Cuba’s President Pays Hasty Visit to New York City Church

Miguel Díaz-Canel abruptly cut short a planned visit to the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City’s Chinatown after paying tribute to Venerable Félix Varela, a priest and patriot of the island nation.

Fragmentos copiados del National Catholic Register. Sabrina Ferrisi September 29, 2023

NEW YORK — Sometimes in Church-state relations, things don’t go as planned.

This was more than evident at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City’s Chinatown on Sept. 23. President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba — in town to attend the U.N. Sustainable Goals Summit and to give brief remarks to the General Assembly — had asked the Archdiocese of New York three weeks earlier if he could lay a wreath at the statue of Venerable Félix Varela, a Cuban priest and patriot on route to canonization. The event was by invitation only and shrouded in secrecy.

The Sept. 23 event at the Catholic church was to be held from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, was supposed to attend.

Father Félix Varela, known as the “Benjamin Franklin of Cuba,” was born in Havana in 1788 and arrived in New York 200 years ago. As a young priest, he was elected in 1821 as a colonial delegate to the Spanish parliament, where he pushed for the abolition of slavery and for the colony of Cuba to become free from Spain. As a result of this political advocacy, which provoked the hostility of Spanish King Ferdinand VII, Father Varela was forced to seek political asylum in the U.S. in 1823.

Settling in New York City in 1826, he was known there for his tireless efforts ministering to poor Irish and Italian immigrants. He also served in several senior administrative posts, including as administrator of the diocese for a two-year period.

Exhausted by his priestly service, he returned to Cuba in 1850 and died there in poverty three years later. Father Varela was declared “Venerable” in 2012 by the Vatican. — Sabrina Ferrisi

Bishop Octavio Cisneros, retired auxiliary bishop from Brooklyn, was there because of his work promoting the cause of beatification and canonization of Venerable Félix. He arrived at 4:10 p.m. President Díaz-Canel arrived ahead of schedule at 4:20 p.m.

“The appropriate person to have welcomed him was Cardinal Dolan,” who was not yet due to arrive, “but it was just me,” Bishop Cisneros told the Register.

Apparently, President Díaz-Canel walked right into the church to place his wreath of flowers at the statue of Father Varela. Bishop Cisneros followed and explained the importance that Father Varela had — as a priest — for the Catholic Church in New York.

“I told him a few words about this church, how Father Varela had founded the parish. I told the president about the significance of this church and the significance of Father Varela in New York as someone who worked tirelessly to help the Irish and Italians,” he said. “I explained that when the poor were sick, Father Varela would visit people in the hospital, even during a cholera epidemic.”

They were not together more than 10 minutes when, suddenly, Díaz-Canel thanked Bishop Cisneros and told him that the U.S. Secret Service men had given him instructions to depart.

Then the Secret Service whisked Díaz-Canel out of the building.

Cardinal Dolan was only a few blocks away in his car when he was called and told that the president of Cuba had just left. Cardinal Dolan’s driver turned the car around immediately, according to Christopher Ljungquist, adviser on Latin America at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace.

Everybody in the Transfiguration parish-school building was shocked, including Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N., and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, secretary for exterior relations of the Vatican, who had arrived while Díaz-Canel was still in the church. The members of the Cuban delegation and even the priests of Transfiguration parish looked at each other with amazement.

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla then apologized to Archbishop Gallagher and Archbishop Caccia. For 10 minutes, the Vatican representatives spoke in Spanish with the Cuban delegation about how there should be more meetings in the future and the importance of relations with the Church.

Finally, everyone left in the driving rain that was pounding New York that afternoon.

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