“The U.S. bishops welcome President Obama’s Executive Order permitting and broadening purposeful and people-to-people travel to Cuba and allowing all Americans to send financial support to the Cuban people,” said Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, New York, and chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
According to a news release, Bishop Hubbard said “These needed new policies are modest but important steps towards advancing our hopes for a better relationship between our people and the people of Cuba, a relationship which holds great promise of fostering positive and real change in Cuba.”
Bishop Hubbard’s remarks came after the announcement by a senior White House Official explaining the changes, which will expand travel to Cuba and allow all Americans to send assistance to the Cuban people. The USCCB opined, in the statement, "The White House designed these changes to support a more vibrant civil society and to help the Cuban people depend less on the Cuban State at a time when changes in the Cuban economy are anticipated."
The statement averred that "The Catholic Church, both in Cuba and in the United States, has repeatedly called for an end to the 50-year-old embargo that has prevented the engagement between the Cuban and American peoples."
“The Church sees the changes as useful, positive and important steps forward towards the goal of greater engagement,” Bishop Hubbard said. “We hope and pray that these needed measures to remove unnecessary restrictions on purposeful travel to Cuba and to offer greater people-to-people assistance to Cubans will be another step toward supporting the people of Cuba in achieving greater freedom, human rights, and religious liberty.”
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