Enrique López Oliva

Enrique López Oliva is undoubtedly the man who knows the most about religion in Cuba.

López Oliva seems like a mythical being, his white hair, worn by time, is always accompanied by a rampant hat that does not reveal a man with more than eight decades on his skin. Perhaps some doubt that he is one of the Cubans who knows the most about religion in Cuba, but few will be able to contradict the statement that in his house is the largest macro-ecumenical personal library in the country.

López Oliva says he wishes to be remembered as a prophet of the Old Testament and some of his students have asked the Cuban academy to include his name among those nominated for the national awards in our country. It would be an act of historical justice for one who has spent his years teaching young people to understand and love the History of Religions through dialogue.

After finishing high school at Colegio de Belén, López Oliva studied journalism at the Escuela Carlos Márquez Sterling. With solid Catholic formation and sincere revolutionary commitment, he began his career working with the Prensa Latina Agency, the newspaper El Mundo, and other publications and early on focused his attention on the study of Christian movements in Latin America.

He collaborated on his specialty in the magazines Pensamiento Crítico and Tricontinental, among others, and his essay Los católicos en la revolución latinoamericana received recognition from the jury at the Casa de las Americas Literary Prize in 1969. His publication contributed knowledge to the reflection on the subject. He participated in organizing the Jornadas in memory of Camilo Torres Restrepo convened by the Council of Churches of Cuba, which were held with the regular presence of the mother of the Colombian guerrilla priest, Isabel Restrepo, until the early 70s.

The ecumenism proclaimed at Vatican II had the support of the most advanced sectors of Cuban Protestantism. The only Catholic figures who attended these events were jurist and lay writer Raúl Gómez Treto and film critic Walfrido Piñera, as well as Fr. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y García-Menocal, of proven disposition toward dialogue, with whom López Oliva maintained active pastoral collaboration in his later years at the parish of San Agustín.

When the Commission for the Study of the History of the Church in Latin America (CEHILA) was founded, inspired by the II Conference of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM, Bogotá, 1968), and which established its headquarters in Mexico under the direction of Enrique Dussel, López Oliva was appointed Executive Secretary of the Cuban chapter. He dedicated himself to this activity along with Piñera, in the various stages the organization has gone through, which has had so many obstacles to overcome due to the Church's lack of understanding.

He taught courses on the History of Christianity in Latin America at the University of La Habana, at the Higher Institute of Biblical and Theological Studies (ISEBIT), and in more recent years, at the Universidad de San Jerónimo. He also served as correspondent for various Latin American news agencies in Cuba, such as Noticias Aliadas, from Peru.

ELO did not receive the recognition he deserved for his knowledge and clear trajectory from the Cuban academy or from his religious institution. Fr. José María González Ruiz, one of the most progressive Spanish theologians of the post-council period, would say of him that he was "a Catholic insufficiently understood and underutilized by his Church."

With Temas, as before with Cuadernos de Nuestra América, the magazine of the Center for Studies on America (CEA), he maintained a relationship of constant and especially valuable collaboration. Those who attended the Último Jueves debates over 19 years should remember him for his active participation. "As you must be accustomed, my question to the panel has to do with religion," he used to say with a knowing smile, in his kind yet incisive tone.

ELO passed away on Monday, February 8 at 84 years of age, at his old residence in the Kohly neighborhood in La Habana.