14 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



RELIGIOUS MATTERS IN CUBA 



MARRIAGE AND BAPTISMAL FEES IN THE REPUBLIC EXPLAINED 



The New York America, a well-known and 

 influential Catholic weeklj', prints the follow- 

 ing questions and answers in its issue for 

 August 29th: 



To the Editor of America: 



I am told on the authority of a Protestant 

 minister stationed at La Gloria, Cuba, that 

 in that vicinity there are two hundred 

 babies not baptised because the priest charges 

 two dollars a piece. Also that in Cuba 

 generally there are thousands of couples 

 living in sin because for the marriage ceremony 

 the "charge" is ten dollars. Can America 

 either refute or explain this statement, 

 which is being used as a proof of the bad 

 conditions existing in the Church in Cuba. 



8t. Davids, Pa. AL W. S. 



This letter is both sad and amusing; sad, 

 because it contains scarcely a shred of truth; 

 amusing in that it exhibits the old Puritan 

 trait of seeing the mote in a neighbor's eye 

 and neglecting the beam very much nearer 

 home. Before coming to the specific accusa- 

 tion contained in the letter. I wish to make 

 a few general remarks. Protestant mission- 

 aries, in spite of their enormous outlay of 

 money, have been met with coldness, not 

 to say contempt, on the part of Cubans. 

 The inhabitants of this island may be 

 indifferent in religion, but they have no 

 respect for Protestantism and its ministers. 

 What have the last named done here these 

 last sixteen years? Raised families, built 

 a few meeting-houses that remain practically 

 empt}', scattered broadcast trite and oft- 

 refuted calumnies, and slandered the Holy 

 Father. Some have done more than this. 

 They have given bad example and the island 

 is buzzing with gossip about them and their 

 waj^s, talk that does little credit to men 

 who came amongst us to preach the pure 

 Gospel and release us from the tyranny of 

 Rome. 



The charges contained in the letter are 

 absurd. They are the usual stock in trade 

 of the unscrupulous preacher looking for 

 moral and financial support for his violent 

 but unsuccessful campaign against Catholi- 

 cism. No Cuban child remains unbaptized 

 by reason of the poverty of its parents; no 

 Cuban couple remains vmmarried from 

 inability to pay a fee of ten dollars. True, 

 here, as elsewhere, priests live by stipends. 

 But here, as elsewhere, the stipend is not 

 demanded withsuchrigor that the sacraments 

 will not be administered without it. It is 

 expected, as it is in other countries. If it 

 cannot be given, well and good. That this 

 priest or that priest may be selfish in this 

 matter, a circumstance of which I, a resident 

 of Cuba these many years, have no knowl- 

 edge, is not to the point. 



There was a Judas amongst the "Twelve;" 



there may be one and more than one here. 

 What then? Is the whole priesthood to be 

 branded as infamous? Perhaps, in Protestant 

 logic, but Protestant logic is of a piece with 

 Protestantism itself, a thing of rags and 

 tatters and sharp-tongued deaconesses and 

 unscrupulous preachers. There are two 

 hundred children unbaptLsed in one section 

 of Cuba because of inability to pay a fee, 

 are there? Indeed! Bring the argument 

 nearer home. Its full value will then he 

 appreciated. It runs this way: There are 

 50,000,000 or more unbaptized Protestants 

 in the United States, because of — I pause. 

 I am not a preacher. If I were, I should 

 conclude that the greed of ministers is the 

 rea.son for a nation of unbaptised adults. 

 But as I am a priest of Cuba, my conclusion 

 is, Americans remain unbaptized because 

 they choose to do so. The same is true of 

 some few Cubans. Not many though, because 

 the vast majority of the children are baptized 

 with all the ceremonies of the Church. 



Now, as to the maiTiages: Here again I 

 flatly contradict the preacher's statement. 

 Why should the minister make such a com- 

 plaint anyhow? Is he too obtuse to see that 

 it makes him ridiculous. People who live in 

 concubinage have little or no scruple about 

 religious matters. If they cared to have a 

 marriage ceremony performed, it would not 

 matter much to them who performed it. 

 Priest, minister or judge, any one of the three 

 would do equally well. Why, then, did not 

 some of these thousands who live in sin 

 ask that preacher "to tie the knot" for them? 

 Did he, too, charge too much? Was it no 

 rather that they were totally indifferent? 



But to the point at issue: Well-instructed 

 Cubans are maiTied by priests; some few 

 ignorant people are married by a magistrate; 

 others, equally few, are man-ied by ministers 

 and never appear before the preachers again. 

 But are there no illicit unions? There are. 

 In fact amongst the negroes such unions are 

 frequent enough. But this state of affairs is 

 not due to priestly avarice but sometines to 

 ignorance, sometimes to formal sin Why 

 move the argument to Cuba and foist the 

 responsibility on priests? A certain well- 

 known American, with negroid blood a plenty 

 in his veins, has wTitten a book on the Ameri- 

 can negro, and I assure you there are reve- 

 lations therein even about negro preachers 

 which cannot be matched in Cuba. 



Suppose, now, I were to become a missioner 

 to those people and after a pleasant but boot- 

 less time in the States, were to return to Cuba 

 and preach that there are thousands of Ameri- 

 cans living in concubinage because the par- 

 son's fee for marriage is too high, how would 

 the statement sound in Protestant ears? 

 What would Protestants say of me? There 

 you have it. Apply the expression to the 



