Roberto González Nieves, OFM, has for twenty-five years been the archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico, a position that covers all of Puerto Rico. Archbishop González has linked his own passion for his native land to Pope St. John Paul II’s love for Poland. Deeply committed to the principles of Catholic social teaching, he has been a moral voice—often, the moral voice—on every major social issue in Puerto Rico in the past generation, from the protests over U.S. military bombings on the island of Vieques to Puerto Rico’s devastating financial crisis and the fallout from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. In October, Archbishop González sent an open letter to former president Donald Trump calling for an apology after a comedian denounced Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden. He spoke recently on Zoom with David Skeel, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who served for nearly eight years on the oversight board Congress created for Puerto Rico in 2016, the last three-and-a-half as chair. This is a condensed version of their conversation.
David Skeel: You’ve been archbishop of San Juan since 1999. You grew up in New Jersey and then Puerto Rico and attended seminary, college, and graduate school in New York. Did you ever expect to end up back in Puerto Rico?
Archbishop Roberto González: I had thought of returning to Puerto Rico to retire. It had not been in my frame of thought that I would return before then. In 1988, I was appointed by Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul, as auxiliary bishop of Boston. I was one of six auxiliary bishops. In 1995, Pope John Paul appointed me as coadjutor bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas, and then in 1997 as bishop of Corpus Christi. Then, in 1999, he transferred me to San Juan de Puerto Rico and appointed me as apostolic administrator of Corpus Christi.
DS: Could you say a little bit about how Puerto Rico relates to the rest of the United States?
RG: The political status of Puerto Rico has been in controversy for more than five centuries. Puerto Rico was first a colony of Spain. As a consequence of the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico became war booty for the United States. It went from being overseen by Spain to being overseen by the United States. Between 1898 and 1952, there were very difficult and painful moments for Puerto Rico. First, there was a military government, and then there were governors appointed directly by the president of the United States. In 1952, under the leadership of Gov. Luis Muñoz Marin, Puerto Rico’s constitution was approved by Congress when it became an estado libre asociado de los Estados Unidos, which literally means a “free associated state of the United States,” also translated as a “commonwealth of the United States.” To this day, this concept is a kind of mystery because most folks have their own take on what it means. Puerto Rico has a significant amount of self-government. However, when it comes to critical issues like, for example, economic, financial, and immigration matters, Washington has the last word. It is basically a colony. Also, Puerto Ricans were granted citizenship of the United States during World War I, which came with military obligations, although they are not culturally Americans.
DS: Early in your time as archbishop, you wrote an important pastoral letter: “Patria, nación e identidad: don indivisible del amor de Dios” (“Homeland, Nation and Identity: An Indivisible Gift of God’s Love”). Why did you write that letter?
RG: When we take a bird’s-eye view of the history of Puerto Rico, we will note as the common thread throughout the centuries a strong sense of identity as Puerto Ricans. That doesn’t mean that the identity has always been lived out in the same way. But it does mean that there is a cohesiveness, a belonging, a sense of the unique situation of Puerto Rico in the ocean of humanity. I wanted to reaffirm that sense because I think it would be tragic for Puerto Rico to lose its fundamental and constant identity were it to be totally absorbed by another nation. Former president Trump suggested that Puerto Rico be traded in exchange for Greenland, a suggestion that Puerto Ricans consider profoundly offensive. Puerto Rico is a unique presence in the world community, rooted in the Judeo-Christian heritage. Its people have an orgullo sano, a healthy, historic, and authentic sense of identity. We are open, hospitable, and celebratory of our identity. For example, I recently met with a professor from Africa who was doing research on Puerto Rico and stayed at one of our parishes. One evening, he went out looking for a restaurant to have dinner. As he was approaching a restaurant, someone asked him, “Are you looking to eat at this restaurant?” He said yes. They asked him where he was from, and he said, “I’m from Cameroon, and I am here doing some research on Puerto Rico.” Well, the puertorriqueño who had greeted him then invited him to dinner with his family. The professor has been to a number of countries, and never before had locals offered to help and invited him to dinner with their families.
