By Patricia Zapor
WASHINGTON (CNS) – A not-insignificant part of the diplomatic coup pulled off by the White House and Cuban leaders Dec. 17 was that hardly anyone knew they had been working toward a reset in relations between the two neighbors and longtime antagonists.
That the two nations had been negotiating in secret for 18 months and that the Vatican had played a key role in keeping the discussions moving were among the factors that no doubt made the dramatic shift in policies possible. By keeping negotiations among a small number of diplomats and out of the public eye, outside pressures were kept to a minimum.
In simultaneous news conferences that day, U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington and Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana announced that their countries were re-establishing official diplomatic relations. Obama detailed a lengthy list of things that will become easier – sales of materials to Cuba’s small-business owners, for Internet technology and for housing construction; visits to Cuba by more Americans; banking and use of credit cards by Americans visiting Cuba; remittances of greater amounts of cash – to name some of the major changes.
That’s not to say the 54-year U.S. embargo has gone away altogether. Congress still holds the reins to portions of the laws prohibiting trade with Cuba, intended as a sanction for repression and human rights abuses after the Marxist revolution that put Fidel Castro in power in 1959. He or his brother, Raul, who took over from the ailing Fidel in 2006, have ruled the country ever since.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower first imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960. President John F. Kennedy expanded the embargo, and every president since has maintained it until Obama. He is the first to significantly loosen the controls, in 2009 easing restrictions on travel for family and cultural visits and allowing Americans to send more money to their relatives there.
Critics of the shift in policy, most conspicuously a handful of Cuban-American members of Congress, say they will attempt to block the changes. Among the steps they suggested are opposing the nomination of an ambassador and restricting funds needed to reopen an embassy in Havana.
But Congress also holds the power to retain or end the key parts of the embargo, which were put in place by federal law. The law established the main prohibitions on commerce with Cuba and the ban on travel except as permitted for family, cultural, educational, religious and humanitarian purposes.
The most recent national polling on the embargo done by the Pew Research Center in 2009 found a bare majority, 52 percent, of respondents said the U.S. should renew ties with Cuba. But only 33 percent opposed renewing ties. That poll came not long before the Cuban government began a series of changes, including allowing individuals to buy and sell property and to open businesses. More recently, Cuba began allowing its citizens to travel freely, without government authorization.
Annual polling of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County by Florida International University has found steadily increasing support for ending the embargo, reinstating diplomatic ties and permitting U.S. citizens to freely travel to Cuba. This year, 68 percent favored reinstating diplomatic relations, with younger Cuban-Americans and recent arrivals backing the changes by even greater numbers, as much as 90 percent and 80 percent, respectively.
Tom Quigley, former foreign policy adviser on Latin America and the Caribbean to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Catholic News Service that it’s true what one of the chief critics, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, says about the need for more progress in changing the political systems in Cuba that prompted the call for an embargo in the first place.
“But it’s not going to get any better by leaving the status quo in place,” he added.
The Catholic Church in both countries has long worked to end the embargo. Yet Stephen Colecchi, director of the USCCB’s Office of International Justice and Peace, said he was unaware of the talks between Cuban and U.S. diplomats until the day of the announcement.
Boston daily and Catholic newspapers reported that Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, one of Pope Francis’ key advisers, played a behind-the-scenes role, helping relay messages between a Boston nonprofit group, Beyond Conflict, that encouraged Pope Francis to intervene with Obama to press for an end to the embargo. When Obama and Pope Francis met in March, Cuba was reportedly one of their main topics of conversation.
For years, the Cuban bishops have worked steadfastly to diminish the emotional distance between Cubans and their Cuban-American relatives. Archbishop Dionisio Garcia Ibanez of Santiago de Cuba, president of the Cuban bishops’ conference, used the 2012 observance of the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, to encourage Cubans worldwide to unite across borders.
He became a regular visitor to the U.S., especially to Cuban emigre communities in Florida and New York.
