In his view, the expulsion was meant as a message to others who might have thought the papal visit was a license for open speech. Ironically, Santa Clara was the site of the first papal mass ever in Cuba. Much energy has been wasted trying to determine whether the Castro regime is interested in change. Judging from its own record over the past twelve months, it is not. Even in the slight opening that has occurred in Cuba, there has been an enormous increase in baptisms, confirmations, religious weddings, and funerals in all denominations.
People have hope.
But as a matter of official policy, such people scarcely exist. All of us who care about human rights have an obligation not to misread this situation or to abandon the Cuban people, who continue to suffer under the world's longest-standing dictatorship.