DS: Nearly 6 million Puerto Ricans live on the U.S. mainland. Do you see your responsibilities extending in some way to the Puerto Rican diaspora?
RG: Yes. We are one people. I am frequently invited to celebrate Mass and participate in cultural activities with the diaspora in the States. I have been invited to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, and other cities where we have a Puerto Rican population.
DS: In April 1999, right after you had been appointed as archbishop and before you had been formally installed, a man was accidentally killed by a bomb dropped by the U.S. military on the island of Vieques. You participated in some of the protests that ensued. How did that come about?
RG: The name of the individual is David Sanes. For sixty years, the Navy had been engaging in daily military exercises, bombing the island of Vieques simultaneously from the air, the sea, and the land. David Sanes was not the first victim of those bombings, but he was the first whose death resulted in a public outcry. When I came to San Juan for my installation as archbishop in May 1999, a priest asked me, “Are you going to say a word about Vieques in your installation homily?” I said, “You know, I hadn’t thought of it.” I asked him why he thought I should address this issue. He told me of the injustices suffered by the people of Vieques for sixty-some years, a history that I knew of in a superficial way. Bishop Álvaro Corrada del Río, SJ, the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Caguas, had spoken out against the bombings, as had the two previous bishops of the Diocese of Caguas, but, unfortunately, their voices had not made it through to the media. This priest thought that if the archbishop were to address the issue, it might make a difference. I consulted my father, who was a World War II veteran. He said, yes, this needs to be said. He told me that the bombings in Vieques were “immoral” because of their proximity to local residents. During the homily of my installation Mass, I spoke of the military exercises as immoral. For some reason, it struck a chord and helped initiate that march against the bombings, which I think is the largest march so far in the history of Puerto Rico. I never stated publicly that the Navy should leave Vieques, although I was reported in the press as having said that. What I did say repeatedly during those years was that the bombings in Vieques were immoral and should cease immediately.
DS: You’ve been involved for some time with an ecumenical group of Christian leaders, which came out of the same crisis. Could you say a little bit about that?
RG: It’s the Ecumenical and Interreligious Coalition, which came about precisely because of the Vieques situation. Different religious leaders of various Christian denominations began to speak out publicly about Vieques; we spoke out together and got to know each other during that crisis. Then we decided to form a coalition, which is still active today. Reverend Heríberto Martinez, who is a Pentecostal preacher and secretary-general of the Biblical Society of Puerto Rico, is the coordinator. We meet every two or three months and, on occasion, issue public statements on different social issues that relate to justice and peace.
DS: In the early 2010s, there were complaints about your ministry by people who favor statehood for Puerto Rico. Can you say a little bit about that and what came of it?
RG: That is correct. They said I had spoken inappropriately about a political topic, but I responded that I was advocating on an issue relevant to Church social teaching. I think my emphasizing the importance of Puerto Rican identity for the present and future of Puerto Rico irritated folks here who favor a complete political, cultural, and linguistic annexation to the United States (with English as the official language and Spanish as the vernacular). I think what Puerto Rico has achieved until now is a hybrid solution, which needs to be improved. It has been able to continue to affirm the Puerto Rican cultural identity and preserve its language, Spanish, which for years was forbidden in public schools and not used in private schools. I don’t think the United States wants to become like Canada, where there is still conflict between English speakers and French speakers. The cultural matrix of Puerto Rico is Catholicism, and the cultural matrix of the United States is Calvinism. The mix is not compatible, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility of working out a political relationship that enables both peoples to coexist in the spirit of fraternity and cooperation. The new name for independence is interdependence, which respects the innate dignity and equality of all peoples. Dual citizenship can be negotiated for Puerto Ricans, especially considering the thousands of Puerto Ricans who have shed their blood in the U.S. military.