By the time Pope Benedict visited Havana, Santiago and the shrine of El Cobre in 2012, thousands of Americans went to join him. From Miami alone, nearly 1,000 people went on flights chartered by the archdiocese.
Under Obama’s 2009 orders allowing more “people to people” travel to Cuba, the idea was for interactions between everyday citizens of both countries to help pressure Cuba’s leaders to bring about more improvements.
Archbishop Garcia’s goal was framed in more theological terms, but he was clear about what he hoped would happen if people would come together in a spirit of pilgrimage.
“La Caridad nos une,” (the Virgin of Charity unites us), Archbishop Garcia said repeatedly on visits to the U.S. preceding the anniversary. “Whether inside Cuba or outside Cuba, there is a sense that we are all one church.”
(Copyright © 2014 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

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VIENNA (CNS) – Tucked behind the Austrian capital’s well known Museumsquartier – a complex of art, natural history and cultural museums – is a little side street Christmas market called Spittelberg.
No more than a medieval alleyway, gray cobblestones and slightly wobbly Tudor-like white and dark timber buildings, Spittelberg is a place where old Vienna comes to life.
In the mellow splendor of muted Christmas glitter, with candlelight lamps in tones of red and wooden market stalls, the Spittelberg Christmas market is about vegetarian cheeses, wild boar sausages, sweet nuts and holiday biscuits. Add a variety of mulled wines and “Weihnachtspunsch” (Christmas punch), there’s enough to tempt any palate.
Here the spirit of Christmas comes to life. Less commercial than other markets across the city, Spittelberg’s quirkiness shines through in the homemade exquisite tree ornaments and in the friendly sense of community brought by three generations of vendors.
“My grandmother started selling waffles here and I used to come and help her,” says Anna Pichler, spooning a generous portion of plum jam onto a waffle made of organically grown spelt flour. “Then my mother came and now I’m here. We just like to keep this tradition going. Advent is a special time for us in Austria.”
Farther down the narrow street, the resident St. Nicholas wanders among the stalls, wooden staff in hand, bringing good cheer.
Invited to a decorated cup of mulled wine to keep away the chill, St. Nicholas hesitates.
“It’s too early in the evening,” he says.
Wandering from Spittelberg toward the old central market, Naschmarkt, shoppers emerge onto Maria Hilfe Strasse (Our Lady of Mercy Street) – and more Christmas market food, drink and craft stalls. One offers sheep slippers from Transylvania for sale, reminding visitors of Old Testament accounts of winter in Bethlehem.
“The most beautiful thing about the Vienna markets is that they are sort of nestled in between these elegant buildings,” says Susie Kelpie, who is from the United Kingdom.
Kelpie is one of 3 million annual visitors who attend Vienna’s at least two dozen Christmas markets, which traditionally open the Saturday before Advent.
Despite the number of visitors – albeit commercially important to the mainly rural Austrian economy of craftspeople – there is a certain magical quality about Christmas in this largely Catholic European capital.
Walking through the elegant sunken streets of the town’s center, known as the Graben, women in fur coats and men in old-fashioned hats and green loden capes mingle under pure white Christmas lights that represent the brightest stars on a winter’s night.
Appropriately, the most elaborate Christmas decorations are hung near St. Stephen’s Cathedral. They appear to align with the power of that emanates from the 12th-century church, the heart of the Archdiocese of Vienna.
Nearby, at yet another market, Am Hof, a group of young men warm the night with their baritone voices after a couple of glasses of hot wine or punch.
“My grandfather used to sing here during Advent,” said Constantin Spallart, one of the singers.
Moving outside the center city, Vienna’s Christkindlmarkt (Christ Child Market) on Parliament Square attracts busloads of tourists from Eastern Europe. But even there Vienna declines to take part in a commercialized idea of Christmas. A life-size Christmas manger, complete with Christ child and blonde-haired Mary, occupy a prominent part of the market.
(Copyright © 2014 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)