Cardinal Delivers Holiday Message on Cuban Radio Station

HAVANA —  Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega said Friday that the restored Christmas holiday had brought joy to the country’s people, and he urged them to preserve the day as one of faith and family love free from commercialization.

Ortega, archbishop of Havana and leader of Cuba’s Roman Catholics, made the plea in a 15-minute Christmas message broadcast on a minor state radio station.

Cuba’s Communist authorities, who control the media, had given authorization for the broadcast on Radio Musical Nacional, one of the island’s less widely heard stations. It normally plays classical music.

“This is a great joy for the church and for the Cuban people,” Ortega said in his broadcast.

“Now let us hope that it won’t be the commercial tinkling of an imported Santa Claus that announces Christmas in Cuba,” he said in an apparent criticism of commercialization surrounding Christmas in some countries.

After abolishing the Dec. 25 holiday in 1969 to concentrate national efforts on the strategic sugar harvest, Cuba’s Communist government this month officially restored Christmas Day to the national public holiday calendar.

“Happy Christmas,” Ortega wished listeners, exhorting them to cherish the true meaning of Christmas as a day of peace and love associated with the birth of Jesus Christ.

It was not immediately clear how many Cubans actually heard Ortega’s message or even knew about it.

Much of Cuba’s state mass media appeared to largely ignore the holiday.

On its front page, the Communist Party newspaper Granma carried a lead article hailing the rapid growth of the island’s tourist sector and a story headlined “Communist Youth Celebrates 40 Januaries” in reference to the upcoming 40th anniversary of Cuba’s 1959 revolution.

Even if all Cubans did not grasp the religious or historical significance of the day, most took advantage of the holiday to spend time with family and friends.

On Christmas Eve, many Cubans revived the old tradition of a family meal, usually pork, rice, beans and vegetables.

Some went to Roman Catholic and other Christian Masses held at midnight on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day.