Raúl and Díaz-Canel Offerings at Cardinal Ortega’s Funeral Ceremony
Flower offerings from Army General Raul Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, President of Cuba, accompanied this Sunday the funeral honors of Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who died last Friday in this capital, at 82 years of age, after a long battle against cancer.
A funeral mass was held in a crowded Havana Cathedral, attended by Salvador Valdes Mesa, First Vice President of Cuba; Esteban Lazo Hernandez, President of the Cuban Parliament; and Roberto Morales Ojeda, Vice President of Cuba, all members of the Political Bureau of the PCC.
Cardinal Ortega Alamino’s farewell was also attended by other PCC and Government leaders and representatives of religious organizations and Cuban civil society, as well as ecclesiastical authorities from other countries, including Cardinal Sean O´Malley, Archbishop of Boston, USA.
At the ceremony, Monsignor Jean Francois Simonart, chargé d’affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in Havana, read the message from Pope Francis, sent through a telegram by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The Supreme Pontiff expressed his heartfelt condolences and paternal closeness to the relatives of the deceased, as well as to the clergy and the worshippers of the Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de La Habana.
The homily at this funeral Mass in the suffrage for the eternal rest of Cardinal Ortega Alamino was given by the current Archbishop of Havana, Monsignor Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, who made a portrait of the faithful pastor and he celebrated and thanked his life and inspired and exemplary priesthood as a gift.
He spoke of Ortega Alamino as a thinker, creator, friend of culture, and he emphasized that he was a pontiff, because that word means one who builds bridges and that is what Cardinal Jaime did in an attempt to ensure that those who were on different shores – geographical, religious, philosophical or political – met for mutual knowledge and dialogue.
And it is well known is the significant contribution to the fluidity of relations between the Catholic Church and the Cuban State made by the Archbishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de La Habana, who was also the bearer of letters from Pope Francisco to Presidents Raúl Castro Ruz and Barack Obama, as a contribution to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
With the body present, dressed with the red chasuble, the ring, the mitre and the staff, all cardinal symbols, the Cardinal was veiled for three days, before his mortal remains were placed this afternoon in a coffin, which remained on the floor, in front of the altar and with the Gospels on top during this Holy Mass.
(Taken from ACN in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
