Vatican publishes biography of founder of Cuban nationhood, Father Félix Varela

The Vatican Publishing House recently released the first Italian edition of the book “Félix Varela: A Biography,” a work about the priest considered by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia to be “a sort of founder of [Cuban] national culture through his works and writings.”

The 208-page volume, published July 9, was written by Monsignor Carlos Manuel de Céspedes , a prominent figure in the Cuban Catholic Church who passed away in Havana in 2014.

Paglia, president emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life, wrote the book’s foreword, noting in it that “the relationship between Varela and Cuban society is very profound.”

This is because Varela’s writings “shaped an identity deeply linked to a faith expressed in a new humanism, where the primacy of conscience was supreme and the condemnation of slavery and the need for independence were fundamental,” the archbishop explained, according to a Vatican News report.

Varela was a priest committed to social issues who lived during a time of profound change in the territories then held by the Spanish Empire in the Americas, according to the report.

He was born in Havana on Nov. 20, 1788. Thanks to his high standing, he was sent to Spain…