By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami

April 11 was the 10th anniversary of Miami’s revered Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman’s entry into Eternal Life. He is remembered as a holy priest, a great churchman, and a Cuban patriot. This past July 11 in Cuba, when thousands protested an intransient dictatorship, the slogan that united them was “Patria y Vida” — the Fatherland and Life — a rebuke to Fidel Castro’s oft-repeated “Patria o Muerte” — “Fatherland or Death.”

“Patria y Vida,” I would venture, could also be described as the guiding vision of Bishop Roman’s life and ministry.

One’s country or “fatherland” is the common patrimony of all its citizens and as such imposes a serious responsibility on them. Like the 19th century priest and patriot, Felix Varela, who said, “there is no country without virtue,” Bishop Roman understood that he could be no less a patriot for being a Catholic, and no less a Catholic for being a patriot. This synthesis of religious faith and civic duty in Varela’s thought can also explain the importance of Miami’s Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, la “Ermita,” to the Cuban diaspora, as well as the importance of the work Bishop Roman did there. He was the Felix Varela of our times.

We could say that the shrine was built as a reproach to the lie of Marxist Leninism that enslaved Cuba 63 years ago. Ideological materialism claimed that God did not exist and tried to erase all traces of God in the history of Cuba and to destroy the religious identity of the Cuban nation. The mural that adorns the Ermita’s sanctuary tells a true history of Cuba — a history that recognizes the contributions of men and women of faith in the life and identity of the Cuban nation. But Bishop Román also saw the Ermita as an antidote to the practical materialism that endangers the life of faith, even in this land of great freedoms and opportunities. This practical materialism, which values people for what they have and not for who they are, pretends that God doesn't matter.

Bishop Román's life was a coherent witness that God does matter. And because God matters, the creatures made in his image and likeness also matter, despite their vulnerability or weakness. Bishop Román never tired of putting before us the words of Mary, addressed to the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: "Do what he (Jesus) tells you." And Bishop Román always insisted that to be devoted to Mary, one had to imitate her in her trust and obedience.

Pope St. John Paul II, in his book, "Memory and Identity," affirmed the difference between a constructive patriotism and a destructive nationalism. "Patriotism is love for everything related to our land: its history, its traditions, its language, its natural characteristics. It is a love that also extends to the works of our compatriots and the fruits of their genius. While nationalism implies recognizing and pursuing the good of one's own nation alone, without regard to the rights of others, patriotism is a love for the homeland that grants rights to all other nations equal to those claimed by one's own, in other words, it leads to well-ordered social love."

Bishop Román suffered exile because of a destructive nationalism that took hold of his beloved Cuba, but he never stopped being a patriot — nor did he ever stop tirelessly preaching the good news of Jesus Christ who gives us eternal life. He totally dedicated himself to “la Patria y la Vida.”

A Spanish version of this column was published in the April 10, 2022, edition of El Nuevo Herald, which paid tribute to Bishop Román. You can read it here.