Two Cuban Priests Serving the Church in New York

It was my privilege to be part of the New York Archdiocesan Pilgrimage to Cuba. I went there with my fellow pilgrims to join Cuban Catholics in welcoming Pope John Paul II to this island nation which has suffered for four decades under a communist dictatorship. The pope's visit was a beacon of hope for those who have lived through the suppression of Catholic life in Cuba. It was also an unmistakable sign that the good Lord has never abandoned his children who have been praying these many years for freedom and justice in Cuba.

I went to Cuba, though, not simply to be with our Holy Father. I also went to honor the memory of two Cuban exile priests who served the Church in New York after being compelled to abandon the land of their birth. I went to Cuba to honor Father Felix Varela and Msgr. Raul del Valle, two great priests.

Msgr. Raul del Valle died in 1988 after a heroic struggle with cancer. At the time of his death he was serving as chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York. This important assignment was the culmination of years of service in the archdiocese. Msgr. Del Valle had been a hospital chaplain, a tribunal judge and a pastor, first of St. Anselm's Church and then of St. Athanasius Church in the South Bronx.

Msgr. Del Valle arrived in New York after being exiled from Cuba in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. At the time he was the personal secretary of the Cardinal Archbishop of Havana, and in that capacity he had played an important role in attempting to secure the rights of the Church in the early years of the Castro dictatorship. Msgr. Del Valle had earlier studied for a degree in canon law in Rome and was certainly destined for even more important roles of leaderships in the Church in Cuba.

That all ended abruptly when he found himself, along with thousands of fellow Cubans exiled to the United States. The Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Arteaga, also was exiled, going to Venezuela. He died shortly thereafter. Msgr. del Valle, having suddenly lost both his cardinal and his country, came to New York to work as a priest among Hispanic Catholics. His priestly zeal and charity were well known. He was a truly humble man who did all he could to serve God as a pastor of souls. He accepted God's plan for his life and served the Lord well.

My first assignment as a newly ordained priest in 1984 was to St. Athanasius parish, where Msgr. Del Valle was pastor. I learned many, many things from this good priest. He showed the way to be a good servant of the Church by his words and example. It was my privilege to have a great role model as I began my priestly life. In God's providential design Cuba's loss was New York's gain.

Msgr. Del Valle, in addition to his pastoral duties, was also the foremost promoter in the United States of the cause for canonization of Father Felix Varela. He got me interested in Father Varela, an exiled Cuban priest who lived in the last century. He had to flee for his life from the Spanish royal authorities in 1823. He was an advocate of Cuban independence and represented the clergy of Cuba in the Spanish Cortes in Cadiz before it was suppressed.

Father Varela, the most illustrious Cuban priest, educator and philosopher of his day, came to New York and served as a pastor among the Irish immigrants in what is now Chinatown. He founded St. James and Transfiguration parishes. He was later named vicar general and he put his intellectual talents to use in defending the Catholic Church in his writings and speeches against unfair attacks.

Always interested in freedom for his native land. Father Varela nonetheless saw that his talents and energies as a priest in New York were most needed in pastoral, and not in academic and philosophical, pursuits. The poor Irish immigrants in the infamous Five Points slum never knew that the man who tirelessly brought God's truth and mercy to them was revered in Cuba as the first exponent of Cuban national identity and independence from Spain.

Indeed, in his native land Father Varela is revered as the Cuban equivalent of such American heroes as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. In New York, his fame of sanctity was widespread during his approximately 23 years of priestly service as pastor of Transfiguration parish. He was a true apostle of charity and a charitable defender of the faith. His cause for beatification and canonization, which is progressing well in Rome, is well founded.

The similarities in the lives of these two priests are striking. Providence has blessed our archdiocese with two extraordinary men who in the ordinary course of events would have remained in their island nation and played important roles in both the religious and civil life of the Cuban people. As God would have it, they came to our shores and to our city to serve as ordinary (if that word can be used at all in referring to priests) parish priests among the poor and needy.

In Cuba last month Pope John Paul praised Father Varela for his outstanding priestly soul. He honored him by praying before his mortal remains, which are kept in an urn in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana.

Msgr. Raul del Valle earned no mention in the pope's homilies and discourses in Cuba. But the pope did praise the loyalty of all Cuban Catholics, wherever they find themselves. Those in exile count the late Msgr. Del Valle as a shining example of that fidelity to God and to the Church amidst the national tragedy suffered by Cuba.

You see why going to see the Holy Father in Cuba was the main, but not only reason for my joining the New York pilgrimage. Our archdiocese has benefited greatly from these two sons of Cuba. I could not pass up this unique opportunity to pray with the pope for "Cuba and to honor the memory of two Cuban priests who have left a deep mark upon the Church in New York.

It seems to me that only by pondering the mysterious designs of God's providence can we understand how the tragedy of exile could have borne such fruits of holiness and priestly zeal as are found in the lives of Father Felix Varela and Msgr. Raul del Valle. Undoubtedly the fruits of their sacrifices are already being harvested by the Church in Cuba, renewed by the visit of the Holy Father.