Churchill, Father Ed and Me

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Winston Churchill

In today’s homily Father Ed was telling us about faith and hypocrisy when he took an unexpected swipe at communism. He told a story of how a visitor to old communist Poland was asked if he was a Catholic, the Pole replied “I believe but I don’t practice” as the visitor continued on his official tour he asked the pole if he was a communist to which the Pole replied “I practice but I don’t believe”.

This, of course, immediately made me think of Cuba.

Recently, people here in US have been clamoring for Cuba’s oppressed populace to rise up and go up against the Cuban military and get slaughtered. For the ordinary Cuban, everyday life is an unimaginable struggle. They go up against this totalitarian system everyday to survive. It’s hard to survive when every single institution in your world exists to subjugate and crush your will, to tear your family apart, to dictate what you must do every single minute of your day and to terrorize you into submission.

They live and breathe the gospel of envy. They suffer the hunger and destruction brought about by the philosophy of failure. They are bombarded by constant hate-filled propaganda that comes from the creed of ignorance and they quietly share their misery with each other.

But these already brave people who keep fifty year old automotive relics running, who make homemade satellite dishes, know how to survive. They know how to bide their time. And when the time is right, they will surprise the world. They have been practicing something that they don’t believe in. Soon they will practice what they believe and make believers out of the rest of the world.