Carlos Manuel de Céspedes García-Menocal

Coming from both paternal and maternal lines of families established in his country since the beginning of Spanish colonization and involved in the political, economic, and cultural life at various stages of its history, Monsignor Carlos Manuel de Céspedes García-Menocal was born in La Habana.

He studied primary and secondary education at the "Champagnat" School of the Marist Brothers in La Víbora, in La Habana. After completing secondary school, he went to the University of La Habana where he began his studies in Law; he remained there even after beginning his studies at the Seminary until it was closed during the government of General Fulgencio Batista in December 1956.

In September of that year he had entered the Seminary "El Buen Pastor" in La Habana, where he began his ecclesiastical studies (Humanities and Philosophy). In 1959 he traveled to Rome to complete those studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he obtained the degree of Licentiate in Theology in 1963. He was ordained a priest in Rome on December 23, 1961.

During four years of stable residence in Europe, he took summer courses in languages, literature, and philosophical thought at institutions in París, Lovaina, Arolsen (Federal Republic of Germany), and Viena. He returned to Cuba in August 1963.

Between 1963 and 1966 he was Vice-Rector of the Seminary "El Buen Pastor"; from 1966 to 1970, he was Rector of the Seminary "San Carlos y San Ambrosio". From February 1964 to February 1967 he was in charge of the "Catholic World" section in the newspaper "El Mundo" of La Habana (now defunct), and has published essays, articles, and poems in various publications, Catholic or otherwise, in Cuba and other countries.

He has had the following books published: Orientaciones actuales de la teología católica (booklet, La Habana 1995), Recuento (anthology of journalistic articles, Miami 1992), Canciones del atardecer (poems from 1992, Miami), Promoción humana, realidad cubana y perspectivas (essay, Caracas 1996), Érase una vez en la habana (novel, Madrid 1998), Fiesta innombrable (long interview, poems and essays, Holguín 1999), Pasión por Cuba y por la Iglesia (Biography of Father Félix Varela, Madrid 1999), Cuadernos varelianos (four essays on Varelian themes, La Habana 1999), Zarpazos a la memoria (four testimonial accounts, Madrid 2001). Currently in press are two other books of his: the novel Detrás del silencio, in España, and another biography of Father Félix Varela entitled Señal en la noche, in Cuba. His poems and essays on topics related to Cuba, its culture, and its history appear in collective works published in Cuba, España, Alemania, Estados Unidos, and España.

On July 10, 1976, he received the pontifical distinction of Papal Chaplain. From July 1970 until February 1991 he was Director of the General Secretariat of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba. From 1991 to 1995 he was Chancellor of the Archbishopric. Currently he is Vicar General of La Habana and Episcopal Vicar of Marianao-Oeste of the Archdiocese of La Habana, member of the Editorial Board of Palabra Nueva Magazine. Previously, he was President of the Archdiocesan Commission on Culture, Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Ecumenism, Director of the Archdiocesan Center for Studies and its magazine Vivarium, which he founded. For years he was a member of the Department of Ecumenism, currently the Section of Ecumenism, of CELAM. He has been a member of the Theological-Pastoral Reflection Team also of CELAM and has been a Consultant of the Pontifical Council for Culture, at the Vatican, from 1984 to 2009. He has participated frequently in summer courses at Complutense University and the University of Salamanca, in España, a country where he has given lectures at various cultural institutions on humanistic and theological topics. He has participated frequently in similar academic events in Brasil, México, Colombia, Chile, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Gran Bretaña, Francia, and Estados Unidos.

Simultaneously, he has been pastor of Santa Fe, Punta Brava, and Guatao (1964 to 1972), pastor of Jesús del Monte (1970 to 1980), pastor of Santo Ángel Custodio (1980 to 1995), and pastor of San Agustín (1995-2014), in Miramar, La Habana, where he resided until his death.

Since 1963 he has been a professor at the Seminary of La Habana, where he has taught and teaches various disciplines in the Humanities Section and in the Theology Section. He has occasionally held other responsibilities in the Catholic Church in Cuba.

Last November he gave a lecture at the Padre Félix Varela Cultural Center in which he expressed the opinion that Raúl Castro's "current changes" seem to lead to "a more participatory and democratic socialism."

"Those who know me well know that the last path, that of neoliberalism, is not the one I wish for the House Cuba, but rather the first one, that of a more participatory and democratic socialism, which the current changes in slow process of realization seem to want to lead us toward," he stated, according to the Catholic magazine Espacio Laical.

In 2011, De Céspedes had said on the Island's state television that the responsibility for the confrontations between the Church and the regime in the sixties was "shared."

"Cuba was not an exception among Marxist governments. In all countries that were Marxist, from an orthodox point of view, there were conflicts with churches," Catholic and non-Catholic, he opined.

In that intervention, he described the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Cuban Government as "completely normal." "Better than in many" countries, he said.