Funeral mass for Cardinal Jaime Ortega celebrated at the Cathedral of La Habana

July 29, 2019

Floral offerings from General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and from Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, accompanied today the funeral honors of Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who passed away last Friday in Havana, at 82 years of age, after a long battle against cancer.

In a packed Havana Cathedral, the funeral mass took place, attended by Salvador Valdés Mesa, first Vice President of the Councils of State and Ministers; Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power; and Roberto Morales Ojeda, vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers, all members of the Political Bureau.

To bid farewell to Cardinal Ortega Alamino also came other leaders of the Party and the Government, and representatives of religious organizations and Cuban civil society, as well as ecclesiastical authorities who came from other countries, among them Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, USA.

At the ceremony, Monsignor Jean Francois Simonart, chargé d'affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in Havana, read the message from Pope Francis, sent through a telegram by the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Holy Father thus expressed his deepest condolences and paternal closeness to the relatives of the deceased, as well as to the clergy and the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de La Habana.

The homily at this funeral mass, in the intercessory prayer for the eternal rest of Cardinal Ortega Alamino, was delivered by the current Archbishop of Havana, Monsignor Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, who sketched a portrait of the faithful pastor and celebrated and gave thanks for his life as a gift and for his inspired and exemplary priesthood.

About Ortega Alamino he spoke as a thinker, creator, friend of culture, and he highlighted that he was a pontiff, because that word means one who builds bridges and that is what Cardinal Jaime did to try to bring together those who were on different shores—geographical, religious, philosophical or political—so that they could meet for mutual understanding and dialogue.

And it is well known that the significant contribution to the fluidity of relations between the Catholic Church and the Cuban State was made by the Emeritus Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana, who was also the bearer of letters from Pope Francis to Presidents Raúl Castro Ruz and Barack Obama, as a contribution to the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.

With his body present, dressed in a red chasuble, ring, mitre and crosier, all cardinal symbols, the Cardinal was laid in state for three days, before his mortal remains were placed this afternoon in a casket, which remained on the floor, before the altar and with the Gospels on top during this Holy Mass.

With the ceremony concluded, the casket was carried out of the Cathedral by the Bishops of Cuba amid an endless round of applause, the tolling of bells and religious songs, an emotional farewell and a final salute to he who was host to the three Popes who have visited the Greater Antille: John Paul II (1998), Benedict XVI (2012), and Francis (2015).

From what for a long time was his parish, and after five o'clock in the afternoon this Sunday, the funeral procession departed for the Cristóbal Colón necropolis, in the Cuban capital, for burial in the Pantheon of the Bishops.