wfn.org | FAQ on NCCCUSA and Elian Gonzalez Case

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of The Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

Contact: NCC Media Relations, 212-870-2227

11NCC2/10/2000

Some Frequently Asked Questions About 
The National Council of Churches and the Elian Gonzalez Case

Note to Reporters and Editors: The NCC prepared this Q&A 
primarily for its own constituencies, then saw its value for 
our media contacts, too.  We hope you'll keep it in your 
"Elian file."  It is meant simply to summarize the facts of 
our involvement to date in efforts to ease Elian's return 
home, NOT to hint that something new is in the works!  The 
NCC remains ready to help further if needed, but for the 
moment we are on "standby status" with nothing new to 
report.  

How did the NCC become involved in the Elian Gonzalez case? 

In early December 1999, the NCC received an urgent request 
from our Christian partner in Cuba, the Cuban Council of 
Churches, to work with them to obtain the release and return 
of Elian to his father, grandmothers and extended family in 
Cuba.  We agreed that Elian belongs with his father, Juan 
Miguel Gonzalez, given that he is a fit parent.  

Alarmed that the United States was not returning the boy 
quickly and automatically to his father and that a 
fundamentally humanitarian concern was becoming increasingly 
politicized, the two Councils proposed that they serve as 
intermediaries in the physical return of Elian to his 
father.  The Cuban government agreed to the plan and U.S. 
officials quietly expressed interest.

This kind of partner relationship with the Cuban Council of 
Churches is characteristic of our work with ecumenical 
councils and other church bodies in more than 80 countries 
around the world.  As people who share a common faith that 
crosses national boundaries, we and our partners strive to 
be accountable to each other.  That means that the NCC does 
not make unilateral decisions that affect our partners in 
another country. On the contrary, we consult with our 
partners on issues they face and ask how they would like us 
to be involved.  Our partners are on the ground; they know 
their own churches and their own country.  They also have to 
live with the consequences of what the NCC does in the name 
of the churches. Therefore, we take their counsel seriously 
before acting or speaking on issues that have an impact on 
them. 

How have you worked with the Cuban Council of Churches in 
the past?

The NCC has a long relationship with the Cuban Council that 
predates the revolution in Cuba.  We have worked to maintain 
contacts with Christians there through difficult days and 
through many changes as the relationship between church and 
state evolves in Cuba.  We rejoiced with our Cuban partners 
when Christmas was openly observed in Cuba in 1997.  We 
celebrated with them when, in June 1999, the Cuban Council 
and its member Protestant churches were able to hold a 
month-long national evangelical festival that was open to 
the public.  And we have supported the Cuban Council with 
humanitarian aid when in recent years churches in Cuba were 
granted a new role in health care, elder care and other 
social services.

When NCC delegations have visited Cuba to see these 
projects, they have been dismayed by the suffering of the 
Cuban people that is a result of a four-decade-long embargo 
against Cuba.  The embargo is even harsher than sanctions 
currently placed on Libya or Iraq.  Our response has been 
three-fold.  We have pressed for a normalization of U.S.-
Cuba relations that would ease human need in Cuba and that 
would allow for the reunification of Cuban families.  We 
have sent humanitarian aid shipments to Cuba since 1992, 
meeting stringent U.S. licensing requirements to send 305 
tons of food, medicine, medical equipment, school supplies 
and other desperately needed goods.  And we have prayed with 
and for the people of Cuba.  We hope that our efforts will 
hasten the day when no Cuban child and no Cuban family faces 
the horror that Elian Gonzalez experienced on his dangerous 
journey from Cuba to the U.S. 

What activities did you carry out in your role as an 
intermediary in Elian's case?

The Cuban Council of Churches asked the NCC to visit Elian's 
father and extended family in Cardenas, Cuba.  In response, 
a three-member NCC team made such a visit January 2-5.  The 
NCC's new general secretary, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, 
who had taken office one day before the trip, requested that 
his immediate predecessor, the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, 
lead the NCC team to Cuba on his behalf.

