackles of the Soviet regime, and
politically fighting against the authoritarian Putinist regime, and not
allowing themselves to be misled by the religious arm of the Kremlin, which is
currently made up by the followers of Patriarch Kirill.
8.
In the
current context of countries such as Cuba, Russia, China, Venezuela and
Bolivia, the promotion of dialogue with wolves and jackals arouses the most
painful conscience problems in many of their inhabitants; indeed, this dialogue
with wolves, when taken over to the political sphere, can pressure those people
who currently resist heroically and peacefully, through loyalty to their
anti-communist principles, against this fraudulent dialogue.
En español:
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