Thursday 12/18/14

It was announced yesterday that the United States will resume diplomatic relations with Cuba. The hope is to restore political and economic ties to the small island nation. The deal came after both the US and Cuba released prisoners back to their native countries.
 
For those of you who were unaware, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba fifty years ago. The split also came with a United States embargo of Cuban goods. Many in Cuba have blamed the embargo for much of the widespread poverty in the region. The inability to trade with such a large economy so close to their country has been crippling, and many Cubans are excited and hopeful that the restoration of diplomatic relations will end the embargo. So are many American cigar connoisseurs.
 
At first, the severing of diplomatic and economic ties made perfect sense. Cuba was a communist nation and we were in the middle of the Cold War. The Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis had everyone on edge in both nations. Since then, though, the US has prospered as Cuba floundered. Slowly national security reasons for the embargo and lack of diplomacy gave way to humanitarian ones. The US was simply not going to negotiate or do any business with a nation with so many human rights violations. Except China. And Russia. And also the myriad of other nations where the same types of human rights violations were occurring on a regular basis. Cuba had always been on the outs, and it was easy to keep it there.
 
Many people disagreed with the decision to keep up the lack of diplomacy. They argued that restoring diplomatic and economic relations would not be recognized as an approval of Cuba’s actions, but rather as a foot in the door to help reform. If the US had some trade relations with Cuba, it would allow for negotiation of an end to the rights violations. The US could offer more favorable trade options in exchange for more openness in the Cuban government. The US could threaten to withdraw its economic cooperation if Cuba threatened to violate basic human rights. These types of opinions have been rapidly gaining traction since the end of the Cold War, and pressure has been mounting to tear down the imaginary “Berlin Wall” off the coast of Florida.
 
What you may not have been aware of is Pope Francis’ role in the entire situation. Pope Francis has written several letters to both Raul Castro (the dictator of Cuba) and President Obama. He offered the Vatican as a meeting place and mediator for the two sides. In October, the two sides came together at the Vatican, as the Holy Father had asked and suggested, and worked out a deal. That deal was announced yesterday.
 
This is one more example of how the Church is one of the main agents for good in the world. Not only is it the world’s largest charity organization, but because of its enormous network of individual members, world leaders are willing to listen when the Pope calls. The Church has been brokering deals between warring and estranged nations for two thousand years, and this is just one more success to add to the resume.