Members of the team visited with Elian's father, 
grandmothers, great grandmother and other members of his 
extended family.  Over the course of three days, they spent 
eight hours with the family in settings that included Juan 
Miguel's home, where Elian stayed; Elian's school, and a 
local ecumenical center.  Dr. Campbell shared her 
impressions with both U.S. and Cuban government officials 
and with the public, characterizing the family as "loving 
and caring."

As the NCC team returned to the United States, the INS 
announced its ruling that Elian should be returned to his 
father in Cuba by January 14.  But further delays prompted 
the two councils to support a visit of Elian's grandmothers, 
Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana, to the United States.  
(Because of the father's concern for his own physical safety 
and his fear of legal entanglement, the grandmothers-who 
were among Elian's primary caregivers-offered to come on 
the family's behalf.)

While the grandmothers were disappointed in their hope to 
take Elian home with them, they did accomplish other goals 
of their Jan. 20-30 mission.  They  pressed their case with 
Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris 
Meissner in a Jan. 22 meeting in Washington, D.C.  They 
spoke about their love for Elian to Democratic and 
Republican congressional representatives and to the American 
public.  And-after days of negotiations involving the INS 
and Elian's Miami relatives-they saw their grandson in the 
Miami home of Sr. Jeanne O'Laughlin, president of Barry 
University, who had pledged to provide a neutral place for a 
supervised visit. 

The Council provided pastoral presence and support for the 
grandmothers throughout their visit and the Council 
continues to be on call in efforts to return Elian to his 
father.

What is your response to Sister Jeanne's public statements, 
following the brief reunion of the grandmothers and Elian, 
in which she took the side of the Miami relatives who wish 
to keep Elian in the U.S.?

We were deeply disappointed that Sister Jeanne abandoned the 
role to which she had been called and to which she agreed-
that of providing a neutral meeting place for Elian and his 
grandmothers.  The meeting place itself proved to be far 
from neutral.  In the final hour before the long-awaited 
visit, the grandmothers were advised that a group with a 
strong anti-Castro position had moved into the house right 
next to Sister Jeanne's and could survey her house from a 
balcony.  The grandmothers had to delay their visit until 
the group was removed.  Even as they approached Sister 
Jeanne's home by car, they passed through streets filled 
with demonstrators shouting, "He will never go back!"

Following the visit, Sister Jeanne made public statements 
backing the Miami relatives in their fight to keep Elian in 
the U.S.  We believe those statements were inappropriate for 
someone who had taken on the role of neutral mediator.  We 
also point out that her statements were based on very 
limited contact with these two courageous grandmothers.  The 
grandmothers were graciously received in her home, but 
Sister Jean was shuttling between the groups of relatives 
and was busy with multiple responsibilities related to the 
visit.  While Sister Jeanne makes much of witnessing one of 
Elian's Miami cousins acting in a motherly way, we contend 
that such a relationship cannot begin to compare with the 
bond between parent and child.  Elian can best begin to 
grieve his great losses and to heal with the loving support 
of the family he has known from birth.

What have you said about the move among some in Congress to 
confer U.S. citizenship on Elian, with the aim of removing 
him from INS jurisdiction?

The NCC shares the grandmothers' anguish and concern about 
legislative efforts in Congress that serve to further delay 
Elian's return to his father.  Elian's paternal grandmother, 
Mariela Quintana, on January 21, said, "Nobody outside has 
the right to make him (Elian) an American citizen. He was 
born in Cuba, lives in Cuba, he's a Cuban. No one, even 
Congress or the President, can change his status."

The NCC's work to facilitate the reunification of Elian 
Gonzalez with his father and grandparents in Cuba has 
received much publicity.  How is the Council assisting other 
families who wish to be reunified?

The Council, its member communions and their congregations 
help to resettle thousands of uprooted people in U.S. 
communities every year.  For example, in 1999, we assisted 
more than 6,700 newcomers representing more than 30 
nationalities.  In general, about 80 percent of these cases 
are ones in which families are reunified.  We are concerned 
for all families everywhere who are separated by conflicts 
between governments and we work for their reunification in 
many ways.

