A look at Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega

A look at Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega

Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega, right, stands behind Pope Francis in the
popemobile as they arrive for Mass at Revolution Plaza in Havana, Cuba,
Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. During Mass Sunday, Ortega thanked the pope for
his work promoting detente between Havana and Washington and called for
reconciliation between Cubans living on the island and elsewhere. Ortega
was among many priests sent to military-run agricultural camps in the
1960s after Fidel Castro declared Cuba to be socialist and accused
prominent Catholics of trying to topple him. (Ismael
Francisco/Cubadebate Via AP)

HAVANA (AP) — A look at Cuba's top Roman Catholic churchman, Cardinal
Jaime Ortega, who at Mass on Sunday thanked Pope Francis for his work
promoting detente between Havana and Washington and called for
reconciliation between Cubans living on the island and elsewhere.

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FULL NAME: Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino.

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BORN: Oct. 18, 1936, in the sugar mill town of Jaguey Grande, in the
central province of Matanzas. Moved to the provincial capital as a child.

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TITLES: Cardinal, Archbishop of Havana.

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EARLY BACKGROUND: Was among many priests sent to military-run
agricultural camps in the 1960s after Fidel Castro declared Cuba to be
socialist and accused prominent Catholics of trying to topple him.

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CHURCH CAREER: Consecrated as bishop in 1979 and named Archbishop of
Havana two years later. Helped rebuild church infrastructure around the
capital and set up Caritas of Havana, the first office of the Catholic
relief charity in the country. In November 1994, named by Pope John Paul
II as Cuba's first cardinal in more than three decades. Has presided
over the Cuban Catholic Church during a period of gradually easing
tensions with the state, which began after Cuba dropped constitutional
references to atheism in 1992. In 2010, Ortega sat down with President
Raul Castro and negotiated the release of dozens of jailed dissidents,
but critics accused Ortega of capitulating to the government when many
were exiled to Spain instead of remaining in Cuba. Still, Ortega has
authorized church publications to print articles by economists and
intellectuals about Cuba's fiscal problems that would never have
appeared in the state-run press.

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THE CARDINAL AND THE POPE: Ortega and Francis are longtime friends, and
it was the Cuban who revealed to the world the speech that
then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio delivered to a
closed-door meeting of cardinals that largely convinced them to elect
him pope in 2013.

With Francis' permission, Ortega published Bergoglio's notes in his
archdiocesan newspaper soon after the conclave. In the speech, Francis
called for the church to reform itself, to go out to the geographic and
existential "peripheries" and to put an end to its self-referential
"theological narcissism."

Source: A look at Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega - Yahoo News -
http://news.yahoo.com/look-cubas-cardinal-jaime-ortega-171127156.html