Limits on Religious Travel to Cuba Questioned

WASHINGTON -- More than 100 members of Congress have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow questioning changes in his department's rules that have halted the ability of some religious organizations to travel to Cuba.

"We understand the complicated political reality that exists between the United States and Cuban governments," reads the March 3 letter spearheaded by Reps. James P. McGovern (D-Mass.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Barbara Lee (D) of California.

"However, we believe it is inappropriate and unacceptable for politics and government to serve as a hurdle and now as a barrier to faith-based connections between individuals. If anything, these connections foster greater religious freedom in Cuba and contribute to a severely-lacking free-flowing exchange of ideas between the two countries," the letter states . . . .

Affected groups include the National Council of Churches, the American Baptist Churches USA and the Alliance of Baptists -- which no longer have licenses -- and organizations such as the Presbyterian Church (USA) whose Cuban travel has new restrictions. Some of these groups have traveled to Cuba for more than a decade to meet with partner churches and attend conferences in the communist island nation.
The letter's signatories and religious leaders say they are perplexed by actions of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which has given individual congregations less restrictive licenses than the ones national religious organizations have had.

"The issue of individual congregations still being able to get general licenses is particularly dismaying because, for many denominations, the individual church is not a separate legal entity and it's viewed as the local level of the national church," said Martin Shupack, associate director for public policy in the Washington office of Church World Service, which now has a more restricted license.

"That seems to be making decisions ... on religious matters that's beyond the competence of the government." . . . .

Some religious leaders say their contact with Cubans has been reduced from regular trips to e-mail correspondence.

"We no longer have personal contact with our global partners in Cuba and we can no longer participate in missions trips between the two denominations and our partners in Cuba," said the Rev. Elizabeth Carrasquillo, program associate for the Indianapolis-based Latin America and Caribbean office of Global Ministries, the mission arm for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ . . . .

Cindy Buhl, legislative director in McGovern's office, said the license denials for churches is part of a pattern of new restrictions on Cuban travel that have been put in place by the Bush administration, affecting educational exchanges and visits between Cuban-Americans and their families in Cuba.

"Now they're hitting the churches," she said.

© 2006 The Associated Press