EWTN News reports that the Piarist Fathers in Cuba have publicly demanded the return of their nationalized cloister and school from the communist regime, citing state neglect, looting, and fires that have left the historic buildings in ruins. The article frames this as a legitimate Catholic concern for cultural heritage and community identity.
The Illusion of Property Rights Under Communist Tyranny
The Piarists’ demand presupposes that a communist regime—founded on atheistic materialism and the explicit goal of eradicating religion—can be reasoned with through appeals to “public accountability” and “criminal negligence.” This is a dangerous illusion. As Pope Pius XI taught in Divini Redemptoris (1937), communism is “intrinsically perverse” and cannot be reconciled with the Catholic faith. The confiscation of Church property in 1961 was not an isolated act of greed but the logical consequence of Marxist-Leninist ideology, which views all private property—especially religious property—as an obstacle to total state control. To demand its return is to beg from one’s own oppressor, hoping for mercy where none exists.
Moreover, the Piarists’ appeal to “the very identity of all the people of Guanabacoa” as justification for their claim is a subtle but profound error. Catholic identity is not rooted in buildings or cultural monuments but in the sacraments, the Mass, and the profession of the true faith. As Our Lord Himself warned: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). The Piarists’ focus on physical structures reveals a naturalistic ecclesiology that prioritizes temporal goods over spiritual ones—a hallmark of the post-conciliar mentality.
Silence on the True Enemy: Modernist Apostasy
The article, like the Piarists’ statement, focuses exclusively on external persecution by the communist regime while remaining silent on the far greater danger: the internal apostasy of the Church since the Second Vatican Council. While buildings crumble in Havana, the conciliar sect has systematically dismantled the Catholic faith from within—replacing the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a Protestantized “memorial meal,” denying the divinity of Christ in practice if not in explicit doctrine, and embracing the very religious liberty condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (errors 77–80).
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), condemned the modernist proposition that “the progress of sciences requires a reform of the concept of Christian doctrine concerning God, creation, Revelation, the Person of the Incarnate Word, and Redemption” (error 64). Yet this is precisely what the post-conciliar church has done—adapting its “doctrine” to the spirit of the age, including the age of communism. The Piarists’ demand for property rights is a distraction from the real battle: the restoration of the integral Catholic faith against the modernist revolution that has infected even those who claim to be religious.
The Heresy of “Dialogue” with Enemies of Christ
The Piarists’ approach—filing complaints, issuing public statements, and appealing to “cultural heritage authorities”—is a textbook example of the false ecumenism and dialogue condemned by every pre-conciliar pope. Pope Leo XIII, in Immortale Dei (1885), taught that the state must recognize the Catholic Church as the one true religion and that any attempt to place the Church on equal footing with false religions is a grave injustice. The Piarists’ willingness to engage with the communist regime as if it were a legitimate partner in dialogue—rather than an enemy of Christ to be resisted and, if possible, overthrown—is a betrayal of this teaching.
Furthermore, the article’s framing of the issue as one of “negligence” rather than deliberate persecution obscures the true nature of communist regimes. The destruction of religious buildings is not accidental but intentional—a systematic effort to erase the memory of God from society. As Pope Pius XI wrote in Quadragesimo Anno (1931), socialism, whether “moderate” or “radical,” is incompatible with Christianity because it denies the existence of the human soul’s supernatural end. The Piarists’ plea for “accountability” from such a regime is not only futile but spiritually dangerous, as it implies that the regime can be reformed through human means alone.
The Scandal of Post-Conciliar Religious Orders
The Piarist Fathers themselves are products of the post-conciliar religious crisis. Like most religious orders since 1958, they have abandoned their original charism—the education of youth in the Catholic faith—in favor of social activism, interfaith dialogue, and collaboration with secular authorities. Their demand for property is not accompanied by any call for the conversion of Cuba to Catholicism, the establishment of Christ the King’s social reign, or the excommunication of communist leaders. Instead, they speak of “breathing new life into [the buildings] in the service of Guanabacoa”—a vague, naturalistic goal that could just as easily be pursued by a secular NGO.
This is the inevitable result of the post-conciliar aggiornamento. Religious orders, once bastions of orthodoxy and missionary zeal, have become instruments of the very secularism they were founded to combat. As Pope Pius IX warned in the Syllabus of Errors, “the best theory of civil society requires that popular schools… should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority” (error 47). The Piarists’ school, nationalized in 1961, was already a victim of this error—but the order’s current leadership has learned nothing from the experience, repeating the same mistakes in a different form.
The Only Solution: Return to Tradition and Rejection of the Conciliar Sect
The Piarists’ predicament is not unique to Cuba. It is a microcosm of the global Catholic crisis: religious orders in decline, churches emptying, and the faithful confused by decades of modernist innovation. The solution is not to beg for the return of nationalized property but to return to the unchanging Catholic faith—the faith of the martyrs who preferred death to apostasy, the faith of St. Pius X who condemned modernism as “the synthesis of all heresies,” and the faith of Pope Pius XI who proclaimed Christ the King over all nations and all aspects of human life.
Until the Piarist Fathers—and all Catholics—reject the conciliar sect and its false teachings, they will continue to be victims of both external persecution and internal betrayal. The cloister in Guanabacoa may crumble, but the true Church endures in the hearts of those who remain faithful to Tradition. As St. Cyprian wrote: “The Church is one, and she must not be divided. He who abandons the Chair of Peter… does he still believe he is in the Church?” (De Unitate Ecclesiae, 4). The Piarists, by their silence on the modernist apostasy and their collaboration with the structures of the post-conciliar church, have answered this question for themselves.
Source:
Piarist Fathers demand Cuban regime return their cloister and school (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 11.05.2026