Is Raul Ready To Repent?

The throwback post below was first published in May of 2015. Since then, the Castros did indeed welcome Pope Francis warmly last September, and when he met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana this past February. All the same, there is scant evidence of any other sort of conversion on the part of the rulers of Cuba's brutal Marxist regime, and some evidence that their treatment of dissidents in general and Christians in particular may even be getting worse (see here and here, for instance). And so, more than a year later the question still stands: is Raul really ready to repent?

The Devil Can Quote Scripture  

The Devil himself can quote Scripture for his own purposes (see Matthew 4:6 & Luke 4:10), but sometimes even the most hardened sinners really do come to repentance. We can't tell, of course, what's happening in another person's heart, so it's hard to know what to make of Cuban President Raul Castro's remarks at his recent visit with Pope Francis.  After his visit with the Pontiff, according to an account in the Wall Street Journal, Castro said:

When the Pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction.

He also assured us :

I read all the speeches of the Pope, his commentaries, and if the Pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the Church, and I'm not joking.

Pope Francis with a no-longer-secret admirer

You'll pardon me if I entertain a few doubts about Castro's sincerity.  For more than half a century now he and his brother Fidel have been busy murdering, torturing, and impoverishing their fellow Cubans, and he has shown little indication that he ready to change his ways. It's somewhat reminiscent of something that Henry Kissinger reported about the aged Mao Zedong, history's most prolific mass-murderer and a man who, like the Castros, imposed an aggressively atheist Marxist-Leninist regime on his people. Kissinger says that shortly before the old tyrant’s death, Mao confided in him that God was “inviting him” home, and the communist leader even seemed to be chiding Kissinger himself for being an atheist.  Nothing much changed in China, however, until after Mao accepted that invitation to the hereafter.  Who can say whether he was really beginning to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, or was simply playing to his audience?

Cui Bono?

    We are equally in the dark in the case of Raul Castro.  Again, my guess tends more toward the second (i.e., the insincere) possibility, or maybe he just likes the leftish sound of some of the Pope’s remarks on economics, who knows?  But even if Castro’s hints at conversion are nothing more than communist agitprop they are still, I think, a positive sign.  Consider this: suppose Castro is only pretending to have rediscovered an affection for the faith of his youth.  What does he gain? Clearly, fifty-plus years of tearing down the Church in Cuba and materialist indoctrination have not succeeded in separating the Cuban people from Catholicism.  Otherwise, his comments would only serve to confuse and alienate them.  He may be thinking that he, like Danny Ortega in Nicaragua, can enhance his popularity among his countrymen by seeming to rediscover the faith that they never lost.  He also seems to believe that taking a more religious tack will serve him well in the court of international opinion.  Apparently, Western secularism, whatever damage it’s done, has been no more successful than Marxist atheism in destroying the appeal of Christ.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

The martyrdom of Thomas Becket

    I think that it also shows that there truly is some hope, however slight, for Castro  himself, even if he is lying.  Consider the case of the English Martyr St. Thomas Becket.  Becket had been a worldly and ambitious man before he was named Archbishop of Canterbury at the insistence of King Henry II, who hoped that Becket would serve the English Crown in its power struggle with the Church.  Becket may have intended to do just that; certainly, his efforts at generosity to the poor after his consecration were interpreted by many of his fellow churchmen as a cynical show. And yet . . . something changed: what many assumed was feigned piety seems to have become real faith.  In the end, he sided with the Church against his friend the King, even when it meant the loss of his life.

    We cannot assume, of course, that such a thing will happen with Raul Castro.  Nonetheless, it is often the case that doing the right thing, even for the wrong reasons, can lift us up to a higher place.  Such was the case of former atheist Alphonse Ratisbonne, who, after living as if he were a devout Christian for a time in response to a challenge from a Catholic friend, unexpectedly experienced a profound conversion.

    Which brings us to a final point.  Even if we doubt Raul Castro’s sincerity, we know that the Holy Spirit really is calling him, just as he was really calling Mao (whether or not Mao consciously knew it), just as he is calling all of us. St. Augustine famously reminds us that our hearts are restless until they rest in the Lord, even the heart of a bloody-handed old scoundrel like Raul Castro.  He could use our prayers.