Testifying to Transcendence

As by now the whole world knows, or should know, Armando Valladares has risen to give testimony after 22 years in Fidel Castro’s jails, torture chambers, and concentration camps. Against All Hope (Knopf) is a painful book that must be read by all who would understand our century. He has risen, as though from the dead, to give testimony, as though in a revival. He testifies to the transcendent; to human freedom, to the reality of the soul, to trust in God.

Viva Cristo Rey! the young men shouted before they fell to the firing squads at La Cabana prison in Havana. After a while, the executioners, who had no king but Castro, gagged their victims. “The jailers feared those shouts,” writes Valladares. “They could not afford to allow even that last courageous cry from those about to die. That rebellious, defiant gesture at the supreme moment, that show of bravery and integrity . . . could easily become a bad example for the soldiers. It might even make them think about what they were doing.”

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

As by now the whole world knows, or should know, Armando Valladares has risen to give testimony after 22 years in Fidel Castro’s jails, torture chambers, and concentration camps. Against All Hope (Knopf) is a painful book that must be read by all who would understand our century. He has risen, as though from the dead, to give testimony, as though in a revival. He testifies to the transcendent; to human freedom, to the reality of the soul, to trust in God.

Viva Cristo Rey! the young men shouted before they fell to the firing squads at La Cabana prison in Havana. After a while, the executioners, who had no king but Castro, gagged their victims. “The jailers feared those shouts,” writes Valladares. “They could not afford to allow even that last courageous cry from those about to die. That rebellious, defiant gesture at the supreme moment, that show of bravery and integrity . . . could easily become a bad example for the soldiers. It might even make them think about what they were doing.”