DS: Do I remember correctly that you were reaffirmed at the end by the Vatican?
RG: Yes, that is correct. The Vatican sent an apostolic visitator who did an extensive investigation of my ministry and administration. At the end, I was confirmed in my ministry here.
DS: After Hurricane Maria in 2017, you were actively involved in the relief effort. Could you say a little bit about the role that Catholic Charities played in that recovery effort and the ones that followed—after the earthquakes, Hurricane Fiona, and the pandemic?
RG: I know the Lord told us that we should not let our right hand know what the left hand does. That should be a guiding principle for Christians. But humility aside, it needs to be said that the Catholic Church in the Puerto Rican archipelago through Caritas [called Catholic Charities in the United States] played a significant role in serving the victims of the hurricanes—first Irma, then Maria—and then the earthquakes in 2020. I think the earthquakes were more traumatic than the hurricanes because you can prepare for a hurricane; you know that it’s coming. You cannot prepare for an earthquake. I remember the first earthquake—it was four o’clock in the morning and my bed began to jump up and down. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening. It was quite scary. It was quite jolting.
After Hurricane Maria, it took me five days to visit all the bishops. As the metropolitan archbishop, I felt I should attend in some way to the needs of the other bishops—there are six dioceses, so there were six diocesan bishops. But the roads were destroyed, as were the trees, electrical posts, and telephone poles—everything was so devastated. Then, obviously, there were the needs of the people in general—getting food, getting water. I recall that Food for the Poor and a number of Catholic dioceses from the United States were exceedingly generous and solicitous toward the dioceses here. To this day, there are still areas that do not have electricity seven years afterward.
DS: Even before 2016, when Congress responded to Puerto Rico’s decade-long financial crisis by enacting the legislation known as PROMESA, which imposed an oversight board to balance Puerto Rico’s budgets and restructure its debts, you had been actively involved in the debt crisis. You and others called for an audit of the debt, which is still talked about frequently in Puerto Rico. Can you say a little bit about that?
RG: A friend of mine in the United States put me in touch with Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA. The mission of Jubilee USA is to assist countries that have gone into debt and are in the process of rebuilding their economies. Eric came to San Juan and some other members of the Ecumenical Coalition and I met with him, and he charted out a way for us to address this issue publicly here and in Washington. We made a few trips to Washington and met with congressional leaders as well as creditors. Our role was mostly advocating for a reduced level of painful cuts in order to pay the debt. We felt that it was important that there be an audit, for transparency, so that the citizenry here would know how we got into this crisis and who was responsible for it. For accountability and transparency’s sake, it was very important—it still is; we still don’t know.
DS: Could you say a few words about whether you supported PROMESA back in 2016 and whether you would support it now?
RG: I supported it then and I would support it now given the same conditions, because my fear was that the infrastructure of Puerto Rico would collapse. Municipal hospitals, public schools, police, firefighters, the fiscal-economic infrastructure. That’s what we faced, and the only way forward that I could see then was through the assistance of the supervisory board. Obviously, I made a lot of enemies, including a number of priests, when I supported the supervisory board, because it was by no means popular here. It’s quite humiliating to have such an entity imposed on a country, on your people. My heart was not really in it. But out of a sense of pragmatism it was inescapable, and I felt that we had to endure this indignity for a few years.
DS: Could you say a few words about your vision for the future of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico?
RG: I hope that we would become more authentic as a Christian people, as disciples of Christ who understand the springtime that we are experiencing with Pope Francis, who is giving new life and vitality to the Catholic experience. I hope that in Puerto Rico, where, thank God, there has been very little criticism of Pope Francis—only a few pockets of opposition—his vision of the Gospel continues revitalizing the Catholic Church and Christianity. I hope that we will continue the new evangelization initiated by St. John Paul II with the twist and joy added to it by Pope Francis.