In recent years, our U.S. resettlement caseload has included 
approximately 2,000 Cubans annually.  We are authorized to 
assist those Cubans who come to us through the U.S. 
Department of State Resettlement Program or the Department 
of Justice Cuban/Haitian Program.  Decisions about who will 
be accepted for resettlement in the United States are made 
by the U.S. government, not by the NCC.  Decisions about who 
will receive exit permits from Cuba are made by the Cuban 
government, not the NCC. Working within legitimate U.S. 
government programs, the Council makes great efforts to 
assist Cuban refugees and has done so for decades.  No doubt 
there are people in the Cuban American community who oppose 
our stand on the Elian Gonzalez case who were themselves 
assisted by the Council.

While we must abide by the decisions of government in our 
resettlement work, we are advocates for a more humane U.S. 
immigration policy.  As a U.S-based organization, we 
participate in legislative discussions and public forums to 
carry the message of welcome and refugee protection to 
Congress and others. 

Some have cited the human rights record of the Cuban 
government as a reason to keep Elian in the U.S.  How do you 
respond to that?

The NCC would never work to repatriate a child who would 
face persecution on his or her return.  In fact as part of 
our work for refugees that is described above, we work on a 
daily basis to protect asylum seekers who arrive in the 
U.S., including those from Cuba.  We provide legal 
assistance and other help to persons who have fled their 
homelands because they have been persecuted or have grounds 
to fear persecution.  In the Gonzalez case, it is clear that 
Elian will not face persecution if he is returned to Cuba.  

In addition to helping asylum seekers, how do you approach 
human rights issues?

The National Council of Churches actively promotes the 
United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, 
in its role as a faith-based NGO, it is committed to working 
for the human rights of all persons.  When asked to act on a 
particular case of human rights violations, the Council 
takes the course that it believes will be most effective.  
In some cases, this means a public resolution from our 
highest policy making body.  Over the years, the NCC's 
General Assembly and its predecessor bodies have adopted 
over 130 resolutions denouncing human rights violations in 
many countries.  Generally, these resolutions include a 
provision that urges the U.S. government to take action as 
well.  In other cases, a low-profile effort can be more 
productive.  The NCC has worked behind the scenes in 
countless situations to press the case of prisoners of 
conscience, of groups whose religious freedoms have been 
infringed and others whose human rights have been violated.  
Because of the sensitive nature of this work, many NCC 
successes in redressing human rights violations must go 
unreported.

Do you often play a role in international custody cases? 

No, this is a rare case, in which we received a special 
request from a partner ecumenical council. 

While our focus is on what is best for Elian, we also 
recognize that his case may have an impact on other 
international custody disputes and we are concerned about 
that.  If Elian is kept in the United States despite the 
fact that he has a loving father in Cuba, there will be 
implications for the many parents in the U.S. whose children 
have been abducted by a non-custodial parent to another 
country.  In such cases, the U.S. State Department can 
request that children be returned to the place "where they 
habitually reside," based on provisions of the Hague 
Convention on the Civil Aspects of  International Child 
Abduction.  The U.S. and many other countries have signed 
this convention.  But if the United States sets a poor 
example by flouting the convention in the case of Elian 
Gonzalez, it may be much harder for parents in the United 
States to get their children back.

While we are not in a position to assist families that are 
embroiled in custody disputes, there are specialized 
agencies to which we can refer them.  We pray for all 
families and all children who are caught in these struggles.

How was the grandmothers' trip paid for?

All but one flight (including domestic and international 
flights) was paid for by private donations.  The Jan. 22 
round trip flight (New York-Washington-New York) was paid 
for by the NCC at a cost comparable to commercial air 
tickets ($3,100 for seven passengers).  The grandmothers 
stayed in a private residence in New York City, as did the 
Rev. Oden Marichal, president of the Cuban Council of 
Churches, who accompanied them.  The Cuban Interests Section 
took on responsibility for the grandmothers' schedule 
beginning with their return on January 26 from Miami to 
Washington, D.C., and paid for their travel-related expenses 
other than air fare for that portion of the trip.

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