Church news

The Catholic hierarchy in Cuba has just released the text of the special Christmas missive to be read at churches across the island over the holiday period.

And as we have come to expect from the Cuban bishops, the missive can best be described as being carefully worded. Very.

In other words, the text can be read in any one of several ways, as you can see from this Associated Press report (in Spanish).

For example, the bishops refer to the need for “the transformation of national live” after years of “difficulties”, which may or may not be a call for political and economic change.

It also talks about the Church praying for “real solutions” that lead to “necessary changes” that "bring about hope", without spelling out what they mean by real solutions, necessary changes or hope, for that matter.

It's that kind of statement.

Most disappointing of all, there is no mention anywhere of last week's incident in Santiago, where State security police stormed a local church and using a tear gas-like spray, assaulted a small group of protesters inside before taking them away for questioning.

Not a word.