Article 55 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba,
related below, is fictitious. Any similarity to other democratic and respected
in real life Constitutions, is entirely coincidental and unintentional:
Article
55: The state, which recognizes, respects and guarantees freedom of conscience
and of religion, also recognizes, respects and guarantees every citizen’s
freedom to change religious beliefs or to not have any, and to profess, within
the framework of respect for the law, the religious belief of his preference. The law regulates the state’s relations with religious institutions.
In the
statutes of the Communist Party of Cuba it was stipulated as an obligation of
the militants <<to fight against religious obscurantism>>, which
meant, in practice, non-acceptance of believers in their lines; rejecting their
admittance in state administration and in certain university careers. Discriminatory
practices of the new regime would imply a serious social harm for believers and
thousands of people, who were forced to hide their faith, in order not to be
victims of government reprisals. And more recently, on May 3rd, 2014 the
National Christian Alliance Board of directors has just written a letter to
Dictator Raul Castro, in which they complain that the Office of Religious
Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba has never
wanted to recognize the true needs and even less contribute to the solution of
problems faced by the nation in terms of religious matters. Quoting as an
example of violation of the right to religious freedom, the boycott to the law draft
of religious Worship and associations, delivered to the National People's
Assembly since 2006 to be enacted the much needed "Law of Worship and
Religious Associations ". The sum of the independent churches, the
Apostolic Movement and Evangelical Ministries, exceed 500 institutions without
being legally recognized. These suffer repression and limitations because they
are not under a religious law, not counting the many non-Christian cults, which
are unfortunately cornered into oblivion without a minimum of consideration. To be continued....
